The Culver City Democratic Club last week overwhelmingly endorsed candidates Meghan Sahli-Wells, Thomas Small and Daniel Lee for the three open seats on the Culver City Council.
The endorsement, voted by Club members, immediately followed a forum during which all Democratic candidates responded to questions about their experience and perspectives.
The previous evening, the Los Angeles Democratic Party endorsed the same three candidates for the Council seats. The three were endorsed on the first ballot.
"These Democratic candidates are a unifying force for our city. This is the reason we should find them so compelling to vote for on April 12said Khin Khin Gyi, president of the Culver City Democratic Club.
"Culver City Democrats look to us to provide the information they need to vote for the best candidates," Darryl Cherness, a past president of the Club, said. "We take this responsibility very seriously. We are very pleased to endorse Meghan Sahli-Wells, Thomas Small and Daniel Lee for City Council this April."
Only four of the seven candidates were permitted to speak as the club requires candidates to be registered Democrats in order to appear at the speakers table.
Council member Sahli-Wells, who was raised in Culver City and graduated from UCLA, is the only incumbent in the race. She was elected in 2012 and has been endorsed by all four of her fellow councilpersons.
Meghan Sahli-Wells and her husband, Karim Sahli, a small business owner, are the parents of two sons who attend Culver City Middle School.
During her first term Sahli-Wells's strong voice, collaboration and key votes contributed to saving the homeless and rental assistance programs, creating the Finance Advisory Committee, banning plastic bags, restoring arts funding, creating affordable housing, expanding bicycle infrastructure, and protecting the City's billboard ban.
The list of her priorities is long. Among them are collaborating with the school district (CCUSD), addressing mansionization and airplane noise, investing in critical new infrastructure, attracting new businesses, maintaining high quality City services, and protecting health and safety with stringent oil drilling regulations. She advocates creating a comprehensive community plan for the City, further streamlining city services, supporting Fire Department and Police Department efforts to prepare for natural and man-made disasters, designing streets safe for all users, and providing high-speed Internet connectivity to Culver City businesses, schools and residents by installing a municipal fiber network.
Thomas Small, a graduate of Yale University, is a commissioner on the Culver City Cultural Affairs Commission. He and his wife, Joanna Brody, are the parents of twins who attend Linwood E. Howe Elementary School. She is PTA president. Mr. Small, who is fluent in Spanish, volunteers in the school's Spanish enrichment program, which his wife co-founded. He also coaches AYSO soccer.
Daniel Lee is a 13-year resident with a master's degree in social welfare from UCLA. He credits his grandmother, who participated with Dr. Martin Luther King in the Montgomery bus boycott, for his desire to be of service and his own social justice perspective. He has served on the Culver City Martin Luther King Celebration Committee for the past five years, planning its citywide celebration of the iconic Civil Rights leader.
For more information about the candidates, access their websites: Vote4Meghan.com, Thomas4CulverCity.org, and DanielWayneLee.com.
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