In a Lawrence City Commission campaign firmly divided between “them” and “us,” Lynn Goodell has done his best to be “thus.”

All the candidates have taken pains to paint themselves as both pro-business and pro-neighborhood, but Goodell may have tried the hardest to paint himself as a centrist — a uniter, not a divider.

“I am the center,” Goodell pronounced during a candidate forum earlier this month.

“I want to hold myself above the fray, so to speak,” he said later. “My goal is to bring people back together. No matter who wins this election, it’s going to be a tough go.”

Goodell is presenting himself as more than just a friendly guy. He promises to be an effective commissioner, pointing to more than two decades as the city’s director of Housing and Neighborhood Development as proof he can get things done for both neighborhoods and business.

“I don’t know that anyone up there (in the race) has done what I’ve done for this town,” he said.

But Goodell also reveals himself to be a skeptic of how much government can accomplish.

“I worked in government a long time,” he said. “that’s why I know that the government can’t do it all and shouldn’t do it all. I’d rather encourage you to take action — and then government can help sometimes.”

From Texas to Lawrence

Goodell, 67, grew up throughout West Texas. His father worked for the Soil Conservation Service, and the family moved frequently before settling in Fort Worth, where Goodell graduated from high school in 1953.

He began college at North Texas State University, but he dropped out to join the Navy where he served on three ships during a four-year tour.

Goodell left the Navy in January 1959 and headed to Emporia State University to play baseball. After graduation, he taught English and coached in Los Angeles for four years.

“I decided it wasn’t a good place to raise my family, so I left,” he said. “I didn’t have a job, but I had a lot of self-confidence.”

He ended up in Oklahoma and started a series of urban renewal jobs, then to Coffeyville in a similar job. Finally he settled in Lawrence in 1977 as director of Housing and Neighborhood Development.

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He won state and federal awards during his tenure with the city, and he spearheaded a 30-home, low-income housing development at 24th Street and Haskell Avenue. He also helped direct federal grant money to neighborhoods, created a “weatherization” program to help low-income homeowners keep their houses in good shape and helped develop a “homestead” program for East Lawrence.

Goodell retired in 2000.

“I really had a good experience here working for the city,” he said.

Goodell professes bewilderment, however, that his candidacy is opposed by a number of neighborhood advocates — some of whom say he wasn’t neighborhood-friendly during his time with the city. He chalks it up to a straight-talking style.

“If I felt like something wasn’t good for the community, I’d say it,” he said. “It’s hard for me to have spent 24 years working with neighborhoods and have people say I wasn’t responsive. I have a track record of it.”

Running for office

It took two years away from the city before Goodell decided to try to come back — this time as an elected official.

“I just felt like I wanted to get back to helping people out,” he said. “I know enough about the people and issues, so I thought I could do some good.”

Even before he filed for office, though, whispers spread among Lawrence political observers that Goodell was running so he could be in position to fire his old boss, City Manager Mike Wildgen. Goodell said that’s not why he was running, but he acknowledged they had different styles when they worked together.

“Mike Wildgen is not on my agenda,” he said. “If I believe Mike Wildgen — or anybody, I suppose — was hurting the potential of this town, I’d say let’s go another way.”

On other issues, Goodell seeks out the middle ground. The city’s current tax abatement policy is a good compromise between divergent views, he says, as are the city’s new flood plain development regulations. In other cases where conflict arises, he says his policy is to sit down and talk.

“You just hope we can work those things out,” he said.

Even when those things are solved, Goodell said, other issues would arise. One of his mantras: “One solution shouldn’t create two more problems.”

“You and I are not going to solve it forever,” he said. “We just won’t.”