Mayor For Life

If Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo was a dog, he’d be a golden retriever. 

He’s warm, loyal, effortlessly friendly—goofy, even. But he’s also serious when necessary.

Saffo, who paired a navy blazer with sporty, gum-soled Pumas for an interview with The Assembly, agrees with this canine diagnosis (matching human personalities with dog breeds is an ongoing social media trend). “I’m a happy-go-lucky person,” he said. Safe to say he’s a glass-half-full type too. “I’ve had this unique perspective that very few people get to see,” he said. 

At 63, Saffo has led Wilmington, the state’s most populous coastal city, since 2006. With one term on the city council before being appointed to the top political post, Saffo has spent nearly 21 years in public office with nine elected terms as mayor. He is the longest-serving mayor of this city founded in 1739.

Over his tenure in office, the city’s population has swelled 32 percent to more than 120,000 people—the urban core of the nation’s ninth-fastest growing metropolitan area, per the latest census count, at 468,000.

As a candidate, Saffo has enjoyed mostly breezy victories. In a third of his mayoral races, including his latest, he ran unopposed. Nearly all municipal elections in North Carolina are nonpartisan, though that hasn’t stopped the local political parties from getting involved. The Wilmington region is so purple that a leading political scientist recently picked New Hanover as the top county to watch this presidential election year. 

But even when city councils and county commissions tilt toward Republicans or Democrats, Saffo keeps getting re-elected.

For the record, like most urban mayors, Saffo’s a Democrat. He gives a hearty laugh when asked whether he thinks he’s been a good one: “Some people might think I’m a great Democrat, some people might say I’m not a Democrat at all.”

He’s lasted at the helm by not alienating progressives, while also appeasing conservatives with a pro-business track record. In hot political moments, Saffo tends to land in the middle (for instance, during the George Floyd protests of 2020, he said police brutality was a legitimate concern but also condemned local protestors for “incit[ing] a riot”).

Plenty of progressives in Wilmington are frustrated at the breakneck pace of development under Saffo. But on the whole, New Hanover County Democratic Party Chair Jill Hopman had no complaints. “You’re rarely going to get what you want in politics waiting for a 100-yard touchdown return,” she said. “For me, it’s about moving the ball forward 5 yards at a time, and I think that Mayor Saffo is the personification of political pragmatism. And he has shown that it works.”

Republicans don’t seem to mind Saffo either. If they did, they’d have surely put forth a contender by now. Throughout his campaigns, Saffo regularly nets donations from Republican business heavyweights and hasn’t faced a formidable conservative opponent since 2009. 

When then-President Donald Trump visited in September 2020 to christen Wilmington as the nation’s first World War II Heritage City, Saffo was one of few Democrats to attend the ceremony. He called the federal distinction “a tremendous honor,” though some critics saw it as an excuse for Trump to visit a competitive political battleground. 

Saffo frequently laments modern political polarization and rejects pressure to chastise opposing viewpoints. He counts his political ambiguity as a strength. “I think one of the best compliments I’ve ever been given is, somebody came up to me and says, ‘I don’t know what you are,’” he said. 

At this point, he’s transcended politics and evolved into a local celebrity. Ever gregarious and gracious with his time, he’s hopped on many stages to bellow big welcomes to musicians and never seems to miss even the smallest ribbon cuttings. 

He can’t go to the grocery store without someone stopping him to chat. “All the time. Everywhere I go,” he said. “It’s part of the job.”

In December, Saffo was sworn in as mayor again, with his parents by his side, a ritual they’d done 10 times before. It probably won’t be their last—Saffo says he’s not done yet. “I think I’ll know it when I know it,” he said.

“I always think this one’s the last one,” said Louise McColl, Saffo’s longtime campaign manager. “I think he’s got two or three more campaigns if he wanted them.”

Vassilios Avgerinos Saffo’s political pursuit was part personality, part lifestyle.

He is the first-born son of a Greek immigrant mother, Despina, and a father, Doky, whose parents immigrated from Greece. 

