photo by Mark Wagoner

Keith Holliday says the role of Greensboro mayor is truly what you make of it. It can be the part-time post - with a salary of less than $15,000 - that it technically is.
Or, it can be the all-encompassing, full-time job that Holliday has filled in addition to a position at First Citizens Bank. In a candid interview with Greensboro Monthly, Holliday offers a few parting words on the joys and struggles of his mayorship, and how his lasting legacy may be a fundamental change in the nature of the job.

Greensboro Monthly: When did you know this would be your last term?
Keith Holliday: I’ve been thinking a lot about it for the past two years. With two-year terms, you basically have 15 months to decide whether or not to run again. By January, I started wondering if I could keep it up and decided it was time to call an end to this part of my career. The reality is that the job has evolved in a major way in the last eight years.

GM: How so?
KH: In my opinion, this is without a doubt a full-time job, if you’re doing it right. You can coast, spending maybe 10 to 15 hours a week handling the responsibilities, but that’s not the way to do it for a city of this size, considering all the opportunities and challenges.

GM: Why has the job changed so much?
KH: When I got started in 2000, we had a city-wide water shortage, we were at about 7 percent unemployment, morale was down, and we were sitting around trying to figure out what to do. The train wreck was coming. To be honest, it didn’t take a long time because there weren’t many crucial elements of the job I could fix or change or create. But during that period we spent a lot of time working on infrastructure, waiting for the economy to turn.
Now, a lot of great things have happened, especially in the last 36 months. As a city grows and opportunities come up, it’s that much more work for the mayor. The better things are, the more work there is for me.

GM: What has been the focus of your time in this last term?
KH: I do a lot of recruiting. I help the chamber with all their work. I’m sort of the salesman for Greensboro from the local government perspective, so I’m in on a lot of deals and watch the pipeline fill up with companies that are courting us or vice versa. The economic development piece alone is very time consuming in conjunction with all the endeavors that make up a great city, whether it’s focusing on the infrastructure pieces, the transportation pieces, the water and sewer pieces. And now, most all of those issues focus outside the city of Greensboro.

GM: So you have more than just Greensboro to keep track of?
KH: Absolutely. The whole regional focus didn’t exist in 2000. But now, I’m sitting on a number of committees and working with the mayors of High Point and Winston-Salem and leaders of surrounding communities to focus on how we do business in the region.
The bottom line is that 80,000 cars drove into Guilford County to go to work today. It wasn’t like that in 2000. We’ve become a core work center for the region. I’m not recruiting new companies to come here     for just 240,000 people; I’m recruiting for about 700,000.

GM: Why has this happened?
KH: North Carolina has changed. Companies that have gone out of business in Reidsville and Eden and other surrounding areas aren’t being replaced. We’re following the lead of the Northeast 50 years ago, when people there started living outside the urban centers and driving 30 to 40 minutes into the cities to work every day. That kind of pressure on our infrastructure is tough. I’m not just dealing with this single island anymore. The mayor of Greensboro plays an important part in our regional thinking.

GM: How has that changed how you manage the city?
KH: Instead of reacting, I’m much more proactive and initiate and work on things that will affect this city and region in the next 30 to 40 years. There are no shortcuts to any of it. I have to know a lot about water and sewer. I have to know a lot about engineering and transportation. I have to know a lot about job creation and what it takes to bring a company to town.
I have volumes of paperwork to study, and in the meantime I get 50 to 60 e-mails a day. I get 30 to 40 phone calls a day. I get 10 to 20 invitations a day to make appearances here and there. I don’t have a chief of staff to help me with those things. It’s a very time-consuming thing that I have to balance out with a career in banking.

GM: How do you do it?
KH: Sometimes I wonder. Back in 2000 when the economy was weak, the bank wasn’t as busy and this seemed manageable. Now the economy is stronger. I’m a commercial lender, so I’m as busy as I can be with that.
I’m doing about 70 to 75 hours a week. I go out at 7 a.m. for breakfasts and come home at 9:30 at night, Monday through Thursday. Usually, I’m at some sort of event on Friday night, and I’m always at events on Saturday. Theoretically, Sunday is my day of rest, but that’s often my day to come into the office and catch up on paperwork. That’s what made me realize I just couldn’t keep doing both. In all fairness, the bank has given me eight years of support, and they would like to have me more than 30 hours a week.

