City Manager Mark Scott’s formal announcement of his abrupt resignation at last night’s City Council meeting resembled another awkward scene:
A jubilant husband throws a surprise birthday party for his wife. Suddenly she announces, “Surprise, honey. I am divorcing you.”
Or maybe it was like the orchestra standing up and leaving after playing the first three bars of “Happy Birthday.”
Something like that. The party ended long before it was scheduled.
After preliminarily informing the City Council of his unanticipated intentions in a succinct, unclouded email last Friday, and telling his staff yesterday morning, Mr. Scott brought his now-familiar crisp, direct manner to Council Chambers.
Standing before a typical audience of a dozen, and speaking extemporaneously, Mr. Scott, a native of Fresno, said it was time to go home to the Central Valley where the roots of two families — his and his wife’s — were sunk into the ground decades ago.
Rhetorically speaking, the ninth-month City Manager did not break any new ground, referring peripherally, cryptically, to his parents and his wife’s relatives.
Married for 36 years, Mark and Carol Scott have lived on opposite coasts since he accepted the Culver City posting last spring.
The highest paid official at City Hall has been living like a bachelor who never made the acquaintance of an interior designer.
An Evening of Flatness?
A gentleman of stature who is faultlessly professional off-stage and on, Mr. Scott looked and sounded as uncomfortable as the five unrevealing City Council faces on the dais. They hired him last March with huge ambitions for a reputable chief executive, and now they had been stunningly deflated — without warning.
Disciplined and modest but not self-effacing, Mr. Scott opened with, “I apologize to anyone hearing this for the first time.”
Speaking elliptically in an unfamiliar locution and halting rhythm, he said: “I have advised the City Council of my need to relocate from Southern California in the near future. It’s a decision driven by personal concerns, family concerns.
“It’s a difficult thing for us to do. It’s a very bad day for me, a sad day telling people about this. In the long run, it’s a decision we felt we needed to do for the right reasons, and we’re going to do that.
“I want to make a couple of comments. I would hope no one will interpret my departure as suggesting anything other than I am just leaving because I have got these concerns in my family.
“Culver City is an absolute joy to work in, and it has been for the entire time I have been here.
“I think the City Manager’s job is, perhaps, as good as it gets. I think it is going to get better and better as time goes by.”
Curling into overtly Chamber of Commerce mode, Mr. Scott assured his somewhat distracted audience that Culver City has a neon future.
He closed with a sort of confession:
“This community deserved better from me. But I am doing what I have to do.”
He completed his unenvied chore in less than three minutes, ironically the time allotted to community members speaking on miscellaneous and crucial matters.
At the end, Mayor Andy Weissman a textbook thank you while his four colleagues remained silent.
There is no question Mr. Scott’s resignation was a kick in the stomach for the City Councilmen who had thought until the weekend that he was the community’s ticket to a strongly enhanced civic image.
Having freshly transitioned, bumpily, from a consensual chief administrative officer-form of government to a city manager-style, the enthused Councilmen were confident last March that Mr. Scott would take Culver City where his predecessor, Jerry Fulwood could not.
Mr. Fulwood, bashful by nature, was far more comfortable away from a spotlight. By his nevertheless collegial but shy personality, the native New Yorker never was going to be the drum major they wanted.
Mr. Scott, by contrast, was comfortable and smooth as an out-front leader, an image that matters much less this week than last.
