MARIETTA - Distinguishing between the mayoral styles of Mayor Bill Dunaway and Mayor-elect Steve Tumlin, political operative Heath Garrett raised the old adage about omelet making.

"Sometimes you have to break things in order to get people to focus on them, and then you have to have somebody else come in behind and actually put those things back together and build a consensus to move forward. So I actually think Bill Dunaway and 'Thunder' Tumlin are a great one-two punch for the city," Garrett said, a remark Dunaway said he agreed with.

Dunaway's first term as mayor began Jan. 1, 2002. Among his triumphs is ousting Sentry Hospitality, the original operator of city-owned Marietta Conference Center & Resort on Powder Springs, which posted losses of about $1 million annually - a figure swallowed by city taxpayers. Dunaway made replacing Sentry a centerpiece of his mayoral campaign in 2001, and the city bought out the final seven years of its contract in 2003 at a cost of $1.5 million.

Another victory was the sale of city-owned fiber-optics utility Marietta FiberNet, which was supposed to generate revenues to defray the expected costs of electrical power deregulation. The city sold off the money-losing utility in 2004 at the behest of Dunaway.

Redevelopment was another campaign issue for Dunaway. In February 2002, his brainchild, the Marietta Redevelopment Task Force, headed by Micky Blackwell, held its first meeting. The task force eventually morphed into the Marietta Redevelopment Corporation.

Dunaway announced he would seek a third term in December 2008, but in a surprise announcement, he reversed himself in June 2009. He said while he still has his energy and health, at 70 years old, "maybe I am not as bulletproof as I once was. I do not want to delay my personal life for another four years."

Councilwoman Holly Walquist said the announcement surprised her.

"While I have not always agreed with his style of leadership, I have always been impressed with his work ethic and his commitment," Walquist said. "I believe the mayor has always worked hard to do what he thought best for the citizens of our great city of Marietta. This can't be an easy decision for him and I wish him the best of luck."

Jeri Barr, wife of Bob Barr and CEO of the Marietta-based Center for Family Resources, added, "Public service is a 24/7 job. It is not a part-time job, and he certainly has dedicated 24/7 himself in leading the city and has done a great job in leading the city."

But Dunaway's career as mayor was not without controversy. Dunaway was perceived to have a penchant for secrecy right from the start, hosting a private dinner for the new City Council at his Acworth lake home in December 2001. He banned the media from attending this dinner. The first meeting of the Redevelopment Task Force was also held in private at Dunaway's 1848 House Restaurant on South Cobb Drive.

City Hall was designed and built in 1979 to be an open and inviting place. The mayor's office originally had interior windows that looked out at those who passed by. But in the first weeks of the Dunaway administration, he had an interior decorator install sheer curtains on his office for privacy. He then had the windows taken out altogether and a sheetrock wall installed in their place.

In October 2007, he vetoed a City Council resolution that sought to ensure all future city land purchases took place in public, as is the style of the Cobb Board of Commissioners, giving the public a chance to comment on land deals before money changes hands. The council overturned him.

Council members and state legislators say consensus building was not a strong point for Dunaway, who ran his own drug store and restaurant before becoming mayor. In December 2002, he accused Councilman Anthony Coleman of using his position on the council to get out of a traffic citation, an allegation he later withdrew. He also angered Coleman, the lone African-American on the council, during a May 2002 executive session when he said the council should "do like the tar baby and say nothing" about a matter he believed the council should remain quiet on.

In December 2002, the council adopted a resolution reprimanding Dunaway for his behavior in dealing with a city staffer. Dunaway had called the staffer into his office and gave him a verbal lashing despite the fact that the employee reported not to him, but to the city manager.

Dunaway outraged citizens and council members when he placed the Reynolds Street Parkway proposal up for a vote without consulting council beforehand in 2003. The four-lane, limited-access parkway would have extended Reynolds Street to Kirkpatrick Drive to connect with Whitlock Avenue, destroying up to 34 homes. The proposal was voted down by council in September 2003.

The numerous feuds with Councilman Philip Goldstein included whether the mayor was entitled to his own parking space at City Hall. And he feuded with Cobb commissioners, accusing them of failing to serve Marietta residents by buying the old Powder Springs Station shopping center near Bellemeade Drive for use as a senior center.

In November 2006, the council elected to put together a working team to discuss contracts with the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia in the lead-up to a nuclear plant expansion. The team excluded Dunaway even though, as mayor, he serves as the chairman of the city's Board of Lights and Water.

"Why do you want to exclude me?" Dunaway asked Councilwoman Walquist, prompting Walquist to reply that Dunaway is not a consensus builder.

Councilman-elect Johnny Sinclair said, regarding why he stepped down from council four years back, "One of the reasons I left, you know, Mayor Dunaway made it so difficult to get anything accomplished."

Sinclair said it wasn't so much that he disagreed with Dunaway's vision for the city as "he made it so unpleasant to work with him that (Dunaway) was unable to get anything done. You've got a City Council that Mayor Dunaway holds in utter contempt."

Under Dunaway, the city garnered a reputation for giving tax allocation districts a bad name, according to Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon and state Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs). In July 2005, Dunaway cast a rare City Council tie-breaking vote to retroactively approve a $400,000 tax subsidy for Marietta developer Wes Godwin. Dunaway declined to allow residents to speak out at the council meeting during public comment before the council approved Godwin's subsidy, as well as approving a $660,000 retroactive TAD for Marty Littleton's Frasier Circle duplex renovation.

Dunaway again locked horns with Coleman in July 2008 over property he owned that was being used as a scrap yard. Coleman represented the residents of Kennesaw Battle subdivision, who complained about the noise and debris associated with the scrap yard, Marietta Recycling Center, off Marble Mill Road. Marietta Recycling Center is owned by Steve Stewart, who bought the 4.6-acre tract for his company in 2006 from Dunaway. Dunaway also leases the front part of the property, 2.7 acres, to Marietta Recycling, which Stewart uses for office space.

Dunaway's last months in office were devoted to the successful passage of a $25 million bond for park improvements in the city. A citizens committee has been formed to advise the council how best to spend that funding.

"I do not know what, if any, my legacy will be," Dunaway said, in what he labeled as his last remarks to the council on Dec. 9. "My real legacy is already in the minds of my friends, the city staff, and the many city supporters. Thank you for the best eight years of my life."