For most of her professional career, Susie Wiles has been involved in politics. From her years in Washington, D.C. working on the Ronald Reagan campaign to serving as Mayor John Delaney’s chief of staff, Wiles has been associated with politics on almost every level. About two years ago, she cited burnout and left the Delaney administration. After brief stints with Vestcor Companies and APCO Worldwide, Wiles formed Wiles Consulting. Today, she has several paid clients and many who just ask, “What do you think?” Wiles, the daughter of former broadcaster Pat Summerall, is also heavily involved in the Mike Weinstein for mayor campaign. She met recently with Daily Record editorial director Fred Seely and staff writer Mike Sharkey this week to talk about herself and Jacksonville politics.
Question: Who do you work for?
Answer: Some of my clients want to be identified and some don’t. I’m enjoying every minute of trying to help Mike Weinstein be Jacksonville’s next mayor. I have a wonderful situation [consulting] with the railroad [CSX] here, working for really, really good people and they give me lots of fun projects and interesting work.
Q: Like what?
A: A little of this and a little of that. Some media relations, a fair amount of strategic planning, a little work with corporate philanthropy; that kind of thing. I’m kind of ‘good for what ails you’ at the railroad and it has been wonderful. I do some work for [Jacksonville Airport Authority executive director] John Clark, a little bit of government affairs, a little bit of media relations. I actually gave up some clients in August because I found myself chasing my tail a little more than I like to. That’s what keeps me busy on a day-to-day basis. I’ve also been lucky enough to get a special project here and a special project there that have been interesting and fun and so far, knock on wood, pretty successful for the client. All in all, it’s a pretty good life.
Q: Is this how you envisioned things when you left the mayor’s office and the corporate world?
A: I have been exceedingly blessed, as I have been throughout my whole life. I didn’t really know what to expect to leave a very safe and secure cocoon in government. You know what you’re going to be doing, by and large, on a day-to-day basis. You know where your paycheck’s coming from. You know who you’re responsible to and you manage that. Then I left absolute safety and security to come to something slightly less with a large multi-national corporation [APCO Worldwide] that happened to have an operation in Jacksonville. And, there was a certain large amount of safety and security there. Then I hung out my shingle. Frankly, when I left APCO, at that time I could have stayed there and built the Jacksonville office without Adam [Hollingsworth, who’s now at CSX], bringing in another partner or doing it myself. I looked around and said, ‘Why would I do that?’ I can open an office at home in Ponte Vedra, where I’ve lived for 20 years now. I can take clients, if I’m lucky, that I want to take, not clients necessarily that a large company tells me that I have to take and hopefully I can make a living at that. In my wildest imagination, I didn’t believe it would be as good as it has been. I’m just so grateful to Jacksonville and all the people that have helped me along. I like to think that I work hard and deliver a product that’s worth buying. As long as that continues to be the case, I hope to have a client here and there.
Q: What product are you selling?
A: That’s a good question. For some, it’s helping them with strategy and planning. For some, it’s the nuts and bolts of media relations; everything from the tactical to the strategic. For some, it’s knowledge of the community and knowledge of people that shape opinions and make policies. It’s a little bit of everything. I have done far less government affairs than I thought I would, although I am picking up more.
Q: What is “government affairs?” Isn’t that lobbying?
A: Yes. I expected to do a fair amount of that, although it’s not my favorite thing. It just seemed a natural transition.
Q: Would working with the airport authority count as lobbying?
A: Not until very recently. What I had done for them was media relations and we just did a huge strategic plan and I facilitated that process. They have asked me to step up some of their government affairs work. The post-Sept. 11 environment for them has been just chaotic and they have come through that now. They have lots of federal money coming their way now. They have their CTX system online and will be the first airport in the country to bring that live. They’ve reshaped the management of their organization and are getting ready to hire a full-time CFO. They are really at a place now where they need to focus externally more than they have.
Q: Do you do any work for the City?
A: Mayor [John] Delaney and [General Counsel] Rick Mullaney, during my time there, passed a very strict ethics code that precludes me from lobbying my former agency for life on anything I had any jurisdiction over while I worked there. For better or for worse, that was a lot of things.
Q: Are you getting money from the City?
A: Absolutely not.
Q: One of the things you cited when you left the mayor’s office was burnout on government work. As a member of the Weinstein camp, you’re on the verge of government and politics again. When you went to work for yourself, did you ever think a mayoral candidate would become a client?
