As a member of the rarest society known to Culver City — he has served on both the City Council and the School Board — Steve Gourley says in bold and brassy letters, which is his style, that he will not run for the City Council next spring.
Three Council seats will be at stake, giving Mr. Gourley abundant elbow room, the kind of space he prefers.
After serving two four-year Council terms in the ’90s, he skipped down the street and around the corner to the School District, surprising friends by emerging from self-imposed retirement.
Question: Won’t there be a hole that needs to be filled if you return to private life?
“Absolutely not. I hope to fill that hole with many more enjoyable things.”
Did you decide one term was enough a year ago after a series of skirmishes with Supt. Dr. Myrna Rivera Coté before she finally quit?
“No. I made up my mind while she was still here.
“The difference between Myrna and (new Supt. Patti Jaffe) was overnight.
“When Patti found out that what Myrna had told her was not true, that Scott (Zeidman), I and a mysterious third member of the Board did not plan to fire her, and that there was a possibility of her filling in as Superintendent, I think she was greatly relieved and happy about what was going on.
“But Patti (unlike Myrna) did what we asked her to do, followed up when we asked her to follow up, and she had so many roots in the community she didn’t have to act like a closed-up stranger, as Myrna had been.
“It was the difference of night and day in terms of trying to get what you are promising to the people effectuated.
“Where we had been getting stubbornness and recalcitrance from Myrna, we got cooperation and effectiveness with Patti.
“It was a great load off my mind, off my shoulders to have Patti come in and to have Myrna to go.
“I already had wasted 2 ½ years of my time fighting with Myrna.”