Doky Saffo, a respected developer in the region, is known for his well-timed projects in Leland before the Wilmington bedroom community ignited with growth. Bill Saffo’s mother, Despina, fled Greece with her parents after the Nazis invaded. They left Ikaria, a Greek island renowned for its peoples’ longevity. “They have that zest for life,” Saffo said of Ikarians. “I guess they forget about dying.”

Despina and Doky raised five children, three sons and two daughters. “There’s no shrinking violet,” Saffo said of his siblings. “Everybody’s got a big personality.”

Growing up, he was one of nine people sharing a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Wrightsville Beach in the ’60s and ’70s, and Greek was his first language. The chaos and camaraderie turned out to be the rehearsal he’d later need for balancing political relationships with a spectrum of personalities. 

He says his interest in politics was first piqued at 12: Saffo remembers putting up signs and flyers for Nick Galifianakis, a Greek congressman representing Durham who narrowly lost to Jesse Helms in the 1972 U.S. Senate race.

Saffo stuck around town for college and studied political science at UNC-Wilmington (his first choice was the University of Hawaii, but his father wouldn’t pay for it). 

He wasn’t the best student. “I had a good social life, if that will tell you anything,” he said. Once, in psychology class, a professor chastised him in what he describes as a formative moment. “He said, ‘Mr. Saffo, before you formulate an opinion, you need to get the facts.’” 

After graduating, Saffo went to work with his dad to help grow the family real estate firm, Hanover Realty. Together, they developed single-family neighborhoods and commercial centers in Wilmington like University Landing and Fulton Station. He got plenty of practice in his business life doing what mayors do: hand-shaking and deal-making. 

At 43, Saffo was ready to run for city council. A few years prior, the city had botched a deal with the pharmaceutical company PPD, and Saffo thought he could do a better job. 

Doky Saffo asked McColl if she’d run his son’s campaign, and she remembers screening him to decide whether to take him as a client. McColl said she thought Saffo was funny, sincere, and that he wanted to win. “He seemed to know the answers without having to stop and think,” she said. 

Saffo says he lost 20 pounds going door-to-door that campaign. Backed by the development community, Saffo easily settled into the council in 2003. Before that term had finished, then-Mayor Spence Broadhurst unexpectedly had to relocate for his banking job, so the council was tasked with nominating a replacement. At the time, Wilmington had seen five different mayors over the previous decade.

As a first-term councilman, Broadhurst said Saffo was a sponge and had quickly developed into a consensus-builder. Though Saffo’s colleagues had more political experience, the StarNews’ editorial board billed the council’s 2006 selection of Saffo as the “logical choice.” 

Broadhurst, who has since moved back to Wilmington, said he frequently reflects on the butterfly effect his relocation had on the city. “I think about it often with great pride,” he said. “I made the right decision for my family and appointing now-Mayor Saffo was clearly the right decision then and now. Bill has navigated masterfully.”

Saffo has managed to maneuver his lengthy political career relatively unscathed. Though he’s often accused of using his position to enrich himself or his family (mainly in the frequently unruly comment sections of local news articles), no scandal of consequence has ever truly materialized. 

The only notable blip: In 2010, Leland’s then-Mayor Walter Futch raised ethics concerns about Saffo’s participation in a committee tasked with choosing a path for a proposed bridge, the Cape Fear Skyway. Saffo owned land near the potential paths, and as a supporter of the project said it could hurt his investments but that it was good for the region. Futch felt Saffo shouldn’t have been involved in the bridge planning at all; soon after, Saffo resigned from the committee. The bridge was never built. 

Saffo’s closest margin of victory came in 2019. That year, the city was letting developers get away with what many saw as sacrilegious misdeeds: Officials were waiving fines after old live oaks had been razed without permission. Many residents saw the limp treatment of violators as cosigning an already aggressive lot-clearing taking place across the growing community.

Saffo had to answer for it. He was—and continues to be—an obvious person to blame for what many see as development gone rampant. And as a developer himself, he’s easily lumped in. 

So when a sharp young contender, Devon Scott, emerged as Saffo’s mayoral opponent in 2019, liberals flocked to Scott, a 36-year-old software developer with no prior political experience. 

