Reporter Gary Walker says in an article about City Council candidate Robert Zirgulus in the April 8 Culver City News that he hasn't seen any Zirgulis mailers, nor has he seen Mr. Zirgulis do much knocking on doors and walking precincts.
To my knowledge, he has done a lot of walking of precincts (including mine in Culver Crest) and knocking on doors (including accidentally finding sex offenders in our city).
He did “Sunday coffee chats with Mr. Z” at Starbucks. He handed out one special brochure that was informative regarding his academic qualifications, experiences, and accomplishments. He did not waste money making or mailing multiple expensive brochures. Nor did he make an issue of getting multiple endorsements.
To most people, endorsements do not significantly influence them to vote for one candidate over another. In my opinion, what should and does influence them is a candidate's academic qualifications, background experiences, and achievements.
My husband and I have lived in Culver City for the past 57 years. We do not recall ever having been so bombarded with the obviously expensive and colorful brochures from three of the four candidates.
Wouldn’t the schools have loved to have gotten a few of the thousands of dollars. (Even just the postage money.) On the other hand, it appears that Mr. Zirgulis is the only candidate who has been busy working on issues, instead of asking for endorsements or donations in order to have slic” brochures printed.
I have been trying to find the qualifications of the present candidates to decide which one is best qualified for the position. I found Mr. Zirgulis’s full and impressive biography at http://www.smartvoter.org/2009/11/03/ca/la/vote/zirgulis_r/bio.html written when Mr. Z was a candidate for the School Board last year.
His biography is awesome. Below are some of the highlights.
1. Both of his parents were refugees from Lithuania during the Holocaust of World War II. The family settled in Chicago where his mother had to start all over to become a doctor. His father became the National Lithuanian Chairman of the Democratic Party during President Kennedy's time.
2. Mr. Z came to California in 1965. He went to Santa Monica High School where he organized the first ecology club in the school's history in 1969. After graduation, he traveled, setting up environmental information tables in major cities from L.A. to Canada. He even lobbied at the state capital for environmental issues.
3. He was a student at UCLA, earning a B.A. in public service in 1974. He had served as an intern for Assemblywoman March Fong's environmental committee and interned in D.C. for the Metropolitan Coalition for Clean Air. He also investigated the EPA and air pollution in the inner city.
4. After graduation from UCLA, he backpacked around the world, experiencing the diversity of peoples and cultures of the world.
5. Mr. Z then continued his education at night school, receiving a Master’s of Science degree in business from CSUN, while starting a business, and working as a teamster for the airlines during the day.
6. He moved to Culver City in 1984, where his where sons attended schools.
7. Over the years he has done volunteer work for international Human Rights Watch groups and traveled around the world two more times.
8. He decided to share his experiences by becoming a certified substitute teacher in our Culver City schools, K-12.
Mr. Zirgulis is a personable, modest, highly educated, honest, hard-working individual with original and practical ideas and solutions to problems. He is the sort of man we need on our City Council. He isn't a shmoozer. He isn't a man full of political verbiage. Rather, he is a man of intellect and experience. He is a doer, as you can judge from his bio. He also is an advocate for free speech.
I strongly urge everyone to vote for Mr. Zirgulis, an exceptional man, for our City Council. He is not beholden to anyone. Nor does he owe favors to anyone.
Ms. Seehusen contacted at dee.seehusen@yahoo.com
