Dear Neighbors,

November 3, 2022

As a lifelong Feminist/Progressive/Pro-choice Democrat, I am writing to ask you to vote by November 8th for Dan O’Brien and Denice Renteria for Culver City Council. I believe that in our nonpartisan local election, they are the leaders we need to represent our wonderful community. As members of the Creative Community (Dan is a film editor/director and Denice is a properties artist), both Dan O’Brien and Denice Renteria show through their actions that the way to bring people together and solve problems is to build bridges so we recognize our common humanity and solve problems together in the spirit of collaboration.

I have known Dan O’Brien since our children attended preschool together. He has always been an active volunteer who has been deeply interested in helping people - from being on the city’s first homelessness committee to his time founding Culver City Great Parks to raise funds to improve what was then our playgrounds in disarray, to chair of the Culver City Education Foundation to raise money for our schools and kids, to the quiet volunteering, like co-founding FeedCulver during the Pandemic so that people experience food insecurity could have a hot meal. Dan has probably done a million selfless acts that we’ll never know about – because he has always demonstrated a “WE” not “ME” way of living. Community and conversation are important to Dan. In fact, his positive campaign and positive messaging are centered on bringing people together, even if they disagree. This is the kind of respectful dialogue that our small city needs. Dan is ready to lead, and I’m thrilled to cast my vote for him.

Denice Renteria, as people have pointed out, is the “hometown” candidate. Denice grew up here and went to our schools. She is a first-generation Mexican American. In a city that prides itself on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access, we know that representation matters. In our city’s 106-year history, we have never had a Latina on the dais. We are overdue. Denice has proven that she is ready to be a council member. Uniquely interested and engaged, Denice has shown us what it is to lead. When she doesn’t know the answer to a question, Denice does the research to find out. For instance, to understand the issues surrounding our unhoused population, Denice went to the streets to personally meet people experiencing homelessness. And to understand the plight of people experiencing food insecurity, she volunteered to feed them.