Like a fat man navigating a flammable doorway while hoisting lighted firecrackers in each hand, the City Council last night shakily passed a heralded construction settlement agreement with West Los Angeles College before members covered their ears hoping against an implosion.
Billed as a cinch item going in, the unanimous vote nearly capsized because of an entirely unanticipated development that became the dominant theme of the evening.
An almost miraculous 16-point compromise — representing a stunning mood reversal from a near-war between the parties in early summer — was threatened with a late-blooming derailment even as the five Council members were rehearsing their “I do’s.”
Lost later in a welter of weariness and wariness was the second and final determining step in the fate of the settlement agreement. The Council now hands the fragile document over to the often-tenacious trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District, whom City Hall never has thought of, in its dreams or otherwise, as allies. Culver City is hopeful but, having lived through a rocky history, realizes the trustees’ vote one week from tomorrow is like shooting craps. Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose.
All weekend, the word streaking through the neighborhoods had been that the various grumbling homeowner groups not only had been mollified after years of backfence back-and-forth screaming with the college, they were borderline jubilant. “Not perfect, but…” was the way negotiator/Culver Crest resident Ken Kutcher and others characterized the peace terms.
Angels Shouldn’t Be in a Hurry
However, just as a choir of angels was practicing a Halo Shampoo jingle in the Council Chambers choir loft, along came a band of freshly organized protesting residents, passionate but calmly reasoned, seeking to delay if not deny the settlement agreement.
Previously unheard from at any stage of the nails-hard negotiating process, a passel of about 10 homeowners from the Lakeside Villas section of the gigantic college-adjacent housing complex entered a hefty, disruptive objection to an arcane corner of the compromise.
Armed with ferocious but controlled emotions, a parade of Lakewood speakers said the well-being of everyone in their households was being battered daily by the intolerable drumbeat of ear-pounding, jaw-jarring noise spewed by Culver City busses loudly rumbling in, around and out of campus 240 times a day.
Nearby residents cheered — others did not — back in June when campus bus service abruptly was halted, at the request of West Los Angeles College. Recognizing a hardship for disabled students among others, just as lurchingly, bus service was resumed about 60 days later at the end of August, when the new term began.
In Council Chambers, it was breath-holding time. Could this unanticipated eruption destroy a pride-bursting but frail document? Lakeside residents were hoping for an affirmative answer, but the final assessment was a little more complicated.
Can City Hall Act Alone?
Naturally, Council members were worried that altering wording or meanings or directions in the fragile document might sabotage the newfound peace. Ultimately, there appeared to be broad concurrence that City Hall could unilaterally act, deciding, for example, to yank the busses off the campus itself, or severely scale back their trips — without submarining the embryonic deal.
All five Council members on the dais seemed impressed with the uncommonly disciplined approach of the Lakeside protestors. That single element may have been as persuasive as their beef itself, which caused the empathetic Councilmen to nod in group assent.
Well, that is not totally true. Councilman Scott Malsin, clearly nettled, sharply scolded the homeowners for being invisible throughout the peace negotiations.
Wearing a scowl, Mr. Malsin said: “Geez, guys, where were you when this was getting done?” Momentarily conciliatory, he finished with a rebuke: “It would have been nice to get a call.”
Changing the Landscape — They Hope, at Breakfast
Lakeside Villas resident Bob Howells, along with his wife Katherine, may have been the most eloquent objector. He was at a loss, he told the newspaper later, to explain why the Lakeside team did not appear until minutes before the vote. “I don’t really have a good answer,” Mr. Howells said. “We, ourselves, are not active in the homeowners association for the simple reason that their meetings are held on a night when we can’t make it. We haven’t really been a part of our own homeowners association on these kinds of issues. I think we are going to change that, though. I am going to get more involved in our homeowners association. They have asked me to be the official liaison on college issues.”
The next step for Mr. Howells? “Hopefully,” he said, “to sit with the college and the Culver City transportation department. We would talk about acceptable compromises” that might involve a newfangled golf cart or two that would ferry students and visitors around campus after busses deposit them at the entranceway.
The Howells were a double-star family last night, she no less than he. When Mrs. Howells offered to open her home for breakfast, any time, to any elected official who is skeptical or, worse, cynical about her claims that the whole house shivers when the busses thunder like baying cattle across West Los Angeles College property, 240 times a day. Vice Mayor Mehaul O’Leary, who has grown into a first-rate kibitzer in his second year on the Council, immediately volunteered his presence at the Howells breakfast table. His welcome became more heartfelt when he announced he would come merely to inspect, not consume any calories. His invitation may have shed some sheen, though, when he changed his mind, or his appetite, and said he would not be upset if food were served, too.
Gonna Park Downtown? Bring Money
Widely revising parking policies across Downtown was supposed to be the evening’s marquee event, but it was shoved into the Pretty Late slot, finishing up just on the sunny side of midnight.
After tussling several weeks ago about availability and the pricing structure in the three parking garages, this time the subject was largely passed by.
The lead headline to emerge from the brisk but generally agreeable Council discussion is that Downtown parking meters — an undetermined number of months into the future — will be live until 11 p.m., six nights a week. Presently, they click off at 6 o’clock.
Scores of details remain to be sorted out,.
In a few weeks, maybe a few months, Community Development Director Sol Blumenfeld will return with a master-ish plan for filling City Hall’s coffers faster by significantly changing meter-oriented policies. Mr. Blumenfeld’s staff is expected to devise a technique whereby it will be fiscally unappetizing to park longer than an hour or two, slyly persuading you to choose the more economic parking garages.
COUNCIL NOTES — Since West Los Angeles College has been on the south end of more criticism than bouquets throughout the spring and summer, it should be noted that new Interim President Dr. Rose Marie Joyce made a strongly favorable debut at City Hall. She earned substantive kudos at a time when West needs a muscular public relations boost…
