Message to Minorities: You Can’t Be Elected If You Don’t Run

The perceived problem was the lack of minority representation on the City Council.

You will probably say that I don’t perceive the problem because I am an old white guy.

But to me the most important criteria that I look for in City Councilmen are that they are competent and that the have the best interest of the citizens of Culver City at heart.

In my 40-plus years in Culver City, this hasn’t always been the case.

If the City Council is made up of people who meet these criteria, I have no problem with a Council made up of all old white guys, all minorities, all women, or all Martians.

It would be nice to have a more diverse Council but the lack of diversity, in itself, is not a problem.

And I don’t believe the proposed solution would do anything to improve the situation.

The proposed solution was to elect Councilmen by councilmanic districts.

The city is not balkanized. If it were divided into councilmanic districts, there may be areas that have a larger percentage of a minority than the city as a whole but not so significant that it would make the election of a minority easier.

In fact, it could make it more difficult to elect minorities.

This Is No Panacea

We could end up with a situation where the second most qualified candidate is a minority who is in the same councilmanic district as the most qualified candidate.

This could result in the second most qualified candidate losing while a less qualified candidate is elected from another councilmanic district.

To really address the situation we need to do an analysis of why more minorities don’t run.

You can’t be elected if you don’t run.

Seven years ago I voted for a highly qualified African-American candidate. He didn’t win, and he didn’t run a second time.

This has been the case in recent years where a candidate will run only once. Not everyone has the patience of Councilman Andy Weissman. He ran every 20 years until he was elected.

And then there was the stubbornness of Councilman Mehaul O’Leary, who ran every two years until he was elected.

We need find out why candidates chose to only run once. I ran for the School Board about 20 years ago. I lost and chose not to run again.

When I ran, I thought I was the best qualified, but the citizens thought otherwise. I don’t know what I could have done in two years to change their minds.

One-Time Candidates a Mystery

I applied some nautical wisdom that I learned during my years in the Coast Guard. Never spit to the windward.

We need to find out why people choose to run only once and why others choose not to run at all.

I believe there may be two reasons people choose not to run.

First is the amount of money required to run a campaign, especially when someone lacks name recognition. When I ran for School Board about 20 years ago, I spent about $2,500 on my campaign. And while the three winning candidates spent three or four times what I spent, the amount they spent pales in comparison with the amounts spent by last year’s winning City Council candidates.

Raising the amount of money required to run that type of campaign would be difficult for most people. I am not a fan of campaign spending limits but the amounts spent on our City Council elections are unwarranted. We need to devise some method of leveling the financial playing field for candidates.

The second reason I believe people are not choosing to run is the amount of time required to do the job of our City Councilmen. The amount of time required each week is beyond what most people are able to commit.

Where to Find Diversity

There is diverse representation on the School Board and the many city commissions.

The School Board meets twice a month and the Commissions usually meet only once a month.

If we made the time requirements of a City Councilman closer to that of a School Board member, we might get a more diverse group of candidates.

And how do we do this?

We could separate the City Council and the Redevelopment Agency. I never understood how there were any checks and balances when the City Council and the Redevelopment Agency were the same people.

And while it wouldn’t cut the time requirements in half because there are joint items, it could significantly reduce the workload.

It would also have the additional benefit of having twice the number of elected officials, making it more likely to have a more diverse group of elected officials.