Armenta Does the Heavy Lifting as Mayor Scores Over Silbiger Again

For the second time in less than a month, Mayor Andy Weissman took City Councilman Gary Silbiger to school last night, defeating him on a sensitive vote, this time, ironically, with the aid of a Silbiger ally, Vice Mayor Chris Armenta.

Last anyone heard, the scorned Mr. Silbiger was stomping away from City Hall in a snit on the night of April 27, having been rejected by his colleagues for his self-presumed automatic promotion from Vice Mayor to Mayor.

However, when two of his colleagues made a good-faith effort last night to clear the air of lingering unpleasantries by trying to mend the system he had lambasted, Mr. Silbiger attempted to derail it with the kind of gesture his colleagues so often have criticized. 

Mr. Silbiger had no qualms pushing his peers away when a collaborative effort at wound-healing was made, in itself a rare display of compassion by politicians.

Reaching Out

Three Monday nights after watching their colleague suffer through an ignominious scenario he was so sure would culminate in his coronation, three Council members separately declared their empathy for Mr.  Silbiger’s plight.

Mehaul O’Leary, the Redevelopment Agency Chair who swung the pendulum decisively against Mr. Silbiger, said, touchingly, he felt badly because his colleague was clearly shocked and disappointed in front of his family, who had come to the election meeting to help him celebrate.

Mr. Weissman and Mr. Armenta went further, offering tangible evidence of their feelings. Working independently of each other but toward the common goal of avoiding another embarrassing moment for an expectant Mayoralty candidate, they agreed on the same panacea.

Once again, as often has been the case during the past 85 months, Mr. Silbiger veered sharply from the mood of other members.

He wanted to postpone the matter that Mr. Weissman and Mr. Armenta had sought to agendize for his specific benefit.

Gazing, glumly, over the half-dozen bodies in the virtually vacant Council Chambers, Mr. Silbiger complained that, obviously, City Hall’s public notification system for this sizzling agenda item had been insufficient. Otherwise, there would have been a crowd on the order of three weeks ago when 14 of his handpicked supporters spoke, fruitlessly, it turned out, on why he deserved to be elected Mayor by his colleagues.

Reasons to Delay

However, his words — “This is a very important topic, but it is not time-sensitive” — rang hollowly for his peers. “We can tell there is a lot more interest than has been shown here tonight,” Mr. Silbiger said,  “because the public was not properly notified.”

He wanted the discussion put off until the “crowds” poured in “so we can get a sense of what the public thinks the best process would be” for choosing a Mayor.

Not even his sympathetic good friend and natural ally, Vice Mayor Armenta, was willing to budge this time. Determined to perform their good deed, the majority never even blinked at Mr. Silbiger’s words.

There was generic but not wildly enthusiastic individual assent that the City Council probably should have a written-down plan for succession to the supposedly ceremonial chair of the Mayor.

With Mr. O’Leary pointedly abstaining, the Council endorsed a proposal by Mr. Armenta that is likely to be adopted once city staffers study the scheme to precisely shape it while determining whether it conflicts with City Hall’s still-like-new City Charter.

A Graceful Opening

Mr. Weissman was in exact agreement with Mr. Armenta on the proposed drama-free formula for electing future mayors every April, as adapted from the city of Beverly Hills.

Ever the gracious host or partner, Mr. Armenta opened by diplomatically saying: “I would like to thank Mayor Weissman for his willingness to listen and to discuss this matter.”

In researching the election schemes of  other communities, the Vice Mayor said they range from unwritten and wide-open to elaborately ritualized.

“”A written policy,” he said, “will remove the mystery of who will be the next mayor. And it will allow the next mayor to invite family, friends, supporters to what should be a celebratory event. I personally believe a written policy will help future Council members maintain an atmosphere of goodwill.”

Thereupon, Mr. Armenta distributed along the dais written copies of the 28-year-old Beverly Hills policy, which he explained, succinctly:

“The position of Mayor follows the sequence (a) based on the date of (his or her) election and (b) on  the order of finish in the election. For example, the third-place votegetter in the 1998 election would become mayor before the top votegetter in the 2000  election.”

Ultimately, four members of the Council informally embraced the still-to-be-finalized plan while Mr. O’Leary staunchly withheld his vote.

Bristling with a sense of independence and freedom, he abstained “because this plan is self-serving. I believe in voting for the best person for the job. That is what I did last month when I voted for Andy Weissman for Mayor. I would vote the same way again tonight.”

Mr. Weissman and others noted  that when the new plan is approved in a few weeks, it  will not be immutable. “Any time three members want to change it,” said the Mayor, “then it can be changed.”
 

COUNCIL NOTES — The global financial crisis comes home to Culver City. Parcel B, the long-delayed architectural pink or white elephant that was supposed to have sprung up in the Trader Joe’s Downtown parking lot, across the street from The Culver Studios, is back in the news. Next week, the agreement that financially stymied developer Dr. Jeffrey Rush has with City Hall is due to expire, which has ignited a round of shoulder-shrugging. Since Dr. Rush is an off-stage kind of fellow, Downtown entrepreneurs are wondering whether he will seek an extension while he figures and configures what to do, or executes a noiseless fade…

The activists Sandra Kallendar and Tony Pappas, well known in the corridors of City Hall, have been uncommonly busy lately, very publicly pressing their starchy opposition to the updated  version of a public nuisance ordinance. Too picky and needlessly vague, they claim. Since early April, they have become as regular as Council members at Council meetings. In between, they are campaigning, too. Last Wednesday they were at the Culver City Democratic Club meeting…

At nearly midnight, the Council  adjourned in the memory of J. Richard Noonan,  the  father of the editor of this newspaper…