If he does any more farewell meals, they should order out from Burger King. Make shrimp the main dish. Instant coffee should be the libation of choice. Tea takes too long unless everybody utilizes the same soggy bag.
Mayor Kept No One Waiting
It took longer to introduce the dignitaries from yesteryear than the three-time mayor needed to digest his lunch, straighten his necktie, secure his shoestrings, step to the podium and unfurl his extemporaneous presentation.
Two members of the City Council require more time than the mayor took yesterday to say that they don’t have anything to say.
By the time you factor in the standing ovations that bookended Mr. Vera’s bite-sized oratory, the crowd could have remained on its feet.
The entirety of his address could have been written out and footnoted on his favorite shirtsleeve. Or a postage stamp.
As the captivating master of ceremonies, Jerry Fulwood, the Chief Administrative Officer — possibly soon to be the new City Manager — showed again he has a future in standup when he decides to retire.
Witty and creative with a perfectly calibrated light touch, about fifty watts’ worth, Mr. Fulwood breezed through the Dignitary Introduction portion of the program on the way to Mr. Vera’s final oral exam. Handling his duties deftly, Mr. Fulwood introduced about twenty-five special guests. The only disappointed people in the room were the other two hundred and twenty-five who were not acknowledged.
A Moment of Silence,Please
Mike Bohlke, longtime aide to the retiring County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, almost matched Mr. Vera’s time at the microphone when he presented a commendation to the three-term City Councilman.
Mr. Vera mouthed a soundless thank you to Mr. Bohlke, but did not comment aloud.
In his remarks laying out a path for the mayor’s speech, Mr. Fulwood cast some kidding-on-the-square doubt on the permanency of Mr. Vera’s retirement. He said he expected to share a stage with the mayor when he returns to active public life, sometime following the City Council transitional meeting on Monday, April 25.
The contours of Mr. Vera’s farewell talk were fingernail-familiar to all in the room, especially to the still-vast audience of loyal supporters that he commands across Culver City.
More than any contemporary politician, voters out in the neighborhoods as well as occasional visitors to the city revere him as an iconic figure who towers above City Hall.
Throughout the rows of rectangular tables of mainly City Hall employees, there was a buzz of excitement at certain signposts in his delivery.
They loved it when he opened by introducing his family. Leading off with his granddaughter Alexandra, Mr. Vera called her “a future mayor of Culver City.” His wife Ursula and his son Albert Jr. stood to applause. The largest round was for Mrs. Vera.
A Condensed Message
Mr. Vera’s fans loved it when he once again recounted his arrival in this land as a fifteen-year-old émigré from Italy, and they loved his patriotic tones when expressed his love for America.
He reviewed his three-dimensional public life as a farmer, groceryman and politician. Speaking from the south end of the stage in the huge auditorium at the Vets, Mr. Vera confined the main message of his talk to a single sentence:
Follow your dream, even when people tell you “you are crazy.”
He said he was told that about dreams he nurtured for Culver City. But he never relented and pushed projects through anyway.
Referring to former city officials seated just below the stage, at a table facing the audience, Mr. Vera said his predecessors planted the seeds for imaginative growth, and the City Councils he served on had the vision to bring them to fruition.
“Water those seeds,” he urged those who follow. “They will bring you success.”
In a flirtation with candor that the crowd enjoyed, Mr. Vera, who has fashioned an avuncular image, admitted that “I have not always been nice” during his twelve years in office. “But I always have ruled with my heart.”
