Back in late April, hours after his teammates on the City Council elected him mayor – by his wishes – for the forthcoming Centennial Year, Jim Clarke quietly pledged to alter the trajectory of mayoring in Culver City.
A bachelor in his early upper 60s, possessing enough energy to stock a football team, Mr. Clarke has spent much of his professional life on the road, more precisely in the skies.
Besides the mayor, Meghan Sahli-Wells will be missing from tonight’s 7 o’clock City Council meeting.
It is presumed Göran Eriksson will return home from a European trip to join Vice Mayor Jeff Cooper and fellow freshman Thomas Small on the dais.
Therefore, said Mr. Clarke, only consent calendar items will be addressed.
Meanwhile, thank heaven for cell phones for finding Mr. Clarke.
Otherwise, Clarke pursuers would find themselves wading through a haystack without a needle in sight trying to track him.
One of his first mayoral excursions was to the Canadian community of Lethbridge, Alta., a Sister City of Culver City. Mr. Clarke said he ultimately wants to visit all four Sister Cities.
His present cross-country tour opened last Thursday in Monterey at a League of California Cities Mayors and Councils Conference.
Mr. Clarke and his predecessor, Mehaul O’Leary, participated in a panel discussion about the campaign for Measure Y. That is the 10-year-long, half-percent sales tax Culver City voters handily approved in 2012.
Flying out of San Francisco the same night, Mr. Clarke took a red eye to Indianapolis for the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors.
How times change, and a career blossoms.
The Conference of Mayors is only open to mayors. When Mr. Clarke was a deputy to former Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, “I staffed the conference for him, and he became president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
“Now it’s really kind of funny,” Mr. Clarke said, “because I come back to this conference a few years later as a mayor myself.”
After four days on the ground in Indiana, the mayor will fly to Kansas City on Tuesday morning for the National League of Cities’ Policy Summer Conference.
Mr. Clarke chairs the Policy Committee for the California League of Cities. He is a member of the national Policy Committee.
Thursday evening, he will fly home to Culver City in time to enjoy the holiday weekend.
