City Manager Jerry Fulwood’s anti-climactic public retirement announcement at last night’s City Council meeting was mindful of a visit to a cyberdentist:
Swift, pain-free and totally devoid of even a teardrop of emotion.
There was not a damp eye in the joint, partially because of Mr. Fulwood’s barely visible public persona and because his departure has been well publicized.
It was so placid you might have thought that instead of Culver City’s chief executive, the faceless 53rd ranking bureaucratic clerk at the rear of the office was ducking out of the building.
Having worked prodigiously here for 5 1/2 years to divert attention from himself at all times, Mr. Fulwood’s formal declaration to the community was an exercise in bottom-rung drama. None.
By pre-arrangement five minutes into what was going to be another abbreviated Council meeting, Mayor Scott Malsin relinquished the microphone to Mr. Fulwood, who recently turned 62 years old.
Having chosen an evening when few regulars would be in the audience, mostly special-interest types who occasionally come to City Hall, the City Manager made his unadorned announcement in relative privacy.
He opened by saying that when his second three-year contract expires on June 23, he does not plan to seek a renewal, a process that would have begun in January.
Seven Hours on the Road
A ranch owner in the Rancho Cucamonga area, 2 1/2 hours by freeway from Culver City “on good days,” Mr. Fulwood said that after spending up to seven hours of cumulative daily travel time, and with his 7-year-old daughter having matured into a 13-year-old, it is time to spend his days as well as his nights with his family.
Several times he cited the extraordinary patience of his wife, Dana, for all of the time that he has had to invest in both travel and working hours far from home.
Buried deep inside his announcement, Mr. Fulwood responded to critics who have faulted him for rattling the fiscal foundations of the city for selfish purposes.
In each reference to an accomplishment, Mr. Fulwood diffused personal credit, spraying it among colleagues.
On the contrary, said the City Manager, deferentially including a large cast of others, he has “significantly improved” what had been a bowl of financial jelly when he succeeded Mike Thompson.
Playing Defense
Former Mayor Alan Corlin crisply saluted his former colleague this morning:
“One of the reasons Culver City has changed so much the last six years,” he said, “is due, in large part, to the leadership, guidance and style of Mr. Fulwood.”
Turning to the critics of Mr. Fulwood, armed with a barely disguised spotlight, Mr. Corlin added, with sizzle:
“In my opinion, some people on the City Council tended to blame the Chief Administrative Officer, then the City Manager (Mr. Fulwood in both cases) for their own shortcomings. Now that they have a chance to pick their own city manager, I hope they get someone to augment their own abilities who will push the city even farther ahead.”
Abbreviated Signoffs
Andy Weissman took the lead in lauding Mr. Fulwood’s character and service, and each of the four other Councilmen tacked on his own brief coda. The mayor was an exception. Mr. Malsin was far more florid than his peers.
In view of their tangles, Mr. Silbiger’s 29-second comment was the most closely watched. “Okay,” the vice mayor began, “I also want to thank you. You know, we have had some agreements, some disagreements over the years. I know you’ve always thought of what was best for Culver City, and helped us get through some very difficult financial times. I also am looking forward to working with you this next period of time.”
The second paragraph of Mr. Fulwood’s statement was the most interesting one because it alluded to the prickliest portion of his tenure when certain Council members sought to uncouple him but were unable to build a 3 to 2 majority:
“However, I do want to clarify,” Mr. Fulwood began.
“I want to make this very clear.
“This was not something I was asked to do,” he said, a slightly unusual detour from his otherwise standard text message, a reflection of his mixed-results, sweet-and-sour term on the third floor of City Hall. “It was something… I made the decision on my own. It is something I have been thinking about for quite sometime.”
This was a peripheral reference to his three strongest City Council critics over the years, former members Albert Vera and Carol Gross and the present Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger.
Then he returned to the workmanlike rhythms of a traditional retirement announcement before shortly veering into yet another response to critics. “I have been with the city, and I have enjoyed every minute of it, for almost six years,” Mr. Fulwood said.
“One of my goals was the fiscal stability of the city. When I started back in 2003, we had had layoffs in 2002, and then had them in 2003, major layoffs, even in the public safety area.
“Since that time, I can only recall one other layoff we have had.
“Fiscally, even during these fiscally challenging times, the city has been significantly improved — only with the help of everybody, City Council, department heads and city staff.”
Although at times he may have felt encircled by unbashful critics who wanted him ousted, Mr. Fulwood said it was important for him to steer the city through the transition period from a chief administrative officer-form of government into the city manager form that is overwhelmingly favored throughout California.
He now feels free to leave next spring because “90 percent of those changes have been implemented.”
Since the drumbeat of criticism of Mr. Fulwood hardly ever ebbed, he found it necessary near the end to write in larger language that he would not perform the next five or six months the way some people say short-termers do.
