Culver City’s Rising Ethnic Groups Seek Share of Clout

When Dan Marquez asked a Culver City councilman how he could get onto a city commission, it was suggested that he first get involved with the La Ballona Fiesta committee or another less important body.

The answer helped dissuade the five-year resident from applying for a commission post, but it did not surprise him.

“In this town, I think it’s a question of who you know, not what you know,” said Marquez, president of the Westside chapter of the Mexican-American Political Assn. “I can understand (this attitude); I don’t entirely disagree with it. But it assumes you don’t have certain expertise or a certain intelligence. And it smacks of the ‘old crony system.’ ”

Tripled in Size

Blacks, Latinos and immigrant Asians are all part of an ethnic minority population in Culver City that has tripled in size over the past 18 years.

But although they now account for more than 40% of the city’s 41,000 residents--who are 20% Latino, 11% black and 10% Asian, according to city statistics--there are few minorities on the City Council, city commissions and the recently formed citizens strategic planning committee, Direction 21.

Only two of the 35 members of Direction 21’s steering committee are known to be ethnic minorities, according to administrative assistant Susan Sherman. There were 120 applicants for committee seats.

All five members of the City Council and all 15 members of the three city commissions are white, according to Chief Administrative Officer Dale Jones.

Culver City is rapidly becoming a Third World city, and “we should be preparing ourselves for having a different population,” said Owen L. Knox, a 12-year resident and the only black member of the Direction 21 steering committee.

Knox, 65, a retired assistant superintendent with the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the city will soon have to address minority concerns such as affordable housing, employment and preparing schools for immigrants with large families.

“I’m not convinced (the council) has seen that as a need,” he said. “And when I look at the composition of the committee and the city government, I know they haven’t.”

Mayor Paul Jacobs, however, called ethnic representation on the Direction 21 committee “excellent,” adding that anyone who wanted to participate was welcome and that those who regularly attended the committee’s meetings were later added to the steering committee roster.

Lack of Diversity

Vice Mayor Jim Boulgarides, who was not on the council last summer when appointments to the committee were made, said he would have liked to see more representation from women and different ethnic groups and economic levels. But he said he is not sure how the lack of diversity is affecting the committee.

“It may not have had a bad effect,” he said. “It’s as if to say that a person in one economic stratum is totally insensitive to those in another. I don’t think it’s true. I know I’m not.”

Jacobs said he would like to see better ethnic representation on city commissions. But he said the first objective is to get applications, and the second is to pick the best people available. “I don’t appoint people on a quota basis,” he said.

Former Councilmen Richard Brundo and Paul Netzel also said they did not take ethnicity into account when they made steering committee selections or appointed commissioners. Minorities have been commissioners in the past.

‘Shown Sensitivity’

“When the council has been faced with a (representative) pool of applicants, it has shown sensitivity to the different segments of the community,” Netzel said.

He discounted the “old crony” theory, saying that from charitable organizations to Little League, “I think our community has very good ethnic participation in all activities.”

Ten-year Fox Hills resident Lou Johnson, however, said that as a black he has sometimes been reluctant to get involved in city organizations because he felt he “was an outsider. I think it was five or six years before I felt I belonged.”

Architect Marc Cobb, a nine-year resident of the city, expressed similar feelings. Cobb, a black, said he applied to the Direction 21 committee because he felt it was important for minorities to be represented.

After not being selected, Cobb said he later attended a focus group meeting but was disappointed to find he was the only minority there. He did not attend another meeting.

“I just felt so bad that there were no minorities at the meeting that I didn’t take (the process) very seriously,” Cobb said.

Knox said that if the government wants more minorities on its boards or commissions, it should recruit them.

‘Politically Wise’

“I think every government should be taking affirmative action, meaning not just waiting for minorities to apply but affirmatively going out and seeking them,” he said. “Not just because it’s moral to do so, but because it’s politically wise.”

Latino activist Marquez agreed. “You can’t really have a representational democracy unless you have fair representation from as many different groups of people as possible,” he said.

Jacobs, however, said he was against the recruitment of minorities for city boards and commissions. “The city does not . . . recruit certain kinds of people to the exclusion of other kinds of people,” he said.

The city does, however, participate in federally mandated affirmative action programs for its employees.

Minority leaders interviewed said they generally enjoy living in Culver City and have experienced few racist encounters. They said part of the blame for the lack of minority representation lies with minority residents themselves, many of whom are too busy with their careers, too complacent or too unfamiliar with city government to demand change.

But change, they say, is coming.

Minority Applicants

At least one black and one Asian applied for commission appointments last month. Neither Johnson, 59, a retired watchmaker, nor Charles Tang, a manager in the aerospace industry, was selected, but both promised to apply again.

Tang, 37, said he had never been involved in city politics but applied to the Planning Commission because he thought he was qualified and would bring a new perspective to the body.

He said he was surprised that not a single council member interviewed him about his views after he applied. He also said he did not know he needed to be nominated by a council member to be considered for the post.

“I’ll be smarter next time,” he said.

Marquez said the argument that Latinos are not represented because they have not run for office or applied for appointments is a fair one. But, he said, change is coming.

“I don’t expect to have things handed to me,” he said. “We’ve always had to struggle for what we got. It’s going to take a little time. Maybe not this year, maybe not next year. But it’s coming.”