When young Sammie Shipman, a 23-year-old student, stepped to the microphone at last evening’s City Council meeting, she did not want to seem greedy.
Striving to be fair, Ms. Shipman, with her faithful guide dog companion Mozart at her feet, suggested a compromise to City Hall’s proposal to force her and fellow blind persons to pay a fare for the first time in recent history for riding Culver City busses.
Instead of the recommended 35- cent fare, she countered with a 25-cent plan. Ms. Shipman contended that using a single coin would be tidier.
Moments later, moderate Councilman Andy Weissman, sometimes called the Voice of Reason on the dais, suddenly reversed weeks of steadily expanding momentum supporting the relatively radical change. He served up a refrigerator full of chilling logic.
He planted and became the first Culver City official to push back on this two-month-old controversy.
“I am not inclined to make (a policy) change based on one person’s complaint (that rules regarding fares for the disabled had been violated),” Mr. Weissman said.
The rout was on.
Vice Mayor Mehaul O’Leary clambered onto the speeding bandwagon. “There are times in one’s life when one needs to take a stand for what is right,” he said.
What If?
Earlier, Transportation Director Art Ida had warned that City Hall annually could lose $360,000 in revenue and $1.2 million in government grants if all disabled were allowed to ride free. Mr. Weissman took the first bold step to protect the current policy.
The sixth-year Councilman said he had researched the two allegedly violated rules that the lone and angry complainant had charged the city with in May.
City Hall wasn’t even close to violating what he read, said Mr. Weissman, an attorney for almost 40 years.
Fearing a lawsuit, City Hall, which had not charged blind passengers on city busses for at least 34 years, bent.
With two votes assured to retain the status quo, it was the turn of Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells, normally last to speak. Her colleagues Jeff Cooper and Jim Clarke observed.
“This is a terrible position to be in,” said the mayor, who might have been the likeliest supporter of refusing to make a drastic policy change.
This is what she meant:
“I am disappointed the person who made the complaint did not come here to speak tonight.”
Then Ms. Sahli-Wells declared herself:
“I am ready to support my colleagues in the fight for free fare for the blind.”
The vote was 5-0.
