Stephen Murray: I’m Not The Revenue Candidate, I’m the Efficiency Candidate

This is the sixth in a series of one-on-one sit down interviews with each of the six individuals running for four open seats on the Culver City Council in the April 10 elections.

Stephen Murray brands himself with two main tags: he’s the only professional environmentalist running in the April 10 City Council elections, and he’s an eco-warrior.

The energy consultant confesses he’s the only candidate without a community base and says while it would be “great” if people endorsed him, he will not actively seek endorsements.

“When I see the mailers come out there’s just a list of names and it makes the election about who you know versus the actual issues. And it should be about the issues,” he says.

Stephen Murray is nothing if not candid. He nails home the point by turning up to our interview wearing a shirt and tie and then reveals, “I never wear ties.”

Culver City Patch: What made you decide to run in this race?

Stephen Murray: I’ve been watching the City Council for a while. The imminent loss of the Redevelopment Agency is what triggered me, and Scott Malsin’s [resignation] from the council. But I don’t really want to get into that. I also think Andy Weissman pushed me over the edge because he suggested that I run.

Patch: One of the bullet points on your campaign website states you want to, “directly address our ongoing $4.5 million structural deficit by redoubling efficiency improvements, expenditure reduction, private/public partnerships, grants and focused special district creation.” How would you go about doing this?

Murray: To address the deficit – I’d look at what’s being done efficiently in the City. The fire department, for instance, costs us less [to run] than other comparable cities. But our police department compared to other California cities like Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach; we’re paying more for. I’d do an audit of the department and find out where that money is being spent.

I understand that’s an unpopular position. It’s one thing for the council to cut temporary and unfilled positions but it’s quite another thing to cut a position where the person’s being productive but we have to.

Patch: Beyond the police department, do you see other places where you think cuts might need to be made?

Murray: The standard thing is arts, then parks, then City Hall, then police, then fire. City Hall itself has grown significantly over the last eight years. All the jobs that were lost because of the loss of the Redevelopment Agency… The redevelopment agencies were cut was because of misappropriation of funds.

Patch: Are you saying Culver City misappropriated funds? Can you give specifics?

Murray: I think we did. Community development projects. Especially the arts projects. They don’t fall under the mandate about how the RDA is supposed to be. There is supposed to be an actual payoff of the invested money through property taxes.

Patch: So if the funds used for the summer music series had people come into downtown Culver City and spend their money in restaurants, cafes, etc. is that not a valid use of the funds?

Murray: It is completely valid if you accept that redevelopment agencies exist into the future in an infinite amount, because that way you never actually have to pay it off. But the fact that the RDA had a limited life span, they didn’t actually get to pay it off because of the time it takes for those things to improve the quality of life and bring people into the city and pay property taxes. It’s not like a building we built. The best payoff is the theatres. Like the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The big thing is we did not do affordable housing.

Patch: What about the Globe and the Tilden Terrace projects?

Murray: But that was recently in the last couple of years. Those are great but $45 million is a lot to have left on the table in the last few years. The fact that the prior council didn’t do anything about that is a tragedy.

Patch: In order to raise revenues, several candidates have proposed taxes in the form of assessment districts. Is that something you’d be in favor of?

Murray: I think tax reform is definitely something we should look at. We need to address the services for residents. Then we have the 211,000 business employees that come here daily. We need to also service them with the police, fire and parks. We can’t support everything with the General Fund so assessment districts are one way. We have to apply sales tax no matter what. Westfield, Costco, Target – they’re our major contributors to sales tax.

Patch: You also stated on your website you want to “create smart affordable housing opportunities that increases a neighborhood’s quality of life and mitigates traffic issues.” How would you go about doing that?

Murray: It’s about finding ways to find partners to do this [affordable housing].  The money isn’t really there to do this. Maybe we do bonds or something as a way to help with that.

Patch: What ideas do you have to bring revenue into the city?

Murray: I’m an energy contractor. I look at a house or business and look at where they are using energy and I come back with a cost benefit analysis with improvements, which shows you the payoff. So I don’t talk about revenue. But I talk about efficiencies and optimizing our resources.

I’m not the revenue candidate. I will not bring more money to the city. I’ll bring green jobs and more efficiency to the city. I’ll be saving the city money not just through cutting expenditures but also through efficiencies not just for city structures but also for the entire population of the city itself.

I also want to build a master plan for sustainability with a timeline. One of the things that has made the council not follow through on green initiatives is that they’re very risk averse. The plastic bag ban is something that the council says it supports, but why hasn’t it happened already? The loss of the RDA can allow us to have a paradigm shift. Instead of an attitude of build, spend, tax, which is basically what we were doing, we should instead look at being environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.

Patch: Do you think city council members should take a stand on school board issues?

Murray: I tried not to pay too much attention to that. There was an open letter to the candidates [about parent-funded volunteers]. The school board is a separate entity to the city council and needs to act independently. It needs to act for the betterment of all its students, the community as a whole as well as servicing the needs of the parents and its employees. In that framework I can’t comment. I’m fully sympathetic with how the parents feel but it’s not a union vs. the kids thing.

School board activities should be reviewed periodically. If there’s reason to believe the school board is not acting in the best interests of the community, the city council has full rights to revoke their mandate and make them a committee under the council itself, but as it is I think the [school board] is doing admirably.

Patch: If your campaign had a bumper sticker what would it say?

Murray: I’d have two. I’m not one-dimensional. One is ‘Sustainable Culver City.’  It doesn’t endorse me personally, but I believe that’s how the city should be, whether I get on the council or not. The other is ‘Putting People First.’

To read more about Stephen Murray’s election campaign, visit his website at www.murrayforculvercity.com

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