The collateral damage in Culver City from Gov. Brown’s destruction of the state’s Redevelopment Agencies has dazed the City Council into a spinning eddy of untimely compassion.
For 3½ previous years, the Council was a clear-minded group of unapologetic decision-makers. But the four surviving members have been standing in molasses since Agencies were outlawed two weeks ago.
Last night the inert Council sprinted into a wall for at least the third straight meeting.
With outgoing Chris Armenta leading the compassion charge, the Council lengthily shifted from foot to foot before concluding it was unable to vote up or down about funding events the defunct Agency used to support.
With the future of the formerly Agency-funded Summer Music Festival due to be decided at the end of the month, three other endangered events were on last night’s agenda – Taste of the Nation, Indie Cade and the Exchange Club’s Car Show.
When Andy Weissman, frequently the uniting patriarch of the Council, argued that there should be no debate because the Council no longer has revenue to support popular promotions, he stood alone.
To be succinct, there were four distinct streams of thinking on the dais. Mayor Mehaul O’Leary was the most liberal, most imaginative and most generous. In order to continue funneling monies to all three promotions at roughly the same levels as in recent years, he suggested nebulously borrowing against the projected savings that have been promised from a recent energy agreement.
That was too abstract for his colleagues and for Community Development Dept. Director Sol Blumenfeld who discouraged the strategy. His resistance prevailed.
After watching Council members flail without a consensus, City Manager John Nachbar proposed a low-key solution, excusing each event’s fee waiver, up to $2,000.
Mr. Armenta, who announced two months ago he will not seek re-election when his first term expires in April, wrinkled his brow and said:
“I am not seeing consistency.”
Just as he did last month when the matter of how to fund the Summer Music Festival arose, Mr. Armenta suggested putting off a decision. Let the principals huddle with City Hall staffers and see if a settlement can be attained, he urged.
Without a gleam in their eyes, the other three concurred.
Regardless of the outcome of negotiations, the Exchange Club’s Car Show, set for Mother’s Day weekend, definitely is on for this year, club official Dr. Jay Shery assured the Council.
At Last?
After dreary years of vacancies on the two northerly corners of Washington Boulevard at Centinela, the Council, without noticeable enthusiasm, approved of a 60-day commitment letter to a builder, known as Regency Centers Acquisition LLC, to lay out its intentions for a massive market hall project.
