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Mayor leaves strong legacy of a Clearwater transformed

What more could a person ask than to be able to look back and know his efforts counted?

Brian Aungst left the post of Clearwater mayor this month after almost six years at the helm. Thursday night he stood before the City Council and new Mayor Frank Hibbard to receive a few gifts from the city - his nameplate, his gavel. However, words like these, spoken by City Manager Bill Horne, must have been the best gift of all: "At the end of the day," Horne told Aungst, "you made a real difference."

Aungst ran for mayor in 1999 hoping to make a difference. He had never held office and had no experience in politics. He had been frustrated by the city's economic stagnation and a leadership vacuum at City Hall. A new city manager was hired in 1997 who had lots of energy and big ideas. Aungst wanted to be on board. He filed for mayor and won.

The public never seemed to warm up to Aungst. Essentially an introvert in a public role, Aungst did not have the gift of gab, did not smile a lot, was easily stung by criticism and was branded as aloof.

But six years after he took office, Clearwater is being transformed. Aungst doesn't get all the credit - low tax rates, rising property values and like-minded City Council members helped make it happen - but he has been the one constant in the city's leadership circle in the six years.

Aungst's success easily could have been blunted after he took office. Initially a fan of then-City Manager Mike Roberto, Aungst soon realized that Roberto's big plans were not well conceived and the frenetic pace Roberto set made him a lightning rod for criticism from a community that clearly wanted a more moderate approach. Aungst knew somebody needed to do something, and he figured the responsibility fell to him. He sat down with Roberto in 2000 and told him to resign. Then he called Assistant City Manager Bill Horne, a relative greenhorn himself in city government, and told him to get ready to take charge.

Aungst took a risk, because Clearwater does not have a strong-mayor form of government. He counted on his fellow commissioners' seeing what he saw - that controversy was destabilizing city government - and supporting his idea to put a steadier hand, Horne's, on the wheel.

There were other unexpected challenges. The 9/11 terrorist attacks that crippled the tourism industry. Two downtown redevelopment referendums that voters defeated. Persistent accusations by misinformed residents that Aungst was responsible for the accident-plagued beach roundabout and the troubled Harborview Center. The continued negative influence of a group called Save the Bayfront.

Even without those surprises, Aungst had faced many hurdles. The city was built out and its decline would accelerate unless something happened to spur redevelopment. The city's infrastructure, including bridges and roads, needed major work. Clearwater Beach, the city's economic engine, was sputtering, and areas of the island were blighted. Heavily used libraries, recreation centers and the baseball stadium were aging and too small. North Greenwood seemed stuck in a time warp.

Today, Clearwater Beach is awash in privately financed new construction, Mandalay Avenue has been improved, and the city soon will begin work to transform the S Gulfview Boulevard area into a new pedestrian-oriented Beach Walk. Downtown, a new signature library stands atop the harborfront bluff, and though the city still waits for a retail renaissance there, numerous residential projects are under way or planned around the downtown core. North Greenwood has a new library, a new citywide aquatic center and a new streetscape. Recreation centers around the city have been fixed up and their offerings boosted. Streets have been widened, a new water plant has been built, areas that once flooded are being fixed, parks have been upgraded. A new bridge to Clearwater Beach is being built, financed in part by federal dollars that Aungst went to Washington to obtain. Even the beach roundabout has been tweaked and works better now.

As Aungst pointed out in his parting remarks Thursday, it was a team effort, and he rightly praised city staffers and elected officials for their hard work. But it was Aungst who set the agenda over the past six years - an agenda that attracted smart, progressive people to city government who now will carry on.

Indeed, he did make a difference, and he is right to be proud of that.

[Last modified January 23, 2005, 00:14:21]