First of two parts.
The state Board of Equalization, the taxing assessment authority, may be Mayor Mehaul O’Leary’s next political stop. Eventually.
The April 12 City Council election will close out the Culver City portion of Mr. O’Leary’s notable eight-year journey, thanks to term limits.
He is pondering a run at Jerome Horton’s seat on the Board of Equalization. Ponder time is plentiful for Mr. O’Leary.
The first black on the Equalization board, Mr. Horton barely is two months into second year of his second four-year term. He won re-election with 71 percent of the vote.
Mr. O’Leary turns 51 in May.
In the political universe, he still is a young man. Almost limitless potential stretches out before him.
Especially now that he has decided to retain Joxer Daly’s, his longtime Irish pub.
“I have been tossing around the idea of running for the state Board of Equalization,” Mr. O’Leary said this morning. “But I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
The mayor allows that “I am curious about it. I have tested the waters, telling people it is something I am looking at.”
In response to the question about what aspects of board duties appeal to him, Mr. O’Leary resisted going into detail “until I make up my mind.”
But Mr. O’Leary did serve up a tantalizing preview.
The mayor did say that when he opened his Joxer Daly’s pub in Moorpark, “as a restaurant owner, I had some dealings with the Board of Equalization. When we were going through escrow, some things happened that made me look at this organization in a different light.”
(To be continued)
