Thursday, July 03, 2008
Roanoke needs to think like business
Shanna Flowers
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At times during his four years as mayor, Nelson Harris very easily could have donned a flak jacket as standard gear.
But give the man props for firing a few relevant salvos of his own before leaving the job.
In an "exit interview" published Sunday in this newspaper, Harris served food for thought that Roanokers should chew on.
In a lengthy interview, Roanoke Times reporter Mason Adams asked Harris what the city needs to move forward. Predictably -- and correctly -- the former mayor cited better schools and regional cooperation.
But where the Harris made me -- and others -- sit up was his mention of who is absent from the city's governing bodies. Without disparaging the current council members, Harris tactfully noted who isn't there.
"At one time, like [former Advance Auto top man] Nick Taubman was on the city council. Frank Clement -- he's now deceased, but at the time was the CEO of Shenandoah Life -- was on the council."
Reading between the lines, here's how I interpreted Harris' point: The Roanoke City Council needs long-term vision.
Fourteen people have served on the seven-member council since late 1999. Too many elections in the past several years have not been about the greater good and direction of the city, but about settling petty scores and achieving parochial and myopic agendas.
Roanoke doesn't need that.
Harris made his point in the context of business leaders' getting involved in local government beyond dashing off a check to a few candidates every couple of years, as they did for him in the past election.
No one is suggesting that captains of industry take over the city council, pushing aside earnest people with a willingness to serve. In fact, because of their commitments and where they live, business leaders very likely won't run.
But successful business people operate on vision and long-term strategy.
Roanoke needs that.
While the rest of us were crowding into city council chambers clamoring ad nauseam over Victory Stadium, Carilion Clinic executives were quietly building a medical empire.
As we've crowed about where to put an amphitheater or a Social Security Administration building, the Taubman Museum of Art has risen from the earth, largely financed by private donations.
A new council is in place, and it is poised for service to the people.
Service, however, should go beyond Mayor David Bowers' seven-page memo advocating additional minutes for speakers and removing a lectern in council chambers.
The mayor asked that his procedural changes be presented Monday, where they will be subject to a vote.
That's not vision. That's window dressing.
On his way out the door, Harris gave us something more substantive to think about.
