Managing city's change

Bob Young may be able to do as much or more for Augusta in his next job than he's done as mayor.

That's not a criticism of him. It's a statement of: (1) how much the city depends on the federal Housing and Urban Development office he will head in Atlanta ($40 million a year to Augusta), and (2) how weak the city-county charter has made the office of mayor.

Not even Bob Young's boundless energy and upbeat attitude could breathe much life into the position. The former television anchor has been an articulate spokesman for the city abroad - even prodding the federal Department of Transportation to adjust its policies after the Graniteville train wreck. But even Young admitted to being so irrelevant to the legislative process in Augusta that he skipped last year's most important commission debate - over the special purpose local option sales tax - to hobnob with his fellow wizards at the Republican National Convention.

That he now has a plum position with the Bush administration is seen as no coincidence by many.

We said at the time that he likely had more influence than he knew; we reminded him that many great leaders of our time had no specific authority, but had amassed great power through personal influence. Oddly, the mayor said much the same thing at the Friday press conference announcing his June 20 departure.

Certainly, Bob Young does not leave the city up a creek. He proudly says that in his six-and-a-half years in office, the number of Augustans in poverty has declined to fewer than 1 in 5; the employment rate has fallen from 7.1 percent to 5.4 percent, even throughout recession; home ownership is up; crime is down; and job growth has gone from minus-6.8 percent to a positive 5.4 percent.

Young also dismissed the negativity he said is heard in the commission chambers and on the street, noting hundreds of millions in investments to the Medical College of Georgia and area water and sewer systems - and what he called his proudest achievement, keeping Fort Gordon off the closure list.

We appreciate Mr. Young's optimism. We need more of it. But with all due respect, Augusta suffers from more than what he called "a few loud mouths (who) have been complaining." Augusta's government could use an overhaul.

We hope the upcoming appointment of an interim mayor, and the special election of a permanent one, will be cause for revising the city-county consolidation charter. With a mayor who has no vote and no veto, power in the government is far too diffuse. Moreover, the city administrator has no power to hire or fire department heads.

More than anything, we need the right person to step up and take his place - someone with a unifying vision and the leadership skills to give that vision a physical form.