Third in a series

Re “Gourley Has a New Sound: Shhh”

When we last left Steve Gourley, the retired loquacious politician with an armload of opinions, we asked:

How can he be comfortable as a Silent Knight after 23 years of generously billboarding his views?

“You win an election, you lose an election,” he said without the benefit of sunshine.

In March 2011, eight months before his final term as a public official would end, Mr. Gourley, quite in his prime, declared he would not seek re-election to the School Board.

This is where readers should reach for their seatbelts.

Mr. Gourley the Politician was about to supplant Mr. Gourley, the non-singer of Silent Knight.

“Being on the School Board was an awful job,” he said.

Because?

“Everybody says the want change with the schools – and then nobody does anything.”

Mr. Gourley said his eight years on the City Council were “much better” than his rocky four years on the School Board.

“You could see what we did as Council people.

“At school, you can’t see anything.

“One of the problems when I was on the School Board (2007-2011) was that the state was totally out of money.

“They were practically shortchanging us so we could not do what we had budgeted for,” Mr. Gourley said.

The essential question was, why did he leave the School Board?

Further, how, after 23 high-profile years in public life, could Mr. Gourley just step away?

(To be continued)