Saffo represented the establishment and Scott symbolized change. Saffo only won by 610 votes. “It isn’t close, but it is close when you’re used to winning by 2,000 or 3,000,” McColl said. “Sometimes people want change. At that point, Devon had a lot of the Democratic Party, and we didn’t.”

Evan Folds, who was Scott’s campaign manager, said he didn’t have any personal critiques of Saffo but instead pointed to low voter turnout and engagement, and pitfalls baked into the weak-mayor system of government. In this system—operating in most North Carolina municipalities—unelected staff have played an increasingly influential role in policymaking. “Bill Saffo is not the problem, focus on him is a symptom of the problem,” said Folds, who is an elected member of the county’s Soil & Water Conservation board. “The result is that it is extremely difficult to bring new and common sense ideas to our region.” 

(Last year, Scott pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his wife in 2015; after she came forward in 2020, Folds and other progressive leaders disavowed Scott.)

The 2019 race made Saffo nervous. In the aftermath, he tried to tighten up on issues that residents were most vocal about, embracing over-development criticism by championing new tree-planting initiatives and city rules to beef up tree preservation. 

Ironically, trees became a political vulnerability for Saffo: His first-ever resolution in 2004 as a councilman was to plant trees on city property. In his first questionnaire as mayor in 2006, the StarNews asked him what he’d want to be if he wasn’t in real estate. “A forester,” he said. 

The charge that he’s too friendly to developers still follows him—and most other local elected officials here. Local and state-level elected leaders are paid poorly, so the gig attracts those who are independently wealthy and have flexible schedules. Plus, people who work in real estate often have a heightened interest in local governing codes.

Hopman, the local Democratic Party chair, said voters from both parties have grown jaded by real estate interests representing them. “‘We told you we did not want another developer,’” she recalls frequently hearing from local voters. “‘You gave us more developers. That’s why we didn’t turn out to vote.’”

The over-representation of the industry is a bipartisan tension, she said. “As well as it can be navigated, I think Mayor Saffo has done a good job.”

He acknowledges residents’ frustrations with developers but still sticks up for his industry. “It’s always kind of tickled me that the job creators get a pat on the back,” he said. “And the people that are providing services for those jobs sometimes get a little vilified.”

It was difficult to find local political or community leaders who would say anything critical of Saffo or his policies–a rarity in politics. Still, he gets his fair share on social media.

Saffo says he not only reads the comments, but also mines them for a party trick among friends after a couple of drinks, delivering his favorites Celebrities Read Mean Tweets—style, a recurring Jimmy Kimmel Live sketch. “I know your pockets have been lined. Your shoes too!” he said dramatically. “We’ll sit around and they’ll just howl with me.” 

McColl, his campaign manager, said Saffo is like a brother. His strict policy on conflicts of interest for himself probably means she’s missed out on money she’s tried to secure for Friends of Muni, a nonprofit she chairs that supports the city’s golf course. Because people know their history, she thinks Saffo might even go overboard to prevent any perception of favoritism. “He always tells me no,” she said.

As a candidate, McColl said Saffo’s always been preoccupied with his competition—even if there wasn’t much of a reason to be. “He’s a lot of fun, but he is the most nervous person I’ve ever run a campaign for,” she said. 

Saffo can try too hard to please everybody, McColl said, an impossible but admirable task. “When you’re in a leadership position, sometimes you get beaten up and hollered at,” she said. “Billy kind of lets it go off his shoulder. And he goes out of the way to make the people who don’t like him, like him.”

His biggest weakness, she said (besides turning down her muni requests), is that he’s always late. “I think he’s got so much scheduled on his plate that sometimes he just kinda gets behind,” she said. “When Billy gets somewhere, he’s gonna stay.”

In the fall, the share of write-in votes against Saffo grew slightly, reaching nearly 9 percent, compared to his previous solo appearances on the ballot. Typical write-in candidates are seemingly entered in jest or apathy—like townie Ricky Meeks or Saffo’s ex-wife.

UNCW political science professor Aaron King said he wouldn’t read too much into the write-ins. “The bigger story is the lack of an established candidate to provide some competition,” he said. “With such name recognition and an established record, defeating Saffo would not be an easy feat without significant financial and community support.”

