Even though Nov. 11, 2024 was the Veteran’s Day holiday, the Culver City Council held a meeting that concluded with pushing through multiple legal reforms before the next council could be sworn in and seated. The conservatives, who will lose their majority next month, looked as if they had a laundry list of standards to change.
Removing the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, giving the Culver City Police Department a green light to use facial recognition technology, as well as lowering the legal standard for clean water were all part of a long, scattershot policy shift jammed into item A-2, coming up for a vote after midnight.
The 24 page ‘Resolution Approving Policy Platform’, which was only available online over the holiday weekend (and did not include the portions of the municipal code – Resolution No. 2016-R124 – that the plan would change) seemed a hurried and secretive legal push by the lame-duck council.
The agenda item was commented on by several members of the public, including Drusiano Solari, who reflected the need to postpone. “It’s an immense amount of items that are [included here.] A three day weekend is not sufficient for the consideration …It really is not okay to punch this through at this late hour. Council member Vera is talking about listening to the public, and the public needs to get their minds around [these] issues. Please postpone this decision – for the public and for yourselves.”
Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin sought clarification from city staff, as the resolution that was on target to be overturned had been in place since 2016. She discovered that none of the meetings in regard to the issues had been open to the public, as they had only been discussed in an ad hoc subcommittee.
McMorrin stated,”I do think that we can honor and respect the procedures that brought us to this point, and we can also honor and respect [the need for] more voices at the table.”
The motion was made by Vice Mayor Dan O’Brien and seconded by Council member Goran Eriksson, and passed with an unsurprising three to two majority. Council member Albert Vera, Jr. was the third ‘yes’ vote.
Judith Martin-Straw
