For 7 years and 7 months, City Councilman Gary Silbiger has been furiously flogging an emaciated horse, turning a once-proud beast into a gasping nag that, mercifully, has as little life left as the wheezing tenure of almost termed-out Mr. Silbiger.
One unfortunate night in his dusty past, a misguided wretch, ‘way down on his luck, sold the collegial but gullible Mr. Silbiger on a nonsensical scheme:
Not a stitch of legislation should even be considered by the august gentlemen who sit on the City Council without first having been certified by a huge swath of the citizenry. Govern by the masses. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?
Such a policy would be known as mortuary democracy. You spell it D.O.A.
Everything, down to a sneeze, should first be thoroughly examined and approved by the citizenry, says Mr. Silbiger, before the suddenly powerless Council can even begin to carry out its duties.
Like many liberals, Mr. Silbiger resides miles from reality. He seems to have less of a grip on how to run a city today than when he was elected.
Mr. Silbiger appears to embrace the balmy notion that 39,000 of Culver City’s 40,000 residents are panting like exhausted puppies over every item on every Monday night’s Council agenda.
Ponder what happened as recently as last night at the first of three community meetings called for the Vets Auditorium:
Is Anyone Listening?
Having purchased the western half of Brotman Medical Center’s 5-acre Downtown property, representatives of the Jewish Home for the Aging would display and discuss their plans for conversion of the land for the private benefit of a desperately interested community.
City Hall did its part to pump interest, sending out 1500 notifications by first-class mail.
You say you live near Vets Park and you did not have trouble finding space for your car last night? I am not surprised.
Two people – by actual count, no recount required — turned out and kept this from being a 100 percent farce, just 98 percent. One of the two audience members is a doctor at Brotman. The Jewish Home reps could have saved the hardy people gas costs by visiting their homes. Since the planners were talking to themselves, the meeting only lasted 30 minutes.
Two more community meetings have been scheduled on this subject. I suggest they transfer the sessions to the Coliseum to reduce pressing arking problems.
‘Tis a pity Mr. Silbiger never has been able to convince himself that he and I could drive all the activists in Culver City to Council Chambers in a single trip in our cars.
Liberals die hard. They would make better batteries than human beings.
Despite the fact this hillbilly notion of narrowly special community meetings outside of the Council paradigm shivers with puerile stupidity, Mr. Silbiger has ceaselessly been pushing it up a craggy hill since he was first elected on a memorable day in ’02.
A worse legacy expands the imagination the way a fat lady does a string bikini.
Mortuary democracy would guarantee that all meaningful policies would be hopelessly bogged down in syrupy footing. Resultingly, government will be shut down.
Why elect City Council members if every resident has equal standing? The question appears never to have occurred to the Councilman.
