After six months of not-so-coyly teasing the community and his colleagues on the City Council, dangling his choices like sparkling baubles, denying he was within a mile of reaching a decision, Scott Malsin last night ripped the frayed ribbon off the worst-wrapped secret in Culver City:
To prevent his healthcare benefits from diminishing on Dec. 31 — when the City Hall policy for many employees will deflate — he said he was resigning, temporarily, from the City Council, effective last midnight. (He did not include the term “temporarily.”)
The united expressions on the faces of his four colleagues on the dais also told a story.
Blank.
At 9 o’clock, the end of a not particularly newsy Council meeting, the final assembly before Jan. 9, Mr. Malsin read a 5-minute prepared statement.
In the seventh sentence, he finally acknowledged he was leaving the dais — but only for a little while. Not that he admitted that, either.
You Pitch, You Catch, Too
Treating the self-obvious question of whether he will re-run in the spring election the same way he did his half-year departure drama — playing a very public game of rhetorical pitch-and-catch with himself — Mr. Malsin retreated to winking and nodding.
Again.
“Many people” are urging him to run, Mr. Malsin said. This affirmative decision is in less doubt than the Gregorian calendar.
Filing for the April 10 election officially opens next Monday, Dec. 19. Mr. Malsin may not be the first candidate to file, but there will be ample daylight between him and the Jan. 17 filing deadline.
Here, though, is where complications set in.
The Messy Next Step
After a rare hefty disagreement among the four surviving Councilmen, it was ultimately decided they will soldier on without their comrade because they are in harmony 97 percent of the time.
Except for an interlude last night.
Over the reluctant acquiescence of Mayor Mehaul O’Leary, members Jeff Cooper, Chris Armenta and Andy Weissman said the old television series was 50 percent correct.
Four Is Enough.
To the contrary, the mayor insisted.
“The public has a right to decide whether it wants five of us up here,” Mr. O’Leary argued several times. “We need to have the public tell us whether they trust the four of us.”
That line of reasoning was gunned down faster than a rumor that Mr. Malsin will not be a candidate in the April 10 election.
Mr. O’Leary seemed confident Mr. Armenta would be his ally in a populist cause of the type that often has appealed to the Councilman, who will be stepping down himself in April for job-related reasons.
Messrs. Weissman, Cooper and Armenta stoutly asserted that Four Is Enough for two reasons:
• For the last two years, they have been alike in their thinking and voting, and
• The logistics and process of finding a 90-day replacement are overwhelming, especially since the chosen person, must be in place by Jan. 11, by state law.
In a further complexity:
Between the nuances and subtleties of the state Election Code and the City Charter, the supposedly completed meeting was extended an extra hour and 45 minutes.
The cause: The Council, City Atty. Carol Schwab, Asst. City Manager Martin Cole wrestled with and produced a state-required resolution declaring that Mr. Malsin’s seat is open and will be on the April ballot. That needs to be filed before filing for office opens in six days.
