First of two parts
Steve Gourley, a no-nonsense, not exactly impartial, observer of City Hall, cringed last week when outgoing City Manager Mark Scott presented a proposal to the City Council for approval.
It was a moderately complex formula whereby Mr. Scott would be empowered to offer early retirement to a tier of up to 16 City Hall managers to alleviate a measure of pressure of Culver City’s budget deficit.
As one of the most outspoken and best-known political observers in Culver City, the gentleman critic is uniquely qualified to deliver his unvarnished views.
A City Councilman a generation ago, he later served in Sacramento, presently is President of the School Board and previously was a candidate for the position Mr. Scott began nine months ago.
“This plan by the City Manager is coming too late,” said Mr. Gourley. “These options should have been given to the Council last year.”
Question: But last year there was a different City Manager, who also was leaving.
“Part of my issue,” said Mr. Gourley, “is that the City Manager should be a person who has some loyalty to the community, not someone who is just brought in and has to learn the job.
“It was fairly clear from last year’s budget that — speaking from the School Board’s point of view — the financial situation was going to keep getting worse. It is worse from the School Board’s point of view, but it is bad for the city, too.”
After leaving the City Council, Mr. Gourley went to Sacramento where served as director of the Dept. of Motor Vehicles during the administration of Gov. Gray Davis. “I was virtually the only one in the capital who campaigned against the reduction in the car tax under Gray Davis,” he said. “I did it because I was a former Mayor, and I knew those funds were needed to keep the city going.”
Deftly switching gears, Mr. Gourley said that the School Board realized last year at this time that “our financial problem was going to be worse this year than it was last year.
“Any City Manager, anywhere in California, should have known it was going to be worse.
“The issue is so simple, so clear that Mr. Scott should have brought this matter to the Council four or five months ago, at the latest.”
Question: Are you saying it is not a defense, or excuse, that Mr. Scott inherited this messy situation?
“Partially, it is,” said Mr. Gourley. “I don’t even cut myself out of this. I think city councils have raised pay within the city above what they should have because the city is now paying for it.”
(To be continued)
