Mayor reflects on city

Last week, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey hit the 15-year mark of running South Carolina's third-largest city. During that time, he's seen the city recover from the closing of the Navy base, a population ebb and expansion and the opening of a new $37 million City Hall. He's also adopted a more healthy lifestyle, shedding more than 100 pounds.

On Wednesday, Summey sat down for a question-and-answer session with The Post and Courier, where he said he definitely will seek another term as mayor in 2011. And, though he's never been a supporter of embattled Gov. Mark Sanford politically, he doesn't think the governor should resign or be removed anytime soon.

Following are Summey's answers, edited for brevity and clarity. For more excerpts from the hourlong interview, go to postandcourier.com.

It's been 15 years. How has the city changed for the better, and for the worse, during that time?

Our growth has been phenomenal. Because of that growth, a lot of the things we've been able to do and bring in have enhanced the quality of life. Our performing arts center has been a prime example. We're able to offer a lot of things that we weren't able to offer just with the coliseum. The convention center has been a major economic impact and has helped stimulate the growth of the new hotels in the area. Getting the Tanger Outlet and those types of operations in, which has been a great job creator for us.

Because of the growth, we've been able to do new venues for community centers. We've been able to pick up another gymnasium and enhance some of our athletic facilities. We built the new fire museum. All this in spite of the Naval base closure.

With all the growth that we've had, we have had to deal with some traffic issues. Whether the growth is in North Charleston or outside of North Charleston or anywhere in Berkeley or Dorchester counties, the traffic normally is going to come through North Charleston. And so a lot of the backup of traffic that we have are people getting to other locations. We're a city of about 90,000 to 95,000 folks now, and if you look at it on any given day, there's over 200,000 people either visiting or driving through our community.

North Charleston always seems to have had an inferiority complex when compared to the sister cities of Charleston and Mount Pleasant. How have you worked to overcome that?

Creating pride within the community.

We're not going to make headway by saying other cities are better than us or other cities are worse than us and comparing. What we have to do is find our own niche: who we are, what we are and what we can do. We will never be the city of Charleston. We will never be Mount Pleasant. And that's not a problem for us. What we offer is another level of quality of life. We are probably more of a blue- collar community than either of those communities. But I think we offer a quality of life for every level of economic condition that folks have in the community, and I think that's been broad-range through our recreation programs, through our arts programs and through our overall acceptance of folks.

You noted the most recent crop of police recruits was the most diverse you've had. What does that say about the changing face of North Charleston?

It says that we're trying to be inclusive of the makeup of the community in our hiring practices. It's not doing me a lot of good to send a police officer into a predominantly Hispanic area and nobody speaks English and he can't speak Spanish. It creates a problem for us.

I think this has shown our desire to be open to all areas of our community because we are probably the most diverse community in the state of South Carolina.

Having said that, are you learning or speaking any Spanish?

No. I have trouble with English. I know Taco Bell (He jokes).

To be honest with you, I wish that we were a pure English-speaking country. That's not going to be. I know I'm a realist in that effort, and so we have to make sure we have the ability to communicate with these folks. But at 62, I'm not interested right now in learning any foreign language.

There's no escaping that the Statehouse will pick up the fight in 2010 over rail lines capable of servicing the port but running through the Noisette redevelopment area. How are you preparing for that?

We have put a team together we think that, if we have to, we can combat any outside intervention into controlling the quality of life within our community. It's not going to be an easy task, and it probably won't be an inexpensive task.

We're not saying we're not open to some format that we can work together, but it has to be a format that we play a key role in and a format that we look at the ability to grow our community in the same quality that we've been trying to grow it in. So I think that's a key component of that issue. It's about self-government.

The Noisette investment project has some financial and legal issues lately. What happens if that effort fails?

I think somebody will pick the effort up. In reality, this is the best time you could have this happen if it were going to happen because we're in a down market. By the time the market picks back up to the level we hope it gets back up to, the Noisette issue will be resolved one way or another. Either Noisette will find a way to resolve their issues or when the market kicks up, somebody will jump in and take it. Because it's a great project. It's a great opportunity for investors. It's a great opportunity for our community and one we can't allow to fail. We've got time.

