City Council returnee Meghan Sahli-Wells, and freshmen members Göran Eriksson and Thomas Small.

They thought last evening was going to be their night since the rode into the overflowing Council Chambers on the shining white wings of impressive victories in the April election.

To quote a forgettable historic figure, this won’t take long, did it?

The three of them spent the evening – that belonged to outgoing Mayor Mehaul O’Leary and Vice Mayor Andy Weissman — in the backseat, barely visible.

With a single exception, they confined their Opening Night remarks to merciful brevity, presumably out of respect for the two popular departees.

Both Messrs. Small and Eriksson suggested that Council watchers have elegant nights to look forward to the next four years.

Faultlessly modest in both cases, Mr. Small said he was “thrilled, chastened and humbled” to find himself on the dais, on an occasion when not one more person would have fit into Council Chambers.

Like Mr. Small, Mr. Eriksson is truly a contemporary man of the world.

Both are as familiar with the byways of the globe as they are with the Culver City streets on which they live.

Swedish-born Mr. Eriksson spoke of feeling the daunting responsibility of his new office, demonstrating that regularly visiting the wider world has not jaded him.

Ms. Sahli-Wells, who believes she has a long needed progressive partner on the Council in Mr. Small, like her colleagues, graciously thanked her family.

It was left for her husband Karim to steal the scene.

Lavishly thanking her two sons and her husband, Ms. Sahli-Wells had just reached a comma in her remarks when Mr. Sahli stood up and announced:

“I look forward to being the First Man again,” a reference to Ms. Sahli-Wells’s term as mayor.

The audience loved it – and Ms. Sahli-Wells.