TAMPA – As the department of communication chair and professor of government and world affairs at The University of Tampa, a public official, father of 10 kids, deacon and author of an upcoming book, Scott Paine has had his fair share of life experiences.
The issue that Paine hopes to tackle in his new book is that of the loss of trust amongst public officials and those they govern.
The idea for the book started three years ago. Paine said the idea for the book began to crystallize and he began testing ideas out. It developed out of a lot of workshops, seminars and presentations for public officials over a number of years.
“Thematically, what the books comes down to is the overall critique of where we are,” said Paine in respect to how newly elected officials can adjust to the new political landscape.
Paine draws a lot of his thoughts and interpretations of situations from day-to-day living and is able to translate them with his love for words, reading and telling stories.
“I tend to move back-and-forth between some ordinary experience of ‘normal life,’ of everybody’s life, and then finding a way to bridge that reflection to something like political leadership or public policy issues…That’s probably my pattern.”
His book intends to create a dialogue on where America is now as far as trust and leadership go.
“This isn’t to only show where we are as a country—but as a culture,” Paine said. “Some of it talks about political reform and its effects, but then some of it speaks about technological changes and industry changes that are affecting the culture of political engagement.”
Speaking from first hand experience, Paine said that “If you’re a public official, it means you’re doing your very best to explain something. But only one in about every five people is likely to believe what you have to say.
So what do you do with that?”
“I want people to know we have this fundamental problem with trust…The core idea of the solution is all about integrity and having a deep sense that as a public servant in whatever role, you really are a servant,” Paine said.
Paine hopes the book is useful in teaching individuals how to improve their trust, leadership and thought process so that officials can actually enact improved services for their community as a whole.
But these important inclinations didn’t start growing from just anywhere—they started with a boy named Scott in Michigan.
Growing up in the Detroit area, Paine admired writing from a young age.
“I have children’s stories I have written,” Paine said. “You know, I think the oldest thing I have is from the fourth grade.”
Professor Paine did his undergraduate work at Kalamazoo College, a small private liberal arts school in Kalamazoo, Mich. where the max enrollment was 1,501. Paine graduated with honors in political science in 1979.
He continued his education at the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. His soon-to-be wife Carol attended the university’s nursing program.
He earned his PhD in political science in 1984.
Dr. Paine taught at the University of South Florida and the University of Albany before settling down with The University of Tampa.
“He has a way about teaching that makes me want to learn,” said senior Emily Sarecky, when she was asked to express thoughts about Dr. Scott Paine. “Out of all the teachers at UT, he is one of the few that I will always remember throughout my life.”
Since the early ‘90s Paine has helped and strived to serve the public in positive ways. He was elected to Tampa City Council in 1991, where he served two terms. He was reelected in 1995, but then lost the election in 1999 by one vote in a 31,000 cast of votes.
Paine has also served on the transportation and planning board and chaired the Metropolitan Planning Organization and its advisory council.
Currently Paine is not serving on any boards. Apart from spending time with his children and wife, Paine was recently ordained a Deacon at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, and last spring he was elected Chair of UT’s communication department. But for the past few years he has been putting together a book called Rethinking Public Leadership for the Twenty-First Century.
Professor Juliet Davis, who has grown familiar with Paine, said “The thing about Scott is that he is not just another faculty member. He is a mentor to his colleagues. He cares about people’s professional lives as well as personal lives. And it is because of his spirituality that he is a person who cares about community and looks past microcosms of individuals. He will see the larger picture of existence and humanity. He is one of the few people who is truly extraordinary in all facets of his life.”
Senior Jennifer Pio remembers Paine throughout her years at UT. “Dr. Paine is one of the most dynamic, engaging professors I’ve had throughout my four years at UT. While I found his course to be challenging, I felt his teaching style encouraged and facilitated a strong desire to do well in the class and in life.”
Tim Kennedy, professor of communication, commented on his relationship with Paine: “Dr. Scott Paine is admired by his faculty colleagues and his students for his personal integrity and his astute academic mind. It is a privilege to know him.”
The book is progressively gaining more attention and Paine aid he couldn’t have finished it without his wife and kids by his side. He also felt that The Florida League of Cities and and the University of Tampa stood behind him during his work.
“I have put my family through a lot of stuff–running for public office, holding public office, and then all the work with the League of Cities, and writing of this book and then the diaconate. But I can say with all honesty that my kids and my wife are the most incredibly patient and tolerant people when it comes to giving me space when I need to do these things. I try to never abuse that reality,” Paine said.
“There is a sense that I may not be the smartest guy on the block or best writer on the block. But I have something relatively unique, which is I am reasonably smart, I am an academic, I am also a practitioner. And there aren’t a whole lot of us out there. Then I can write well and I can speak well. And there aren’t many of us out there, period. That’s been my forte that makes me a unique bridge. I can do a good job of lecturing a classroom or speaking to 50 municipal officials.”
Thanks to his recent amount of free time, Paine is doing some personal reading: Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell and Pope Benedict The XVI’s First Book on Jesus of Nazareth.
Paine spoke of inspiration and remembered Kenneth Boulding, a Nobel Prize winner, who instructed a seminar and Q and A back when he was in school. He remembered asking Boulding “How in the world have you gotten all of this done? I mean really, how do you do this?”
According to Paine, Boulding said “If you wait to get it right, you’ll never get it written. Don’t use that as an excuse for being sloppy or being careless and doing a lousy job. Nonetheless–write the article, get it out there and let people react. Because it does reflect your way of thinking at a point in time. But if you keep saying you want to get to that definitive moment, it’ll never come. If you obsess about perfection, you’ll never get anything out the door.”
“That really stuck with me,” said Paine.
Follow Paine’s blog posts on the Florida League of Cities website: http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com.