We
still don’t know whether Bill Johnson is going to run for county executive or
fill out his term as mayor. But if he jumps ship, one thing is certain: City
Councilmember Wade Norwood wants to be mayor. And he thinks he’s got a decent
shot.
“I will be a successful candidate
for mayor in the event that Mayor Johnson becomes the next county executive,”
says Norwood.
While submitting to a battery of
questions this past week on the state of the city, Norwood made official what
many political observers have assumed for a long time.
Now serving his fourth term on City
Council and working full-time as an aide to State Assemblyman David Gantt,
Norwood’s practically been raised on local and state politics. He’s amassed
nearly 20 years of political experience while growing up and living in
Rochester.
“I have been instilled with a real
sense of obligation to serve the public,” he says, “and that’s something I
intend to do for the balance of my adult life.”
Anyone who’s
worked with Norwood, or been within earshot of his excited laughter, knows he seems to
operate on endless reserves of energy. When City caught up with him last week, he was neck-deep in state budget minutia. In his
free time he’s usually carting his two kids all around the county for their
various commitments, reading up on the Buffalo Bills’ off-season moves, or
feeding his jones for science-fantasy novels.
But the really fun stuff, he says,
is politics, legislation, dreaming up new ways to solving the city’s myriad
ills. Folks like Group 14621 Executive Director Joan Roby-Davison talk about
coming away from meetings with Norwood feeling “inspired to keep working.”
But behind the charismatic surface
lies a pile of innovative approaches to the problems that dog the city, and
ways to, as Norwood puts it, “deconstruct the silos in which we as a government
operate and in which we engage the community.”
To deal with poverty and vacant
property in the “crescent” neighborhoods, Norwood stresses a need for city
government to shift its focus to dealing with “the individual or personal side
of what challenges neighborhoods.”
He calls for “non-traditional
resources” for dealing with urban problems. “It is quite simply the crisis of
our time that city governments do not have the revenue needed to make the
investments to deal with problems and deliver needed services.”
And then there’s metro. Political
observers still wonder how much harm Mayor Johnson’s very public push for a
metropolitan form of government would do him if he were to run for county exec.
Norwood doesn’t hide from the metro
issue, because he feels that it’s something the community will be forced to
address, either pro-actively or as a reactive disaster plan. But it’s the discussion
itself, he says, that could use some retooling.
“We need to have a very clear dollar
amount that we’re able to say will be shifted off the backs of taxpayers if
we’re able to reduce, streamline, and normalize how local government operates,”
he says.
As a city
councilmember working full-time for a state assemblyman, Norwood is
situated at a unique legislative intersection. His vantage point, he says,
allows him to see how “it really is state government that has the heaviest
impact on the way we live our daily lives.”
“When Genesee Hospital closed,” he
says, “there was a natural tendency to turn to the mayor and county executive
to say, ‘What will you do?’ Because we are really not aware of the fact that it
is state government, and state governmental processes, that impact and control
hospital closings, not local government decision making.”
“I’ve benefited from this unique
ability to understand how state government actions impact the local community,
to really represent local community concerns at the state level,” he says. “To
have the ability to say to David [Gantt] or members of the state legislature:
‘Here’s what’s going on at the local level. Here’s what we’re doing in city
government. Here’s how we intersect with county government.'”
So, will it be
Wade Norwood For Mayor in 2004? If Johnson decides to run for county
executive, and if he wins, City Council would choose his replacement because he
would be leaving his post before his term expires. The only requirement is that
the mayor’s replacement be from the same political party. Norwood, like all of
the councilmembers, is a Democrat.
While Democratic Party chair Molly
Clifford says the party hasn’t done much digging for potential candidates for
the next mayor, she sees Norwood as a “strong candidate.” “But,” she says,
“it’s a little premature, given the situation.”
Whether or not it’s premature will
be decided within the next nine months, as candidates for county executive out
themselves one by one.
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2003.
