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University Daily Kansan / Wednesdav. November 20, 1991
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Lawrence's low-profile mayor
By Heather Anderson Kansan staff writer
Bob Walters uses his listening skills in guiding town's progress
No one noticed him. No one stopped to talk with him. In fact, no one recognized Bob Walters at all.
But as he approached a crowd outside Alderson Auditorium, one man stopped his conversation in mid-sentence.
"Good evening, Mayor," he said, reaching out his hand.
Peggy Woods / Special to the KANSAN
Everyone in the lobby crowded around to shake his hand then.
Walters has had to deal with these delayed reactions for the last seven months while he has been mayor of Lawrence.
"People have a respect for the position," Walters said. "It really has nothing to do with the person."
lawrence mavor Bob Walters looks forward to going back to the farm he grew up on after finishing his term
Walters already knows that he will not run for re-election in 1993. He looks forward to the day when he is finished with public service and is able to work on the farm that he desperately wanted to leave during his childhood.
He also is acutely aware that he has exactly 16 City Commission meetings left as mayor.
Since he has been mayor, the title has not changed the 53-year-old Walters. He is essentially the same family man, the same city commissioner and the same manager of the research facilities at the KU Space Technology Center.
Leaving the farm behind
"I don't feel that I'm charismatic." Walters said. "I don't mean to be. I mean to be probably my old dumb self. I trudge along."
"I never had a great ambition," he said. "All I wanted to do was keep away from the farm. I got burned out with the farm."
In 1968, he moved in with one of his sisters, Frances Longhofer, who wished to marry her.
Longhofer said she was like a second mother to Walters. She was 17 years older, but he was more able to talk to her than to his parents because he could not understand why his father was so conservative.
"I came in to live with her to try to
her he be a father to the kids." Walters
Walters has lived in Douglas County all of his life. He grew upon a farm five miles northeast of Lawrence and lived there until his sophomore year at the University of Kansas.
Walters now has three sons of his own and has been married for 26 years. Walters' family said that things had not changed drastically for them while he had been mayor.
"For many years, he was like a son," she said.
But his wife, Anne, said she had not been as involved in social and volunteer activities as she had been in the past.
Now she spends more time attending their sons' school and sporting events and making appearances with her husband at ceremonies for police recruits or for the public works department.
Chris Walters, one of Bob Walters' sons and a junior at KU, said that his father tried to spend as much time with all of his sons as possible.
Bob Walters, who used to coach his sons' little league baseball teams, now
"He made the decision to be mayor with my blessing," she said.
surprises his sons at their various sporting events, Chris Walters said.
"He is proud of his family, and his family is really proud of him, too," he said.
Chris Walters that besides being supportive of him and his brothers when they competed in sports, his friends made time to listen to his family.
ishers in the election.
Anne Walters said that this willingness to listen was one of her husband's strengths as a commissioner.
Chris Walters said that his father has been known to talk on the phone for hours with Lawrence residents who concerned about their neighborhoods.
Bob Walters' listening skills are not limited to a family environment.
He listens to both sides of an issue until everyone is satisfied with the decision, she said.
He said that he originally entered the campaign because he did not think that a wide variety of people was running for the commission. He put his petition together for the campaign in December when about seven people already had announced that they would run for the three positions.
"I threw my hat in the ring with the fullest expectation that I would not win," Walters said.
Fourteen people ran against him in that election
"Had I known there were going to be 15 people, I probably wouldn't have run." he said.
During the race, he did not campaign on any programs that he wanted to put into action.
"I had no great ambitions or goals," Walters said. "I believe in steady state sorts of things: Continue the growth of
Bob Walters
Lawrence Martin
"I don't feel that I'm charismatic.I don't mean to be.I mean to be probably my old dumb self.I trudge along."
"Even if people don't agree with him, they know he has tried to lead the commission into a sound decision," Anne Walters said.
Walters' colleagues on the commission agree.
Schumm, who was mayor from 1988 to 1990, said Walters was a much more soucher than mayor had he been.
The path to City Hall
Walters tries to appeal to all groups and listens until the last word, Schumm said.
Commissioner Bob Schumm said that Walters was very caring and that he handled situations delicately. *He is concerned about how each
"He is concerned about how each and every action of the commission affects the person it touches," Schumm said.
Walters was elected to the commission in 1899 for a four-year term because he was one of the top two fin-
the community in a conservative fashion and see to it that we manage our city well."
The commission chooses one commissioner to be mayor each year. The City Commission appointed Walters as mayor in April.
"I'm also considered to be the spokesman for the commission," Walters said. "Consequently, I try to speak with the sense of the commission and not necessarily on my own. That makes a difference."
Walters does not consider himself to be different from the other commissioners. He said the only difference between being a commissioner and being the mayor was the time commitment. As a commissioner, he worked about 15 hours per week. Now he works an average of 30 hours a week.
"I look back now and acknowledge how naive I was," he said. "Governance of the city of Lawrence requires
much more than I ever believed, and it has been quite a learning experience for me."
Walters' KU connection
Aside from being mayor and a city commissioner, Walters works as the manager of the research facilities at the KU Space Technology Center. He is in charge of maintenance and assigning space in the building.
He began working for the University while studying for a master's degree in geology. He has been manager of the center since 1969.
Paula Sarlis, Walters's secretary at the center, said she had known Walters for 10 years.
He always listens to her, and he is willing to take suggestions, she said.
Sarlls said that Walters was not at the center as much as he used to be before he was a commissioner.
"He still manages to juggle things,"she said.
Transportation is one issue that Walters feels strongly about. He said he was in favor of building the South Lawrence Trafficway and the East Lawrence Parkway so that Lawrence could have a traffic loop.
Dennis Constance, who was a commissioner from 1987 to 1989, opposes Walters on that issue.
"We're going to choke on cars and roads and parking lots," he said.
However, Constance said that Waters sincerely tried to help the community. They just have differing opinions on how that should be accomplished.
For now, Walters keeps himself busy juggling the duties of a mayor, a father, a husband, a facilities manager and who is highly visible in the community.
Until his term is over, he can sit in the mayor's office and look at the pictures of all of the former mayors of the city, standing on the wall of his office at City Hall.
"Probably people in 10 years will never even remember me as being mayor at that particular point of time," Walters said.
"The only thing that I can take pride in is that my picture will go beside that person and will join the rest of the pictures in here," he said pointing to the picture of his predecessor, Shirley Martin-Smith.
"I take great pride in that."
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