
So far, there have been no takers. The Culver City Council meeting on Jan. 27, 2025 took an item off the Consent Calendar to consider Item C-12, The Discontinuing of Offering Child Care at City Council Meetings.
Council member Yasmine-Imani McMorrin chose to ‘pull’ the item from the Consent Calendar for a staff report. The question went to Parks and Recreation Director Ted Stevens, who noted, “We have had no takers. So far, [in the six months the program has been available] we only had one set of siblings sign up, and they cancelled before the meeting.”
A brief discussion of what the cost outlay was – the child care is provided by Parks and Rec staff who are already working in other child-centered programs – came to zero. “We are structured to use this as overtime, because it’s an extra shift that we have planned to schedule at short notice. If we scheduled people for regular hours ahead of time, then we’d have to pay them for those hours even if no one showed up.”
As the cost of keeping the option available was still zero, McMorrin was able to persuade staff to just give it more time to see if there was a need.
When Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells first proposed having child care available at council meetings in 2019, it was promoted as an important way to have more parents feel available to participate in meetings. Child care became available in July of 2024.
Stevens agreed to keep the option open, and report back to council in six months.
Judith Martin-Straw