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Re ‘For Once, I Would Like to Live in a City Where the Police Just Police’

I have been involved in law enforcement for the past 38 years — 4 years in the United States Air Force, 31 years as a Culver City police officer and the last 5 years as a private investigator.  

Re ‘We Have Not Forgotten,’ May 25

Ari Noonan raised some very good points yesterday  in his op-ed piece about who killed Paul Bilodeau last Jan. 2 at the construction site of Fire Station No. 3 in Fox Hills. 

Maybe the City Council should hire Mr. Noonan to head their Criminal Investigations Bureau if they want to solve this crime.

Or is anyone in City Hall really interested in solving this crime?

First of two parts

Having been involved in law enforcement and private investigations for the past 36 years, I have a tendency to question a statement of fact that is presented to me — until I can determine what the truth is.

No one is more annoyed with this than my own children.

They are constantly apologizing to their friends by saying, “You have to excuse my parents. They were both police officers.”

For tonight’s 7 o’clock City Council agenda, see http://www.culvercity.org/agendas/agendas.asp

As we come to the end of Jerry Fulwood’s term as Chief Administrative Officer/City Manager for the city of Culver City, we look back on the past six years.

One person deserves an apology from a lot of people in Culver City and that is former City Councilperson Carol Gross.

Very few people probably will remember that Carol Gross was very critical of Mr. Fulwood in 2006 and 2007.

After watching last Monday’s City Council meeting and city staff’s financial report of doom and gloom, it appears to be the same story all over again.

If the City Council continues to follow the advice of the current city staff, the only graph that they presented that will prove accurate is the one showing the Reserve Fund being totally depleted in a couple of years.

On Feb. 9, I watched the City Council meeting webcast, and I found the city staff report on the budget ending July 2008 very brief and disturbing.

First of all, this report is 7 months past the June 30 ending date. Further, the nonchalant manner in which city staff presented it bothered me.

On Saturday night the Culver City Police Dept. held its annual retirement dinner.

Since I was the only person to retire from the Police Dept. in 2007, they did not have a 2008 retirement dinner.

I find it amusing when I read an article in thefrontpageonline.com headlined Belated Discovery of Controversial Policy Sparks Sparks.

Then I start to think about it. It’s not amusing. It is sad.

From 2004 to 2007, I sat on the City Agenda Committee as the Police Dept. representative. This committee met every week to prepare the agendas for the upcoming City Council meetings and to prioritize the agendas up to a month in advance.

I am beginning to feel like my brother (Maj. Mark A. Smith, U.S. Army, ret., and essayist for this newspaper), talking about what really happened in Vietnam.

Since I never was in Vietnam, I guess I can only talk about what really happened in Culver City.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times ran an article about the red light cameras being used in California.

The article talked about how this great traffic safety device had turned into nothing more than a revenue-generating machine.

What the citizens of Culver City do not realize is that their red light cameras were some of the first in the state.