In the next scene, the City Council, heavily into re-runs, may be asked to verify that J. Wilkes Booth still is dead. He would be about 200 years old.
Last night, for the fourth time in five years, Council members were asked to affirm — for the fourth time — that the overwhelming number of Culver City residents are arrayed against allowing dogs, on short or long leashes, in cages or riding doggie bikes, to enter any of the city’s public parks.
The only way the Council could have arranged a more lopsided vote would have been to poll the lively audience on whether lions should be permitted to roam in parks.
The blame for resurrecting the monster issue that refuses to stay dead lies atop the accommodating, collegial head of first-year Councilman Mehaul O’Leary.
Since last April, true to his real-life role as a pub keeper, Mr. O’Leary, almost weekly, has made it obvious that, at the end of the night, he wants everybody to go home happy.
Again, Again, Again
It was in that spirit that the Irishman was responsible for creating the encore-encore-encore-encore edition of Dogs-in-the-Park.
Once more, the City Council took a cue from a recent vote by the Parks and Recreation Commission and whacked the issue back to the ground.
Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger, who also prides himself on being accommodating, tried to soften a tide of criticism, directed against Mr. O’Leary, for hoisting a horse previously pronounced dead, dead and dead.
Each new Council, said Mr. Silbiger, likes to find out about issues for itself rather than relying on history.
In fact, a city ordinance against dogs in the parks first was imposed 44 years ago. “I doubt any conditions surrounding this issue have changed,” said Councilman Andy Weissman.
Meanwhile, Mayor Scott Malsin, unhappy with the way the evening was dragging on, saw no reason to keep saying “Pretty dead, very dead.”
A Fissure in the Council
“It is a shame,” Mr. Malsin said, “that with the serious economic issues we are facing that we have to spend so much time on issues that are not of critical importance.”
His body language may have told of even stronger feelings that he was harboring.
As City Clerk Martin Cole patiently was reading 28 emails on the subject, Mr. Malsin frowned as he glanced several times at the Council Chambers clock.
He seemed to want to do or say something while listening to critics cite the same objections over and over, health and safety plus a proven ability never to fully clean up after a dog.
Several Council members stood up and took walks into the back room while Mr. Cole’s pleasant-enough voice droned on and on.
Only Mr. Malsin stands firmly against reading every email on every subject, no matter how repetitious. The Council Chambers email record is 95 to 0 on one subject.
Rather as an afterthought, it was determined that residents in each Culver City neighborhood may petition the Council for consideration of a waiver in their nearest park, a policy that already is in place at Richard Alexander/Culver West Park.
While members were cleaning up messes that previously had been made and made, they also made it re-official that dogs on leashes may use paved areas in Culver City Park in going to and from the Dog Park or to and from a certain other facility.
At a meeting that lasted until 12:30 this morning, another retread of a subject was revisited, what to do about the Skateboard Park where boys and young men flaunt the mandatory helmet law with impunity.
After Councilman Chris Armenta made a motion to staff the park — even though Parks Director Bill LaPointe maintains that personnel is not available — Mr. Silbiger gave a second, and the two allies appeared to be off and galloping with momentum.
But Mr. Weissman’s substitute motion derailed their intentions. He urged that signage be posted at the year and a half old-Skateboard Park declaring that if any skater is seen ignoring the helmet rule, the park will be closed.
The creative motion passed 3 to 2, over the objections of Mr. Armenta and Mr. Silbiger.
Tentatively, implementation of the unusually strong new policy is scheduled for early March. That timeline may be delayed because numerous logistical details remain to be settled.
COUNCIL NOTES — Next week’s 7 o’clock City Council meeting has been shifted to Tuesday because of Presidents’ Day…At Wednesday night’s 7 o’clock meeting of the Democratic Club at the Vets Auditorium, all 8 candidates for Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas’s old seat have been invited to make presentations. The club will vote on which one to endorse for the March 24 election…Rebecca Rona Tuttle, founder of the diversity-based group Together, announced that the well-received play from Martin Luther King Day, “The Meeting,” will be staged on Friday, Feb. 27, at 7 o’clock at the Culver Palms United Methodist Church. The production is an account of a mythical meeting between Malcolm X and Dr. King…
