For an amateur politician — amateur only in the sense you couldn’t make a living from the token pay — Mayor Alan Corlin so adroitly mastered the mechanisms of running Culver City government that he looked and acted as if he came with the wallpaper, the lighting fixtures and the flooring in Council Chambers.
He acted and looked like the Mayor from Central Casting, even though at City Hall the position is described as ceremonial.
On the contrary, Mr. Corlin — who loves playing prankster and sprang more puns at his colleagues than anyone on the last five City Councils — took each of his two one-year terms as Mayor with deadly seriousness.
He led. He made all the ribbon-cuttings and pancake breakfasts, and fulfilled all the responsibilities that come under the heading of Fun.
But he led with a crackling professionalism that, with a single exception, won for him the respect of all who disagreed with him on subjects of various weightings.
It has been said that if Culver City ever decides to elect a Mayor and invests the position with authority, Mr. Corlin would be a favored candidate.
Most politicians are on loan from their private lives, but it did not seem that way with Mr. Corlin.
Hadn’t he always been on the dais?
Wasn’t he born 56 years ago in New Jersey knowing how things — that drive other exasperated people to learn new curse words — work?
For months, insiders have played a running game.
Which of the three City Council members who will be term-limited in the first minutes of tonight’s 7 o’clock City Council meeting — Carol Gross, Steve Rose, Mr. Corlin — will miss the Council life the most?
For the record, each has denied that it would be him or her.
While the correct answer still was being studied as the 8-year Council majority prepared to dance off into the night, Mr. Corlin acted upbeat, while also fielding the question of whether he is likely to run in ’10 after sitting out the requisite two years.
Sweeping an Agenda
“I have been really lucky,” he said. “I made a list of everything I wanted to do when I ran for office. I published the list, about 30 items. I have been able to go all the way through it and say that everything was done, from getting the budget under control to Music in the Chambers, from fluff stuff to administrative matters that I would consider straightening out.
“I also realized that everything on my list required at least two other votes to get done. When I say ‘I’ve done it,” I am really am saying I was able to negotiate with my fellow Council people to get things done.”
Question: Was the art of compromise new to you when you were elected to the City Council in 2000?
“Not if you grew up in my household. Compromise was a necessity. If you want to get things done, people say there should be a win-win situation. The bottom line means, both people have to come away thinking they got something out of it.”
Question: Who was your most reliable, or easiest to work with, colleague on the City Council?
“The last couple years, the most reliable and the easiest to work with was Scott Malsin. Because we live in the same part of town, we have the same values about what we want to do over there. A lot of what the Council did about the West Side of town, we were on subcommittees together. We worked together a lot.
“But probably the most reliable one on the City Council was Steve Rose. Reliable from the standpoint, you always knew pretty much where Steve was going to come from. Because (he is CEO) of the Chamber of Commerce, you knew what his views were on business. And you could count on that. You may not agree with it all of the time, but you could absolutely, positively count on Steve doing certain things.
“That was helpful, both to him and to me.”
Question: Was there an evolving relationship between you and Mr. Rose?
“Oh, yes, because I didn’t know who the heck Steve Rose was, other than being President of the Chamber of Commerce and a longtime resident of Culver City when I first met him 8 years ago. We took a friendship to each other. I wound up trusting him, he wound up trusting me, and for 8 years it has worked.”
Question: What would you tell the three new Councilmen who will be installed tonight, Chris Armenta, Andy Weissman and Mehaul O’Leary?
“No matter what alliances they have got, no matter what ideas they have, no matter who they think is going to back or run cover for them, when they are up there making a vote, they are absolutely naked to the world. It is just them.
Being aligned with somebody is good because you know you have at least a second vote. But, ultimately, the vote you take is yours.
“One thing that is hard to do, and this is what term limits does, it means you have new people all the time with new ideas. This is not a bad idea. But what it does, in my opinion, it makes you more susceptible to Nimby-ism.
“We represent everybody in Culver City. The hard job is remembering you do represent everyone. I have been lucky. I have been able to get out into the community a lot. I am always out in the community. Always.
“(As a leader of Friends of the Library), Book Sales were tremendous for me. Everybody thought I just liked shlepping books.
“People would come up to me and talk about all kinds of things at the Book Sales. People would come up to me at the Exchange Club when we have the 4th of July, when we had the Car Show. They always were talking to me. It was good for me because I got an idea of what the community wanted. So when a neighborhood group came in with a good idea, I could put it in perspective to the whole community.”
(To be continued)