GM: Do you believe the mayor’s position will eventually be full-time?
KH: I think it has to happen. There are probably 12 power groups in Greensboro that are each in a position to affect public policy. The city council is just one of them, and it’s the only group elected by the people. The public sees the mayor and city council as the only neutral group they can affect. There’s more pressure put on me as the person who coordinates and advocates for change, versus another group with a special interest. 

GM: Are there any arguments against having a full-time mayor?
KH: You always run the risk of someone running for office just for the pay of a full-time job. But if the job stays part-time, the only people who can run will be people who are independently wealthy, someone who definitely has a private agenda, or someone who’s unemployed and wants to do this on the side.
You want businesspeople in this position. So much of what I do centers around making square pegs fit into round holes and weighing costs versus benefits. It’s just like running a business. I think it’s a big advantage to have someone with that kind of background. How do you do that if they have to keep their full-time job?

GM: You’ve managed to do it!
KH: (Laughs) Well, that’s true, but I’m not sure how many more Keith Hollidays there are out there. Not everyone will put in the time I have. There are only 144 hours in a seven-day week, and I’m working here and at the bank 75 hours a week and sleeping 49 hours a week - if I’m lucky. That gives me 20 hours to do everything else, from showering to eating to leisure time. That’s it. My wife and I have not been out of Greensboro for more than five days at a time in eight years. I can’t take a vacation, and even on short trips I’m calling in all the time to check on things.

GM: Can’t you coast a little bit?
KH: You can’t. This isn’t like being a state senator or a U.S. congressman. You can’t hide in a local office. Everyone knows what you’re doing and can get you on the phone or stop you on the street or in the grocery store. You’d be amazed at how long it takes me to get in and out of Harris Teeter. I’ll stop in every aisle and someone will have something to tell me. That forces me to be in a constant crisis-management mode. The hottest thing goes to the top of the list. If you get my voicemail, you’d better say it’s darned important or I’ll be getting back to you four or five days later. You won’t get a call from me that day unless you tell me my house is burning down.

GM: That can’t be good for your health.
KH: It’s not all bad. I do my best work under stress. If I had all the time in the world I’d probably procrastinate. I’ve been forced to develop this hurry-up, efficient way of managing my time, and I’m more effective at getting a lot of things done in a short amount of time. I’m smart about how I use every minute of my time. I’m always packing in one more thing on my to-do list before meetings or appointments. Can I get one more phone call returned? Can I make one more stop before I have to get to this ribbon cutting at 6 p.m.? That’s how I have to be thinking to pull this off, especially when I mix in appointments I have for the bank.

GM: Why put yourself through all that stress?
KH: Well, I love what I do. I don’t know how else to explain it. I grew up in Greensboro and can’t imagine being the mayor of any other city.

GM: What do you think life after public office will be like?
KH: It’s going to be tough at first. I’m sure I’m going to suffer an emotional let-down. People won’t care about my opinions anymore. You can’t help developing a little bit of an ego as the mayor of a vibrant city like this. I get a lot of credit for things that I haven’t done. For that matter, I get critical credit for things I haven’t done, too.
It’ll be a big adjustment, but I assure you that I’ll fill up that 25 extra hours I’ll gain back. I’ve got eight years as mayor and four years as a city council member. That’s a lot of leadership training to just put up on the shelf.

GM: What about the city? What will Greensboro do without you?
KH: Whoever comes in has to remember that the mayor of Greensboro has absolutely no executive powers. I have one vote just like everyone on the city council, and council lets you know right away that you’re not in charge - they are in charge.
To the extent that I’m able to coordinate or coerce or lead, my thing has always been to get us going in the same direction. I don’t care what direction it is, as long as we’re doing it together. The most irresponsible and unproductive council is one that can’t get along and can’t come together. Hopefully, I’ve set certain expectations for what the mayor is supposed to look like, act like, and talk like as the city continues to grow.
Chris Gigley is a freelance writer in Greensboro who used to think he led a hectic life until he learned what kind of schedule his mayor has followed for the past eight years.