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The Battalion/Monday, August27,1984/Page IE
Back-to-School Edition
10 Pages
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ryan, College Station mayors discuss roles
S mayor: city,
&M cooperate
By By CYNDY DAVIS
Stuff Writer
ksa Texas A&M faculty member
l 0ln g to FslLd niayor of Cilollege Station, Dr.
' Wunilyi pry Halter has to be a master of di-
Romacy and time management.
■Halter is serving his second term
as mayor. He also is an associate pro-
■sor of political science at the Uni-
Ktsity.
»er freshmet
eady to ^
g he was.luij
>ance to nw
nts who reali
>me goals not c l u i tc sure cooperation
I learnedtliiB ween t ^ e ( it y and the University
“verlwantd^hhat it ought to be,” Halter says,
itedtobe." Bhereare a lot of areas 1 think that
• Bed some improvement.”
~•‘'■^■However, the City Council’s atti-
that students are residents of
HHlIege Station prevents any real
|riildems, he says.
They (students) are here more
Bn they are in their other homes,”
i%]B says. Students aie counted for
■Hpulation purposes, which is the
lIHsis for revenue sharing, highway
■tiding and other federal funding.
■'Students also pay a lot of taxes to
T Bcity of College Station,” he says.
BBce students have a very high
ifUtount of disposable income, they
■Bo pay a lot of sales tax to the city,
'lie says.
|■The city gets one cent per mixed
Ullnk in liquor tax, which is about
■■3,000 per year, he savs. Halter es-
IBiates that at least 50 percent of
thscomes from students.
HKB"Some people make the point that
ifit weren’t for A&M, College Sta-
jilBn would be a little wide spot in the
Bad,” he says.
■jB'That’s true, however, if it weren’t
[for the city of College Station, A&M
HBuld be a little cow college with
BHIout 6,000 students because there
KSflmldn't be any plat e for most of the
pIBidents to live,” he says.
|B‘‘The point is simply that we’re
HBidof in tfiis thing together and the
Tmversity ain’t gonna leave, and
College Station ain’t gonna leave,
and what we ought to do is try to
deal with any differences we have.
“The city obviously is a big service
provider to students.”
Among other services, the city
provides fire protection to the Uni
versity. Halter says about 40 percent
of calls to the College Station Fire
Department are from the Univer
sity.
Halter says his two jobs — mayor
and professor — haven’t created
conflict-of-interest problems.
Only once has a University admin
istrator tried to “use their position at
the University as a wedge in city gov
ernment,” he says.
Halter says he never misses class
because of city business or city activ
ities.
“Occasionally I’ve had people get
upset with me that I’ve refused to
come to some meeting because I had
a class to teach, and they say, ‘Every
body else gets off, why can’t the fac
ulty?’
“My answer always is: ‘Because if
I’m not there, there’s not a class.’”
The art of time management also
is necessary. In addition to his teach
ing and advising, Halter estimates he
spends an hour per day being
mayor. He usually goes to City Hall
about 5 p.m. every day, when there
are few interruptions.
Because he has two offices, his of
fice at City Hall and his campus of
fice in Bolton Hall, Halter schedules
his own appointments. A city council
coordinator takes care of correspon
dence and agendas.
Halter says he probably will not
run for re-election.
“I think I’ve gotten about as much
out of it as I can. It’s time con
suming, although it’s been very ben
eficial too from the stand point of
your career and other things at the
University. I think the University’s
benefitted also.”
Bryan mayor: Time
managing crucial
Photo by PETER ROCHA
Raising a Sesquicentennial flag at the Brazos Center is just
one of a mayor’s many ceremonial functions.Here, Bryan
Mayor Ron Blatchley, far left, and College Station Mayor
Gary Halter, left, do the honors in the summer ceremony.
By By CYNDY DAVIS
Staff Writer
Working long hours with no over
time pay is no problem for Bryan
Mayor Ron Blatchley, who is also di
rector of student affairs at Texas
A&M University.
As director of student affairs,
Blatchley says he might average 60
to 70 hours per week.
“The job as Director of Student
Affairs is time consuming, but fun.
I’ve often said ‘Gosh, I get paid for
something I just absolutely am flat
tered to do.’
“We (in the Department of Stu
dent Affairs) really do not have eight
to five jobs,” he says. “Our work
could be at two o’clock in the morn
ing, a student may have a problem,
maybe a suicide attempt or there
may be a fire.”
In addition, Blatchley says he
spends about 20 hours per week be
ing mayor.
“While the days are long and the
time commitment downtown is dif
ferent, it’s one I’ve had to work
around my University responsibili
ties.
“I’m not complaining about the
time frames or commitments be
cause it’s something I understood
would come with the territory if I
were elected,” he says.
“I’ve not had many conflicts I
haven’t been able to work out with
other staff members filling in for me
at a particular event.
“It’s a monumental task to try to
work a schedule around and to try to
do all the things that everybody
wants you to do,” Blatchley says.
“I’ve had to limit the number of
appearances I will make, particularly
in regard to grand openings, meet
ings of civic organizations and so-
forth,” he says.“I just have to pick
and choose because obviously, every
body wants you to come, and they
want the mayor, not a member of
the city council or city staff. Anyone
of those individuals are equipped as
well as or better than I to do what
the people want.”
Blatchley says the University has
benefitted in several ways from his
term as mayor.
“I think I’ll be a more valuable
and tested administrator in the fu
ture and I hope it’s been good for
the University, I hope the things we
are able to do in the city are of bene
fit to all the residents and are cer
tainly of benefit to the-University.”
The people of Bryan are not as fa
miliar with the University as the citi
zens of College Station, and many of
the negative things said about the
University are only misunderstand
ings, he says.
“Being mayor is a good opportu
nity to put bur best foot forward as a
University in our community to say
we’re not in a glass bubble here,” he
says. “What happens on campus is
important to downtown and what
happens downtown is important to
the campus.
“We can’t, as a University, divorce
ourselves from the impact we do
make in the community and so it’s
been a nice interface to both be asso
ciated with the University in College
Station and being a resident and
mayor of Bryan.”
And Blatchley would seem to be
an atypical Bryan mayor.
Politics in Bryan has been what
Blatchley terms as “closed to the out
sider” and “homegrown.” While
University people have always been
involved in politics in College Sta
tion, Blatchley says that has not been
the case in Bryan.
There have only been three or
four elected officials in Bryan that
were associated with the University,
and he is the first Bryan mayor to
come from Texas A&M, Blatchley
says.
“I’ve been able to bring some in
sight to a different group of people
about Texas A&M.”
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