This will be the saddest night of the year because Jim Clarke will be stepping down as Culver City mayor at this evening’s 7 o’clock City Council meeting.

Watching Mr. Clarke execute the last 12 months has been as been hurricane of joy for residents, recalling the first night your first child performed in a school pageant.

The distinction is, Mr. Clarke is not playing a role.

He is in private, at home, away from the din of public life, exactly the way he is Downtown and in the neighborhoods:

A proud, unapologetic, thoroughgoing Culver City booster cooked just right.

He is as measured off the stage as one. His even-tempered personality is perfectly balanced.

If Mr. Clarke were a thermometer, he would read 72 degrees, not 71 or 73.

As serious of a Democrat as G-d ever created, he is the quintessence of moderation.

His carefully cradled observations almost make common sense blush.

“I feel a little sad,” the mayor said, going into tonight’s meeting. “This has been basically treated as a fulltime activity.

“I will have to adjust to being just a Council member again.”

As for his professional future, “I have made a proposed to the president (of the Centennial committee) as to how I could be active, not necessarily on the board. I will try to help out on the closing ceremonies (in September).”

Mr. Clarke successfully sought to time his one-year turn in the mayoral barrel to coincide with an historical intersection, the opening 7½ months of Culver City’s Centennial Year.

Seemed a reasonable request to shuffle the mayoral deck to accommodate the Northern California native since, uh, he is the person principally responsible for the spark, the energy, the inspiration, the driver for the Centennial Year.

Of how many lifetime politicians can this be said:

If Mr. Clarke owns a flaw, it has yet to be discovered.