From the moment Thomas Aujero Small stepped into the City Hall limelight last December, it was undebatable that a potential diamond had just entered the Culver City political show window.
He was different. Which ain’t no distinction. But only in ringingly positive ways, opening with immense likeability, and that is a brilliant distinction.
The Northern Californian – who won the second of three City Council seats in yesterday’s election — brought a sui generis voice to a still-forming, crowded City Council race.
The first Small identity that sticks is his worldliness, which is not a casual, throwaway characterization.
Routinely he describes himself as a small-townish boy from the periphery of the Bay Area, true but powerfully incomplete.
School in the Ivy League, for his post-graduate studies in art, literature and architecture, Mr. Small traveled, observed and absorbed the European continent as if he were a native.
Striding lengthily and influentially back and forth to Europe as an expert in design and architectural consulting, Mr. Small brought an undeniably exotic atmosphere – but not overtly — to a small Westside community’s City Council race.
Downtown and elsewhere, however, people – meaning the traditional class of Culver City, — asked “Who he?” And “what does he know about our town if he has done all of this traveling?”
When he began declaiming on the in-progress development projects hereabout, Mr. Small smartly, quietly, effectively began morphing curious residents into enthusiasts.
Mr. Small accented his membership/leadership on the Cultural Affairs Commission. Not a high-profile group, Mr. Small has been lifting it toward the klieg lights with his muscular emphasis on fine arts, a new public political trend in Culver City.
Who better to evaluate one of the two new Councilmen than the woman who accompanies Mr. Small and Mr. Small’s 8-year-old twins every morning from their Carson Street home to the campus of Lin Howe Elementary.
She accompanies Mr. Small because she loves him. She is his wife, Joanna Brody, an accomplished public relations specialist and mother of their twins.
Lucky is the man whose wife will paint him in such radiating terms.
Late last evening standing in the archway of the Small-Brody home, which is sustainable but not small, Ms. Brody sketched her husband in words that lit up the night.
As the No, 1 votegetter in the field, Mr. Small’s showing was not unexpected in the family home.
“Every day when he would come home from walking,” said Ms. Brody, “he was always very enthusiastic (his hallmark) after meeting the voters.
“This was no surprise to me because my husband is very charismatic and he exudes intelligence” – the headline for this happiest story to emerge on Election Day.
Further, said Ms. Brody, “he has the biggest heart of any human being,” another candidate for Headline of the Day.
She cradles not a doubt that Mr. Small will make a mark early and frequently on the new City Council.
“Definitely in city planning. He will bring smart, sustainable city planning to the table. A lot of collaboration — and joie de vivre.”
