Steve Gourley, City Manager.
How does it sound?
Proud owner of an alpha personality, Mr. Gourley, on the ledge of turning 60 years old, evokes strong feelings from all who know him.
And to know him is to know an uncommonly bright, focused, aggressive, sometimes-sardonic driver of a lawyer, a gentleman of stature who has stepped clearly and often hard in etching an impressive path through life.
His credentials are edged in gilt: Two terms on the City Council, he ran the state Dept. of Motor Vehicles until the present governor came to power, and a year ago last November, in an unexpected twist to his career, he ran and won a seat on the School Board.
It would only be slightly hyperbolic to say friends rubbed their eyes, even at mid-day, and remarked that they never had a clue Mr. Gourley knew school business.
He does.
They should have known. He doesn’t blindly dive into any enterprise without comprehensively preparing himself. He is, after all, a counselor who knows, and meticulously follows, the rules.
The single trait that has followed Mr. Gourley’s career around like an eye-fluttering puppy dog is that, wherever he has landed, he has been effective, a big deal for a city manager prospect.
He did not try for the School Board merely to melt into a violet that contracts.
Because the name Gourley packs an amount of volatility, gauging his chances at the City Manager’s office is risky. They could be very short or very long.
Mr. Gourley and the Law
Before being elected to the School Board, and becoming, predictably, a knowledgeable, authoritative voice, Mr. Gourley served, prominently, on the Charter Review Committee several years ago.
What he didn’t know about the law, the constitution and the process was not worth learning, friends said.
Under Jerry Fulwood the last 6 years, City Hall has operated on sleepy-eyed footing, because that is the nature of the equally talented Mr. Fulwood’s personality. He steps back, never employs an extra syllable, and he probably would pass through unnoticed, were it not for his lofty position.
It is only a small exaggeration to say that a rock band would greet Mr. Gourley every morning in the Courtyard and loudly blare the tone of the day, if he becomes the Chosen One.
He wields a wicked sense of humor, and he also takes up most of the first row when it comes to sarcasm, especially rejoinders.
Is City Hall Warming up?
Mr. Gourley is a powerhouse personality, and pretty much all that description implies.
If, in the next few weeks, he were to defeat the field of 41 rivals for the chief executive’s job held by the retiring Mr. Fulwood, City Hall would wake up before dawn every morning, in self-defense, to prepare for Mr. Gourley’s windswept arrival.
Some of his admirers, and he has plenty of them, say that if you could send Mr. Gourley’s personality to the barber once a month, for a low-maintenance trim, there would be less hedging about his prospects.
Many endorse him for exactly those traits, while they serve as deterrents for others.
“I have been in Culver City for 31 years,” Mr. Gourley says, shrugging off the news that many other residents can match his claim. “True,” he grants, “but the many people who have lived here as long as I, did not grow up in Los Angeles where there was a totally impersonal, ineffective government. I grew up in Westchester. We didn’t even know we were part of Los Angeles until our City Councilman died, and people started taking out papers to run for his job.”
(To be continued)
