Play It Again, Sam
Mr. Fulwood, whose unwavering tone has virtually not budged since he arrived in Culver City, headlined his review with the calm that has become his trademark. Problems exist, but, with a steady hand they are fixable, he said. “The city is not in a crisis,” the CAO said. “There is no real problem of finances caving in. (But) there are issues to address.” Ms. Gross charged that Mr. Fulwood’s findings, shortages, reassurances and power points largely were recycled from a year ago. “Whole paragraphs, if not whole pages, were lifted,” she said, accusatorily. Instead of waiting until all members of the City Council had offered an evaluation of his report, the obviously upset Mr. Fulwood asked permission to respond immediately. One point at a time, he sought to strenuously refute Ms. Gross’s charges, especially the one about repeating last year’s information. “I never have seen Jerry this mad,” said a man who closely watches the City Council. Speaking two-thirds as long as Mr. Fulwood and his three comrades who share budgeting responsibility — twenty-two minutes — Ms. Gross said that the report not only was “incomplete” but inspecific. “I heard a lot of chest-beating,” she said, “but not a lot of hard numbers. Truthfully, I can’t tell you what our budget situation is. Based on Mr. Fulwood’s report, I don’t have enough information. Too often the numbers we are given are not secure. We never know where we are.”
The Anniversary Waltz
As Mr. Fulwood approaches his third anniversary on the hottest seat in Culver City, Ms. Gross approaches her third anniversary of disagreeing with nearly all that Mr. Fulwood does. Unsurprisingly, none of her colleagues concurred with Ms. Gross’s assessment although no one among the other four seemed ready to toast the CAO, either. In disagreeing with Ms. Gross’s review, Vice Mayor Alan Corlin said that several of her numerical judgments were erroneous as were at least two of her statements regarding Council policies. “Nothing in (Mr. Fulwood’s report) surprises me,” he said in sharp contrast. He also pointedly defended the lack of what Ms. Gross called “hard numbers.” Said Mr. Corlin: “Situations are constantly changing, and therefore numbers will change.” Rookie Councilman Scott Malsin was even more forcefully supportive of the CAO. He told Mr. Fulwood that “you did an excellent job in preparing this report.”
The More Things Change…
The Vice Mayor conceded that the tone of the budgeting report “may look the same as last year. But if you look back, five, seven, ten years, you will see the same points were hit then, too.” Looking ahead to next month’s sometimes mythical deadline for finalizing a budget for the next fiscal year, Mr. Corlin acknowledged that “this is not going to be an easy year for the budget.” Ms. Gross said some of Mr. Fulwood’s claims were misleading, and Mr. Corlin said the same of Ms. Gross’s criticism. The Councilwoman asserted that the CAO has not efficiently followed direction from the City Council and has not reported back in a timely manner, or even back at all sometimes.
Council Notes — In announcing route changes for four bus lines, Transportation Director Steve Cunningham said apologetically, “We realize these changes will inconvenience some people.” Service changes in Lines 4,5 and 7 will become official on June 26. Line 3 will change in September…The Garden club will hold its 53rd annual show on Saturday, June 3 (12 to 4) and Sunday, June 4 (10 to 4) at the Vets…
