(Sept. 22, 2016) Berlin Mayor Gee Williams, 67, is comfortable standing on his record and his eight-years in office, as he seeks reelection in the Oct. 4 municipal election.
After a career as a journalist and newspaper publisher, Williams made the transition to Berlin Councilman in 2003. He became acting mayor in 2008 when Mayor Thomas Cardinale passed away in office, and was voted into office later in 2008 and again in 2012.
During the “Williams era,” Berlin has turned its image as a Victorian era postcard into a calling card for a successful hospitality and tourism industry centered on its downtown sector.
He said the key difference between himself and his opponent in the election, District 2 Councilwoman Lisa Hall, is whether “preserving that small-town charm means not changing anything, anymore.”
For instance, Hall has said she would like to limit new development in Berlin to its roughly 300 infill-lots.
“Some of them, basically, not been developed in over 150 years,” Williams said. “The town tried that. People forget that it took [his wife] Betsy and I 24 years to get annexed in town – and we lived about 16 feet beyond the border. That’s ludicrous.”
That does not mean, Williams said, that he’s willing to annex anything and everything into the town.
“It’s all about making the right choices at the right time to have a vibrant community that is sustainable,” he said. “Nobody wants to destroy the downtown or the neighborhoods that are in existence. They are all unique and for the first time in my lifetime I think everybody understands that every neighborhood in this town is important to its success – and that’s a phenomenal leap from the 20th century.
“The issue then is, do we continue to allow commercial and residential growth? Of course we do, but it’s how much and where and what kind,” Williams added. “If this town had not adopted a policy of being open to growth that’s appropriate to our culture and our community, we’d still be where we were 30 years ago, which was a desperate, desperate place.”
Williams said “a few contrarians” are spreading the false notion that he intends to open the floodgates for new development in Berlin.
“In the old days, we called them ‘closed gaters,’” he said. “They wanted to come down to Berlin or the lower shore and they wanted to close the gate behind them. They wanted it to be welcoming for them – they wanted all the advantages of living here – but they wanted to be the last ones through the gate. That is extremely harmful. I saw the result when that attitude was the most commonly shared by the community, and it almost killed us.”
He touted his membership in Smart Growth America, a national coalition that “works with communities to fight sprawl and save money” and that believes “smart growth solutions support thriving businesses and jobs.”
One of its principals – and his – is that economic opportunity and environmental responsibility are “two sides of the same coin.”
“You need both of those things if you want to have a community where you can sustain a quality of life for generations – that’s what we’re doing,” he said, adding that he supported a “growth boundary” that looked beyond the next four years and through the remainder of the 21st century.
If you become too restrictive, Williams said, “You basically force out the people who built the community,” which is largely the working class.
“This community, for anybody who is 50 years old or over, there is no fear whatever that it’s going to change in some dramatic way and that the boogey man is coming,” he said. “That’s what my harshest critics, including my opponent, think – that all growth is just the boogey man in another form, and that is wrong.”
Williams admitted the campaign itself has not been what he expected up to this point, calling it, at times, “bizarre.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this. But I am running a traditional campaign and I’m staying very positive,” he said. “The general mood everywhere – not just here – is, I think, people are anxious. There’s a lot of anxiety, there’s a lot of uncertainty and there is very understandable fear. That being said, all the things that are contributing to that are not our situation in Berlin.
“From my perspective, the greatest challenge that I have faced as mayor – particularly during this recent term – is trying to keep up with the rising expectations of our citizens,” Williams added. “Wow, what a nice problem to have!”
With an eye towards the future, Williams talked about developing a business culture that focused on keeping the next generation of workers in Berlin.
“It’s a paradox – we have one of the best public school systems in the state of Maryland, which is considered one of the best in country – and we always have invested well in our school systems. But we get these kids educated, we get them prepared to succeed in modern American society, and then we wave goodbye,” he said. “What a shame.
“I think we have an obligation to at least offer some of them, after they get their education and maybe some experience in their field, to have the opportunity – a realistic one – of coming back to the community of their birth and to be the professional that they have learned to be,” he said. “That’s one of the areas that have just not been talked about and it’s time to begin the discussion.
“That’s why I very much believe that closing the gate right now means telling all those young people that you see at our playgrounds and when I visit our schools, ‘it’s very nice to see you, but I know I won’t see you most of your life.’ We have to find a balance,” Williams continued.
While he said the smartest decision of his life was marrying Betsy, Williams said his second-smartest decision was coming back to his hometown after earning a degree from the University of Maryland in 1971. That is an opportunity he hopes Berlin can offer the generation of kids that is growing up there now.
“People that come here and they fall in love, and it’s not with the buildings – the buildings are the backdrop,” Williams said. “It’s the lifestyle, the people, the attitude, the welcoming and the acceptance.
“Our responsibility is what kind of community do we leave behind for those who follow us – that, to me, is what this election is about,” he continued. “Anybody who tries to imply that the boogeyman is at the door is just total foolishness.”
If Williams happens to lose the election, he admitted he would “certainly be disappointed” and said he would likely use the ample additional free time to continue working with the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, where he is currently the marketing director.
“Certainly I’ll be disappointed, but I don’t think it would be a rejection of me – I think it would be a rejection of what this community has been working to accomplish for two-to-three generations,” he said. “It would be, not a change in direction direction, but it would be a change from going forward to going in reverse. That’s what I think this means.
