CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After nearly 16 years at the helm, Charleston mayor Danny Jones steps away from the office on Monday.
Jones’ final actions as mayor will come Monday night at the Charleston City Council meeting. He previously announced that he would not seek another term and retire.
“I am very excited about getting out of here but it is very emotional, it has been my life,” Jones said on his radio show 580-LIVE, on MetroNews affiliate 580-WCHS.
Jones, the longest serving mayor in the city’s history, held a final senior staff meeting on Thursday, with discussions of the administration’s legacy, memories and many giving thanks to Jones.
Among the accomplishments discussed during Jones’ tenure, he said fixing the pension is the most significant thing done for the future of Charleston by his administration.
“It’s a half a cent tax and it will save Charleston from calamity 35 years from now,” he said.
During his radio show, Jones mentioned other significant moves such as investing $100 million in the housing manors, finishing and opening Appalachian Power Park and the renovations and rebirth of the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
A city user fee was implemented under Jones in 2004. When it was first implemented, the user fee was $1 per week. It went up to $2 per week in 2008 and is now $3 per week.
“One of these days, a candidate is just going to embrace it,” Jones said. “They are just going to say ‘You want to get rid of it, what is your way? Look at the money, look at what it does.’ You couldn’t pave a road in this city without that fee and most of the people that pay it, aren’t from the city.”
At his senior staff meeting on Thursday, Jones mentioned two situations while he was in office where he felt helpless and still gets emotional about today. The first was when Charleston police officer Jerry Alan Jones shot and killed by friendly fire in 2009 and second was the 2014 water crisis in the Kanawha Valley region.
Jones has been holding the senior staff meeting twice a week since he became mayor with heads of all city departments there sharing details of what is going on and what needs to be done.
“We’ve had a good culture of leadership from the mayor,” Rod Blackstone, Charleston Deputy Mayor, said. “A good culture of service that started from the top on down and a real strong communication that I hope will continue no matter who is the mayor of the city.”
Blackstone said he hopes Mayor-elect Amy Goodwin will continue the meetings once she gets sworn in on Monday evening.
Many in the senior staff meeting on Thursday under Jones will be moving on from their positions but a couple will be staying. Jones said the transition between himself and Goodwin has been smooth.
“I can’t say enough good about what has happened here,” he said. “I hope she (Goodwin) feels the same way towards us. She gave us 24 days notice. I think that was incredibly generous.
“She could have come in here and cleared the decks. Some of the very career people she is keeping, like Chris Knox the city engineer and Dan Vriendt, these are not political people. She has actually allowed me to have some input on that and she didn’t have any reason to do that. I wasn’t for her and she knows that.”
Jones took office in June 2003 replacing, Jay Goldman. From 1999 to 2003, Goldman was the mayor of Charleston.
Goldman said his transition with Jones went well and noted a few of Jones’ works.
“Danny and I had known each other for years,” he said. “I supported him in the election. I told him when he took over, if you need somebody to take a bullet for you, I’ll be around.
“We started the ballpark and he picked up on that. I think that is a plus because that allowed the development of the Cancer Center for CAMC. I think the rejuvenation of the Convention Center is also a good thing.”
Goldman also noted what he thought the biggest challenge for Goodwin will be once she takes office.
“You’ve got a lot of new members of the city council and a lot of people with many years of institutional knowledge that has left the council,” he said. “When she comes in, they are always a great resource to a mayor and they can help you quite a bit.”
All the new council members will be sworn in Monday along with Goodwin. Jones said he will start the council meeting on Monday night and wrap things up quickly and once adjourned, the council president will take to the podium and swear in the new positions, including new Chief of Police Sgt. Opie Smith. Jones said then Goodwin may make a speech.
What does Jones think will be running through his mind on Monday night after the city council meeting?
“Free at last,” he said. “I am ready to go and it is time to move.”