Pivotal Policy
A broad, perhaps rubbery, city policy — not to mention a worldwide workplace maxim — holds that the boss must be paid more than the people working under him.
This will put City Manager Jerry Fulwood in line for a significant raise.
“No city policy specifically states this, but we like to have a 15 percent differential between the supervisor and subordinates,” said Personnel Director Serena Wright.
Raises for More People?
It probably is philosophical window-dressing, but along with Mr. Fulwood, his deputy Martin Cole and others may also qualify for pay increases once the City Council determines how much to offer the Chief Financial Officer.
In the last 4 years, City Council arguments over Mr. Fulwood’s salary have made the Taliban look as meek as Talleyrand, and he has been dead almost 200 years.
Mr. Fulwood’s current salary is $184,000. His deputy earns $138,000.
Two Sides
A bare majority of the City Council believes Mr. Fulwood either is undercompensated or his pay is marginally fair.
The minority resistance believes the opposite just as firmly.
Mr. Fulwood probably would be in the $200,000 range today were it not for an off-stage promise made last year when his new contract was being negotiated.
He was told that if he would agree to a lower figure, he would be rewarded as soon as the city’s financial standing improved.
A Vulnerable Vow?
“Two things were wrong with that,” a City Hall source said. “We could have afforded to pay Jerry more at the time. And I suspect everyone who heard the promise knew it was not made with the intention of being kept.”
With City Hall having set the upper bar for the CFO at $182,500, it is highly unlikely the first financial boss will come in much under that, leaving the city’s top two officers drawing the same pay.
Taking Charge
It is very clear to Mr. Fulwood he is in charge of the city.
It is not a cinch the opinion is unanimous in the upper reaches of City Hall.
Nor is it certain the CFO will fold easily into a No. 2 role.
That is a potential battle that still needs to be scripted by the city so it has a ready response.
Meanwhile, back at the O.K. Corral — the boys doubled their verbal fists, shook ‘em at each other, dropped to the dirt, wrestled, then went back to making policy as if they were sitting, well-shod ankles crossed, in a noiseless, mirrored salon.
Little Subjects
Once again, here was a no-extra-charge demonstration that this is a City Council that often agrees on the big-money subjects but feuds furiously over the number of stars in the night sky.
More precisely, the present dispute was rooted in the distinctly opposing philosophies of Councilman Steve Rose, the only conservative on the dais, and Mr. Silbiger, substantially more liberal than the next most liberal member of the Council.
A Slight Disagreement
Mr. Rose engaged the mayor in an ever so salty debate over a precise interpretation of Mr. Rose’s critical remarks during a discussion of the merits of April being Sexual Assault Awareness Months.
The dispute was 2 pages longer than “War and Peace.”
The agenda item merely called for the Council to agree to join other Los Angeles County communities in so designating next month.
How It Started
During the discussion, an agitated Mr. Rose vehemently criticized Mr. Silbiger’s perceived partisan handling of the agenda item.
Subsequently, Mr. Rose scootched around on his chair as the mayor calmly iterated his reasons for enthusiastically hailing the proclamation idea and the cause itself.
In the interest of reserving time for readers to invest the rest of their lives in a subject other than the City Council, Mr. Rose eschewed specificity in strongly rebuking the mayor.
Keeping Score
In the absence of a scoreboard to tally the linguistic scores, it is believed that Mr. Rose twice fired at the mayor “You are lying,” and once, in the interest of truncation, simply labeled him “a liar.”
From the center of the dais, Mr. Silbiger said, either 2 or 3 times, “You are out of order.”
The untidiness mushroomed moments later.
Mr. Rose, still in a state of high anxiety, refused to cast an affirmative vote on a motion he had seconded, possibly a first in modern Council annals.
Everybody on One Side?
More moments later, Bob, as the late author of Roberts’ Rules of Order was known in life, moved around in his grave when the Vice Mayor asked for a do-over.
Alan Corlin said the Sexual Assault Awareness designation was “too important” not to merit a unanimous vote. He sought to unstain Mr. Rose’s negative vote that had made it 4 to 1.
What followed was another back-and-forth that was worth the price of free admission to Council Chambers. After major arm-twisting, amidst cautious reluctance, Mr. Rose agreed to reverse his vote.
No Cinch
This was to be the night the interminable drama over building a Skateboard Park on the bottom rung of Culver City Park was to be concluded by approving a builder.
Before approval very reluctantly was extended, the City Council fiercely rehashed pointy criticisms first aired 2 weeks earlier about the perceived failings of the city’s hired site design team.
The contract with the builder will be brought to the Council on Monday, April 9, which promises to be another rerun of Fight Night.
An Empty Feeling
By the time Mr. Corlin asked for a 10-minute break at 9:45, with only relatives left in the audience, the balance of the meeting could have been telephoned in.
COUNCIL NOTES — In honor of the 8-day holiday of Passover, which starts Monday night, next week’s meeting will be on Wednesday instead of Monday…
Mr. Corlin was not at ease on the dais. He suffered from 2 perforated eardrums, the result of flying to and from Washington last week for a lobbying excursion. His right ear bled, and he said he temporarily has lost his hearing in that ear.. To compensate, he wore a wired hearing aid in his left ear…
Carmelite Bell, one of the gentle mature ladies of Culver City, and Edmundo Gonzalez, one of the mature gentlemen of Culver City, stood at the forefront when a proclamation was issued in honor of labor hero Cesar Chavez’s birthday on Saturday. Both Ms. Bell and Mr. Gonzalez are pleasant-faced fixtures at the Senior Center…
Ms. Bell said that Mr. Chavez will be honored in a 1 p.m. program on Friday at the Senior Center and at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Julian Dixon Library…
