While Culver City was preparing to hear the voice of the people in the voting booth, the former City Council decided it was not convenient to wait a few weeks for the vote on the new Charter. Instead, they increased the CAO’s contract another three years. Since the Council did not know how the vote would come out, wouldn’t it have been more prudent to have a one-year extension? If the Measure V, Charter Reform, passed, then a nationwide search could be accomplished, just as it was for the last 10 executive management positions. This would have allowed a reasonable and timely transition. If it did not pass, the CAO’s contract could then be extended.
Tonight, the Council is preparing to change Jerry Fulwood’s contract from a CAO‘s position to the City Manager. Is the position the same as CAO? Is it just a name change? No. That’s why we had the whole new Charter to change the position greatly: more responsibility, more power, more control and more efficiency.
Are we trying to save money? If so, why did we have nationwide searches for the last 10 executive management positions?
2001 — Transportation Director
2002 — Chief Admin Officer
2003 — Community Development
2003 — Fire Chief
2003 — Personnel Director
2005 — Personnel Director
2004 — City Controller
2004 — Public Works Director
2005 — Assistant CAO
2005 — Parks & Rec Director
For all of these positions, we had a nationwide search, and all but one had a person serving in an interim position until the new manager was found. Until now.
2006 — New Position of City Manager – most important job in Culver City. No Interim Director. No Nationwide Search
Why such a radical departure from this reasonable practice?
Did you not want to follow the will of the voters?
Did you think the voters were not smart enough?
We are extremely disappointed that you didn’t even have the courtesy to have a city-wide discussion before you unilaterally disregarded the long-standing practice of having a nationwide search for an executive management position, much less a new and more responsible position.
Please understand that we’re not speaking about Mr. Fulwood’s performance or about him.
We want to know why a long-standing and reasonable practice was suddenly abandoned.
We hope that in the future when there is a major question before the city, that the City Council has enough faith in the residents to have a debate.
In polling the former Charter Committee members, the majority were very displeased that a nationwide search was not performed. As a Charter Committee member, I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.
