Other mayors call Joe Riley "the dean." One of the nation's longest-serving mayors — he was first elected mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1975 — Riley has become a leading champion for historic preservation and urban design. His widely hailed efforts in these areas in his own city earned him a Governing Public Official of the Year award in 2003. Alan Greenblatt spoke recently with Mayor Riley about what he's learned and what's changed during his decades on the job.

We're talking with some veteran officials about what's changed in their jobs. What's new in the mayor business?

One thing that has changed in terms of city government is the engagement in public education, which I know has happened here and in other communities. Most cities don't run the schools. We do not. Our school district is independent.

Riley

But I am far more engaged in education matters than I was 20 years ago. The challenges of public education, the realization that the children bring with them challenges and experiences in their lives — the district alone can't address that, it has to be community engagement

Also, the city-federal government relationship is not nearly as strong or as directly engaged as it was 20 years ago. Twenty years ago, programs like the urban development action grant, these were already winding down. Now there is much less involvement with the federal government.

One other thing for us is maybe continuing to learn about the increased involvement and engagement of our neighborhoods. We started a neighborhood commission more than 20 years ago. That has just continued to build. Charleston is not a big city. But this year, we will announce the 100th neighborhood council.

It's not just organizing neighbors so they can tell city government what's going wrong or a group being brought together, but rather on a daily basis or certainly a regular basis to give us information and help us better serve our citizens. I have regular meetings with presidents of our neighborhood orgs, whether it's a drainage issue or traffic or law enforcement issue.

As a mayor, we have the opportunity of leadership. Because people look to us, make sure their garbage is picked up or make neighborhood safe. They look to us to solve problems and they depend on us too.

The challenge or concern about public education has become a natural mayoral area of responsibility or accountability or at least work.

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