After the collapse of Charlie Brown’s plan for a high-rise mini-city in east Roswell two yeas ago, Mayor Jere Wood got a call from Brown’s son Scott, who runs the family development company.

Wood had been Brown’s most vocal and important supporter. “He said, ‘I feel bad about how things worked out,’” Wood recalled. “I said, ‘Don’t feel bad. You put forth an idea, it got rejected, and now everyone is moving on.’” That was classic Jere Wood. Some politicians never get over a major defeat. Others manage to forge ahead but still can’t forget – or forgive – those who beat them. Wood is different. The moment he loses a battle – or wins one, for that matter – it’s over. The old file goes in the drawer, and a new file comes out. It takes a lot of work to run a city, so there’s no sense dilly-dallying over what’s dead and gone. It might be Wood’s strongest suit as a politician.

CAN WOOD PURGE THE PAST FROM VOTERS MINDS?

If he runs in November for a fourth term as mayor, as is expected, a key test of Wood’s electability will be whether the voters in Roswell are as good as he is at casting off the recent past and moving on. If they’re not, many voters will be fixated on Wood’s last two major initiatives – the Charlie Brown project and Wood’s plan for annexing the Newtown area of Johns Creek. Both were colossal failures, but they died a couple of years ago, and that could save Wood, said Roswell City Councilman Kent Igleheart, who is a savvy analyst of city politics. “If the election for mayor had been two years ago, he’d have been wiped out,” Igleheart said of Wood. “Not now. People forget.” Lori Henry doesn’t plan to let that happen. If the two-term councilwoman challenges Wood in November, as she indicates she will, Henry will spend much of the campaign reminding voters of those two fiascos. And she’ll add her own list of grievances against the mayor. It’s a long list and it begins with Wood’s gradual change of heart about how Roswell should grow.

FLIP FLOPS OR FLEXIBIBLTY?

Wood first won office 12 years ago by tapping into the voters’ frustration over the rapid growth and suburban sprawl that was threatening Roswell’s quaint and upscale way of life. “Stop the Sprawl” was Wood’s simple campaign slogan, and it vaulted him into the mayor’s office. But as Roswell continued to grow – it has more than quadrupled since 1980, to around 100,000 residents – Wood’s vision for the city changed. He came to accept that densities would have to rise in certain corridors, especially around transportation hubs.

Then his original campaign against rapid growth went full-circle when he supported Brown’s plan for a massive project with high-rise towers at GA 400 and Holcomb Bridge Road. “He runs on stopping sprawl, and then he’s promoting 27-story buildings,” Henry said. “He’s not sure what he wants, or what day it is, for that matter.” But what Henry and other opponents call Wood’s “flip-flops” on issues, his supporters see as flexible leadership and the ability to change with the times. Wood is nothing if not politically savvy. He’ll pick sides on an issue, but he’ll never double down on a bad bet. “I take stands,” Wood said. “When you take stands you’re going to get a reaction, for or against.

Some of my ideas don’t get support, and I back down. Charlie Brown was a perfect example. “You won’t hear me talking about tall buildings anymore. I got the message. I’m against them.” What you will hear him talking about during the campaign is less certain because these are not normal times, and this will not be a normal mayoral election. For one thing, there are no declared candidates for mayor, including Wood himself. But Wood and Henry are virtual locks to run, and City Council veterans Jerry Orlans and David Tolleson say they are seriously considering entering the race, as are a handful of locally active non-politicians. 

Councilwoman Becky Wynn may endorse Jere Wood.   

