First of two parts
Re “When Ed Little Scorched Accused Embezzler Ron Smith”
[img]2014|right|Steve Rose||no_popup[/img]Former City Councilman Steve Rose, who ran last month for Ed Little’s vacated seat on the board of the West Basin Water District, estimated this afternoon that it was 1966 when he became acquainted with Mr. Little.
“We met when I joined the Culver City Jaycees,” said Mr. Rose, longtime CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of the civic and political figure who died on Saturday at 87 in Virginia, where he moved a few weeks ago.
“He had just gotten elected to the City Council, and he was one of the founding members of the Jaycees.
“Ed was always involved. He gave his advice the way he saw it – sincere, honest, clear.
“He did not really hold back,” as readers will note from the July 31 story linked above, the last time before his death that his name appeared in this newspaper.
“Ed was as honest then as he was in later years serving on the West Basin Water Board, criticizing certain members,” Mr. Rose said. “He not only criticized (accused embezzler) Ron Smith but Smith’s predecessors also.”
Mr. Rose said that “it is a little known fact Ed was the one who came up with the idea of a utility user’s tax back in the late 1960s.
“It was brought in as an economic development tool. Prior to Prop. 13 (passed a decade later), on economic development, the city felt it was important to keep the property tax rate under one dollar per thousand.
“It was a way of transferring tax collection and putting a charge on utilities without raising property taxes.
“The idea was for Culver City to stand out as a low property tax rate city,” Mr. Rose said.
(To be continued)
