[img]788|left|Corolla Fleeger||no_popup[/img]The old days of searing hot disputes among City Councilmen over whether Culver City really needed an animal services officer are over — for now.
In these considerably different times, the selection of such a long-argued specialist and the subsequent public announcement emanate, much less flamboyantly, around the corner from City Hall.
Lt. Milt McKinnon of the Police Dept., which has supervisorial responsibility, this morning introduced one Corolla Fleeger as the second animal services officer.
As the second officer to hold the job in a two-year pilot program that is only three months along, Ms. Fleeger will start tomorrow.
Presumably the city knows more about Ms. Fleeger than was revealed this morning.
Most recently employed in animal services by Orange County, the only other notation mentioned in her work background was as a volunteer in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. But it was asserted that Ms. Fleeger has “many years of experience in animal control.”
She is a USC graduate with a degree in health promotion and disease prevention.
Since December, Culver City has relied on County animal control services following the abrupt resignation of the first pilot program hire.
Whether anyone noticed the more than two-month is questionable. Gary Silbiger, main campaigner for and the the chief watchdog of this program on the City Council, only glancingly referred to the absence of an officer.
And that came on an historic evening of unusual histrionics when he and outgoing City Manager Mark Scott dueled, fiercely, over division of responsibilities.
Mr. Silbiger indicated he sought an influential role in choosing a successor, but his bid was strongly turned away.
In the year or so since the Police Dept. took charge of the program, controversy that dogged the debate for most of Mr. Silbiger’s first seven years on the Council disappeared.