Politically, Saffo has no apparent enemies. “In politics, one thing I learned is it’s not the amount of friends you have, it’s the amount of enemies that you don’t have—that’s the secret,” he said. “This is a people business. And if you don’t like people, you don’t need to be in it.”

The closest thing to an enemy might be Harper Peterson, who was Wilmington’s mayor from 2001–2003. Peterson ran to get his old job back against Saffo twice—first in 2007 and later in 2021, after serving one term in the state Senate. He’s likely the most experienced competition Saffo has ever faced, and Saffo swept their latest match-up with a 28-point lead. 

“He’s a gentleman,” Peterson said. “We’ve been good adversaries.” 

As a mayor, Peterson became known for an acerbic style, which contrasts with Saffo’s safer, centrist mentality. Peterson ran on issues where they differed, mostly related to growth, he said, never against Saffo as a person. “When someone doesn’t run against an incumbent, I think we fail the community at large because the minority voice, it’s important they’re heard,” Peterson said.

“To be perfectly honest with you, I’m proud that he’s been our mayor,” he said. “I think he’s represented our city well.”

He’s got plenty of projects to reflect on, but Saffo returns to downtown’s hard-fought comeback when reminiscing on his career. Growing up, he recalls a thriving downtown, but the opening of Independence Mall in 1979 sucked dollars and foot traffic elsewhere. “I remember the vibrancy of that downtown,” he said. “And to have an opportunity to help in that revitalization effort has been probably one of the joys of my life.”

After the initial struggles with pharmaceutical giant PPD, the city in 2004 used a property swap and incentive deal to help the company establish its headquarters downtown. At the time, the StarNews reported that Saffo said the deal was the “greatest thing that has happened to the city of Wilmington since World War II.” That may have been hyperbole, but PPD certainly kickstarted downtown’s resurgence. 

Other big downtown investments followed. With a creative legal workaround, the city established a new room occupancy tax district to fund and build its convention center, which finally opened in 2010, around the same time the city’s Riverwalk extension project was completed. Third Street also got a facelift; the city’s private-public partnership River Place opened in the center of downtown in 2020, and in 2021, the city opened Live Oak Bank Pavilion, a riverfront performance venue on an old brownfield site, a location that residents had previously voted down in a 2012 referendum for a minor league baseball stadium. 

And perhaps most notably, the city purchased the PPD building—the region’s tallest—for $68 million last year, a hotly debated decision Saffo firmly defended. Councilmembers and other top staff occupy the penthouse floor; the city is using about five floors and is working on leasing out the remaining seven to offset costs. Critics say the decision was timed poorly in a deflated commercial real estate market, but it did help consolidate scattered city services under one tall roof. 

The city aims to bump up property taxes by 7 percent this summer to account for various capital needs.

Former Mayor Don Betz, who served five mayoral terms from 1987 through 1997, said Saffo recently gave him a tour of “the palace.” As the former PPD headquarters, it still has a ritzy, corporate flavor. “They’re going to have to work hard to make the public feel welcome, but at the same time, it’s going to be more secure,” Betz said, adding that attempted break-ins at the old city hall were frequent when he was mayor. “It’s one-stop shopping to the highest degree they never had before.”

Betz said he prefers the old mayor’s office, nestled in an 1850s theater fronting Third Street. “My heart is with Thalian Hall,” he said.

Throughout the years, Betz said Saffo would call him to compare notes. Besides his parents and former Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, Jr., a fellow 10-termer, Saffo counts Betz as one of his top confidants. 

Wilmington mayors get a vote on issues presented to the council, so a 4-3 majority is needed to pass or reject most items. “Bill isn’t counting to four,” Betz said. “Some mayors only count the four: themselves and three others, and then they’re going down the road, full speed ahead.” 

Like Betz, Saffo never sought higher office. “He’s had an opportunity, I’m sure, if he wanted to be in Raleigh,” he said. “I think his heart, and his family’s heart, is right here. He’s right here. And he’s not climbing a ladder.”

Johanna F. Still is The Assembly‘s Wilmington editor. She previously covered economic development for Greater Wilmington Business Journal and was the assistant editor at Port City Daily.