Appearances to the contrary, last evening’s special City Council meeting went just as smoothly as worried Council leaders had envisioned.

In and out in two tidy hours instead of the feared messy late-night brawl.

Facebook took care of that.

Facebook began buzzing shortly after 6 o’clock yesterday morning:

Operators of the Inglewood Oil Field unexpectedly had cancelled their intention to delay a tentative late summer (Sept. 15) release of preliminary new rules governing Culver City’s less than 10 percent corner of the oil field.

For instantaneous purposes, this sapped the common-sense energy of resistors to Sentinel Peak Resources.

Later, the Council unanimously voted to release the draft special plan and draft environmental impact report on schedule.

Here was the tipoff that this was going to be a calm evening:

While there was a predictably large turnout, they arrived only minutes before the start of the meeting, indicating some may have decided late to attend.

Mayor Jeff Cooper quietly opened the meeting with an abbreviated and diplomatically couched Why Is Anyone Even Here? statement.

Jim Clarke and Meghan Sahli-Wells, the Council’s oil field subcommittee, delivered slightly different seven-minute updates of their work.

Mr. Clarke, as usual, was businesslike.

Ms. Sahli-Wells is the self-appointed organizer/mood-setter/cheerleader for all protestors, whatever the topic.

She regularly encourges audiences with pep talks. She reminds them their voices and any form of participation are crucial.

Ms. Sahli-Wells’s slip may have been showing wen she alluded to how hard she has been working as half of the subcommittee.

“If I had billable hours,” she said, “I would be really rich.”

Although 27 persons had been signed up to voice their objections about Sentinel, Mr. Cooper softly captained the ship through quiescent waters.

Logic won the night.

The people who needed to speak, on and off the dais, did.

Fluff and excess retreated to the rear of Council Chambers.