Oil & real estate money is backing Vera, Renteria & Wisnosky Stehlin

They’re at it again. Big developers, real estate interests, oil companies and the police officers association are lining up to write checks to brand new Political Action Committees (PACs)  formed to defeat the progressive candidates running for Culver City Council. “Our Culver City in support of Al Vera Denice Renteria Jeannine Stehlin Wisnowsky [sic] for City Council” and “Culver City Friends and Neighbors Supporting Albert Vera, Denice Renteria and Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin for City Council 2024” received $208,000 in contributions since October 7, 2024.

The intent to confuse Culver City voters is clear: “Our Culver City” plays on the name of Our Culver, a grass-roots community coalition formed a year ago in response to these heavy-handed corporate interests attempting to influence the governance of our city.

In 2022, Culver Studios (owned by Hackman Capital) contributed $585,783 to a PAC named “Alliance for Culver City to Support the Election of Denice Renteria and Dan O’Brien for City Council 2022.” This PAC funded a hit piece claiming that incumbent Alex Fisch was anti-semitic because of a remark he made about encampments that was taken out of context. It also handed out money to other conservative PACs whose advertising pictured homeless encampments in flames and other images intended to frighten residents.

They succeeded. With the defeat of Alex Fisch and the election of Dan O’Brien in 2022, the council majority has opposed efforts to increase tenant protections, prevented zoning that would permit affordable housing to be built in more areas of the city, refused to pass a minimum wage, and made those who live and work in Culver City more reliant on automobiles and less safe by ripping out a protected bicycle lane and pedestrian safety improvements. 

What does all this money pay for?
Piles of glossy mailers filled with lies.

The mailers funded by these PACs are trying to scare Culver City’s voters, claiming that incumbent mayor Yasmine McMorrin, former Planning Commission Chair Nancy Barba, and transportation professional Bubba Fish want to bring back homeless encampments. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Mayor McMorrin served on Council’s Homeless Subcommittee. Bubba Fish co-chaired the city’s Advisory Committee on Housing and Homelessness. It was the prior progressive council – with McMorrin in the majority – that led the city to obtain $26 million in Project Homekey funding, opening 73 beds that now house the majority of individuals who were unhoused when the current council took office.    

Social media has frightened people into thinking that crime is rampant. But according to CCPD’s own data, incidents of violent crime, property crime, and other crimes (vandalism, financial crime, drug-related), are all down in comparison with 2023, in line with national trends.

These PACs argue paradoxically both that crime is rampant – even though the Culver City Police budget has increased by 60% since 2016 – and that we need even more funding to prevent crime. Which is it: has the increased funding caused crime to decrease (unlikely since this is a national trend) or has crime increased and this extra funding had no effect? Recently, the majority doubled down on its wasteful spending with a police body camera contract that ballooned to $4.9 million with the inclusion of an untested AI software system to process all the videos these cameras capture. Who knows what this private company will do with our images? (Note: The company’s AI ethics board resigned over concerns about the company’s ethics.)

What’s at stake if voters believe the lies?

If the conservative majority prevails again, we can expect them to attempt to roll back the city’s rent control and tenant protection program, forcing more low-income residents, especially our seniors, to pay more, move, or end up on the streets. They will continue to push all affordable housing into Fox Hills, already the city’s most dense, most diverse, but least connected neighborhood.

Spending on the CCPD represents 31% of the city’s 2024-25 General Fund budget, and the Culver City Police Officers Association wants to elect council members they know will support their budget requests without question. How can the city continue to fund other departments if there’s another 60% increase in the police budget over the next decade? Even today, there is limited funding for the Public Works department to fix city sidewalks.

The Parks, Recreation, and Community Services (PRCS) budget, including the Senior Center and Fiesta La Ballona, gets just 7% of the budget, so the school aftercare program that provides affordable childcare for working parents has a waiting list that’s larger than the number of children served, the spaces in summer camps were filled within 6 minutes of opening, and the Plunge closes when there aren’t enough lifeguards. PRCS has to spread out playground improvements over multiple years because they don’t have enough staff to manage multiple projects.

And where will the money come from to operate the programs and facilities requested by residents in the new Parks Master Plan? There won’t be any, if council members continue to prioritize spending on police patrols and surveillance equipment over community programs that improve quality of life for all residents.