A close but ostensibly winning call for City Councilman Andy Weissman at the end of last night’s meeting.
After the evening’s business had concluded, he narrowly won a minefield battle to talk about the dynamite subject of healthcare benefits.
But the war, starting next month, threatens to be a steep slog fraught with iron resistance. The first signs surfaced last night when nearly four years of uncommon conviviality on the dais teetered perilously.
Mr. Weissman’s tame request to obtain consensus from his colleagues merely to agendize the prospect of ending healthcare benefits when an elected official leaves office collided with a wall of cynicism.
The delicate, heretofore unmentioned, topic of Councilmembers’ family pocketbooks was tossed onto the table.
With the Council shrinkwrapped to four members following Scott Malsin’s resignation 2½ months ago, Mr. Weissman needed approval from two of the three other survivors.
No one rushed to concur.
Jeff Cooper, the only member who will be unaffected by the Council election six weeks from today, smelled a campaign ploy. Sure, he would be agreeable to batting the subject around, he said, after Election Day. Before that, said Mr. Cooper, it would be “completely inappropriate.” He called such a debate “purely an election issue.”
Here Comes a Yes Vote
Always-congenial Chris Armenta, who is stepping down when his first term ends in April, disagreed. “I would fully support a discussion (anytime),” he said. “Any item a Council member wants to discuss should be. This is a worthy discussion, although whether we agree or not is a separate subject.”
After Mayor Mehaul O’Leary – like Mr. Weissman, a candidate for re-election – challenged the “urgency” of deciding now – Mr. Weissman pushed back. He asserted that even though Council members are treated like workaday City Hall employees on healthcare benefits, they really are not the same.
Mr. Weissman reported that on July 22, 1974, the Council approved a measure that would provide members with the same benefits as executive management.
Since the present times are severely tighter financially, the rationale of lifetime benefits for Council members merits “exploration now,” Mr. Weissman said. “The community deserves a discussion.”
Countering Mr. Cooper’s claim that the timing was suspicious, Mr. Weissman contended that “this is far from an election issue or tactic. I have felt for awhile, very strongly, that we as elected officials, asked for this position. I know that we are treated as employees and we are entitled to employee benefits. I think it is appropriate for the community too have a discussion on the nature of benefits.”
Regarding timing, Mr. Weissman said logic was on his side. “It is appropriate to have this conversation because it affects us,” he said.
Mayor O’Leary hedged at first, saying, “I could go either way,” before crossing a bridge to the other side.
“This may continue to be a political football,” he said, adding that “I have wanted this discussion for the longest time. I will be the third nodding head.”
The matter of ending the 38-year policy of lifetime healthcare benefits will be a neon subject on the Council calendar in two weeks, Monday, March 12.
Sweet Music?
While Council members and entrepreneur Gary Mandell sorted out dangling details, the renamed Culver City Boulevard Music Summer Festival was approved with an apparently downsized budget from the one last reported. Mr. Mandell is expected to receive $5500 in funding from the city, carryover revenue from last season, and probably not an additional $2,000 that Sony Entertainment donates each year, generically for cultural events.
How many concerts? “I don’t see it going more than six, and most likely four,” Mr. Mandell said.
