Sunday, April 27, 1997
Globetrotting mayor raises city's profile
By ANTHONY WILSON
Staff Writer
Sometimes Gary McCaleb will touch down on an African isle or
in the Middle East and wonder how he got there.
He is, after all, the $1-a-year mayor of a mid-sized city hunkered
in the dusty Texas plains. When he first ran for the post seven
years ago, he never dreamed his service would sweep him from Miami
to Mauritius and from Turkey to Chile.
But increasingly in the past year, Mayor McCaleb has been sought
to hold court on a world stage, representing not only Abilene,
but the United States.
In agreeing to do so, McCaleb has managed three feats: he's
helped developing nations learn about democratic governance, he's
borrowed ideas that had escaped stateside leaders, and he's raised
Abilene's profile to a global scale.
The responsibility, he admits, is awesome, which again begs
the question of how it ended up straddled across his shoulders.
"It's beyond my ability to explain," McCaleb said.
"Sometimes I think, 'Now how did this all really happen?'<t>"
'Out of the blue'
McCaleb's world travels are the fruits of his involvement in
an alphabet soup of organizations.
The National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors
called upon him last year to serve on an executive committee of
the International Union of Local Authorities, organizer of the
biennial World Congress of Cities.
Though McCaleb called the request "out of the blue,"
the NLC notes he's served on its board of directors and on an
international consortium that explored global opportunities for
cities.
"Gary was a logical choice based on his interests and
contributions," NLC spokesman Randy Arndt said. "He's
extremely well-thought-of by his colleagues throughout the country."
In preparation for the conference, McCaleb and the World Executive
Committee has met in Santiago, Chile, and in Miami, and he has
spoken to a United Nations summit in Istanbul, Turkey.
He's quick to stress his travels haven't come at the expense
of Abilene taxpayers, saying other organizations fund the trips,
which he ensures don't interfere with city business.
McCaleb was again asked to address local leaders from across
the globe at the 33rd meeting of the World Congress of Cities,
hosted by Mauritius, Africa, earlier this month.
The conference focused on decentralization, diversity and partnerships
in local governance. Speaking to 1,000 leaders from more than
80 nations through a team of interpreters, McCaleb, a university
business professor, talked about lessons government can learn
from the business world.
He was struck that Americans' desire to shift more responsibility
and decisions to the local levels is, in fact, a "world theme."
Too, he was pleasantly surprised at his reception as the only
American mayor at the event.
"I frankly went in with the expectation there would be
a resistance to the U.S.," McCaleb said, "that the U.S.
is always trying to tell everybody else what they ought to do
and (the response is) 'Frankly, we don't need it.' But to my amazement,
I've consistently found just the opposite. There is this warm,
open acceptance."
Help wanted
While on the road, McCaleb is continually asked about American
approaches to a range of issues. Abilene, naturally, is his base
of reference for everything he talks about.
For example, during a discussion of technology at the Mauritius
meeting, McCaleb explained how he commissioned a citizens task
force to solicit community expertise on how to tackle technological
changes. Many conference-goers were impressed by the approach,
saying they'd never considered seeking their citizenry's help,
he said.
At another point, one leader expressed concern that children's
issues were absent from the debate. McCaleb told of Abilene's
drafting a strategic plan for making itself a "child-friendly
city."
"Abilene is a positive example," the mayor boasted.
"It continues to hold up in exchanges with cities around
the world. This gives us a way of having a worldwide benchmark
on how we stack up with cities of all sizes and cultures.
"And I never fail to come back with more good ideas from
what some city is doing somewhere. It's a profitable exchange.
We have so much to learn from them."
McCaleb considers his official travels to places such as Jerusalem,
Greece and Brazil as "case studies" - opportunities
to examine details such as how other communities renovate downtowns,
what materials they use to pave streets, and how they control
traffic flows.
Sight-seeing, he confessed, often deteriorates into analyzing
possibilities for Abilene.
"I look at cities differently than I used to," McCaleb
said. "I'd never paid attention to those things before."
Higher profile
Wherever McCaleb goes, he naturally is identified as the mayor
of Abilene, Texas, U.S.A. Every new acquaintance, he noted, raises
awareness of what and where Abilene is, though he said mention
of the city already invokes images for much of the world's citizens.
"It's interesting how many people say, 'I've heard of
Abilene,' " he said. "And almost invariably it comes
back to cowboy movies. They seem to have the impression all the
cowboy movies were made in Abilene. But it shows we have an identity.
"I don't know how you quantify what that does, other than
it creates an awareness in people's minds of a city named Abilene
and of the positive things happening here."
Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk recently reported to McCaleb that he
had led a trade delegation to Chile's capital city. The first
question Santiago's mayor asked of Kirk was if he knew Gary McCaleb.
McCaleb said such connections help when foreign companies look
to expand into the United States.
"If it ever happens once, it's worth something,"
he said. "Stating the extremely obvious, people work with
who they know."
Appreciating Abilene
Though McCaleb admits he "never in a hundred years"
could've imagined where his office would take him, perhaps, he
adds, it's not so strange Abilene's mayor would be sought by the
world community.
After all, the planet is speckled with more towns like Abilene
than with megapolitan cities like New York City.
Personally, the mayor says his globetrotting has inspired a
deeper appreciation of political service. He marvels at leaders
eager to practice "democratic local government" conducted
openly and with the involvement of their citizenry - privileges
Americans take for granted.
"The one overriding commonality I see is these are people
who really deeply care about doing something that makes life better
for their people in their city," McCaleb said of his fellow
mayors.
"So many of these people have so much less than what we
in the U.S. have and they endure so much more. I've gained a real
appreciation and admiration of people in there trying to make
a difference for people."
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story
to A Friend:
Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
|
