New mayor of James Island quietly settles in on the job

Bill Woolsey's first day on the job as mayor of James Island was a little less exciting than he anticipated.

The silence was almost deafening as two or three of the nine employees went quietly about their jobs minutes after he arrived for his first day.

"I think I'll get my wife, Kathy, to help me redecorate the office," he said, surveying the stark white room that will be his headquarters.

Woolsey, 54, admitted he wasn't sure what to expect when he took office Wednesday, but after the sometimes-contentious election season, the quiet may have seemed a little anticlimactic.

In August, Woolsey won the mayor's seat over incumbent Mary Clark by a margin of 2-to-1 and captured nearly 40 percent of the votes in a campaign that saw lots of drama, mostly on the part of the outgoing administration.

Woolsey and the town's new council members, Carter McMillan, Robin Welch, Karen Wilder-Smalls and Leonard Blank, were sworn in Aug. 19 but did not take office until Wednesday.

He knows that with his new job comes some headaches: the city of Charleston's lawsuit over incorporation, a decision of whether to move Town Hall, drainage problems, lack of a budget and how to reduce crime.

Woolsey passed the days between taking the oath and taking office by driving around town shooting photos of drainage ditches for recommendations to the Public Works Committee and studying the town's budget with the intention of getting it passed at his first Town Council meeting on Tuesday.

He is not a newcomer to politics. He served on James Island Town Council 2002-04 and was re-elected in 2004 before the town lost its bid for incorporation and was abolished.

Between his earlier stint serving the 22,000 residents of the town and now, he was a two-term chairman of the faculty council at The Citadel, where he has taught economics since 1986. He now serves as vice chair.

"I was constantly going to meetings, but now that I am vice chair, I have less responsibility," he says.

That will help him combine academia with politics, he says. He teaches three "Principles of Macroeconomics" classes this semester and holds regular office hours at The Citadel.

"Most of my students seem to know that I've been elected mayor," he says, but he doesn't expect that to affect his work. For instance, the cadets won't address him as "Mayor Woolsey."

"It's always an issue what to call us," he says. "Some professors are offended by being called by their military rank (at The Citadel). Generally, the students will say, 'Sir,' and that's fine."

He adds, "Maybe I'll combine it all and go with Dr. Colonel Mayor."

One thing he won't do is take a leave of absence or quit his full-time job.

Instead, he intends to combine it with the mayoral position, which he plans to make a part-time job. He already has reduced his mayoral salary from $35,000 a year to $15,000. He thinks he can persuade the new council to see the merits of hiring a full-time administrator by the beginning of the new year.

"I am not interested in giving up being a professor," he says. "I really like teaching. And I won't cut out all of my blogging, reading books on the economy and writing."

When the economy started faltering in 2008, Woolsey began a blog on monetary freedom. He also wrote a monthly column for the Charleston Mercury newspaper.

"I'm still interested in those things, but I can't write as much now," he says. "I just wrote my first short blog entry in over two months."

Wife Kathy thinks meshing the two professions will be a benefit to Woolsey.

"It's going to help him with his teaching because a lot of college professors are in this ivory tower and have very little practical experience with what they are teaching," she says. "It's going to be a good experience for him."

Making of an economist

Woolsey, who was born in Florida and lived there until he was 14, went to high school in the Virginia suburbs and started his undergraduate studies as a business major at George Mason University, in those days a commuter-only college.

After he decided to be a college professor, he transferred to Virginia Tech, where he met Kathy when both worked at the vegetarian Frog Hollow Restaurant.

"We were two carnivores surrounded by vegetarians," Kathy says. "We were the weekend crew, and we discussed politics all night long in the kitchen."

In 1983, several economics professors left Virginia Tech for George Mason, by then an emerging university. Woolsey, a graduate student, followed, earning his doctorate under Nobel Prize winner James M. Buchanan in 1987.

"Let's just say I should have gotten it in 1986, but a Nobel Prize winner made me rewrite my dissertation," Woolsey says.

Kathy says that's an even bigger claim to fame for her husband than being mayor.

In fact, she admits now, "I was sort of hoping to be married to a Nobel Prize-winning economist instead of a mayor."

The Citadel

By the time he earned his doctorate, Woolsey was teaching at The Citadel, where he and his wife lived in campus quarters and his political career was spawned.

He first volunteered to be a block captain for the Wagener Terrace Neighborhood Association, then became its treasurer and, ultimately, president.

"That was my first community activism," he says.

During this time, at the request of friend and then-Charleston City Councilman Maurice Washington, Woolsey helped campaign for Charleston Mayor Joe Riley.

"But I also campaigned for Maurice a few years later when he ran against him," he says.

As the Woolsey sons, Will and Andy, approached school age, their parents felt that James Island offered better educational opportunities, so they moved in 1995. Both sons attended public schools there, graduating from James Island Charter High School. Will, 21, is now a senior accounting major at The Citadel, and Andy, 20, takes classes at Trident Tech.

Woolsey's first run for political office was for a seat on the constituent school board in 1996. He ran a low-key race and didn't expect to win. He campaigns by knocking on doors and speaking directly to those he would serve.

"I would say his hobby is politics," says Kathy. "He sees a campaign like a race and it is very exciting to him."

Two years later, he spent money on signs and put some effort into a second campaign for the constituent board. The top four vote-getters were elected. Woolsey was fifth by nine votes.

"I was disappointed that time because I really thought I tried hard," he says.

In 2000, he made another stab at politics, running for the 1st Congressional District seat as a libertarian.

"I don't say much about that these days," he says. "Since the '80s, I have been very concerned with the financial situation in the United States. Mark Sanford, when he was in Congress, shared that concern. Henry Brown was the Republican nominee in 2000, and I was not sure he was focused on that issue. I saw him as a sort of big-spending Republican, so I ran as libertarian. I got 3 percent of the votes and swore I'd never run for something again."

Today, he says, "My philosophy is basically libertarian: Keep government small and taxes low. There is substantial support on James Island for that. A lot of people understand and agree with that philosophy."

He's also thankful he went back on his promise to himself, because two years later he won a seat on James Island Town Council.

He was re-elected once more before the town was dissolved.

Now, James Island is ensconced in yet another battle with the city of Charleston, but Woolsey sees this ending differently.

"I anticipate winning this court case and serving my entire term as mayor," he says, somewhat defiantly. Then he heads into his office to get down to business.

Brenda Rindge can be reached at 937-5713 or at brindge@postandcourier.com.