Second in a series
Re “Gourley Is Going Away Again”
Steve Gourley, the aggressive, energetic, outgoing — in more ways than one — School Board member and 20th century City Councilman said the decision to leave after just one term was not difficult.
Did you talk to your wife about it?
“Before I made up my mind? No. I did talk to her about it. I said, ‘I’m never going to run again for the School Board.’”
And she said:
“Thank God.”
Why did you decide not to run again?
“Complexity and stress of the job.”
More stressful than you thought?
“Far more.”
Pressure? Problems more emotional and more complicated than you had anticipated?
“Yes. When people asked me (four years ago) to run for the School Board, I said ‘Getting between people and their street trees (as a Councilman) is bad enough. Getting between people and their children is impossible.’ And I have proven myself correct.”
But you were easily convinced to run.
“Yes. It took me, maybe, a week.”
You had been out of public office for 15 years, since ’92, right?
“’96,” he corrected with a mocking scowl.
“Opened the damned City Hall. What’s the matter with you? Built the damned thing, brick by brick. Turned the whole Downtown into gold. And you’re chasing me out of office in1992?”
You will be a candidate to return to City Council next spring?
“No.”
Absolutely through with public office?
“Not necessarily.”
Would you say “I will not run for office” or “I may not run for office again”?
“Let’s put it this way: I have no thought of running for office in the future.”
Can you be convinced to run next spring?
“No.”
Mr. Gourley paused.
“I will really have to be much older before I can forget enough to run again.”
A relative Boy Wonder in his Council days as a 39-year-old, Mr. Gourley is 61 years old.
Mr. Gourley often is kidded because sometimes he seems to like a particular age so well that he rests there for more than a year.
“When I was at the Dept. of Corporations, I was 31 years old,” he recalled. “I was Chief Deputy, the No. 2 position. After about two years of running all of the litigation and the investigations, a guy in his 40s came up to me. He said ‘You’re only 32? If I had known your true age, I never would have worked for you.’”
He probably said that because you always were authoritarian, yes?
“I was always clear.”
When did you decide not to run for a second term on the School Board?
“It had to be — I can’t give you a specific time or place. But certainly having to serve with (departed Supt.) Myrna Rivera Coté for 2 ½ years…”
Aged you?
“Challenged me.”
How so?
“She wouldn’t do anything we told her to do.”
(To be continued)
