By Shireen Daytona
Re “Cooper Says Unfair to Compare Culver City to S. Monica, W. Hollywood”
Reading Mayor Jeff Cooper’s quote yesterday that in his opinion “Our Landlord/Tenant Mediation Board does a good job,” is either a reflection of his implied low standards or that he is blissfully unaware of what has been going on in those quarters of City Hall. Or, perhaps, he would just rather play ostrich.
The Landlord/Tenant Mediation Board has not managed to discuss a single mediation at the last two quarterly meetings even though mediations were on the agenda. Yes, that’s right, in six months, not to mention that there were a plethora of mediations during that same time period, as Mayor Cooper is well aware, amongst them my own.
In the same vein, no minutes from any of the Board meetings held in 2013 were drafted or approved. Heaven forbid any should actually be posted on the City website in pursuit of transparency for of course, they were not…
Add to that, he has the most serious case of selective hearing I’ve come across. Or perhaps, he simply tuned me out when I’ve addressed the City Council, which, I expect, some would forgive him for doing. Otherwise, he would have known that the Landlord/Tenant Mediation Board has only once, in its entire history of more than 25 years, successfully resolved a rental increase dispute between a landlord and tenant.
Mayor Cooper’s statement that it’s unfair to compare Culver City to West Hollywood and Santa Monica is entirely without merit. I am sure he knows that, and he puts forth a startlingly weak argument in investor comparison.
Mayor Cooper would do well to remember that although he sells mortgages by day at Wells Fargo, as mayor of this city, it is his duty to cast aside his personal and what I suspect he perceives as politically expedient views, and serve fairly all residents of Culver City. Yes, all would include the some 50 percent of the population who are renters. He has been brazenly dismissive of, and insensitive to, their lack of tenant rights.
I don’t believe for one second that Mayor Cooper has any empathy for the plight some renters have found themselves in over the last several months. Actions speak louder than words, and we all know that he has neither taken any action, nor pretended to. Fooled anyone, has he? I don’t think so. But nice try.
