At the very moment 23 months ago that the City Council was anguishing over whether to invest a record $227,000 salary in Culver City’s incumbent chief executive, Jerry Fulwood, the profligate politicians in Santa Monica’s City Hall blithely were handing over the first installment in Eddie Edelman’s entirely legal $200,000 annual heist.
No two acts in recent memory better illustrate the million-mile chasm in cultural differences between Culver City and Santa Monica.
Judging by these standards, Mr. Fulwood probably would be worth $900,000 as the City Manager of Santa Monica. He reports to work every weekday. He ardently supervises matters large and small. He even sweeps out his office on the janitor’s day off.
Free to Fly
By contrast, Mr. Edelman was a self-styled free agent as the Homeless Czar of Santa Monica for two years. Went where he wanted when he wanted. Claimed, and maybe it was true, he had no real power. Just a shlepper swingin’ down the boulevard.
Happily, he played monkey to City Hall’s organ-grinder.
Quite a gig. He received a salary of $200,000 for each of the last two years for doing something that only is beyond the ken of dead people. He breathed.
Liberal Policy
As you know, Santa Monica is overridden with feel-good liberals.
To make themselves and their supporters feel better, they periodically drop a bundle of money on some lucky politician’s noggin. They tell him to fix their self-inflicted homeless problem, which is like insisting a fat lady lose weight while restricting her diet to the most calorie-laden pastries.
At the end of Mr. Edelman’s contract this month, boobs such as City Councilman Bobby Shriver issued platitudes that they spew out whenever they are nudged awake,.
When Diane and I were on our way to Chinatown, the streets were mostly shorn of family people. Only the desperate, shabbily dressed homeless were in view.
Some fix that was by the Homeless Czar.
At Least One Person Is Warm
We presume Mr. Edelman, the greedy, financially agile, aging former County Supervisor, was warmly ensconced within his home, smugly satisfied he had fulfilled his homeless assignment while the homeless, as far as I can tell, have not been aided at all by him.
Perhaps you read this morning in the Los Angeles Times about the priest who distributes thousands of dollars — a few dollars at a time — to homeless persons downtown. Are you listening, Mr. Edelman?
Meanwhile, sincere, goodhearted Gary Silbiger, the only true arch-liberal on the City Council in Culver City, trudges on. He has to practically bring a signed affidavit from his mother to get his colleagues to gin up pennies for even a worthy cause.
Two or three years ago, Mr. Silbiger was trying to coax about $1500 out of his fellow Councilpersons to help underwrite an annual celebration of peace organized at Culver City High School by the estimable teacher Jose Montero.
Go Ahead. Beg.
Skeptical peers virtually forced Mr. Silbiger to enclose his tears in separate envelopes and distribute one container at each desk on the dais before they would even grant him a hearing.
My recollection is Mr. Silbiger was forced to settle for around $500. Even that was bestowed grudgingly.
The weak state of newspapering in Santa Monica is such that not even a dusty, effete whisper of criticism has been raised since Mr. Edelman left the softest job in America.
The Picture of a Villain
Short of donating all or most of his $400,000 salary to a charity not named Edelman, Mr. Edelman only is worthy of public scorn.
Accepting $400,000 to cure the incurable can only mean Mr. Edelman’s disgusting heart is stone cold and his soul has fled.
But his case is not a total defeat for mankind.
Every boob on the Santa Monica City Council is scheduled to visit a chiropodist this afternoon. They will ask the doctor if he knows a cure for back-patting.
