Third in a series. 

Re: “Clarke Talks of What Still Can Be” 

Jim Clarke, who is hoping/planning to become the mayor of Culver City next year on the eve of the Centennial, never has sat in the chair.

At 67 years old, he has been around long enough, on both coasts, to know the exasperations.

This week he has been talking about a need or desire for his mates on the City Council to formulate an idealistic but attainable goal, one year at a time, and then extending it a year or two as new concepts blossom.

The talk was sparked by now-former Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells’s goal-setting announcement when she was elected to office – to make Culver City the finest community in the country to raise children, especially because she and her husband, Karim Sahli, are bringing up their two sons here.

Time passes swiftly when holding an upper office, Mr. Clarke noted. “A lot of times there is frustration of being in office for one year,” he said. “You come up with an idea and say ‘this is something I would like to pursue, particularly a capital project, and then you are out of office before ground is even broken.”

Should a Culver City mayor serve more than one year? Say four years?

“Tough question,” Mr. Clarke replied. “The way it is now with term limits, you are lucky if you get two shots to be mayor.”

(To be continued)