Formerly the City Manager of Beverly Hills, Mark Scott, most recently the chief executive of distant Spartanburg, S.C., was announced last night as the new City Manager of Culver City.
It is about coming home.
[img]428|left|Mark Scott||no_popup[/img] In the fullness of his mature years, Mr. Scott told the City Council before he was hired that, after 5 years in the Deep South, he and his wife were ready to return to Southern California, to the bosom of his family. His parents are driving distance from City Hall.
When he starts, and the date is far from clear, Mr. Scott will be working under a 3-year contract that approximates his predecessor’s in value, if not in other details.
Having left a 20-year record behind in Beverly Hills City Hall when he moved cross country the first time, Mr. Scott told his Council interviewers there was a 90-day notice clause in his Spartanburg contract.
Although he was essentially greenlighted in Culver City several weeks ago, some details still dangled from the new compact. He did not officially inform Spartanburg until 5 days ago.
He handed his resignation letter to William Barnet, the Mayor of Spartanburg, a county-seat city of 39,000, last Thursday night. On that private occasion, Mr. Scott promised he would see his adopted city through the issues of budget season before putting on his hat.
Exactly what that means, is unclear.
If this is interpreted as meaning he will stay for the full 3 months, Mr. Scott won’t touch down in City Hall until late June, the eve of a new fiscal year.
With the selection of Mr. Scott — who is due to be introduced at next Monday night’s guaranteed lively 7 o’clock Town Hall meeting in Council Chambers — the City Council is taking a long stylistic step away from its present City Manager.
As with executives in transition, each may be anxious to test his new chair, but contractural molasses probably will interrupt the process.
Jerry Fulwood, who announced his retirement from City Hall last autumn, will complete 6 occasionally tumultuous years as Culver City’s chief executive in June. He had, however, planned to leave earlier rather than later this spring.
Because of his mother’s ailing health throughout the winter — she lives on the East Coast — Mr. Fulwood has been flying back and forth to comfort her.
A New Perspective
The new and the old City Managers are personality-opposites.
Stoic and low-key, Mr. Fulwood, whose favorite location is in the background, presents a keen contrast to the robustly personable Mr. Scott, who seems to love wading into crowds and engaging them.
Mr. Fulwood is known for scootching his chair away from a fray, powerfully preferring to be an inside, commonly out-of-sight, administrator.
That does not seem to be the manner of the new City Manager.
Of critical importance to Culver City activists who have dwelt on this pet peeve, Mr. Scott is expected to be the highly visible, enthusiastic face and voice of the community.
It has been awhile since a city leader has stepped out like a drum major, in the tradition of Mr. Scott’s most revered predecessor, Dale Jones, during the 1980s and ‘90s.
Mr. Jones knew and unapologetically embraced Culver City. His presence was ubiquitous.
The Others Were Different
All four chief executives who have followed have shunned the spotlight.
They maintained a respectable distance from the City Council, which has been the unchallenged symbol of the city throughout the first decade of the century.
If the City Council read its interview sessions accurately, Mr. Scott will be much more of a local than critics claim Mr. Fulwood ever was.
Living an hour distant on a ranch that he himself operates, Mr. Fulwood often was missing from high-profile city events — a stinging point for activist critics. But the City Manager’s defenders said that even if he had lived across the street from City Hall, gladhanding, at will, was not in his nature.
Mr. Scott is expected to reside within Culver City. This was an unofficial condition that activists had hoped to impose on the new chief executive.
