I am not voting today for either Scott Malsin or Jeff Cooper, and here is why.
We have always taught our daughter two important lessons. First, “Actions speak louder than words.” Second, “Talk is cheap.”
At this year’s League of Women Voters Candidates Forum, Malsin said police should enforce helmet laws. That is a hollow statement since he knows they have not in the past and will not enforce in the future.
As part of the City Council in 2007, Malsin stood by as Mayor Alan Corlin said at a Council meeting, “We are not going to cite 5- or 10-year-olds.”
Corlin has said, ”A Council candidate I vote for must ensure that our public safety is protected.” Okay. That is why I am not voting for Malsin. Children’s safety should not be given lip service.
Back in the 1990s I worked on a campaign for a City Council candidate. After being elected, that person showed disrespect for those who had a different opinion. This person would often lean back in his chair and stare at the ceiling while people would talk before the City Council. Another Council member once told someone to, “Sit down, shut up and go away.” Later, when it was time for re-election, the person had a County restaurant letter grade window sign in his campaign literature. Voters were smart enough to remember the candidate had voted against forcing Culver City restaurants to post the letter grade to inform patrons.
If anyone has attended City Council meetings for the last four years, you would have seen Malsin lean back in his chair and stare at the ceiling or even close his eyes while people are talking.
At the last City Council meeting on April 5, he did this again. Malsin has no respect for anyone who has a different opinion. As a sitting City Council member, Malsin has even gone as far as creating a website opposing freedom of speech. Here is a direct quote: “Often the Council is faced with very vocal minorities intent on imposing their will on the city. With no accountability to the voters, they seek to dominate City Council meetings through intimidation and the abuse of procedural traditions left over from a gentler time.”
Malsin and Alan Corlin voted against Upward Bound House (website: http://upwardboundhouse.org) trying to get city approval to open a facility to help women and children, at Beethoven and Washington Boulevard in Culver City. They felt it would not be right for their neighborhood.
They were outvoted and the project was approved. Mayor Malsin showed up at the invitation-only, groundbreaking and then made a glowing speech about how great Upward Bound House was.
Malsin even went so far as getting the crowd to shout, “Welcome, Upward Bound House! Welcome, Upward Bound House!” The two faces of Scott Malsin were seen.
The NIMBY West Culver City resident trying to keep Upward Bound House out of West Culver City and Politician Malsin giving glowing speeches and getting his picture taken with other politicians out of sight of his neighbors in West Culver City.
In his literature, he states, “Making Sound Financial Decisions for Culver City… Guaranteed that the renovation of Westfield Culver City was done right, generating more than $1 million a year in revenue for Culver City.” What was not said was that $225,000 per year is being made selling billboard space on the side of the mall. Anyone seen the billboard that is so large it has a aircraft warning light on top of it?
The Planning Commission and the City Council approved the billboards only because they were supposed to be advertising something you could buy at the mall. This is commonly called on-site advertising. The mall has no movie theatre but advertises movies or TV shows. The loophole they made was to put a kiosk with a computer connected to the Internet so you could buy movie tickets for a theatre, not on-site. How can you “buy” free tickets to a TV show? Anyone hear about http://www.Amazon.com? With the loophole, you can advise anything on the Mall! Anyone remember when all billboards were removed in Culver City back in the 1990s?
The city of Los Angeles is being overrun by billboards. They have been actively trying to fight the billboard companies for years. Culver City has effectively set a precedent that lawyers for billboard companies can now use to push their visual blight into Culver City.
Anyone traveling north on Sepulveda or Overland and notice when you leave Culver City the billboards start? Hey, maybe Culver City can balance the budget by selling out to billboard companies. Oh, one more thing. Ask Malsin if the $225,000 per year goes in the General Fund to pay for city services or does it stay in the Redevelopment Agency.
If his campaign literature that was paid for in part by developers and PACs impresses enough people today, we will have four more years of Malsin. If people can see through the propaganda, like they did with the restaurant letter grade incumbent of the past, then Malsin will join the ranks of one-term Council members.
These are my personal opinions of Malsin. Now let us turn to Jeff Cooper while applying the same principles, that talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words.
One example is how City Council candidate Jeff Cooper states he saved “green space” in the Culver City Park by fighting to relocate the proposed Skate Park. He is glossing over the city's past complete failure to enforce the Skate Park rules.
At the 2008 League of Woman Voters’ Candidates Forum, he took no responsibility to enforce even though he was a member of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission. He was more worried about saving “green space” than the “grey matter” in between any kid’s ears when their heads hit the hard and unyielding concrete of the Skate Park. The city only started to enforce their rules after Cooper was no longer on the Skate Park Sub-committee and off the Commission altogether.
The first Western Hemisphere Marathon was in 1948. The Marathon last ran in 2001. Council approved Dec. 8, 2002, as the date for the 2002 race in order to avoid the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and the impact to shoppers during the busiest shopping weekend of the year. Because of mismanagement, the Western Hemisphere Marathon Committee Inc., which Cooper was the President of, pushed it forward a week to Dec. 1, 2002. By October, the city had been exposed to significant litigation and “postponed” the race to December 2003.
When a race isn’t run in a given year, it has been canceled; postponed is just a meaningless euphemism, in this context. The Marathon died and has not been run since. The city had given Western Hemisphere Marathon Committee, Inc. a loan of $15,000 in 2000 for operating expenses. When the Marathon was canceled in 2002, was the loan ever repaid? Is this someone who can handle our city competently?
Cooper is now the chair of the Downtown Car Show. Last year they wanted a $24,850 fee waiver. They got a $12,000 fee waiver. They had a $6,000 profit after the show, which was donated to charity. If the city had not done a fee waiver, they would have had a $6,000 deficit. Is this someone who can handle a city budget?
When Cooper ran for Council in 2008, a supporter said, “As the event's sole producer, Jeff is responsible for organizing every aspect of the show from attracting exhibitors and obtaining business support to coordinating police and traffic control in both Culver City and Los Angeles.”
It took the city seven hours to write a person a ticket for parking in a one-hour Permit Parking Zone three blocks from the Car Show in 2008. When I asked Cooper this year if they were going to have one-day permits for more than one block, he told me it was up to city Engineering.
his year the Car Show asked to cut over $2,000 of city Engineering expenses. I asked him if they were going to mail the permits out early. No… going to drop them on doorsteps the night before. They can’t afford postage? Is this someone looking out for residents and homeowners?
I am not going to vote for anyone endorsed in any ad that has the Culver City Chamber of Commerce logo on it.
When an ad with “Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Paid for by CulverPAC” appears in a newspaper advertisement, you know they are going to get a return on their investment.
The next time a building that is three or four times the city’s 56 -oot height limit comes before that endorsed candidate, if elected, they will can be counted on to vote the way of the (Culver Political Action Committee), or CulverPAC. A PAC is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue that currently is pro-commerce at the expense of residents.
Cooper is not “The Right Choice Right Now.”
Mr. Anderson may be contacted at cary@culvercity.TV
