Greg Stanton era: Mostly ‘meh’ but with bright spots

• With nominal opposition, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton almost certainly will be re-elected
• The mayor and council have resisted seriously addressing the city’s chronic budget shortfalls
• Despite being elected with support of public-sector unions, Stanton has tried, meekly, to address labor issues

If Greg Stanton is indeed a “meh” kind of mayor — a top executive who never seems comfortable seizing a moment or leading a meaningful parade — a lot of it reflects the nature of the times.

As mayor, Stanton faced the greatest financial crisis in Phoenix history, a crisis whose aftershocks the city continues to feel today.

Stabilizing city finances has consumed the lion’s share of the mayor and City Council’s attention since the 2011 elections. There’s been scant opportunity to pursue sweeping visions.

Stanton will be re-elected in the Aug. 25 election, unless his two unknown challengers manage to force a runoff. That seems highly unlikely, as neither poses a serious challenge nor is qualified to be mayor.

So the election serves best as a time to review the mayor’s performance and look forward to his second term.

BUDGET AND ECONOMY

On the plus side, Stanton focused on streamlining permitting and making the city more business friendly. He was front and center in the successful push for an Arizona trade office in Mexico City. Those are fair-sized feathers.

Once, Phoenix was judged one of the most fiscally sound cities in the country. Now? Structural deficits seem baked into the Phoenix cake, including a $30 million deficit the city avoided this year only by delaying payments to the state’s underfunded pension programs.

A progressive, program-minded mayor who values expanded city services, Stanton has been hamstrung in his aspirations because of his city’s financial woes. Ironically, the top line is doing fine. Tax revenues flowing into Phoenix’s general fund are approaching record levels. But escalating pension payments are crowding out everything else, creating deficits

Stanton is a victim of these circumstances. But with similar deficits projected at least into next year, there is no getting around the bottom line: It is happening on Stanton’s watch.

There is not a lot of enthusiasm at City Hall for taking on these chronic budget woes or truly meaningful pension reform, least of all in the mayor’s office. That needs to change in a second term.

LABOR RELATIONS

Lifted to office on the shoulders of public-sector labor unions, especially police and fire, Stanton has been afforded few opportunities to reward his political benefactors. The city strained to balance its books while sending as few employees as possible onto the streets — an atmosphere that put Stanton at odds with many of his erstwhile supporters.

The mayor and the council’s Democratic majority imposed a contract on the city’s workers in 2014, a historic first. That showed leadership.

After first resisting any pension-reform efforts, Stanton led the 2012 push to mildly constrain the growth of the city’s public-sector pension liabilities — half-hearted, edge-tinkering measures that nevertheless prompted a fierce union backlash.

The courts haven’t helped. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge last week shot down a Phoenix effort to tamp down so-called pension “spiking” by forbidding retiring city employees from applying unused sick time and vacation hours to pad their pensions.

To his credit, Stanton vowed to appeal the decision. In all, however, Stanton’s efforts to contain the growth of legacy costs to taxpayers have not done enough to forestall their rapid rise.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Stanton has presided over a rapidly improving and expanding central city, and deserves credit for it.

The city is involved in two huge bio-medical development deals that could raise Phoenix’s profile as a research center. The downtown campus began under previous administrations, but received a big boost this year with the entrance of a billionaire investor. The other, a much larger piece of ground near the Mayo Clinic in north Phoenix, is a Stanton initiative. He should make it the centerpiece of his second term.

The mayor also has focused much attention on the development of the arts community. The Roosevelt Row area of Phoenix has become a meaningful, vibrant arts hub. That’s to Stanton’s credit, too.

CULTURAL ISSUES

Cultural issues constitute both Stanton’s forte and his foible.

If this mayor is famous for nothing else, it is his efforts to refashion Phoenix as a walkable town. And a bike-riding town. The evidence of that part of the Stanton agenda can be found everywhere in the central city — from the ubiquitous green bike lanes on many streets to the profusion of rent-a-bikes to all those (ahem) interesting shade treatments along Roosevelt Row.

Nice? Sure. But projects that in other administrations constitute minor accomplishments for Stanton seem to represent Really Big Things.

Stanton is the master of the grand, sweeping gesture. The LGBT community owes him a debt of gratitude for his commitment to fight discrimination. He is an advocate for education, despite limited opportunities for mayors to impact schools.

He is a fine cheerleader for his city. He leaves crowds feeling better about themselves, no small achievement when times are tough.

Will he leave his city a better place? Perhaps. But in the inevitable second term to come, we’re hoping for more follow-through than what we have seen so far.