Leaving the mayor’s office for the second time, Republican William Stortz wouldn’t rule out a return to politics someday.
“Who knows?” said Stortz, 72.
But at least for awhile, he’s going to focus on more run-of-the-mill activities.
“I’ve got gutters to clean, leaves to rake,” said Stortz, who served as mayor in the early 1990s and for the past two years. He stepped down rather than seek reelection.
Stortz handed over the city’s top job to Democrat Art Ward yesterday, a man he sparred with for much of the past two years. But their relations grew warmer as the campaign heated up and Stortz said he’ll be available to lend Ward a hand or answer a question.
What’s more, the ex-mayor said, he won’t second-guess his successor at first.
“Everyone needs a chance to get acclimated and to make the adjustments” that come with the job, Stortz said, even a 14-year veteran city councilor.
Stortz said he believes he did a lot of good for Bristol during his stints in the top job, but found it more pleasant in the position this time because the city had more money.
The first time around, coming off a recession, Stortz said he had the unpleasant task of advising department heads that spending cuts were needed that would inevitably lead to layoffs.
“That set a tone that Bill Stortz was out of get you” at City Hall “so it was not a happy time,” he said.
“I couldn’t walk around City Hall smiling,” Stortz said. “How could I be Jerry Lewis when people were being laid off?”
This time around, the problem was not saving money – though Stortz managed to hold property tax hikes to less than the inflation rate – it was how to spend it. That’s always easier.
Stortz said the fate of the downtown mall, purchased by his predecessor’s administration, was far and away the big issue he had to deal with.
He said he wishes the city could have gotten further in revitalizing the 17-acre site, but there nothing more he could do because everyone had to wait for the Ocean State Job Lot court case to end. When the ruling finally came down this fall, the store moved out quickly, clearing the way for the mall’s demolition within a few months.
“I don’t know how we could have moved any faster,” Stortz said. He tried last spring to cut a deal with Ocean State to speed it up, but city councilors rejected it.
They “made the right decision,” Stortz acknowledged, because the ruling came soon enough to have undermined the rationale for a settlement.
He said he’s glad to have pushed for creation of a downtown corporation to lead the redevelopment effort, a move he said should help.
Stortz said he’s proud of doing so much to bring more qualified women and minority board members into city government, including many who had never had a political or governmental role before.
“I feel very, very good about the quality of the people I put on boards,” Stortz said, because so many of them are energetic, interested residents.
He said he is also glad to have put the police through diversity training so that officers “can better understand a changing society.” City workers are slated to receive a less comprehensive version of the training soon, Stortz said.
Stortz said the proposed community theater at Memorial Boulevard Middle School, a project that’s moving ahead, is another positive step that his administration took.
Stortz also cited continued progress on the parks, for which he credited city Councilor Ellen Zoppo, a beginning in what is likely to prove a long effort to decrease flooding in town, “reluctant” progress on the new industrial park that didn’t come as quickly as he would have liked.
Stortz said he’s also pleased he was able to direct more funding into infrastructure improvements that included more road repairs and better attention to aging buildings.
Stortz said one regret is that he wished he’d done more to deal with the looming space crunch at City Hall, perhaps by buying the former Chic Miller site or the Lepore property behind City Hall.
Stortz said that after taking a break, he’s likely to speak up about issues that concern him, even if he has put many bags of recycled paper out at the curb that includes reports, articles and other material he’s relied on to keep tabs on the city for decades.
“I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of him,” Ward said.
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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
8 comments:
Yawn..time to shut this blog down for the holidays at least.
Like my grandma used to say, "Good riddance to bad rubbish!"
Well THAT was truly classy "anonymous!"Care to share with us what YOU do/have done to make your city a better place?(or at least stepped up and TRIED)
Stortz: People didn't care what you had to a say when you were in office, and we don't care now.
Good Bye and Good riddance. If you were to run for dog catcher this city would not elect you.
Tim, when you show an ounce of class, you old windbag, I'll care what you have to say.
Are you dissin' my grandma? That's not nice.
But it's not surprising, either.
Tim,
I'd like to say that I feel bad for being hard on you for supporting Ward while (I assume) you took a lead role in the forums. You're a good man and an asset to the community. I still feel the same way about your position, but I'd like you to know that I don't enjoy being critical of you.
I would also like to correct you because you assumed an "anon" poster in a previous discussion that made reference to alcohol was me. I never wrote such things. I find that totally unnecesary and I would not write something that had no basis, especially something personal.
I am glad you're sticking up for Bill because he's a good guy. I actually think it would have been fine if he was mayor for another term. I am however not pleased by some of his behavior during this election. But thankfully we can now move on.
Sounds like a few, yes few, members of the rephblican town comittee realy hate stortz.
Course, they don't get out into teh community and find that they are in the minority.
Stortz woulda done well if he ran.
KJeep in mind, that other than not catering to the leadership, what did he do wrong?
Other than challenge johnson on his $10,000.00 plus contract, of which I have heard no results so far, and disagreeing with him on the conveyance tax (as did the rest of the council and the comptroller), what has stortz done to johnson.
Seems like stortz put his job and the city before politics, which should be done more often.
Now with the contract that johnson and rosenthal entered into without anyone one else knowing about, that stortz has made public, stortz is agin protecting. or trying to, the city.
He deserves our credit for that.
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