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Dan O'Brien Newsletter — July 13, 2026
📬 Councilmember Dan O'Brien | Culver City | July 13, 2026
Good evening, neighbors,
By the time this reaches you, the Council is already in session. We gaveled in at 7 PM tonight, and two items on the agenda touch something as everyday as your water bill and as long-term as what gets built on our commercial corridors. There is still time to tune in live, and I will explain both items below. First, though, this past weekend gave us a World Cup quarterfinal decided in the 88th minute, a park full of families playing soccer of their own, and a firehouse full of blood donors. This newsletter covers all of it, plus a summer concert series that kicks off Thursday with a little help from the Beatles.
🏛️ Tonight at City Hall: Two Hearings Worth Your Attention
🔹 The Council is in session right now in the Mike Balkman Council Chambers, and if you open this while the meeting is live, you can still join in person or watch from your couch. If you are reading this later, the full video will be posted for replay. Either way, here are the two public hearings on tonight's agenda, in plain English.
🔹 First, the Sewer User's Service Charge. Every year the Council holds a public hearing before setting the sewer charge for the new fiscal year, and tonight is that hearing for FY 2026-27. It is not a glamorous topic, but the pipes under our streets are some of the hardest-working infrastructure we own, and this charge is what keeps them maintained.
→ 💡 What this means: This is the one moment each year the law sets aside specifically for public input on how the City funds sewer maintenance. If the item has not yet been heard when you tune in, you can still weigh in tonight, in person or virtually.
🔹 Second, the drive-through moratorium. The Council will consider extending the current 45-day pause on new drive-through permits by an additional 10 months and 15 days while our planners draft permanent updates to the zoning code.
→ 🎯 My take: A pause is not a verdict. It is the Council pressing hold so we can decide thoughtfully, with community input, how drive-throughs fit into the walkable, people-first city we have been building. I would rather take the time to get the rules right than approve projects under rules we already know need updating. The permanent zoning update comes next, and your input will shape it, so whether you catch tonight's hearing live or on replay, keep the feedback coming.
👉 View the Council meeting calendar
⚽ Economic Development: A Quarterfinal for the Ages, and One Match Left to Share
🔹 Spain edged Belgium 2-1 at SoFi Stadium on Friday, in the only quarterfinal played in Los Angeles. Belgium struck back before halftime after an early Spain goal, and the winner did not come until the 88th minute, when substitute Mikel Merino turned home a rebound less than two minutes after stepping onto the pitch. Spain now faces France in Tuesday's semifinal, with England and Argentina meeting Wednesday.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Eight matches at SoFi over five weeks put Westside hotels, restaurants, and shops in front of visitors from every corner of the globe. That run is finished now, and the lessons our region learned hosting it roll straight into planning for the 2028 Games.
🔹 Saturday, Veterans Memorial Park turned into a soccer festival of its own. The Kick It With Culver City Family Field Day filled the park from 11 AM to 2 PM with relays, skills stations, and team challenges, with appearances from AYSO, ESPN, the LAFC Street Team, and Pint Size Soccer, before back-to-back quarterfinal watch parties carried the day into the evening. My thanks to the Parks staff and partners who built a full day of community out of a tournament happening next door.
🔹 One free watch party remains: the Final, this Sunday, July 19 at 12 PM in Town Plaza. Please note the updated time: the championship kicks off at noon our time, so the Downtown screening starts at midday, not in the evening as previously listed. Presented with community partners Afro Village and Bahati House Sports Lab, it is the tournament's last hurrah, and Culver City gets to share it on the big screen.
→ 🎯 My take: I said early in this tournament that sport brings people together, and every plaza and park screening since has proven the point. One match remains. Pack a blanket, claim a patch of shade, and spend your Sunday lunch hour cheering with a few hundred neighbors.
👉 Get details on the Final screening at Town Plaza
🚒 Public Safety: Thank You, Blood Donors
🔹 Saturday's blood drive at Fire Station 1 delivered exactly the boost summer supplies need. The Culver City Rotary Club and CCFD teamed up with Cedars-Sinai to host donors at the firehouse from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM, during the season when blood banks historically run lowest.
