City Council Reverts to Its ‘Never-Mind’ Mode and Delays the Vote on Committees Again

From city staff to the Council to the three committees themselves — Sister Cities, Martin Luther King Day and Fiesta La Ballona — all seemed confused by the Council’s methodology.

Spokespersons for King Day and Sister Cities made repeated and ardent defenses of their work, which, Council members hastened to say, was unnecessary.

Core of the Problem

The Council’s concern — as voiced, notably, by Councilman Steve Rose — is that the three committees have been acting — in the city’s name — a little too frisky and a little too independent financially. In the opinion of Mayor Alan Corlin, they have been operating too casually, with insufficient professional structure.

Council members want to jerk their leash when they feel committees need rebuking, but they say they are frustrated because the committees are not sufficiently accountable to City Hall.

Good Night for 10 People

Even if the headline agenda item faltered, the night was not a loss.

Ten appointments were made to fill vacancies on six committees that are less controversial than the ones in the spotlight.

The most popular decision rendered in Council Chambers was reached a couple of minutes before midnight, five hours into the meeting.

Following a spate of witty and ironic repartee in which cats unfavorably were compared to dogs, the City Council, bowing to medical and community objections, decided against licensing cats. This was a case where community pressure, driven by logic rather than verbosity, convinced the Council an unbridgeable chasm exists between licensing dogs and licensing cats. One, they said, is practical, the other is highly impractical.

Name the Day

The whole episode was not without mirth. A catowner on Rancho Road said City Hall recently rejected his application for a license. It seems he was unable to provide the date on which his cat was neutered — before the gentleman adopted his pet.

Mayor Corlin, a man of hundreds of expressions, smiled as the story was unfolding.

Around him, his colleagues, by their faces, indicated this new-fangled plan for licensing cats was akin to herding cats. Their revenue-raising strategy was fast getting away from them. Moving fast by the standards of this Council, members concluded licensing was folly.

Malsin Pursues Clarity

Meanwhile, back at the debate over what to do about the three committees, Councilman Scott Malsin tried to bring clarity to what appeared to be a muddled discussion. “This is about the legal relationship between the city and these organizations,” he said. “It is about how we can have a rational, stable relationship with these organizations.”

Mr. Corlin, over the objection of the peripatetic Councilperson Carol Gross, suggested ending the practice of appointing Council members to attend the committee meetings. Bluntly, he said such liaisons serve no pragmatic purpose.

Woes of Divorce

After a month of off-and-on wrangling on the dais on this subject, critics say the City Council is acting like a couple in the throes of divorce — they can’t quite bring themselves to separate.

Two former mayors got into the act. Paul Jacobs and Ed Wolkowitz wrinkled their brows, scratched their heads, narrowed their eyes and, in effect, asked their successors what they were doing.

Mr. Wolkowitz quizzed the Council. He said he was puzzled by the designation of The Big Three as “quasi city organizations.” He wondered what the term meant. In the absence of a reply, evidently the Council, too, was baffled by city staff’s apparent too-vague reference.

Next Month?

Unable to reach agreement on what kind of relationship should exist between the Council and the committees, Council members did what committees often do.

They postponed decision-making one more time. Monday, June 18, is the next date for problem-solving, dumping the vexing, so far ungrippable, matter into a third month.

Suggestion Box

City staffers, under the direction of Asst. City Manager Martin Cole, produced five unambiguous recommendations for tightening the structure of the three committees.

Seeking to make uniform the way all such groups operate, among the suggestions were:

Require them to forge a formal organizational structure, as in a for-profit corporation, not-for-profit corporation, sole-proprietorship, limited partnership or formal city committee.

Require standardized financial reports on a quarterly basis.

The City Council should consider approving requests by these groups for indirect contributions and/or fee waivers.

Require a formal document stating the relationship with the city, laying out the responsibilities of both parties.

The City Council said it was deferring a decision for three weeks because sponsorship of city committees is on the agenda for the June 18 meeting.

Old and New

With the terms of 10 members of commissions expiring one month from today, the City Council made the following appointments:

Linda Smith Frost succeeds Maureen Muranaka on the Planning Commission.

Judy Monia remains the Tenant Alternate.