George Laase

Last December, our City Councilman Scott Malsin showed the community his true colors when he turned his back on his sworn civic duty in order to legally mandate the local community to pay for all the healthcare for himself and his family for the rest his life.

I have looked at the proposals submitted by the School District’s bargaining units, and many items should be addressed.

Yes, former City Councilman Scott Malsin found himself in the fortunate position to make a decision that was best for himself and his family. But what about his responsibility to his extended family, the community who elected him to be a city leader and trusted him to fulfill and complete his sworn duties as our City Council member?

I readily accept Karlo Silbiger’s “guesstimation” on the percentage of bullet votes received by Nancy Goldberg in our last School Board election as being about 33 percent. He certainly has much more experience in analyzing election results than I do.

I would like to bring some needed perspective on the School Board's choice of using furlough days in balancing our School District's budget these past two years.

What’s that old adage?

You’re only a kid once.

Assembly Bill 114 was passed by our state legislature, back in July. This bill required the Culver City Unified School District "to assume" that we would get as much funding from the state this school year as we did the last year, even though the state's revenue projections — on which the state budget is based — were seen by many economists as being unrealistically too optimistic.

This week's School Board election-season endorsement by the Democratic Club is a perfect example of what I tried to explain to Robert Zirgulis before about his continued lack of local support for his many previous campaigns.

The recent extended exchange of personal opinions and quips between Robert Zirgulis, a candidate for the School Board, and me have gone beyond the range of Civility.

First, let me say that any state legislative scheme contrived to balance California’s budget on the backs of our students is wrong, and it should be looked upon by all with great skepticism. That said, the six furlough days, now being used by our School Board to help balance the state budget, has been portrayed as though all District employees are receiving less in salary.