→ 🎯 Why this matters to me: Gratitude is owed twice here, once to the firefighters who opened their station, and once to every resident who spent part of a Saturday giving something only people can give. A single unit of blood often reaches multiple patients, and that quiet math should make every donor proud.
💰 Budget & Finance: Thirty Neighbors Get to Work This Week
🔹 The second Civic Assembly session convenes Thursday through Saturday, July 16 to 18. Thirty residents, selected by lottery and balanced to reflect the whole of Culver City, will spend three days from 9 AM to 4:30 PM refining recommendations on one question: how the City can bring more voices into the budget process. Their final report comes to the Council when the session wraps.
→ 💡 What this means: The ideas that started taking shape in May's first session get pressure-tested and sharpened this week. What lands on the Council dais afterward will not be a consultant's memo. It will be the considered judgment of your neighbors.
→ 🎯 My take: I have said all year that a budget is only as strong as the voices behind it, and this week that principle becomes thirty people around a table doing the work. When their report reaches us, I intend to give it the serious weight that kind of effort deserves.
👉 Learn about the Civic Assembly
🎶 Arts & Culture: Free Concerts Return to Town Plaza Thursday
🔹 The Summer Sunset Concert Series opens Thursday, July 16 at 7 PM at Town Plaza, and it runs every Thursday evening through August 20. Opening night belongs to The Fab Four, the Beatles tribute act that has become a Culver City favorite, with a new genre taking the stage each week after that. Seating near the stage is first come, first served, and small picnic blankets and low-back chairs are welcome in designated areas.
→ 🎯 My take: Long before I held this seat, I was the neighbor pushing for a mural on a blank wall, because I believe art in public spaces is what turns a downtown into a gathering place. Six straight Thursdays of free live music, steps from our local restaurants and shops, is that belief set to a soundtrack. Make dinner out of it and stay for the encore.
👉 See the Summer Sunset Concert Series details
📅 Dates & What's Ahead
🔹 Tonight, happening now. Regular Council Meeting, Mike Balkman Council Chambers, with public hearings on the sewer charge and the drive-through moratorium extension. Watch live or catch the replay. See above.
🔹 Tuesday and Wednesday, July 14 and 15 at 12 PM. World Cup semifinals: France vs. Spain, then England vs. Argentina.
🔹 Thursday to Saturday, July 16 to 18. Second Civic Assembly session. See above.
🔹 Thursday, July 16 at 7 PM. Summer Sunset Concert Series opening night with The Fab Four at Town Plaza. See above.
🔹 Sunday, July 19 at 12 PM. World Cup Final screening at Town Plaza, Downtown Culver City. Note the midday start.
🔹 Thursday, August 6. Artist Laureate Victoria Marks stages HUG at the Culver Steps, a participatory public demonstration of caring. Arrive at 5 PM for the 6 PM activation, and bring someone worth hugging.
👉 Learn about HUG with the Artist Laureate
🔹 Save the last weekend of August. Fiesta La Ballona celebrates its 75th year, August 28 to 30.
🔹 Every Tuesday, 2-7 PM. Downtown Farmers Market. Main Street. Grab produce, support local growers, and say hello to neighbors.
👉 Visit the Farmers Market page
🔹 How to watch and participate in meetings. Agendas post Wednesdays before Monday meetings. You can attend in person or virtually.
🙏 Closing Thought
A sewer charge hearing and a Beatles tribute band do not seem to belong in the same week, let alone the same letter. But that mix is the honest picture of local government: the unglamorous decisions that keep a city running, sitting right beside the music, the matches, and the hugs that make it worth running. You are invited to all of it, beginning with the meeting underway as you read this.
Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who gave blood, played, cheered, or volunteered this weekend. If any item here raises a question, hit reply. Reading your responses is one of the best parts of writing this each week.