North Charleston seems to be annexing lots of property. How much has the city's boundaries grown and why? Is it manageable, especially in regards to citywide police protection?

A lot of the areas we annexed are considered "doughnut holes."

We have revisited our law enforcement efforts. Our growth boundaries in the north, we saw where we were lagging a little bit on response times, and we have created three new divisions of our police department. We've got a South, a Central and a North squad, and that North squad has been beefed up with personnel, and we brought those response times parallel to the response times in the Central and South districts. As we continue to grow, we believe we will see an expansion of the manpower that we have to have. If you look at the current statistics for this year, our calls for services are down from last year. Our self- initiated calls for services are up, which means we're finally in a stage that we're doing more proactive policing instead of reactive policing.

You're 62, and the mayor's seat isn't up again until 2011. Are you going to seek another term?

I definitely am. Thanks to the support of my family, the encouragement of my family. I'm probably in better health today than I've been in the last 10 years. I feel much better at 62 than I did at 52. I think I've got a lot of good years left in me. We've got so many things that we've been able to start that we haven't brought to a finish. This building that we're in will be paid for in seven to eight years. I would love when I leave office to turn this building without debt over to whoever steps in as the next mayor.

You once tipped the scales at over 360 pounds. What are you down to, and how is the weight loss going?

I actually tipped the scales at 368 pounds. I'm at 266 when I went to the doctor's office the other day, clothed, which is about a 102-pound weight loss in the last year. He would like to see me lose probably another 25 to 30 pounds.

South Carolina is a very unhealthy place in general. Any plans to put the whole city on a diet, like what Philadelphia once tried?

It's like with the smoking ban or anything else. I think that's a decision people have to make. I just don't believe you can "force feed." People tried to force feed me over the years to lose weight. Until I made the ultimate decision myself that I had to do something, nothing was going to occur. I think it has to be an inward decision by the individual. We can encourage, but you're not going to push.

Everyone has an opinion on this: Should Gov. Mark Sanford resign? He is the top economics officer in the state, and North Charleston's future is tied to economic development.

No, I don't think he should resign. And the reason has nothing to do with his well-being and how I feel about him because I've never supported him as governor.

I think when we make national news that we're impeaching our governor it shows to folks that we're trying to recruit (that there is) instability in government. The bottom line: He's going to be gone in a year and three months. Somebody said, "Well, my God, you won't get anything done in that year and three months." Well, I don't know what he's got done in the first six years and nine months, quite honestly. So I don't think that's going to hurt us.

We could get tied up into months of negative national publicity for this state, and I think that would be more a detriment to recruiting and retaining jobs than him staying on board.

What's the one thing most people would be surprised to hear about Keith Summey?

I'm a softy. I can't look at movies where dogs die.

I think they would still be a little shocked, though, on the other side. My wife says I'm one of the most stubborn men she's ever met.

Your son, Elliot Summey, is building his own political path on Charleston County Council, where you once served. Are you following his career, and what political advice are you giving him?

Patience.

Even if you're trying to change the system somewhat, you still have to work the system that's there until that change takes place.

Elliott has amazed me at his knowledge. I think he's inherited a lot of his daddy's people skills. He likes people, he truly enjoys working with them. He has a lot of drive in him, like his mother, which is a good thing.

I think he has a lot to offer in community service. I would love to see him move forward. The best advice I can always give him is be his own man. That's why his name is not R. Keith Summey Jr.

Where do you see North Charleston in five years?

The Noisette development will have moved forward considerably. I think we're still about two years out from a real good recovery. Fortunately for us, we've been able to hold our own in that. If we're able to recruit people like Boeing, I think we're going to see new housing growth stimulated. We will see new economic growth stimulated through more retail, more restaurants operational.

In five years, I would not be surprised if we're over 100,000 citizens, that we will have had economic growth, that we will probably see at least a 5 percent to 8 percent growth in employees within the city. And I think we will become even more known as a great place to live, work and play.