Mayor Bzdok 'Got a lot done'

Election 2011

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Traverse City Mayor Chris Bzdok's term ends when Mayor-elect Mike Estes is sworn in at the city commission meeting Monday. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

November 12, 2011

Exiting mayor officially leaves office on Monday

BY ART BUKOWSKI abukowski@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Tue Feb 14, 2012, 12:48 PM EST

TRAVERSE CITY — Chris Bzdok wants to be remembered for making things happen.

Bzdok is Traverse City's mayor until Monday, when newly elected Mayor Michael Estes is sworn in to replace him. Numerous significant developments occurred during Bzdok's two-year mayoral term, and he's proud to have been at the helm for important decisions involving city finances, infrastructure, planning and more.

"One of the positive elements of feedback I've gotten since I announced I was not going to continue for another term was 'Boy, you got a lot done,'" Bzdok said.

Bzdok succeeded Estes, who served as mayor from 2007 to 2009, after the latter decided to take a break from city government. He immediately pushed to revive a stagnant plan to revamp city land along Grand Traverse Bay, and that project now has more than $1 million in the bank, largely through community fundraising efforts.

"That's a project near and dear to my heart," Bzdok said.

And this year, he and Commissioner Mike Gillman bucked city bureaucrats and spearheaded an effort to pass a budget that included a tax reduction for city residents, largely by trimming proposed spending increases.

"I think the budget we passed this spring was the best budget I've seen in five years of city government," said Bzdok, referencing his years as a city commissioner prior to his mayoral term.

In between, commissioners passed a non-discrimination ordinance that protects gays from discrimination in housing and employment, launched a project intended to provide affordable housing on a now-vacant city lot, and maintained increased spending on infrastructure, among other items.

Bzdok also is happy with a recent shift in city policy about infrastructure improvements. The city ramped up efforts to query residents about street and other quality-of-life projects, and Bzdok hopes that trend continues.

"We need to be rebuilding these in the way people who live here want them to be, and I think we're doing that now," he said.

Bzdok's active style prompted some critics to label him a micromanager, in part because he frequently introduced initiatives or took part in efforts to alter the way city employees conducted business, particularly department heads and other top bureaucrats.

He doesn't lose much sleep over it.

"I served as mayor because I had goals and I wanted to accomplish things. That's the only reason I put the time and energy into two jobs for two years," said Bzdok, a partner in a local law firm. "The idea of just kind of being passive and sitting back and calling balls and strikes on staff initiatives, that's not what I signed up to do."

Bzdok recently joined fellow Commissioners Jim Carruthers and Barbara Budros in an effort to explore changes in the way the city's tax capture program operates.

Thousands of dollars that could go to various local government agencies are captured for use exclusively in the city's downtown area through what's known as tax increment financing. Bzdok is a proponent of freeing up some of that money to use elsewhere -- despite significant pushback from some members of the city's Downtown Development Authority.

"There's a certain sort of Chicken Little, sky-is-falling, fear-and-loathing reaction that occurs when you propose any changes," he said. "The residents of the city, that has a thriving downtown, could really benefit from some of the revenues downtown if we could have a rational, thoughtful discussion about how much of it we want to concentrate downtown, and how much of it can we let flow elsewhere."

He regrets he didn't push for a TIF discussion earlier.

"I didn't lay the groundwork like the other things," he said. "I just ran out of gas."

Bzdok has similar regrets about his proposal for a neighborhood ombudsman. That person, a city staff member, would work full-time to address city residents' needs and complaints.

"I believe there was commission support for it, but it needs a champion, and I will not be there to be its champion," he said.

Bzdok and City Manager Ben Bifoss had a strained -- some say nonexistent -- relationship over the past year, and Bzdok believes top staffers need to do a much better job responding to the city commission's directions.

"There were other times when the interests of the staff and the interests of the commission, or the agenda of the upper levels of the administrative staff and those of the commission, were divergent, and that's a failure of the (city manager)," he said. "It's essential that the city commission work on, every time, all the time, having an implementation strategy with the manager under which everybody is pulling in the same direction."

Estes' management style is similar to Bzdok's -- active, attendant, studious -- and Bzdok is glad to see him return. Estes' hands-on style likely will ensure the continuity of progressive commission management, Bzdok said.

"I'm very pleased he was willing to step forward again and maintain that momentum," he said. "I took the baton from him, and it's nice that he's there to take it back from me."