First of two parts
Steve Gourley, the acrimonious two-term City Council member and ex-Mayor of our city, is now in his last year as a CCUSD Board member. As his term comes to an end, I can only guess that he still sees himself as the self-appointed leader of the Culver City Voter Inquisition, our local “J. Edgar Hoover” of polling.
An Enemies List
As a past City Council member, Mr. Gourley has used his extensive Voter Rolls knowledge and his elected office as a “bully” pulpit to silence local citizens’ opinions by publicly calling them out for not voting. Earlier this year, he reiterated that he still searches through the Voter Rolls, purchased from the County Registrar, to see who registered and came out and voted on Election Day.
Big Brother Is Checking
Here is a public official running personal investigations on local citizenry. Shouldn’t the voters be checking up on their elected officials? Not the other way around? But even if you wanted to, you would be hard-pressed to find out any information on Mr. Gourley. He provides no personal information about himself on the School District website — unlike other members. Heck, there’s not even a picture of him on the district wall. And yet he goes around collecting information on local voters! As an admitted, all too nosy public official, it makes me wonder what other information he might have gathered.
Not Worth My Time
Mr. Gourley seems to think that registration and voting are the only two true pre-requisites necessary for citizens to earn his attention, to have him read their emails, or to be able to publicly converse on local issues. It may not matter to Mr. Gourley that most citizens, exercising their right to vote or not, still pay their taxes each year, even if begrudgingly. Although Mr. Gourley says he supports everyone’s First Amendment right to speak, his personally rigid qualifications ring differently: Don’t waste his time as an elected official if you don’t vote. But if we pay our taxes — voting or not — shouldn’t we, as taxpayers, have the right to ask city officials about how our tax dollars are being spent?
Let’s flip the percentages around. What if everybody voted, as Mr. Gourley deems necessary to receive his attention, but only 15 or 20 percent paid their taxes? What then? Whom would Mr. Gourley say deserves his attention and a place in the public forum?
Once Fresh, Now Stale
When Mr. Gourley was elected to the School Board in the winter of 2008, his personal, quirky views and quips about the state’s mismanagement by the elected officials were refreshing. Over time, though, their repetition just became boring and monotonous. Now his personal attacks aimed at removing David Mielke as President of the local Teachers Union are just an embarrassment to the community. Whomever the Teachers Union chooses as president is an internal matter for the membership to decide.
It should be done without any outside interference, especially from a Board member.
(To be continued)
Mr. Laase may be contacted at gmlaase@aol.com
