Tidy is Mayor Jim Clarke’s first name, middle name, last name. That is why last evening was so distressing.
He screwed the cap on a messy City Council meeting 40 minutes past midnight, long after his predicted finishing hour.
The Busiest Man in Culver City did not have time for foolishness at a meeting that took a different trajectory every few minutes. It was the antithesis of efficiency.
Afterward, he wished bon voyage to airport-bound rookie Councilman Goran Eriksson. Presently airborne, Mr. Eriksson is flying off on a month-long visit to his native Sweden.
Mr. Clarke himself could not sleep in this morning. He was due in back-to-back meetings at 8 and 8:30.
Either in spite of or because of his bachelorhood, the collegial Mr. Clarke is as efficient as a machine.
That is why the consistently uneven tenor of last evening’s Council meeting clawed at the mayor’s innards.
The main stems of the evening were forwarding four previously approved charter amendments and a likely-to-pass stormwater parcel tax to the Nov. 8 ballot.
The Council meeting, however, devolved into what resembled a race among old cars around a track grounded in crazy glue. So much was promised, but much less was delivered, just one charter amendment that took a violent pounding and the aforementioned parcel tax.
“I am not happy about last night,” Mr. Clarke said.
Trying to shake the rumpled feeling of the meeting, the mayor explained his formula for orderliness:
“I like to go into these meetings by having a pre-meeting with the city manager (John Nachbar). We go over the agenda so we have an idea of how the flow of things will go.”
In their huddle, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Nachbar reviewed the four prospective charter amendments for the November ballot and the projected visioning study for the Transit Oriented District, which is Parcel B.
“There was no clear sense going into the Council meeting,” said Mr. Clarke, “and so many different options to consider.”
It was as if each Council member meandered down a separate, not necessarily relevant, path.
(To be continued)
