Racine's new CEO settles in

Up on the second floor of Racine City Hall is a big office that used to house the Finance Department. Its cubicles are empty; the front counter is piled with furniture, boxes and trash. The lights are mostly out; Finance Department workers are now located elsewhere.

But if you were to open the big doors and peer inside, you'd see a light coming from an office in the back, to the left. And if you were to wend your way there, past the debris, you would meet Racine's newest executive, arguably the second-most important person in City Hall (behind the mayor and, collectively, the City Council.)

That man is Benjamin S. Hughes, 35, the two-and-a-half-weeks-new city administrator, Racine's second ever. In effect, he is the city's chief operating officer, the person who oversees and manages city operations day-to-day. Department heads report to him, and he reports to the mayor.

Hughes sports a crisp blue shirt, blue checked tie and a big smile. And why not? Few people even know he's here yet; these are what he'll remember as the good old days, before daily crises search him out.

He says he knew in high school that he wanted a career in local government, "the side of governent that makes things work efficiently," he says, "not politics."

And so he got B.A. and Master's degrees in public administration and spent eight years working for the mayor of Albany, NY -- Jerry Jennings was first elected in 1993 and still holds the job, and there's no city manager or administrator. Then, in 2004, Hughes wanted to move closer to his family in Michigan, so he took a job as village administrator in Wrightstown, WI, (between Green Bay and Appleton) population 2,400.

In May 2006 he visited Racine for the first time, with a friend who has family here, and fell in love with the city. "I made a mental note then that if the job every became available, I'd want it."

This summer, when the city's first administrator, Steven Nenonen, retired, that option became a possibility. (Nenonen, you'll recall, retired on somewhat a sour note, when it became known that he claimed $29,000 for months of unused sick leave.)

Hughes was recommended for the job by Mayor Gary Becker, and approved by the City Council 12-2. (Voting nay were Ald. Robert Mozol, who felt the $110,000 salary was too high; and Ald. Michael Shields, who feels the position itself is unnecessary.)

"I love city government," Hughes says. "Bedroom communities don't excite me; helping people who are disadvantaged, working with a challenged manufacturing base and fixing unemployment, those are what I like."

Hughes said he told the mayor during the interview process, "I don't care whether you have a residency requirement (Racine does), I want to live here anyway. I plan to be here for a long time; I don't want to be viewed as someone who'll be a change agent and then be gone."

Hughes has spent his first weeks here meeting with department heads, and front-line staff, and wandering the city talking to people. The impression he's gotten is that the city is "an undiscovered gem; almost everyone I've talked to said they feel the city is coming back, and they want to be here. It made me want to be here even more."

Until he sells his house in Wrightstown, Hughes is renting a duplex on the north side of town. But he says he wants to buy a home.

THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT BEN HUGHES:

He's the oldest of four kids; has two sisters and one brother. His siblings and family still live in Michigan, near Lansing. His father was a school superintendent; his mother a social worker.

He likes to stay active and plays third base in softball leagues. The scouting report would say, "Good defensively, not so good with a bat."

He's a runner; does a 10k in 44 minutes, a half-marathon in 1 hr. 40 minutes.

His dog, Cooper, 7, an abused black Lab and coon dog mix, was rescued from the Green Bay animal shelter just before he was to be euthanized.

Finally: yes, girls, he's single.