These two shots define the beginning of my Mayor's term, and the end. I had been a City Councilman, one of sixteen (which IMHO was 8 too many) serving 32,884 residents living in a 1995 created city encompassing former unincorporated St. Louis County. The city is the third largest city in Missouri, in terms of land mass, and incorporates 11 sq miles of state, county and local parks within it's 68 square miles. Nine different watersheds cross eight defined political Wards, with each having two councilpersons elected to two year terms.
After two elections, in 1996 and 1998, I decided that the two year cycle was just crazy, and decided to run for Mayor so I could serve four years and actually accomplish something. During that time, from 1996 to 2004, I participated in the economic development of this new city. I saw the grandest fruit of these labors when the Dierberg's Market in the Wildwood Town Centre opened in early 2004. It was darn cold that day and I remember seeing my breath and that of other speakers as we cut the ribbon to the Dierberg's Market and anchor tenant of the development.
Having defeated an incumbent Mayor with 36% of the vote in 2000, I had no illusions that his "party", which had split over his alleged "too friendly with business" administration, was going to be stupid TWICE. I became an intentional lame duck, but unlike a Councilperson who only got paid when they went to the meetings, I was drawing a part-time salary, and gave our Pro-Tem some work toward the end. I could see my full time CEO job was heading toward retirement, so there was absolutely no reason to stick around for another campaign and $5,000 a year salary as Mayor. Apparently his leadership skills were not enough to aid his quest for Mayor in 2004, so letting him wield my gavel those last few months didn't change his image as a leader much. He was a darn fine Scoutmaster to my son, I have to give him that.
It was fun, however, and I learned a lot during that time as first a Councilman and later Hizzoner, the Mayor. It was a non-partisan post, however everybody knew I was a Republican. While I was serving, our city purchased its public risk insurance from MOPERM (Missouri Public Entity Risk Management), a pool of 400 plus instrumentality's of government. MOPERM, by law, had to have two Republicans, two Democrats, and the Attorney General of the state. I was honored by Mel Carnahan, a Democrat, to appoint me to the board as one of those "R's". In my five years on the MOPERM board, which ran concurrently with my Wildwood offices, I was proud to say we never had to file a claim. I retired from the MOPERM board as Vice Chairman.
When I got there, however, people were not happy. Of the sixteen Councilpersons, I had perhaps 3 who supported my agenda. So, I encouraged a number of like minded folk to get more involved in politics, and by mid-term I had 11 of 16 helping me govern. We also got several great appointees onto our Planning & Zoning Commission, many who would remain in office three years after I left. We worked to make "New Urbanism" fit into a realistic economic model. During those same eight years, I saw no fewer than six City Administrators come and go. Wildwood was not an easy place to work, as the town was full of chiefs but few Indians. Everybody wanted to lead, and nobody wanted to follow. The town was illustrative of the fact that "too many cooks spoil the broth" and remains today one where "one term Mayors" will herd cats and take inordinate amounts of time to accomplish most anything. The Wild Years were indeed that, and yet a very exciting time of my life - if not that of others.
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