Fifth in a series.
Re: “Do Voters Care Who the Boss Is?”
Transferring authority over the hiring and dismissal of present and future police chiefs and fire chiefs to conform with the City Charter was the entire motivation for last week’s ballot measure, said Mayor Jim Clarke.
No hidden agenda.
When the City Charter was revised in 2006 and Culver City’s form of government was changed, the city manager was to have control over all employees, and the City Council was to step aside.
That Measure CA lost 65 percent to 35, Mr. Clarke observed, probably is traceable to an organized campaign by social justice activists, worried that police are exceeding their boundaries.
Why they thought five part-time politicians could tame a department if necessary, rather than the fulltime city manager, may pass as one of life’s mysteries.
“One reason for the change,” Mr. Clarke said, “was to leave the policy work to the part-time elected City Council.”
Hearing dark stories about long lines and four-hour waits at the polls, Mr. Clarke feels even stronger than before about encouraging early voting.”
With one stipulation:
“I am for increasing voter turnout with an all-mail ballot,” a la Santa Monica and a growing number of communities.”
(To be continued)
