We have always taught our daughter two important things in life: first, “Actions speak louder than words” and second, “Talk is cheap.”
One example is how City Council candidate Jeff Cooper states he saved “green space” in the Culver City Park by fighting to relocate the proposed Skate Park. He is glossing over the city's past complete failure to enforce the Skate Park rules.
At the 2008 League of Woman Voters’ Candidates Forum, he took no responsibility to enforce even though he was a member of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission. He was more worried about saving “green space” than the “grey matter” in between any kid’s ears when their heads hit the hard and unyielding concrete of the Skate Park. The city only started to enforce their rules after Cooper was no longer on the Skate Park Sub-committee and off the Commission altogether.
The first Western Hemisphere Marathon was in 1948. The Marathon last ran in 2001. Council approved Dec. 8, 2002, as the date for the 2002 race in order to avoid the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and the impact to shoppers during the busiest shopping weekend of the year. Because of mismanagement, the Western Hemisphere Marathon Committee Inc., which Cooper was the President of, pushed it forward a week to Dec. 1, 2002. By October, the city had been exposed to significant litigation and “postponed” the race to December 2003.
When a race isn’t run in a given year, it has been canceled; postponed is just a meaningless euphemism, in this context. The Marathon died and has not been run since. The city had given Western Hemisphere Marathon Committee, Inc. a loan of $15,000 in 2000 for operating expenses. When the Marathon was canceled in 2002, was the loan ever repaid? Is this someone who can handle our city competently?
Cooper is now the chair of the Downtown Car Show. Last year they wanted a $24,850 fee waiver. They got a $12,000 fee waiver. They had a $6,000 profit after the show, which was donated to charity. If the city had not done a fee waiver, they would have had a $6,000 deficit. Is this someone who can handle a city budget?
When Cooper ran for Council in 2008, a supporter said, “As the event's sole producer, Jeff is responsible for organizing every aspect of the show from attracting exhibitors and obtaining business support to coordinating police and traffic control in both Culver City and Los Angeles.”
It took the city seven hours to write a person a ticket for parking in a one-hour Permit Parking Zone three blocks from the Car Show in 2008. When I asked Cooper this year if they were going to have one-day permits for more than one block, he told me it was up to city Engineering.
his year the Car Show asked to cut over $2,000 of city Engineering expenses. I asked him if they were going to mail the permits out early. No… going to drop them on doorsteps the night before. They can’t afford postage? Is this someone looking out for residents and homeowners?
I am not going to vote for anyone endorsed in any ad that has the Culver City Chamber of Commerce logo on it.
When an ad with “Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Paid for by CulverPAC” appears in a newspaper advertisement, you know they are going to get a return on their investment.
The next time a building that is three or four times the city’s 56 -oot height limit comes before that endorsed candidate, if elected, they will can be counted on to vote the way of the (Culver Political Action Committee), or CulverPAC. A PAC is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue that currently is pro-commerce at the expense of residents.
Cooper is not “The Right Choice Right Now.”
Mr. Anderson may be contacted at cary@culvercity.TV
