First in a series
[img]1154|right|Meghan Sahli-Wells||no_popup[/img]As a frequently smiling, always serious mother of two young boys, the next mayor of Culver City has made her first governing goal:
“Let’s make Culver City the best city in the United States to raise children,” says Meghan Sahli-Wells.
Under City Hall’s rotation system, she will be vice mayor for seven more days, until succeeding freshly re-elected City Council mate Jeff Cooper one week from tonight.
“Making this the best community is a goal we are pretty close to reaching already,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said. “Whether you talk to people who have lived here for a long time and moved here recently, one of the most common reasons you will hear is, ‘We move to Culver City for its schools.’
“People also say, ‘This community has great parks,’ even though we don’t have enough of them, in my opinion.
“We offer a lot of great services, too,” says the most progressive mayor since Gary Silbiger stepped down.
“Being the best place to raise children is going to help us achieve a lot of objectives. For the past two years, Mayor Cooper and I have been working really hard on having a close, productive relationship with the School Board. Both of us are on the Council-School Board Liaison Committee.”
Historically, the city’s two elected boards have maintained the safe distance of warring ex-spouses.
“Part of our job,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said, “is to make sure we are working closely with the schools, maximizing our resources. This not only helps us to save money but to serve the entire community.”
Next, as the top elected official in Culver City, she is eager to address global warming. “The majority of our residents realize and agree that we need to move forward on protecting the environment,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said. “You can do that whether you believe in global warming or not. It is interesting how close fiscal conservatism is to conservation. It is about not wasting resources, and that happens to be really good for the environment.”
(To be continued)
