Before belatedly mentioning weekend events at the library and at Culver-Palms United Methodist Church worthy of your attention, this is the latest from City Hall:
Members of the City Council today are interviewing the final six candidates to succeed Mark Scott, gone almost two months, as City Manager.
In the fashion of the times, the community has been invited to tell the City Council at Monday night’s 7 o’clock meeting the qualities they believe a city manager should have.
As a public relations exercise, that is fine. As a hiring consideration, it’s a little filmy.
You can be sure that today’s interviewers will have made up their minds who their best and second favorite choices are by the end of this day.
Even if Monday night’s speakers sink to their knees and flail their arms — unless they reveal a recent felony conviction against one of them — nothing is going to even remotely affect any Councilman’s decision. Nor should it.
Nice gesture to play along, but the concept needs to be recognized for what it is.
Ewell, and You Have
The most brilliant City Hall decision made in recent years was to hire Lamont Ewell as Interim City Manager. Mr. Ewell is a gem of a leader, a four-month gift to the community. Conceptually, verbally and in performance, he is so strong and effective that it is unlikely the permanent hire will match him.
Best guess is that the new City Manager will start in mid-July, giving him a fortnight to work alongside Mr. Ewell.
The Dreaded Layoffs
The deed has been done. On Wednesday night, the Civil Service Commission formally approved of the 16 layoffs of City Hall staffers the non-management types. This completes the target of eliminating 60 positions/persons, many of them management, and many induced by golden handshakes.
The last, however, has not been heard from the final involuntary16.
President Desmond Burns of the 400-member Culver City Employees Assn. promises a stern protest appearance before the City Council on Monday night.
“Our message will be these are people, not positions,” he said this afternoon. “I don’t think the city is going to close the deficit by laying off an associate analyst or a clerk. We are all for solving problems. But this will not solve the deficit.”
Book Sale
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Former Mayor Alan Corlin sends along a reminder that the Culver City Friends of the Library will be hosting a book sale from 9 to 3 tomorrow at the Julian Dixon Library, 4975 Overland Ave. The books are described as “gently used.” ccfol.org
Culver-Palms Storyteller
“Men and Women, Love and Marriage” will be the theme of storyteller Barbara Wong’s presentation as part of the “Spirit, Art, Story and Song” series on Sunday evening at 6 at the Culver-Palms United Methodist Church, 4464 Sepulveda Blvd.
The church tells us:
“Barbara relates timeless tales filled with wonder, humor and wisdom. In this program, she takes a lighthearted look at the relationship between men and women, and she reveals the ‘true’ story of how they got together. She has shared her multicultural and bilingual Spanish-English story programs throughout Southern California and Hawaii.”
http://www.hope4la.org
