At the City Council meeting on the evening of Monday, December 9, there were only two items on the agenda following the Consent Calender–two action items to confirm the appointment of new City Manager Odis Jones, and to elect a new Mayor and Vice Mayor for the next year.
Action Item 1 (A1) called for, “(1) Appointment of Odis Jones as City Manager; and (2) Approval of an Executive Employment Agreement Confirming Such Appointment.”
After a lot of compliments directed at both Jones and outgoing City Manager John Nachbar, and a reminder that the City went through an exhaustive recruitment process before deciding upon Jones, the vote to confirm his appointment was unanimous.
Action Item 2 (A2) called for, “(1) Election of Mayor and Vice Mayor for a 12-Month Term; and (2) Confirmation by the Boards of the Financing Authority/Housing Authority/Parking Authority/Successor Agency to the Culver City Redevelopment Agency that the Mayor and Vice Mayor of the City Shall Serve as Chair and Vice Chair of these Bodies, Respectively, for a 12-Month Term.”
Immediately after opening the motion, outgoing Mayor Dan O’Brien nominated Freddy Puza for Mayor, and the vote was unanimous. Soon afterwards, Bubba Fish was unanimously voted Vice Mayor.
There were plenty of compliments from the sitting council, the public and from neighboring cities about the year O’Brien had, and the job Puza will do.
It was lost on no one that Puza is Culver City’s first openly LGBTQ+ mayor, on the historic day that Jones became Culver City’s first black City Manager. Puza talked about strength in diversity, and of the importance of the community seeing themselves in their leaders. He spoke of the fact that Culver City was once a sundown town, and the importance of not forgetting that while moving into a better future. And he spoke of the fact that Culver City is a sanctuary, and will remain so.
His comments carried extra weight, on a night when there were some particularly heinous transphobic comments from a member of the public at the start of the meeting. But they couldn’t dampen what was inarguably a night of celebration.