Second of two parts
Re “On the Mayor’s Final Day in Office”
[img]1305|right|Mr. Weissman||no_popup[/img]Culver City “still has a long way to go to make a complete economic recovery, but we are on the upswing,” Andy Weissman, the former mayor as of last evening, said on his way out of office.
He was searching for an accurate description of the relatively ornamental role of mayor under Culver City’s still like-new City Charter, which Mr. Weissman, an attorney, helped design.
“In Culver City, the mayor is just the administrator,” he said. “The orchestra leader. I am not even sure the mayor has the power of an orchestra leader.
“We have a good group (of City Council members), and good people produce good results.
“To answer the question of whether my second term as mayor was different from the first time, yes, for a lot of reasons.”
Here is a question that occasionally bobs up – when a member of the City Council is deemed so comfortably qualified that he or she should remain past the one-year boundary. Should Culver City have an elected mayor?
“I don’t think so,” Mr. Weissman said. “It would require for the charter to be amended, by a vote of the people.
“It seems to me, with the geography of Culver City, five irregular square miles, the city gets good representation from five at-large Council people.
“I am not sure making the position elected would improve how things get done in Culver City. It has the potential to…
“The desire would be to lessen the politics in order to produce results.
“But would that happen?
“Having an elected mayor may only increase the political nature of how things get done.
“It could bring the operation of the city to a grinding halt, especially when you look at the gridlock at the state and federal levels. The reason, largely, is a matter of politics.
“Electing a mayor would inject a higher level of political debate or higher level of political behavior. That would not be good.
“An advantage in Culver City, when we decide an issue should be addressed, we have the ability to act relatively quickly,” Mr. Weissman said.
“We would lose our flexibility, our ability to react. That is what happens in other places where that paradigm exists.”
