After lengthy transition, Purdie will become Clinton’s mayor

By Randy Bell

Mayor Will Purdie

Will Purdie had known for more than four months that he would be the next mayor of Clinton. He was the only candidate to qualify to run for the office before the deadline on January 31.

But, Purdie says, until the June 3 general election was held, he felt a little hesitant to do a lot of early preparations to take over as mayor.

“Even running unopposed, doing too much prep work or too much planning before you’re officially mayor-elect was a little bit like tempting fate,” he says. But he admits that the extra time has been helpful. “To really have sort of a long, smooth transition, that’s certainly a blessing.”

Purdie was already intimately familiar with City business.

“My situation is a little bit unique, probably, for most new mayors, being the City Attorney with an office there in City Hall,” Purdie said. “It affords me the ability to already have relationships with department heads and sort of being enmeshed in everything that’s going on. Certainly, it’s an advantage I don’t want to take for granted, because it really allows you to hit the ground running from day one with a base understanding and knowledge of the issues, so you can get to work for the citizens right out of the gate.”

But there’s been more to learn in the weeks leading up to his swearing-in.

“I’ll be really trying to take a deep dive into the budget,” the mayor-elect says.

Mayor Phil Fisher gave Purdie the opportunity to preside over the May and June Board of Aldermen work sessions to get a feel for how those meetings flow. He’s also been allowed to take a more active role in helping to run staff meetings to start putting his stamp on how things will be done when he takes office.

“[Fisher] has been great and really just said that anything he could do to help with the transition, he was certainly willing to do,” Purdie says.

According to the mayor, he wanted to give his successor as much help as possible, regardless of who it was. Fisher says the pace of the transition would have been “a lot more intense” if the mayor’s race had been hotly contested and the winner hadn’t been determined until June 3.

“I have always intended for the new mayor to come in running and not having to try to find his way around.”

But Fisher says Purdie won’t have much of a learning curve as he takes over.

“He’s been the attorney for six years, going through the budget process, seeing everything that we do. Of course, it is different on the other side of the table.”

The mayor expects Purdie to work well with the legislative branch of City government.

“I think he’s got a good, experienced Board coming back. Five [incumbents], two new ones. One [T.J. McSparrin, new Ward 2 Alderwoman] has been the Chamber of Commerce president.

The other [Amanda Jones, new Ward 3 Alderwoman] worked for the City as communications director, so there’s some good experience coming back, people who’ve been there, done that. And I don’t see him [Purdie] having troubles with the Board.”