BEING MAYOR OF MARIETTA isn't a job that comes with much power. The mayor votes only in case of a tie or to cast a veto, for example. Rather, Marietta's most successful mayors have been those with the force of personality and leadership skills to transcend the limits of the position and see their vision become reality. Mayor Bob Flournoy Jr. did it in the early 1980s with his vision for a remade Glover Park in Marietta Square and Joe Mack Wilson did so in the late 1980s with city beautification and acquisition of the property for what eventually became the Marietta Conference Center and City Club golf course.

The city, and country, now are in the midst of dire economic times. The overdue city revitalization efforts begun during the two terms of Mayor Bill Dunaway, who is not seeking re-election, have mostly stalled out or gone belly up. What's needed is new leadership and a fresh vision of where the city's going and how it should position itself for the better times we all hope aren't too far distant.

Three candidates are seeking the mayorship. One is a gadfly and the second little known and inexperienced. Fortunately, however, the third candidate stands head and shoulders - literally - above his opponents, the 6-foot-7-inch Steve "Thunder" Tumlin.

Tumlin, 62, has lived and worked in Marietta his entire life and is well known for his low-key, amiable disposition. But his easy-going style goes hand-in-hand with a first-rate mind (he has a law degree from Georgia State University and is also a CPA) and terrific people skills.

More than that, Tumlin already has given long years of service to this city. He has chaired the Marietta School Board and the Board of Lights and Waterworks and most recently spent a stint in the Georgia General Assembly representing a west Marietta district. He and his wife, Jean Alice, have three grown children and two granddaughters.

***
TUMLIN'S CANDIDACY could not come at a better time for the city. That's because there is a crisis of leadership at City Hall. Dunaway was first elected in 2001 with a clear mandate from voters to make city rejuvenation a top priority, along with divesting the city of money-losing Marietta FiberNet and finding a new operator for the Marietta Conference Center. To his credit, that is what he did. But his fondness for Tax Allocation District subsides as the go-to option for redevelopment, even for sites where TAD subsidies were not needed; and his willingness to hand out such subsidies to cronies undermined the public's support for them. And the mayor's overbearing, contentious leadership style did him no favors, either.

In Dunaway's defense, he was hamstrung on many fronts by the often duplicitous efforts of powerful Councilman Philip Goldstein, the biggest private landowner in downtown Marietta. Goldstein, with whom Dunaway feuded almost constantly, prefers to operate in the shadows and let his loyalists (many of whom are his tenants) do his bidding. He is unquestionably the "first among equals" on the council and is treated as such by City Manager Bill Bruton and other city staffers, who no doubt know that Goldstein will be in power long after the mayor of the moment is gone. That will have to stop, and we hope Tumlin will let the City Hall bureaucrats know it.

There is a crying need for greater transparency at City Hall, and not just when it comes to Goldstein's machinations. The council during the Dunaway years tarnished its reputation on numerous occasions with its efforts to flout the spirit of the sunshine laws, and only with great reluctance decided to start revealing details about pending land purchases prior to the closings of the transactions, rather than after, when it was too late for the public to protest. We're confident a Tumlin-led council will remember that the public's business should be done in public and that the public can be trusted.

Beyond that, the next mayor must continue the efforts to revitalize the city, although that effort should focus more on providing additional single-family housing instead of more condos. Moreover, those single-family homes should be geared toward middle-class buyers, not the "affordable housing" category, which is just a euphemism for the bottom end of the demographic chart. Marietta has a surplus of that kind of housing already - much of which is decrepit, thanks to years of lax city code enforcement. Major retailers go where the customers are, and if Marietta ever hopes to attract any of the former (such as a Publix or Kroger, or a Kohl's, or more than just one Starbucks), it first must be able to show retailers it has the demographic base to support them. Unfortunately, the city as a whole has been failing that test for the past decade or more.

In addition, we hope Tumlin and the new council will come up with a viable plan for upgrading the major entry corridors into our city, most of which have taken on a tawdry appearance in recent decades. The council can sink all the tax money it wants to into the conference center or Glover Park, but what's the point if visitors to our city first must drive past miles of pawn shops, greasy-spoon eateries, empty storefronts, el cheapo car lots, scary-looking taverns and liquor stores specializing in cheap wines in order to get to them?

In sum, there is no shortage of pressing problems awaiting the next mayor and council. And that is why it is incumbent that that next mayor be someone with a deep knowledge of our city, a vision for how to improve it and the leadership skills to get the job done. And Steve "Thunder" Tumlin is that man.