Healing Factors
With the passage of time, plus the pre-meeting knowledge of the outcome, the Council Chambers crowd was deprived of the spontaneity and the kind of outburst that often accompanies the sudden, unanticipated removal of a Council member from a prestigious, influential subcommittee. But not all of the drama was squeezed out of the tube. In one of her most impressive interludes after six years on the City Council, Ms. Gross delivered a stinging rebuke to those who have criticized the Silbiger-Gross team for failing to (effectively) communicate the progress of the light rail authority that will bring the long-awaited service to Culver City. She said she was resolved to respond “even though the will of the Council was clear two weeks ago.” Ms. Gross said that she and the Mayor had worked hard and been successful. The proof, she said, was that all of City Hall’s light rail goals had been achieved. Speaking extemporaneously,she scrupulously followed a timeline from the team’s appointment last year, “for a term not to exceed four years,” cited month-by-month reports, when and to whom, and she identified an interlocking web of what she said were key relationships that she and the Mayor had established.
Turning to the Team’s Record
To critics who complained that they didn’t see progress reports from the subcommittee, Ms. Gross said that the team had “directed” city staff to agendize light rail updates for each meeting of the Redevelopment Agency four months ago, but that the guidance had been ignored. So roundly did Ms. Gross account for the responsibilities that she said the team carried out that little was left, in defeat, for Mr. Silbiger to talk about. He acknowledged, as he did last week for thefrontpageonline.com.,that he was caught by surprise on April 24 when Mr. Corlin asked the City Attorney to rule on the legality of the City Council to vote a new light rail slate one year after he had won appointment. He said that on Monday night, he remained “surprised.”
Gallantly trying to salvage his seat at the head of the Light Rail Committee, Mr. Silbiger, an attorney, said that he, too, had conducted steep research into legal and specifically light rail legal sources in the state capital to verify if the City Council commanded the authority to turn him out after one year. The Mayor said that it probably would take another week or more for him to receive an answer, and he asked his colleagues to postpone a binding decision. But, there was no support for the Mayor’s position. Mr. Silbiger seemed to hint at the possibility of further action, but did not precisely craft a promise.
The Winner Exuded Confidence
Mr. Corlin, who had repeatedly said during the past fortnight that he was certain of prevailing, recycled an earlier statement, wondering what the all of the rhetoric was about, last month and this, over a committee assignment that he had regarded as pretty routine. Mr. Silbiger, for one, appeared skeptical of such an assertion since his Vice Mayor seemingly had deployed extraordinary strategy in order to supplant the Mayor on a subcommittee he strongly wanted to join. As a member of the Council who deftly blends articulation, urbanity and sheer verbal force every Monday night when he seeks to drive home a point, Mr. Corlin gave an uncommonly generic speech after the Schwab ruling was declared as definitive. His argument for aggressively pursuing a seat on the subcommittee umbrella’d several reasons. “My background is in construction,” the committee to whom he would report is charged with making important construction-oriented decisions, and he is the only Council member with a contractor’s license. Mr. Corlin’s alternate for at least the next year on the Light Rail Committee will be Scott Malsin, so new to the City Council that his tenure is barely two weeks old.
Berland and Klowden Were Picked
In one final act of housekeeping, Mr. Silbiger had tentatively appointed two lay persons to the Urban Design Committee of the Expo Metro Line Construction Authority, he announced at the April 24 meeting. As Culver City’s delegate, he said he had been asked to make the selections, which he did in consultation with Ms. Gross. However, as the Light Rail Committee momentum appeared to swing ever dauntingly toward Mr. Corlin, Mr. Silbiger withdrew the names as final. The selection wasthrown open by being placed on Monday night’s agenda. The Silbiger selectees, Jim Berland and Kevin Klowden, both stepped to the microphone and made eloquent pitches to be chosen. Mr. Berland was emphatic in urging that the process be de-politicized and that every Culver City official pull in the same direction, to bring the agreed-upon concept of light rail to the community, presumably within four years. However, Mr. Malsin said that, inasmuch as Mr. Corlin is Culver City’s representative as of today, a delay to seek new names would be appropriate. It would not be right, Mr. Malsin said, to certify two persons to serve concurrently with Mr. Corlin when his predecessor had so freshly appointed them. And so, each of the five Council members will submit two prospective names, and a vote will be taken at the May 22 meeting to select the two members.