RACE FOR MAYOR HEATED

That could set up the most heated mayoral election since Wood challenged “mayor-for-life” Pug Mabry in 1997. Wood knocked him off in a huge upset. The other complicating factor is the public’s preoccupation with the nation’s financial crisis. The hottest local issues are usually obvious to all but the densest of candidates, but this year is different. It’s not easy to focus on potholes when people are losing their jobs and their homes. “It’s hard to get a theme this year,” Wood said. “I’m trying to figure out people’s unifying concern and I haven’t identified that. The big issue obviously is the economy, but how do you bring that down to the local level?” One way is through the budget. Wood and his council will not ask for a tax increase in an election year, especially when so many residents are hurting financially. But voters may pay more attention to the budget during tough times such as these, just like they monitor their expenditures at home more closely. That means the council’s budget negotiations, which are tedious and lonely affairs in most years, could play a bigger role in this year’s elections. Igleheart thinks it could be a stumbling block for Wood. “His biggest weakness is his lack of understanding of the budget and how to make things work efficiently,” Igleheart said. “He doesn’t know how to cut. He only knows how to add.” Wood is one of Igleheart’s least favorite people, and the two have gone toe-to-toe on the council, especially on budgeting. Wood likes to think big thoughts, which is a good thing for the mayor of a vibrant city like Roswell. But he has little patience for the details, which can be a bad thing on matters like budgets and annexations. When the Republican takeover in Georgia opened the doors to a series of new cities being incorporated in North Fulton County, Wood correctly predicted that the sudden shift would quickly gobble up all of the unincorporated areas and lock the existing cities of north Fulton into their current boundaries, blocking future annexations. That insight led to one of Wood’s big ideas: Before the proposed city of Johns Creek could finalize its boundaries on Roswell’s northeastern flank, Roswell would try to annex the Newtown area, which was one of the richest portions of the proposed new city of Johns Creek. It was a great idea for Roswell, but Wood had no plan in place for pulling it off. He came up with the big thought, but he ignored the details of how to make it happen. The supporters of Johns Creek, meanwhile, were led by a detail-oriented accountant named Mike Bodker, and they easily outmaneuvered Wood to win Newtown for the new city. Bodker is now the mayor of Johns Creek, and if he lives to be 100, he will never forgive Wood for trying to steal Newtown away. Wood could not care less. To him, it was just politics, nothing personal. He moved on to the next issue the day after he lost the Newtown vote. That, too, was classic Jere Wood. Politics is a tough game for people with thick skin, and he fits the profile. He’s an attorney who enjoys sparring, whether it’s in court or in politics, and he doesn’t take it personally. That gives him a leg up on politicians who can’t take the heat. Watch for that to be a factor in the campaign. Whatever Wood’s campaign strategy eventually turns out to be, it won’t be touchy-feely. He will set the tone, rather than having it set for him, and the tougher the opponents the tougher he’ll get. “I’m not going to play defense,” Wood said. What Wood will undoubtedly try to do over the next few months is what he has done since 1997: gauge what the citizens of Roswell are most passionate about, and then tap into it. 

WOOD TO SET THE TONE

Nobody knows Roswell better than Wood. He was born in the city 60 years ago, and he is very good at taking the pulse of the citizens – and then setting the city’s agenda based on that assessment. One of Wood’s weaknesses is that he will shy away from almost any idea – even a potentially good one – that has vocal opposition from a voting bloc. One of the most interesting and ambitious plans to emerge in Roswell during Wood’s tenure as mayor was a proposal dubbed City Hall South. The area behind City Hall, between Norcross Street and Oxbo Road, is an aging and under-utilized jewel adjacent to the city’s prized historic district. The City Hall South plan called for a public-private partnership to reinvent and rebuild the area, transforming it from an aging eyesore into a vibrant mix of commerce and housing. The target area included a section devoted to Roswell’s government-subsidized housing for the poor. The aging and rundown buildings, which resemble military barracks, would be torn down and replaced by upgraded apartments, but it would require temporary relocations for those residents. When several residents of the subsidized housing complained that they didn’t want to be uprooted, even temporarily, Wood withdrew his support for the project, and it died before the public got to weigh in on it. Where Wood has excelled is in making things happen on quality-of-life matters that have broad support. That’s not as easy as it sounds. Sure, everyone likes parks, but Wood has helped turn Roswell into the city with the most high-quality and best-run parks in Georgia. And everybody likes bike paths, but Wood has pushed Roswell to become the most bike-friendly city in the state. And everybody loves libraries, but Wood helped push a plan that will get Roswell a second Fulton County library branch when some communities still have none. Those efforts have made Jere Wood a lot of friends and supporters – just as his missteps and his I’m-in-charge-here mentality has made him a lot of enemies. Toss in his combative nature and his vibrant personality, and you have a leader who sets the tone in Roswell, for better or worse. He will set the tone in the coming mayoral election as well, no matter who runs against him. “I think people are either going to vote for me or against me,” Wood said – and he didn’t mean that as a boast. He simply understands that he has become something of a lightning rod in the city, and he understands what comes with that. “Once you make enemies, it’s hard to change that,” Wood said wistfully. The politician who takes nothing personally knows that some of his peers take things very personally, including some who may challenge him in November. That’s OK. He’ll be up for the fight, however it shapes up. Still, he says he hopes the campaign doesn’t get personal, which is a sentiment you don’t often hear from a tough politician like Wood. “I think I’ve mellowed a little bit,” he said. Then he smiled and added: “Of course, I had a long way to go.”