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Consideration of Renaming Rooms at Veterans Memorial Building to Represent Culver City’s Current Five Sister Cities.
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Meeting Date: April 17, 2025
Contact Person/Dept: Ted Stevens/PRCS
Phone Number: (310) 253-6685
Fiscal Impact: Yes [] No [X] General Fund: Yes [] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [X] Attachments: []
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission (04/11/2025); (E-Mail) Parks, Recreation & Community Service Department Updates (04/11/2025)
Department Approval: Ted Stevens, PRCS Director (04/11/2025)
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RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Parks, Recreation and Community Services (PRCS) Commission consider renaming rooms at Veterans Memorial Building to represent Culver City’s Current Five Sister Cities.
BACKGROUND
The Sister City programs were established under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. The intent was to offer a “people to people” program, enabling two-way cultural exchanges. It was designed to promote friendship and understanding between the United States and people of other countries. Culver City’s Sister City Committee (CCSCC) was established in December 1962. The method of establishing a sister city relationship with Culver City operates on two levels. There must be a vote from the Sister City Committee as well as the City Council. Once the agreement has been made, there is usually a visitation scheduled to each city by a delegation from the other, which includes members of the Sister City committee and City officials. A ceremony in each city with the visiting delegation cements the bond.
Since the program’s inception, there have been six relationships between CCSCC and its sister cities around the world.
• Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico established in 1964.
• Kaizuka, Japan established in 1965.
• Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada established in 1989.
• Iri City, Korea (Later renamed Iksan City, South Korea), established in 1986.
• Yanji City, China established in 1994 and dissolved in 2004.
• Capo d’Orlando, Sicily established in 2017.
Culver City entered into its Sister City relationship with Yanji City, China on October 11, 1994 and throughout the 90s enjoyed an active relationship with the city. However, in 2004, after attempts to reactivate the relationship after years of silence from the Yanji City Government and its Sister City Committee, it was voted unanimously to dissolve the Sister City relationship with Yanji City, China.
Capo d’Orlando is a city located in Sicily. After a period of friendship during an initial trial period and an invitation to the mayor of Capo d’Orlando for an inauguration ceremony, Capo d’Orlando became the newest of Culver City’s five sister cities on September 20, 2017.
DISCUSSION
At the March 10, 2025, City Council meeting, during Public Comment for Items not on the Agenda, Mara Bommarito, a current board member for the CCSCC, spoke about the various rooms at Veterans Memorial Building, which are named after Culver City’s sister cities, and how they are not accurate to the current sister city relationships.
Within Veterans Memorial Building, the corridor that connects the southern entrance to the building with the Auditorium has the following rooms:
• Palm Room: This room is used as a staff office for rentals and permits.
• Uruapan Room: Originally called the Monterey Room, it was renamed to honor Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico through City Council Resolution CS-5216.
• Kaizuka Room: Originally called the Shasta Room, it was renamed to honor Kaizuka, Japan through City Council Resolution CS-5216.
• The Lethbridge Garden Room: Originally called The Garden Room, it was renamed to honor Lethbridge, Canda through a memo from Human Services Director, Syd Kronenthal.
• Yanji/Iksan Room: Originally called the Sierra Room, this room was renamed to honor Iri City, Korea through a unanimous vote by City Council, and renamed through a Proclamation to honor Iksan City, South Korea. The second room was renamed to honor Yanji City, China. Both the Iksan and Yanji rooms were connected through an accordion style dividing wall. The dividing wall has since been removed, and PRCS rents this space as one room under the name Yanji/Iksan.
• Auditorium
• Rotunda Room: The Rotunda Room is separated from the other rental rooms in this corridor because it falls to the northside of the Auditorium whereas the other rooms fall on the southside of the Auditorium.
The Veterans Memorial also has the Multipurpose Room, which is in the western side of the building and has a separate entrance from the other rooms. It does not fall in the same corridor as the other rooms named after the sister cities.
CCSCC Board member Mara Bommarito requested the room named for Yanji be renamed Capo d’Orlando to honor the current Sister City and to be a gift to the City during their Centennial Celebration. The City Council requested that the PRCS Commission consider the request and notify the City Council of its recommendation.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
There is no fiscal impact associated with this discussion.
ATTACHMENT
None.
MOTION
That the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission:
Consider renaming rooms at Veterans Memorial Building to represent Culver City’s current five Sister Cities.