A: I’m here because of Mike. I wouldn’t be involved in the mayor’s race but for Mike. I believe to the very core he is the right man for this community after Mayor Delaney and I believe he has the right experience, vision for the future and the right set of values this community needs and wants and deserves. I’m answering your question backwards. I wouldn’t be in this political seat if it weren’t for Mike.
Q: He’s your only political client. Could you envision more down the road, given the right client?
A: I have a lot of clients that are politicians that I don’t collect any fee from. People that I have known and worked with, and some cases they are my friends, who I regularly give advice to, sometimes solicited, sometimes not. I’ll have somebody call me up and say, “What do you think I should do about XYZ?” To that extent, I have a lot of little snippets of political work.
Q: If Weinstein wins, do you have a role after the election?
A: You know, I don’t think you can go home again. I think Mike will build a team that’s reflective of what Mike wants to do and I don’t really feel there’s a role for me there other than as a friend and maybe an advisor. That’s something he hasn’t really thought about because there’s still a long road until the election.
Q: Are you still working with Duval County School Superintendent John Fryer?
A: I hold the superintendent in high regard. I think well of him. I think he’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever known. I don’t have any official relationship with him. We do talk from time to time.
Q: Are you on one side or the other of the cable issue?
A: I am on one side of that and I’m not on the AT&T side.
Q: To what extent are you involved?
A: There are some folks in Jacksonville that would very much like to see the cable returned to local control and local ownership. People remember the model of the Continental days and the MediaOne days more fondly than they have viewed the AT&T days. There’s a group in town that’s interested if the opportunity arose.
Q: This is a very quiet group of people using very quiet tactics. Are you involved?
A: I’ve been a little bit of a face.
Q: Are there any other faces that will pop up?
A: I don’t think so. Keep in mind, lots of things have to happen before anybody locally can even think about doing anything.
Q: You have to dynamite what’s there first.
A: My job has been simply to help get ready in the instance that, perhaps, AT&T does go away.
Q: Is that to prevent the community from not having cable for any period of time?
A: I cannot imagine that this community will miss one hour without cable. However the mayor and the general counsel work through this revocation process, whatever the City Council does to approve it or disprove it, I know we are not going to be put in a situation where we don’t have an operator.
Q: AT&T has said they will drag this out legally for years.
A: I’m afraid that’s true. This is a lucrative area. It’s a big franchise area and it has growth. Anybody that’s in an industry where they grow their revenues by increasing sales would want to be here and that’s certainly true of cable. It could be a very long time before we see anything different from what we have to today.
Q: When will these other people come forward?
A: There’s nothing to know yet. This is about getting organized in the instance there’s an opportunity.
Q: If cable is returned to a locally owned and operated situation, would they be open to competition?
A: I’m sure they would. It’s not a conversation I’ve ever had. The folks that are interested in whatever opportunities might exist here are interested because they consider themselves to be customer-service oriented first. That’s what they want to provide. I would think, just as an observer, that when a company signs a contract with a government to do XYZ, there would be a burden to do that on the company and unfortunately that’s not what we’ve seen here. I guess I’m Pollyanna in that it could be that way again if you had a group of people who really were interested in this community and customer service and they entered into an agreement with the city. I’m just naive enough to think they might follow the rules and we might be able to get what we should be able to get.
Q: Your a big soccer mom with two that play. How is that going?
A: My older daughter is retired except for intramurals at college. She had a devastating injury and her soccer career is kind of over. Interestingly, she goes to Southern Methodist University in Dallas and there is a huge international contingency in the student body. There are lots of Europeans and South Americans who play finesse soccer and not power soccer, so in that world she can play and have a great time. My little one, who just turned 16, is working really hard and she’s in JYS [Jacksonville Youth Soccer] in Mandarin on a State Cup team that will be competing for the State Cup in the spring. We managed to be able to travel from Labor Day until last weekend every single weekend watching her play soccer.
Q: Business is going really well. Where do you want to be in a year or five years down the road?
A: A business counselor or a business coach would be horrified at me because I don’t have a real business plan. I have been so fortunate and overwhelmed right out of the gate with more work than I can do, that I haven’t spent the time a business coach would tell you to spend making plans for a year or five years. My goal is the same as it has always been: to work hard, probably harder than anybody, give my best advice and my best effort and hope that carries me to the next level. And, whatever that next level is, I’ll be grateful for it.