In a nod to the traditional Christmas melody that glorifies a night that was silent, the City Council warmed up for a three-week vacation last evening by shoehorning all of its disagreements into a scant four hours.
Dark on Dec. 29 and Jan. 5, the Council will return to Chambers on Monday, Jan. 12.
Since little business of moment was transacted last night, the most fascinating exchanges of the meeting centered on the men in the Silbiger family, Vice Mayor Gary and his son, citizen activist Karlo.
Revisiting last month’s solid victory Prop. 8, the junior Mr. Silbiger suggested that the Council counted homophobes among its members because the Culver City policymakers have refused to participate in the ongoing controversy.
He wanted the Council to support state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown’s petition to overturn the 52 to 48 percent victory of Prop. 8 and to validate gay marriage.
Mr. Silbiger excluded his father — with whom he usually, but not always, agrees — from his excoriation.
He reserved his most strident remarks for Councilmen Andy Weissman and Mehaul O’Leary for pushing back from the Prop. 8 debate. They were strongly against agendizing a discussion for the purpose of assuming a stance sympathetic to the losing side on the proposition, at least partially on the grounds that its voice would be small and inconsequential.
In his admonition, Mr. Silbiger described Prop. 8 as a civil rights issue.
He characterized Mr. Weissman’s position as “ridiculous.”
This was Round 2 of the disagreement between Mr. Silbiger and some Councilman.
Father’s Day — or Night
As regular observers of the City Council know, at most meetings Vice Mayor Silbiger engages in a thorny dispute with his colleagues over an item he would like to agendize.
But 99 percent of the time, he fails to secure the necessary three-vote majority. His colleagues commonly object out of a conviction the subject is irrelevant to Culver City or is financially irresponsible.
For the third time, the Vice Mayor raised the subject of the Council forwarding $10,000 from a so-called unappropriated fund to support one of his favorite causes, a women’s shelter in Santa Monica.
He wanted the subject placed on the agenda.
For the third time, the Council denied Mr. Silbiger his wish.
In a separate matter, the City Council quickly approved of a requested $1500 to pay for a banner promoting a two-day program at the Senior Center celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the weekend of Jan. 17-18. Bill Wynn, chair of the King Day Committee, displayed a sample of the banner that will be strung across Overland Avenue, in front of the Vets Auditorium.
