Quick, clipped speech and a brash manner betray his New York roots. Never mind that. Bill Kenny is a committed West Virginian.
Newly 64, he arrived in Charleston as a college student and stayed on to make a name for himself in the corporate world and in city and state government.
He worked in the city manager's office under Mayor John Hutchinson and was city manager for Mayor Kemp Melton. He spent 16 years wheeling and dealing, often internationally, for Midwest Steel.
He entered state government as assistant insurance commissioner in the Wise administration and now serves as Gov. Joe Manchin's deputy insurance commissioner.
Beneath that fast-talking, businesslike demeanor beats the heart of a frustrated musician. A motorcycle accident wrecked any dreams of a drumming career. Probably a good thing, but it nags at him still.
"I was born in Queens, N.Y. In the fourth grade, we moved to the South Shore of Long Island.
"My dad was a hard worker. He drove trucks. When I was in second grade, he and Mom mortgaged the house, found a partner and bought a Carvell Ice Cream franchise in Brooklyn. Carvell was the first of the soft-serve type ice cream places.
"I'm a kid, so dad owning an ice cream store was a great life. Because they were working, my sister and I had to hang around a lot. They served these ice cream cones through a window for 10 cents. They would get so busy, they wouldn't have time to put money in the cash register, so they had all these dimes on top of the register.
"I wondered how much money you could make at 10 cents a cone. All I know is that within two years, we bought a house on the South Shore and took our first vacation and bought a new car.
"They sold that after a number of years. When I was 13, my father bought a small marina. I'd work for him when I wasn't in school. For my salary, at the end of the first year, he bought me an old wooden boat with a little outboard motor. I had it for maybe two months and managed to destroy it.
"The next year, he bought me another used boat and we put a bigger motor on it. It was 12 feet long and did 60 miles an hour. It's amazing I'm still here, but I had a great couple of summers.
"He sold the marina and bought into a service station that was very heavy on mechanics. I learned to change tires. That's when I finally decided I needed to go to college.
"The music thing started in junior high. By the time I got to high school, I'd become pretty proficient on drums. Music in my school was very big. One whole wing was a music wing.
"Between my junior and senior year, I went to a performing arts camp, the Maynard Ferguson School of Jazz. That piqued my interest in music even more. In college, I played in bands to help pay my way through school.
"I went to Morris Harvey [now the University of Charleston]. That's how I got to Charleston. When I first came here, I kept comparing Charleston to New York. At the end of my freshman year, I said to myself, 'Look, you are going to be here for four years. You'd better look around and see what the area has to offer.'
"Charleston has a lot of charm. It's a very cultural city for its size. I love New York, but it's fun to walk down Capitol Street and be able to say hello to people. And I can be at the office in 10 minutes.
"I majored in business, marketing and management. I stayed with the music. I played with Dave Baber. And Bob Thompson and I had a trio at the Top of the Inn. I was making decent money. Music became more important than college. I made a bad decision and left college before my senior year.
"Then I had an unfortunate motorcycle wreck that ended the drumming career. I had to reconstruct a knee and it took about a year in and out of the hospital to recover. That's when I kind of looked at life and said, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'
"John Hutchinson was running for mayor and I helped out at headquarters. John was successful and asked if I wanted to take a role in his administration. For five years, I was in the city manager's office working with Don Richardson.
"That's how I met Nelson Jones. I had the privilege of being the liaison between Nelson and the city for what became the regatta. He was a remarkable young man to be around.
Quick, clipped speech and a brash manner betray his New York roots. Never mind that. Bill Kenny is a committed West Virginian.
Newly 64, he arrived in Charleston as a college student and stayed on to make a name for himself in the corporate world and in city and state government.
He worked in the city manager's office under Mayor John Hutchinson and was city manager for Mayor Kemp Melton. He spent 16 years wheeling and dealing, often internationally, for Midwest Steel.
He entered state government as assistant insurance commissioner in the Wise administration and now serves as Gov. Joe Manchin's deputy insurance commissioner.
Beneath that fast-talking, businesslike demeanor beats the heart of a frustrated musician. A motorcycle accident wrecked any dreams of a drumming career. Probably a good thing, but it nags at him still.
"I was born in Queens, N.Y. In the fourth grade, we moved to the South Shore of Long Island.
"My dad was a hard worker. He drove trucks. When I was in second grade, he and Mom mortgaged the house, found a partner and bought a Carvell Ice Cream franchise in Brooklyn. Carvell was the first of the soft-serve type ice cream places.
"I'm a kid, so dad owning an ice cream store was a great life. Because they were working, my sister and I had to hang around a lot. They served these ice cream cones through a window for 10 cents. They would get so busy, they wouldn't have time to put money in the cash register, so they had all these dimes on top of the register.
"I wondered how much money you could make at 10 cents a cone. All I know is that within two years, we bought a house on the South Shore and took our first vacation and bought a new car.
"They sold that after a number of years. When I was 13, my father bought a small marina. I'd work for him when I wasn't in school. For my salary, at the end of the first year, he bought me an old wooden boat with a little outboard motor. I had it for maybe two months and managed to destroy it.
