Hi, all. No preamble needed for this esteemed classmate, so without further ado I give you Edward “Ted-O” Winterer: “Stanley asked me to pen this guest column due to a dearth of input from the rest of you reprobates, so I figured I’d bail him out of yet another jam, a tradition that dates back to the days we attended rival high schools in N.Y.C.


“I live in Santa Monica, California, a city of 90,000 ‘embraced’ on three sides by Los Angeles. When our daughter was born 13 years ago I noticed the cars on our streets seemed to be driving much faster and, eager to protect my baby, soon found myself chairing our neighborhood organization. 


“In 2008 I was persuaded to run for our city council, a seven-person body that sets policy, legislates and serves in various quasi-judicial functions while the city manager and her or his staff run the city’s daily operations. I finished as the runner-up to four incumbents. More peer pressure led to another run in 2010, when I missed winning a seat by just 56 votes. I told the youth soccer team I coached that what mattered was that I tried my hardest; I may also have mentioned that losing by such a thin margin actually sucked. The third time was the charm, as in 2012 I finished first and am currently midway through a four-year term. It’s a challenging gig for lousy, part-time pay and full-time stress. We oversee an annual budget of roughly $500 million and are one of the few municipalities in the country maintaining a AAA bond rating. We are coping with our current severe drought and are trying to keep housing affordable despite the gentrification wrought by the Silicon Beach phenomenon. We’re preparing for the arrival of light rail in 2016, which will connect us with L.A. County’s fast-growing mass transit system, and endeavoring to make cycling and walking even easier for residents and visitors as part of our goal to reduce our carbon footprint.


“The most divisive issue is development, which pits proponents of slow, moderate growth against a new wave of residents who favor more intense development around mass transit. Unfortunately, the fractious level of discourse that has infected national politics has also recently afflicted our local dialogue. I hadn’t been on the job more than a few months when a voter emailed me to say I must be either incompetent or corrupt. I wrote her back to say I was much more comfortable agreeing I was incompetent; that I can live with.


“All in all I consider myself a very lucky man. I sell real estate to pay the bills in an office near the beach; my kids, Eleanor and Steele, are thriving; and we live with our two rescue dogs in a beautiful home designed by my lovely wife, Beck. The only bummer is we’ll be in Paris celebrating my parents’ 60th anniversary during our June 18-21 reunion. Please raise a glass for me.”


—Stanley Weil, 15 Peck Road, Mt. Kisco, NY 10549; (917) 428-0852; stanno79@gmail.com