Warming up to his critical point, former Mayor Steve Rose said this morning that “Culver City has been environmentally conscious for the last 25 years.”

He served two terms on the City Council in the middle of that quarter century.

A regular at Monday night meetings since being termed out, Mr. Rose winced as he witnessed an instant high drama episode unravel at this week’s meeting.

On the night of the first reading of the much, much ballyhooed ordinance banning restaurants from using polystyrene containers, Mayor Jim Clarke offered a technical amendment that most of the dais regarded as routine.

Except for Meghan Sahli-Wells, the most aggressive Council advocate for outlawing polystyrene in a gesture to help the environment. The goal of the ordinance is to greatly reduce used Styrofoam pieces from cluttering Ballona Creek.

The supporting vote for Mr. Clarke’s amendment was 4-1.

Speaking more plainly, Mr. Rose said the ordinance ultimately banning polystyrene – in the works for six months and not likely to go into effect for another five or six months – is mainly comprised of air that is warm.

Calling the ordinance a gesture to mollify environmentalists, “it is more talk than reality,” he asserted.

“In today’s world of mobility and the internet,” said Mr. Rose, “a city that is under five square miles is just doing one very small step that will not make a significant difference” in the environment.

(To be continued)