Culver City voters will decide in approximately one month whether they want two new, fresh faces on the City Council or if they prefer to have at least one experienced lawmaker to help shepherd the city during a time of economic uncertainty.

As the lone incumbent in the race, Scott Malsin has a record he vigorously stands by and thinks will be an asset in the April 13 general election. In the second installment of interviews with the city council candidates, Malsin sought to cast himself as a municipal legislator who has always put Culver City ahead of politics.

First elected in 2006, Malsin has occupied several titles, some official, others -unofficial, prior to his ascent to the city’s governing body.

Shortly after his arrival in Culver City nearly 20 years ago, Malsin became a west Culver City neighborhood organizer. He helped create the Culver West Neighborhood Association, initiated a tree planting initiative and began attending workshops pertaining to redevelopment along nearby Washington Boulevard. He said those early experiences in community activism have shaped, to a certain degree, his outlook on the dais.

“One of the things that it’s provided me with as I’ve moved on to the council is this feeling that everyone in Culver City is my neighbor,” said Maslin, a Web site designer, during a recent interview. “I want to provide information and access to them so that they can feel good about their community.”

Former Culver City City Councilman Alan Corlin says the city needs a councilman who will not be required to learn on the job.

“I think that it’s going to be crucially important for the city to have someone on the council who already knows the ropes,” said Corlin, a Malsin supporter who served with the incumbent for two years. “I think he’s done a great job and I’m proud to back him.”

Malsin was appointed to the city’s planning commission in 2001, where he says he learned first-hand about the development process in Culver City.

“The planning commission deals with a lot of complex issues, and most of the time there are two sides to each issue,” Malsin said. “So you have to do your very best to understand the big picture, and understand that people may have needs and concerns that need to be addressed.”

The incumbent has the endorsements of two of his council colleagues, Mayor Andrew Weissman and Councilman Micheál O’Leary. Scott Wyant, Malsin’s campaign manager, says the councilman’s endorsements are a barometer for the campaign’s progress thus far.

“It’s been quite a learning experience, seeing members of the current government give him their support,” said Wyant, a Culver City planning commissioner.

Malsin said the city’s budget priorities will dictate any new public policy initiatives that he would like to see enacted.

“There are a lot of challenges that we’re going to be facing that relate to the city’s long-term ability to keep providing services at the level that we’ve all come to expect in Culver City,” Malsin said. “Without having the city’s fiscal house in order, nothing else that we might dream of doing is possible, and I think that my record on promoting the city’s fiscal strength is a very good one.”

Pressed for details on that record, Malsin claims to have devised a strategy to create a revenue stream that will allow city officials to begin what he calls “paying forward” Culver City’s retiree benefits obligations without, he says, raising taxes.

“It’s essentially making sure that our fees cover the cost of those obligations,” he explained. “That way, we can start to dig away at that.”

Malsin said the city’s employee bargaining units -— which have endorsed and contributed to his campaign — understand the budget difficulties. Asked if Culver City’s public safety units would also be required to make sacrifices due to the city government’s fiscal challenges, Malsin instead said that he would continue to give the police and fire departments “the resources that they need to keep the level of service that we have today.”

When questioned how he planned to maintain Culver City’s public safety standards and community services levels in the midst of a recession, the councilman said certain positions at City Hall would be combined and the city’s workforce could be reduced through attrition. Pressed about cutting the staff levels as another budgetary tool, Malsin conceded that was on the table.

“Layoffs are a possibility,” he acknowledged. “If that’s the only way to balance our budget, that’s what we’re going to have to do.”

Malsin said that the city’s reserve fund is almost 30%, which is a city policy.

“I believe that it’s important for us to maintain a high level of reserves, and I think that one of the smartest things that we can do with some of that money is to spend it to do some major infrastructure repairs to some of our streets,” Malsin said. “Because that only gets more expensive as the streets continue to decay.”

The councilman thinks it is “inevitable” that the council will be forced to tap into the reserves this year.

On Malsin’s Web site, he lists as a “promise kept” the Exposition Light Rail elevated station at Venice and Robertson boulevards.

The aerial station was cleared in the environmental impact report for the first stage of the Exposition Light Rail Line project in December 2005, five months prior to Malsin’s election to the council. Initially, a temporary ground level station was scheduled to be built south of Washington near the Hayden Tract.

The Metropolitan Transportation Agency (Metro) received money from Proposition 1B transportation funds and agreed to build the light rail line on an elevated tract and authorized $54 million for the new alignment two months later.

The Metro Board of Directors, of which no Culver City elected official is a member, is the final authority regarding station alignments, maintenance facilities and other transportation-related matters.

Malsin maintains that he had a hand in getting the aerial station built through his work with Metro officials behind the scenes, citing meetings that he had with influential members of the Metro board.

Later in the interview, he sought to clarify his role relating to the Expo Line.

“I’m part of the team, but each member of the team brings their own strengths. I can’t do anything without the consensus of the council,” Malsin conceded. “If I use the first person, what I’m trying to point out is that something may be the result of strengths that I brought to the council.

“None of us have any power to do anything individually.”

While he asserts he was responsible in part for the elevated light rail station, Malsin rejected the notion that he shares the responsibility for the failure to develop the corner lots at one of west Culver City’s most important intersections, Washington Boulevard and Centinela Avenue, less than half a mile from where he lives.

“I don’t agree with that assessment,” he said.

Malsin said the state of the economy has played a much larger role in the inability to develop the corner lots, which the city has been attempting to rehabilitate for several years.

“There’s basically no money out there to build much,” he admitted.

The incumbent said the Redevelopment Agency is working with a developer on a possible project for the west side of the city, which has few major retailers other than Costco and Albertson’s near the intersection of Washington and Lincoln boulevards.

“I believe that we’re doing the right thing by not saying to the new team that we have to get it built right now, because if we do, we’re not likely to find as good a proposal as they’ve given us,” he explained.

A deal with a prior developer, the Olson Company, fell through five years ago and the intersection to this day remains undeveloped. Malsin calls an earlier deal struck by the previous council “poorly constructed” and said it would not have benefited the neighborhood.

The councilman is part of a regional taskforce on traffic and transportation, working with Los Angeles city and council officials to seek solutions to improve transportation. Malsin, who has been publicly critical of Los Angeles, said that will not hamper his ability to work with leaders of both government entities.

“Politicians are often critical of each other for decisions that they’re making (that affect other jurisdictions),” he said. “Being critical of a neighboring jurisdiction does not mean that you’re unable to work together.”

Malsin noted that Councilmen Herb Wesson and Bill Rosendahl, whose district border Culver City, have also endorsed him.

On the controversial topic of the city’s oil drilling lawsuit, Malsin says Culver City is in settlement discussions with oil and gas company Plains, Exploration and Production.

“It’s a shame that we had to spend so much money to get this done, but we were going against about as big an adversary as you can imagine, an oil company,” he said.

Malsin feels that Culver City is going in the right direction.

“If (the electorate) thinks that we’re going in the right direction, then I would say that I should be (the public’s) first vote,” he concluded.