The Culver City Democratic Club last week overwhelmingly endorsed candidates Meghan Sahli-Wells, Thomas Small and Daniel Lee for the three open seats on the City Council. The endorsement, voted by club members, immediately followed a forum during which all Democratic candidates responded to questions about their experience and perspectives.
The previous evening, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party endorsed the same candidates, Meghan Sahli-Wells, Thomas Small and Daniel Lee, for the Council seats.
The club regards these Democratic candidates as a unifying force for Culver City.
“Culver City Democrats look to us to provide the information they need to vote for the best candidates,” said Darryl Cherness, a past president. “We take this responsibility very seriously. We are very pleased to endorse these three.”
Council member Meghan Sahli Wells , who was raised in Culver City and graduated from UCLA, is the only incumbent in the race. She was elected in 2012 and has been endorsed by all four of her fellow councilpersons.
Ms. Sahli-Wells and her husband, Karim Sahli, a small business owner, are the parents of two sons who attend Culver City Middle School.
During her first term, Ms. Sahli Wells’s strong voice, collaboration and key votes contributed to saving the homeless and rental assistance programs, creating the Finance Advisory Committee, banning plastic bags, restoring arts funding, creating affordable housing, expanding bicycle infrastructure, and protecting the city’s billboard ban.
The list of her priorities is long. Among them are collaborating with the School District, addressing mansionization and airplane noise, investing in critical new infrastructure, attracting new businesses, maintaining high quality city services, and protecting health and safety with stringent oil drilling regulations. She advocates creating a comprehensive community plan, further streamlining city services, supporting Fire Dept. and Police Dept. efforts to prepare for natural and man-made disasters, designing streets safe for all users, and providing high-speed internet connectivity to Culver City businesses, schools and residents by installing a municipal fiber network.
Ms. Sahli-Wells serves on a number of city committees and coalitions: Chair of the School Board and City Council Liaison Committee, chair of the Sustainability Committee, member of the Oil Drilling Subcommittee, member of the LAX Overflight Working Group, and member of the Culver City Ready Coalition, a county disaster resilience project.
Intricately Involved
Mr. Small, a graduate of Yale University, is a commissioner on the Cultural Affairs Commission. He and his wife, Joanna Brody, are the parents of twins who attend Lin Howe Elementary. She is PTA president. Mr. Small, fluent in Spanish, volunteers in the school’s Spanish enrichment program, which his wife co-founded. He also coaches AYSO soccer.
As a commissioner, Mr. Small initiated and moderated “Architecture Talks,” a series of public conversations among the residents, business persons, and world-renowned Culver City architects. He initiated the artist and poet laureate program in advance of the city’s centennial. He brought the city’s first international film festival to Culver City and awarded $48,000 in grants to Culver City performing arts organizations.
An expert in the fields of architecture and urban planning, he emphasizes the importance of the city requiring green open space, innovative transportation alternatives, sustainable design and environmental building practices, walkability and bikeability. The transportation alternatives will mitigate traffic congestion, and the sustainable design will result improved parking. All these features will make these developments work for Culver City residents, Mr. Small says.
He is committed to nurturing and encouraging creative businesses and the innovation, media, design, digital and internet economies that have much potential to bring additional revenue to Culver City.
An environmentalist, he taught Sustainability for Organizational change at UCLA. He advocates an environmental sustainability master plan to be developed jointly by Culver City and the School District.
Environment-centered
Mr. Lee, a 13-year resident with a master’s degree in social welfare from UCLA. He credits his grandmother, who participated with Dr. Martin Luther King in the Montgomery bus boycott, for his desire to be of service and his own social justice perspective.
Much of Mr. Lee’s local effort has been with youth. A filmmaker and actor, he has volunteered with El Rincon Elementary students in an artists and communication program for several years. He developed a civil rights curriculum that he implemented at the Teen Center to increase young people’s understanding of their country’s history.
Mr. Lee has placed the environment and the health of residents at the center of his agenda. Chief among his concerns is the Inglewood Oil Field. As an environmental fellow with the Liberty Hill Foundation, he worked with area organizations toward a Los Angeles City fracking ban. He and other Culver City residents also met with state Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas to advocate for a state environmental bill, SB 350.
As the only renter among the candidates, Mr. Lee intends to focus on affordability, homelessness, enacting a city minimum wage and making the city work for all residents.
He has been a key grassroots organizer in Los Angeles’ “Money out, Voters In” initiative, and Move to Amend Los Angeles. He was asked to join Move to Amend’s national board. Since then he has travelled across the country, educating audiences about their Constitutional rights.
“We need people on the Council who can support Meghan Sahli-Wells and her important work in sustainability, transportation and social justice,” Democratic Club member Rick Tuttle said. “We believe that Thomas Small and Daniel Lee can help increase the quality of life for all of us in Culver City.”
For more information about the candidates, access their websites: Vote4Meghan.com, Thomas4CulverCity.org, and DanielWayneLee.com.
The Culver City Democratic Club has been active in local, state and national politics since 1953.
The Culver City Democratic Club has been a vital force in electing candidates to local office, as well as to state and national positions. Many City Council members have belonged to the Club, including four of the current five.
The Culver City Democratic Club meets every second Wednesday night in the Rotunda Room at the Vets Auditorium. www.culvercitydemocraticclub.org. Call 310.398.5328, email
info@culvercitydemocraticclub.com, or mail the CCDC at PO Box 4254, Culver City 90231.
Dr. Gyi, new club president, may be contacted at khin.khin.gyi10733@gmail.com
I wonder if these three will use a Union printer of continue to be hypocrite and go to Zoo printing?
Is this the kind of leadership we can count on?