Re-elect Mayor Saffo with a mandate to lead

Due to his willingness to jump into complex issues, his impressive political skills and his sheer passion for the community, Mayor Bill Saffo deserves another term as Wilmington’s mayor.

Now Saffo needs to become a visionary leader.

You could look at his first three years as Wilmington’s top elected official as the transformation of Billy into Mayor Saffo.

More than just a few people were skeptical of his abilities as a public official when Saffo ran for city council in 2003 and again when he was elevated to mayor in 2006 after Spence Broadhurst vacated the position.

Saffo has proved, though, he has the charisma, drive and smarts to tackle difficult issues, from sewer capacity to the convention center to balancing the budget during a recession.

He’s had three years of on-the-job training to figure out the complexities of managing a growing city, hear from a broad range of citizens and make tough decisions among competing interests for limited resources.

Now our region needs Saffo to make another transformation – from a reactionary manager to a visionary.

Saffo recently had a chance to learn from a great model of how his leadership can evolve – Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, who’s served in that office for more than 30 years and spoke at the Business Journal’s Power Breakfast in July.

“The visioning is essential, and it is hard work,” Riley said. “It’s intellectual. It’s planning. It’s dreaming.”

Riley spoke about visions large and small – from creating the nation’s first tourism management plan to demanding shutters on the exterior of a parking garage so it blended in with surrounding structures.

He talked about preserving dilapidated, yet significant buildings. He talked about developing attractive, affordable housing.

He talked about snapping up riverfront property for public parks “because when you build something for the public, you put it on the best land. Give the public the finest land, not the cheap land.”

His thoughts kept coming back to one word – beauty.

“There’s enough harshness and plastic and violence and coldness that every time we invest in beauty, we give our citizens something that they need and want – and they’ll support it every time,” Riley said.

One often discussed – though not acted upon – vision in Wilmington is having one or more public parks downtown.

The city already owns part of the parking structure across from the Hilton, which it has designated for a park, and could hopefully be extended to include the Hilton parking lot so it goes to the river’s edge. Additional park space north of the PPD building is also being offered for sale to the city

It’s not hard to picture downtown Wilmington as a place that blends modern with historic, business with homes and recreation.

Combine the PPD headquarters and other modern office buildings on the north end with a reinvigorated historic district to the south. Connect the two with water taxis, trolleys and the winding Riverwalk. Fill the parks with concerts and Frisbee games. Think about where to add a baseball stadium.

“You build beautiful public places, and then private development always follows,” Riley said.

“It always has and always will in great cities.”

The alternative to the city and the mayor not leading is poor planning and less than beautiful surroundings. If you’re unsure what this means, think about it next time you’re driving on Market or Oleander.

“People are moving to cities,” Riley said. “That’s where the jobs are. Creative people are moving to cities that are beautiful and diverse and interesting. And so we must treat our cities as precious heirlooms that we inherited, and we have to make them more beautiful.”

Saffo should recall that at the end of Riley’s speech, he received a long and heartfelt standing ovation. He should also note that the Charleston Riverdogs now play at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park, nicknamed “The Joe.”

While we’ve yet to see if Saffo can become a visionary, he does seem to recognize the need for our region to plan our future rather than just see what happens without direction.

“We’ve talked about so many things in this community for so long,” Saffo said.

“We’ve just got to get them done. I’ll take the criticism.”

Saffo will likely win reelection by a sizeable margin. He should take the victory as a mandate to create his vision for the community, get people behind it and get it done.

Rob Kaiser is the publisher of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. He can be reached at (910) 343-8600 x204 or rkaiser@wilmingtonbiz.com. Mayor Riley’s speech can be seen in the “video center” section of www.wilmingtonbiz.com.