“Of course, I wouldn’t leave Berlin, but I would basically let them do their thing and I would go get involved and hopefully help people in some other way,” he added.
After a career as a journalist and newspaper publisher, Williams made the transition to Berlin Councilman in 2003. He became acting mayor in 2008 when Mayor Thomas Cardinale passed away in office, and was voted into office later in 2008 and again in 2012.
During the “Williams era,” Berlin has turned its image as a Victorian era postcard into a calling card for a successful hospitality and tourism industry centered on its downtown sector.
He said the key difference between himself and his opponent in the election, District 2 Councilwoman Lisa Hall, is whether “preserving that small-town charm means not changing anything, anymore.”
For instance, Hall has said she would like to limit new development in Berlin to its roughly 300 infill-lots.
“Some of them, basically, not been developed in over 150 years,” Williams said. “The town tried that. People forget that it took [his wife] Betsy and I 24 years to get annexed in town – and we lived about 16 feet beyond the border. That’s ludicrous.”
That does not mean, Williams said, that he’s willing to annex anything and everything into the town.
“It’s all about making the right choices at the right time to have a vibrant community that is sustainable,” he said. “Nobody wants to destroy the downtown or the neighborhoods that are in existence. They are all unique and for the first time in my lifetime I think everybody understands that every neighborhood in this town is important to its success – and that’s a phenomenal leap from the 20th century.
“The issue then is, do we continue to allow commercial and residential growth? Of course we do, but it’s how much and where and what kind,” Williams added. “If this town had not adopted a policy of being open to growth that’s appropriate to our culture and our community, we’d still be where we were 30 years ago, which was a desperate, desperate place.”
Williams said “a few contrarians” are spreading the false notion that he intends to open the floodgates for new development in Berlin.
“In the old days, we called them ‘closed gaters,’” he said. “They wanted to come down to Berlin or the lower shore and they wanted to close the gate behind them. They wanted it to be welcoming for them – they wanted all the advantages of living here – but they wanted to be the last ones through the gate. That is extremely harmful. I saw the result when that attitude was the most commonly shared by the community, and it almost killed us.”
He touted his membership in Smart Growth America, a national coalition that “works with communities to fight sprawl and save money” and that believes “smart growth solutions support thriving businesses and jobs.”
One of its principals – and his – is that economic opportunity and environmental responsibility are “two sides of the same coin.”
“You need both of those things if you want to have a community where you can sustain a quality of life for generations – that’s what we’re doing,” he said, adding that he supported a “growth boundary” that looked beyond the next four years and through the remainder of the 21st century.
If you become too restrictive, Williams said, “You basically force out the people who built the community,” which is largely the working class.
“This community, for anybody who is 50 years old or over, there is no fear whatever that it’s going to change in some dramatic way and that the boogey man is coming,” he said. “That’s what my harshest critics, including my opponent, think – that all growth is just the boogey man in another form, and that is wrong.”
Williams admitted the campaign itself has not been what he expected up to this point, calling it, at times, “bizarre.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this. But I am running a traditional campaign and I’m staying very positive,” he said. “The general mood everywhere – not just here – is, I think, people are anxious. There’s a lot of anxiety, there’s a lot of uncertainty and there is very understandable fear. That being said, all the things that are contributing to that are not our situation in Berlin.
“From my perspective, the greatest challenge that I have faced as mayor – particularly during this recent term – is trying to keep up with the rising expectations of our citizens,” Williams added. “Wow, what a nice problem to have!”
With an eye towards the future, Williams talked about developing a business culture that focused on keeping the next generation of workers in Berlin.
“It’s a paradox – we have one of the best public school systems in the state of Maryland, which is considered one of the best in country – and we always have invested well in our school systems. But we get these kids educated, we get them prepared to succeed in modern American society, and then we wave goodbye,” he said. “What a shame.
“I think we have an obligation to at least offer some of them, after they get their education and maybe some experience in their field, to have the opportunity – a realistic one – of coming back to the community of their birth and to be the professional that they have learned to be,” he said. “That’s one of the areas that have just not been talked about and it’s time to begin the discussion.
“That’s why I very much believe that closing the gate right now means telling all those young people that you see at our playgrounds and when I visit our schools, ‘it’s very nice to see you, but I know I won’t see you most of your life.’ We have to find a balance,” Williams continued.
While he said the smartest decision of his life was marrying Betsy, Williams said his second-smartest decision was coming back to his hometown after earning a degree from the University of Maryland in 1971. That is an opportunity he hopes Berlin can offer the generation of kids that is growing up there now.
“People that come here and they fall in love, and it’s not with the buildings – the buildings are the backdrop,” Williams said. “It’s the lifestyle, the people, the attitude, the welcoming and the acceptance.
“Our responsibility is what kind of community do we leave behind for those who follow us – that, to me, is what this election is about,” he continued. “Anybody who tries to imply that the boogeyman is at the door is just total foolishness.”
If Williams happens to lose the election, he admitted he would “certainly be disappointed” and said he would likely use the ample additional free time to continue working with the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, where he is currently the marketing director.
“Certainly I’ll be disappointed, but I don’t think it would be a rejection of me – I think it would be a rejection of what this community has been working to accomplish for two-to-three generations,” he said. “It would be, not a change in direction direction, but it would be a change from going forward to going in reverse. That’s what I think this means.
“Of course, I wouldn’t leave Berlin, but I would basically let them do their thing and I would go get involved and hopefully help people in some other way,” he added.