Meet a Mid-Husband
As the chief advocate in the room at the Four Points Sheraton for Charter Reform, Mr. Weissman stood as the mid-husband who has seen this baby through, from conception two years ago to a tough, teeth-gritting challenge at the ballot box, in sixty days.
In the earliest returns, the momentum favors the pro-Measure V camp, which stands for the following points:
They endorse changing City Hall’s form of government from a chief administrator to a city manager. They believe a city clerk and city treasurer should be appointed not elected. They agree with removal of civil service protection from the offices of the police chief and fire chief.
Since the Chamber of Commerce board voted to support Measure V moments after Mr. Weissman’s polished, flawless demonstration of its merits, he may take the first deep bow of this election campaign.
Last Wednesday night at a hugely attended Democratic Club meeting at the Vets Auditorium, Measure V won again — big. Members voted by more than three to one, fifty-seven to seventeen, to endorse it.
On that occasion, the overflow crowd listened, excitedly, as Alan Corlin, probably the most articulate member of the City Council, pitched for V against the impassioned pleadings of an emotional mayor, Albert Vera.
Speaking intensely personally, as usual, Mr. Vera invoked the notion of very different days to come, for him.
When he walks away from City Hall and returns to civilian life — whether it is this spring or another time — Mr. Vera said he wants to rest with the knowledge that the government machinery will run with the historic philosophy that prevails today, many and clear divisions of authority.
Some parts of the Charter Reform measure he likes, some he doesn’t, he said. He reiterated his conviction that each Charter Reform bullet-point should have been placed on the ballot separately.
Vera Still Has Times
Mr. Vera’s allusions to private life recalled the fact that two nights before the Democratic Club met, he seemed to back away from his Jan.13 decision not to run for re-election.
Dep. City Clerk Ela Valladares said that the mayor does not have to reveal his final, final decision as a write-in candidate today, tomorrow or even next week.
By law, he does not have to declare his intentions until two weeks before Election Day.
For all that Mr. Vera threw himself into his rare appearance at the Democatic Club — his first in four years —he did not sway nearly enough people.
And so, those two organizational votes will serve as a benchmark on Measure V for the early going.
Among community activists polled by thefrontpageonline.com, none admitted to having even a vague sense of whether Culver City tilts for or against V.
Therefore, by dint of these two ballotings, V leads.
A Golden Hour for Rhetoric
Returning to the Chamber scene, both Mr. Weissman and Ms. Gross were at the epitome of their oratorical skills.
If the entire Culver City voting community had been able to squeeze into the room for the Gross-Weissman presentation, City Hall could have canceled the rest of the spring campaign.
They would have saved themselves nagging headaches. They would have saved gasoline driving from venue to venue. And they would have saved advocates and opponents thousands of dollars in precious, unused shoe leather.
The two viewpoints were crystallized with fervor and rationality. The arguments were squeezed out tighter than an empty, exhausted tube of toothpaste.
So ringingly clear were both the Councilperson and the lawyer in their emphases and nuances that even a wishy-washy dead person could have made up his mind by the end.
In opposing corners, Mr. Weissman and Ms. Gross will suit up for Round Two of their marathon in several days.
On Thursday, Feb. 16, they will appear before the Culver City Homeowners Assn., at the Vets Auditorium, in a free meeting at 7:30 that is open to the public.
If the lady and the gentleman are even close to their form before the Chamber of Commerce, this is likely to be the best — and most affordable —theatre in town on that evening.
What distinguished Mr. Weissman, chair of the Charter Reform Committee — appointed by the City Council — and Ms. Gross was that both came off as naturals for their positions.
They were completely themselves, as different as north from south, but utterly authentic. Their contrasting predilections served as delicious dessert fare for the Chamber’s attentive, informed lunch crowd.
The attorney Mr. Weissman brought the unlawyerly gift of drop-dead objectivity to the debate.
His lofty rhetorical skills are richly lined with impenetrable layers of objectivity. If six different women had to come to the podium, he could have proposed to each of them and gotten all to say yes on the grounds that each was the only one he truly loved.
Ms. Gross has not won election twice to the City Council by magic. More than many politicians, she has displayed an ability to knit together not only various but rival factions in the community to support her.
Mr. Weissman rooted his argument in the following logic:
When the ten Charter Reform Committee members met for the first time, they were all over the spectrum on how the Charter needed to be updated.
After wrestling their aching intellectual muscles through nearly two dozen community meetings, they attained not only consensus but unanimity on the separate parts of Measure V.
As a vigorous and convincing disciple of the status quo at City Hall, Ms. Gross said it would be foolish to tinker with a philosophy of government that purrs smoothly down the happy streets of Culver City.
She also raised a favorite contention of the No on V camp, that if chief executive Jerry Fulwood is transformed, at the ballot box, into the city manager, he will need much more help than he presently has. That, said Ms. Gross, would cost piles of money that City Hall cannot afford.
No one could accuse Ms. Gross and Ms. Weissman of insincerity. They spoke extemporaneously.
Not a note was in sight, and they figure to make a duplicable re-run Thursday before the Homeowners.
