First in a series
When Steve Gourley surprisingly decided to run for the School Board four summers ago, it felt like a pleasantly ghostly visit to your past. Only two or three Steve Gourleys are manufactured even in an old man’s lifetime.
Truthtelling would become fashionable again. Nearly all politicians pale beside the chronically colorful Mr. Gourley, the best interview in town every year he is in office. You say “Hi” and go across the street to Starbucks. Mr. Gourley handles the balance of the interview.
Candor was his maiden name before he married a few years ago.
Were he introduced to your wife and he didn’t think she was quite as ravishing as you had exaggeratedly portrayed her, he might not say “Hello, Mrs. Mudfence.”
But as soon as he departed, your spouse would race home. Positioning herself before a full length mirror for an hour, she would try to deduce why the deuce Mr. Gourley had frowned deeply instead of smiling at her.
After briefly returning to public life following an 11-year absence, at least in Culver City, Mr. Gourley is going away again.
Made up his mind last year.
In the wake of a problematic relationship with Supt. Myrna Rivera Coté and her subsequent resignation, he concluded he was through, One and Done.
Electoral life no longer felt like the office he had campaigned for, and he would explain.
A strongly effective Board member, frequently he teamed with fellow Board newcomer Scott Zeidman in a Superman-Batman, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, even father-and-son pairing.
Magically, their chemistry clicked.
Side by side, they galloped through the bureaucratic weeds and achieved grownup clear-thinking policies.
(To be continued)