"The next year, he bought me another used boat and we put a bigger motor on it. It was 12 feet long and did 60 miles an hour. It's amazing I'm still here, but I had a great couple of summers.
"He sold the marina and bought into a service station that was very heavy on mechanics. I learned to change tires. That's when I finally decided I needed to go to college.
"The music thing started in junior high. By the time I got to high school, I'd become pretty proficient on drums. Music in my school was very big. One whole wing was a music wing.
"Between my junior and senior year, I went to a performing arts camp, the Maynard Ferguson School of Jazz. That piqued my interest in music even more. In college, I played in bands to help pay my way through school.
"I went to Morris Harvey [now the University of Charleston]. That's how I got to Charleston. When I first came here, I kept comparing Charleston to New York. At the end of my freshman year, I said to myself, 'Look, you are going to be here for four years. You'd better look around and see what the area has to offer.'
"Charleston has a lot of charm. It's a very cultural city for its size. I love New York, but it's fun to walk down Capitol Street and be able to say hello to people. And I can be at the office in 10 minutes.
"I majored in business, marketing and management. I stayed with the music. I played with Dave Baber. And Bob Thompson and I had a trio at the Top of the Inn. I was making decent money. Music became more important than college. I made a bad decision and left college before my senior year.
"Then I had an unfortunate motorcycle wreck that ended the drumming career. I had to reconstruct a knee and it took about a year in and out of the hospital to recover. That's when I kind of looked at life and said, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'
"John Hutchinson was running for mayor and I helped out at headquarters. John was successful and asked if I wanted to take a role in his administration. For five years, I was in the city manager's office working with Don Richardson.
"That's how I met Nelson Jones. I had the privilege of being the liaison between Nelson and the city for what became the regatta. He was a remarkable young man to be around.
"I left the city because I was hired by the Midwest Corp. I started in purchasing and became in charge of all their new railroad rail sales. We sold railroad rails to mines and industrial plants. I loved it. I was there 16 years.
"Midwest was a small conglomerate of four or five distinct industries. Sam Silverstein was president. He was very entrepreneurial, a great deal-maker. Sam decided to merge with a larger company that manufactured tubular steel as a way of getting enough cash for us to continue growing. I was buying and directing sales, setting prices, marketing the product.
"We ended up buying railroad rails in Japan and products in China and Korea and Europe, and I traveled in those areas just finding places to buy a product we could sell competitively.
"In the '80s, the company we merged with got sued because they manufactured asbestos. They hadn't made asbestos since about 1954 and it was basically for insulation on Navy ships, but it was a class-action suit, and it ultimately bankrupted the company. They sold off the company in pieces, and that was the end of Midwest Steel.
"I did a little stint as a financial consultant with Wheat First Securities for maybe three years. Then Kemp Melton was elected mayor and asked me to be his city manager.
"Kemp was a very interesting guy. He truly wanted to do what was best for Charleston, but he wanted to do it in a nice way. He didn't like confrontation.
"There were some pretty big issues with council, mostly budgetary. Some council members wanted things that I knew the mayor didn't want. Somebody had to take a stand. A couple of people in council wanted to fire me, but it wasn't as contentious as it seemed in the headlines.
"I come across as brash. It might be the New York accent. It might be that I came from a faster-paced environment, and you get used to getting things done quicker. In private enterprise with an entrepreneurial company, that's what you do - find an opportunity and go after it.
"People end up judging you on what you got accomplished. City government is one of the best positions if you are going to work for government. You can make a decision in the morning and measure the results in the afternoon. You are close to your citizens. You are making decisions important to everybody's day-to-day life, protecting them with the police, keeping roads paved, picking up their trash, working on street lights. It's instant gratification.
"Kemp decided to run for another term. I wasn't interested in working a long time in that position, so I left. I considered myself semi-retired. I was investing and helping others invest, working out of my house. That didn't last long. I liked going to an office and being with people.
"Commissioner Jane Cline was working with the Bob Wise campaign, and I got involved in that. When Jane got appointed insurance commissioner, I ended up assistant to the commissioner and ultimately deputy commissioner.
"This is one of most challenging positions I've ever had. We had the medical liability crisis where doctors couldn't get insurance at an affordable rate, and now we're in health-care reform, and in the middle of that, we did tort reform. We are not a sleepy little agency.
"We had to facilitate the privatization of workers' comp. We were a little agency of 85, mostly accountants and attorneys. All of a sudden, we had 400 employees as the workers' comp infrastructure came to us. We're still around 300.
"We have solved some fairly big problems in the insurance world. The workers' comp thing alone is a tremendous success story. Rates are down 40 percent for businesses, and that's a big piece of money that becomes available for their growth.
"The insurance commissioner is subject to reappointment when the governor changes. I don't know what's next for me. A bigger boat, maybe. Hopefully, I will get to again be in semi-retirement.
"One thing I wish I could do is get back into music as an avocation. Four years ago, I bought another set of vibraphones. But I forgot how much time it takes to get proficient."
Reach Sandy Wells at san...@wvgazette.com
or 304-348-5173.
