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Dan O'Brien Newsletter — May 10, 2026
📬 Councilmember Dan O'Brien | Culver City | May 11, 2026
Hello, neighbors,
This week is the kind that decides what next year looks like. Tonight at 7 PM, the Proposed FY 2026-27 Budget arrives at the Council dais. By 5 PM the same day, CBC applications close. Three community conversations and two days of departmental presentations follow over the next two weeks. If there is a stretch of the year where showing up genuinely moves the math, this is it. Here is the week ahead, in the order it counts.
💰 Budget & Finance: The Numbers Start Talking Tonight
🔹 Tonight's Council meeting opens the FY 2026-27 Budget for public conversation. The Proposed Budget gets formally delivered at 7 PM, alongside the budget overview presentation. After ratifying our 2026 Strategic Priorities and authorizing roughly $39.9 million in net bond proceeds last month, the framework, the dollars, and the timeline finally meet on the same page.
→ 💡 What this means: Tonight is the public-facing kickoff. The numbers leave staff's working drafts and become a document residents can actually read, react to, and weigh in on before department-by-department votes later in the month.
→ 🎯 My take: I have said it before and I will keep saying it. A priority-driven budget is only as strong as the priorities residents bring to it. The opening night is the moment the document is most malleable. If something matters to you, tonight is the best time to raise it.
👉 View tonight's agenda and meeting details
👉 How to watch or attend virtually
🔹 Three community conversations and two days of department presentations follow. Wednesday brings "Let's Talk Budget, Culver City" to Culver West Alexander Park at 6:30 PM. Saturday adds another community session. Then Monday and Tuesday, May 18 and 19 at 3 PM, every city department lays its proposed FY 2026-27 budget out in front of Council in back-to-back afternoons.
→ ⚡ Why this stretch matters: The three weeks between tonight's delivery and the May 18 and 19 departmental presentations are the highest-leverage window of the year for residents who want to shape the numbers. Once line items get presented and debated, the margins for movement get smaller fast.
👉 Submit feedback to the Budget Input Box anytime
🏘️ Community Development: CBC Applications Close Today at 5 PM
🔹 This is the last call for Commissions, Boards, and Committees. Thirty-four positions across thirteen CBCs, and applications close today, Monday, May 11 at 5 PM, the same evening the Proposed Budget hits the dais. If the application link has been sitting in an open tab since April, the next few hours are when that tab pays off.
→ 🎯 A reminder that bears repeating: My own civic road in Culver City started on the first Ad Hoc Committee on Homelessness, and later on the Parks Master Plan process. Most of the decisions that shape daily life here get framed at the CBC level long before they ever reach the Council dais. Zoning, rent, parks, transit, arts funding, public art, finance. You can apply, change your mind, or withdraw later. What you cannot do is get the cycle back.
👉 Apply to a Commission, Board, or Committee
🎓 Schools and Community: A Taste of Culver City Did Its Job
🔹 A Taste of Culver City filled the Culver Studios front lawn last Sunday for CCEF. Amazon MGM Studios hosted, dozens of local restaurants poured and plated, students performed, and CCEF Executive Director Wendy Hamill and the volunteer team kept the afternoon moving. The Foundation's signature fundraiser runs on a simple equation. The community shows up, dollars get raised, and the programs that fill the gaps at every CCUSD school stay funded.
→ ⚡ Why this matters right now: With ongoing funding pressure at the state and federal levels, the Foundation's partnership with the district is doing more work than it has in years. Arts, STEM, college readiness, classroom technology, student wellness. These are the line items that disappear first when budgets shrink, and they are exactly what CCEF is built to protect.
→ 🎯 A personal note: Long before the Council dais, my first big civic role in this city was on the CCEF Board of Trustees, chairing the second annual Sip for Our Schools and leading the first community-wide All for One campaign. To see the Foundation still doing this work, with the same energy and a bigger room, was a gift on a Sunday afternoon.
🚒 Public Safety: Fire Service Day Opened the Firehouse
🔹 CCFD's annual Fire Service Day brought families to the firehouse on Saturday. The apparatus came out, the kids climbed on the trucks, the pancakes were on the griddle, and Culver City got the closest look it gets all year at the people who answer the call. Thank you to every firefighter who staffed the morning, and to the families who turned a Saturday into a chance to say thank you face to face.
→ 💡 Why it always lands: CCFD is an ISO Class 1 department, one of only a handful in LA County. That rating is built on the kind of culture you only see up close on mornings like this one. Most of the work behind a badge is invisible. Fire Service Day is one of the few days a year it is not.
👉 Learn about the Culver City Fire Department
📅 Dates and What's Ahead
🔹 Today, Monday, May 11 at 5 PM. CBC Applications Deadline. See above.
🔹 Tonight, Monday, May 11 at 7 PM. Regular Council Meeting. Proposed FY 2026-27 Budget delivery.
🔹 Wednesday, May 13, 10 AM to noon. Compost Hub at Syd Kronenthal Park. Second-Wednesday session with LA Compost.
🔹 Wednesday, May 13 at 6:30 PM. "Let's Talk Budget, Culver City" community conversation at Culver West Alexander Park.
🔹 Saturday, May 16. Additional "Let's Talk Budget, Culver City" community conversation. Time and location to be confirmed on the city calendar.
🔹 Monday and Tuesday, May 18 and 19 at 3 PM. Proposed Departmental Budget Presentations. Two consecutive afternoons in Council Chambers.
🔹 Tuesday, June 2. California Statewide Direct Primary Election. Vote-by-mail ballots are already in mailboxes.
🔹 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
Showing up to a budget meeting can feel like watching paint dry. I get it. It is also one of the few rooms where the most important decisions a city makes get made out loud, in front of the people who pay for them. Tonight starts the conversation. Wednesday and Saturday give you a seat at the table. The Monday and Tuesday after that put every department on the record. The Budget Input Box stays open in between.
The next year of Culver City is being built right now, between this email and the one I send next week. If a date this stretch lands on your calendar, take it. If something else is on your mind, hit reply. The notes that show up in my inbox tend to find their way into how I show up at the dais.
