[Editor’s Note: Second of two parts. See part one, “Is Gourley’s Second Surprise That He Is So Well-Armed?” Oct. 25.]
School Board candidate Steve Gourley — hoping to blaze the evidently unprecedented path from the City Council to the School Board in tomorrow’s election — wants voters to know he is a details person.
Like many residents, he tired long ago of seeing Culver City snubbed in film credits in favor of the axiomatic and generic designation, “Made in Hollywood, U.S.A.”
When the former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney was a member of the City Council in the 1990s, he secured an agreement from Sony Pictures that every film shot in Culver City would be appropriately identified. “When a movie is over,” Mr. Gourley said the other day, “I sit through all the titles themselves to make sure Sony is keeping its promise. In some cases, the movie wasn’t made here, but the animation was done here. The city gets revenue from that.”
As for Radio
National Public Radio opened a studio here three years ago, and conducts daily live broadcasts from Jefferson Boulevard. No one outside of West Los Angeles knows it. Unlike Eastern broadcasts, Culver City never is credited as the originating site.
“If I had been on the City Council when NPR tried to do business here,” Mr. Gourley said, “They would be signing off, ‘NPR, Culver City, CA,’ or they would be identifying themselves as being in a very intelligent, concerned and vital part of the country, Culver City, CA, not just ‘the West Coast.’”
Little Has Changed
Hoping to return to public life in his almost-hometown 11 years after leaving the City Council, Mr. Gourley said only the faces are different from a decade ago. “The issues are the same. This is still a small, traditional, well-protected, secure community.”
He says he is proud to be the first ex-Councilman to pursue a School Board seat. Historically, politicians have traveled the other way. “Some people have used the School Board as a ‘stepping-stone,’” Mr. Gourley said. “Clearly, I am not one of them because I don’t want to go back to the Council.
A Critic’s Role
Drawing from his eight years on the Council and his marriage to an educator, Mr. Gourley said he understands the rhythms and the needs of the School District.
Throughout his campaign, he has been strongly critical of School Board members and District administrators. Throwing a blanket over all the personalities, Mr. Gourley faults them for refusing overtures from City Hall to forge a meaningful relationship with the City Council, apparently out of territorial concerns.
Who Was Afraid?
“I understand the issues, and I think I can convince them to work more closely with the city. I always had the feeling (when I was on the City Council) that the School District and the Board felt we were going to try to usurp some of their powers, try to dictate to them.
“But that is not the issue with the City Council. The City Council has more than enough to do. They want the School District to deal with school issues.
“When I was looking into running for the School Board, I was disappointed when I turned to the District’s website. No information on the election, not on when it is, not on who is running, not on who is stepping down. I couldn’t believe it.
Just a Whisper?
“Cities all over the state carry that kind of information on their websites. Our School District doesn’t. It was as if the School Board wanted to keep to this a secret, a private affair.
“This goes back to the No. 1 complaint I have heard. People do not believe the School Board listens. I know this is correct enough to say the School Board doesn’t hold itself out and seek the input they should be listening to.”
Accomplishments
A staple of Mr. Gourley’s aggressive campaign has been a regular listing of dozens of his enduring accomplishments as a visionary member of the City Council.
“I would like my legacy on the Council to be that I was known as one who planned for the future. I hope to do the same on the School Board.
“When I campaigned in 1988, as a young man of 39 years old, there had been no planning being done by anyone on the City Council for anything,” he said. “It was just, ‘What do we need to do today?’
A 20-Year Plan
“One of the strong issues of my campaign for the School Board has been, we are going to do what is good for Culver City today and 20 years from now.
“If you look at the transformation of Culver City in the 19 years since I first said that, what has been good for Culver City now has been good for Culver City in 20 years.
“If that kind of attitude had been taken by the School District in 1988, we wouldn’t have many, many of the problems the School Board is dealing with now.
“Whatever I could do when I was sitting on the City Council, I was willing to do. I immediately rushed in when one of the most important matters came up, the Youth Health Center. I was on the original Advisory Board and I wrote their by-laws.
“Having said that, I can say I was almost forced to do what I did by my late mother. She already had passed on by the time the Health Center came into being. But she had a strong fundamental belief that young people should be exposed to health issues.”
A Strong Bid
Down to the last full day before the election, Mr. Gourley, the most unlikely, most uniquely qualified candidate — by far the only one to have held city, county and statewide offices — can be satisfied that he has run a hard campaign. He has continually surprised skeptics. They claimed last summer he was insufficiently familiar with the day-to-day operations of the School District. But his drive for a return to office has been as aggressive as any rival’s.
By now, all he, Roger Maxwell, Scott Zeidman, Mike Eskridge and Alan Elmont can do is wait, impatiently, for the polls to close at 8 on Tuesday evening, and then stand by their computers.
