On January 2nd of this year, Lioneld Jordan was officially sworn in as the mayor of Fayetteville. That means Thursday of this week will mark the end of Mayor Jordan’s first six months on the job.
His first challenge was the ice storm that hit less than 30 days after he took office back in January. We lost a ton of our trees, roadways were blocked all over town, and much of Fayetteville was without power for at least four days, many for as long as several weeks. Mayor Jordan issued a statement, and the city acted quickly to set up shelters, and the massive cleanup process began.
The cleanup continued in February, and the city council approved contracts with cleanup crews, debris removal schedules were created, and we finally got most of those limbs outta here. Whew.
One of Mayor Jordan’s promises during his campaign was to create and begin implementing an economic development plan for Fayetteville within 90 days of taking office. The city held Fayetteville Forward beginning in March, a public input session designed to identify stakeholders and action items to further economic development in Fayetteville. The findings of the summit were presented in April, and committees were formed to carry out the plan established at Fayetteville Forward.
Lots of other things happened too. The mayor issued some proclamations. City Hall recieved a bomb threat. The mayor did some t-shirt modeling, and has amassed over 3500 friends on his personal Facebook page. He led an initiative to replace the lightbulbs in Hillcrest Towers and other city housing with compact fluorescents, to name a few.
But to me, the biggest achievements Mayor Lioneld Jordan has made since he’s been in office are his quick response to the Ice Storm in January, and he and his administration’s work with Fayetteville Forward.
It would appear that he has kept most of his campaign promises so far. Reading back over his Where They Stand interview from way back in August, it’s pretty remarkable how consistent he’s been. There isn’t much from that interview that the Mayor hasn’t addressed at least in some form or fashion in his first six months in office.
Other observations are that Mayor Jordan appears to be a big proponent of volunteerism and community involvement. He’s not a big spender of taxpayer money. He doesn’t seem to sleep much.
He’s been a shaky public speaker, but we’ve seen improvement, especially when he’s speaking off the cuff and not reading from a prewritten script. He is excitable, energetic, and hardworking.
The biggest challenge he’ll face over the next six months is the estimated 2 million dollar budget deficit the city is looking at, mostly due to a weak economy and decreasing sales tax and building permit revenue. The questions and issues created by the budget concerns and how the administration handles them will tell us a lot more about Mayor Jordan as a leader of our city.
Those are the things I’ve noticed about the Mayor in his first six months in office. How do you feel about the job Mayor Jordan has done so far? How would you rate him in his first six months?
