First of two parts

The first-year president of West Los Angeles College was forthright about why he joined the large turnout for last week’s City Council meeting about upcoming overhauled rules for the Inglewood Oil Field.

“The oil field is against probably half of my border,” said Dr. James Limbaugh.

“I have looked at the pump jacks, and I wanted to better understand the history of the Inglewood Oil Field, the place that it occupies in the history and culture of the community.”

Dr. Limbaugh said he came “in a fact-finding mood because I wanted to educate myself.”

He was so serious about his mission that he even pored over the staff report on the first version of the draft environmental impact report. He wanted to know about the shrubbery around the EIR, hearing from people intimately acquainted with the complex processes.

“I want to be an educated member of the community,” Dr. Limbaugh said.

From its opening in 1969, West L.A. College has been a significant player in the never-ending debate over regulations for the field where oil was discovered in the 1920s.

The president of the college said that after the meeting ended in mid-evening “I left with some technical questions.

“But I had a better understanding of the relationship between Culver City and the (10 percent) portion of the oil field that is of concern to the city.”

West L.A. College is on county land, hard by Culver City/

Searching for clarity, Dr. Limbaugh said that when he looks out of his office window, “I don’t know what is Culver City and what is L.A. County.”

Join the crowd.

(To be continued)