Mayor Micheál O’Leary Highlights Culver City's Accomplishments

Speaking to a packed ballroom at the Doubletree by Hilton on Centinela Avenue today, Mayor Micheál O’Leary shared highlights of the city’s accomplishments over the past year and spoke of a reason to be optimistic about the future.

Three-hundred people, including City Council members, City Council candidates, and members of the Culver City Unified School District Board, showed up for the sold out 32^nd Annual Mayor’s Luncheon.

“What a great city we live and do business in,” Mayor O’Leary told the crowd. “Even in these tough times, we’ve been able to forge ahead.”

O’Leary’s speech was sprinkled with laughter and applause from the audience. He also surprised some by taking to the microphone and belting out his own rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” with the crowd joining in, before his address.

The majority of his speech was filled with bullet points. He highlighted the settlement agreement that was reached in the litigation filed against the county and PXP “to ensure there are adequate mitigation measures in place to protect the community from the impacts of oil drilling in the Baldwin Hills area,” he said.

He also made mention of upcoming redevelopment projects, including the Parcel B downtown development which is slated to consist of 115,000 square feet of commercial space and a public plaza at a cost of $42 million project and a planned project with Lower Enterprises to develop the Washington National Transit Oriented Development, or TOD, site next to the Expo line station.

A “reduction in violent crime,” was another significant achievement with robberies down 24 percent last year compared to the previous year, and aggravated assaults down by eight percent, Mayor O’Leary said.

"I thought he gave a really good perspective of what the city of Culver City has been doing to improve the lives of its residents," said Jackie Kimbrough whose organization, Inglewood Pacific Chapter of the Links, holds regular meetings in Culver City. "I would like to hear more about his vision for the city."

Steven J. Rose, president and CEO of the Culver City Chamber of Commerce, also said Mayor O'Leary encapsulated the past year well.

“Mehaul O'Leary's singing of the Star Spangled Banner set the afternoon's event off on a majestic note,” Rose said. “His comments about the entire city, not for profits, city staff and business told the whole story of Culver City, not just an annotated version of Culver City.”

Mayor O’Leary capped his speech off by saying despite the dour economic predictions, Culver City’s future is bright.

“Culver City residents and employees stayed focused on making Culver City better for all by focusing on the job at hand and getting more done with less but always thinking of our fellow man,” Mayor O’Leary said. “The Culver City team stepped up when the going got tough, and it is an attitude like that which has us as the envy of the region and will get us out of this recession smelling like a rose.”

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