John Cook has served as El Paso mayor longer than anyone since the 1980s, and as he approaches the end of his eight years in office, the City Mayors Foundation named him one of the world's five best mayors.

Cook has presided over an eventful time in the Sun City's history, and even in his final days in office, those events are still shaping his legacy.

Cook crafted his image as a signing ambassador for El Paso who tries not to take himself too seriously.

"Well, you know, all the eight years I've been mayor, when everybody refers to me as 'mayor,' I say, 'I'm not a mayor. I'm a stallion," Cook said.

Beneath the joking demeanor is a mayor who's faced serious issues and controversies – almost from the start. He did so even though he was the first to serve under a new governing system that weakened the mayor's powers in favor of a strong city manager.

Three months into his mayoral run, hundreds of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina arrived in El Paso in September 2005 and filled the convention center.

"I think it was one of our finer hours. We showed other communities how it should be done," Cook said.

Less than a year later, El Paso faced its own devastating storm when repeated flooding plagued the city in the summer of 2005.

"We're still dealing with some of the aftermath of that flood. Remember, we had $200 million worth of damage to our public infrastructure alone," Cook said.

It quickly became apparent to El Pasoans of every stripe that we were unprepared and ill-equipped for the storm of the century. Memories of an earlier mayor, Suzy Azar, came flooding back recalling that she lost re-election because she dared to call for a new tax to improve the stormwater infrastructure.

"When all of the sudden, you get three years' worth of that rain in a 30-day period of time, it teaches you a different lesson," Cook said.

Cook and the City Council worked with City Manager Joyce Wilson and El Paso Water Utilities CEO Ed Archuleta to create a new stormwater utility funded with a new fee to finally create the infrastructure aimed to better prepare the city for the next big flood.

Cook's City Council also pursued a progressive agenda by voting to provide health benefits to the gay and unmarried partners of city workers. Council's vote led to the so-called "family values" referendum, which local voters overturned council's decision.

Cook said the ordinance was so vaguely worded and cost dozens of city retirees and others their benefits. He voted with a majority on council to overturn the family values ordinance.

"If you want to pass an ordinance, make sure you know exactly what it is you're saying, and probably you want to go out and hire a lawyer to do that work up front and avoid all the time you're going to spend in court later," Cook said.

Cook successfully fought off an effort led by El Paso Pastor Tom Brown to recall him along with city represenatives Suzie Byrd and Steve Ortega.

Cook said it's left him with more than a half-million dollars in legal bills that he doesn't have the money to pay off. His attorneys may try to get the city to pick up the tab.

Even in his final months in office, Cook faces controversy because of a plan spearheaded by Wilson to demolish City Hall. The plan will make room for a ball park and bring a Triple-A baseball team to El Paso.

The mayor still bristles at the fact Wilson announced the proposed deal while he was out of town because he wasn't a big fan of the plan.

"I mean it was OK to have the ankle biters with those questions, but they definitely didn't need to have the chief elected official making those criticisms," Cook said.

Cook said he's concerned with moving city offices into multiple buildings because it could dilute the quality of city services. He also has his doubts about whether the baseball stadium will make a big difference in revitalizing the area.

Cook said the city had few options to respond to an opportunity that comes around less than once a decade, and he now stands behind the deal. He said the biggest challenge in his final months in office is making the move out of City Hall as seamless as possible.

"It's very expensive for us to maintain, so the total decision to vacate this building was not an all bad idea. I don't know if it was the perfect idea but there are probably no perfect ideas," Cook said

Cook said he had three goals when he took office – to revitalize downtown, improve transportation across the city and provide more parks and open space.

He feels as though he's gone a long way in achieving those goals along with dealing with each crisis that came along.

But he said he's most proud of the transparent way he's led City Hall, including his monthly open door meeting day where constituents can come to his office and talk about whatever they want.

"One of the very first things I did was I put a sign on the door that said, 'This is the people's office' and I took that very seriously," Cook said.

Cook said he won't endorse anyone to succeed him, and he'll stay busy once he leaves office. He plans on volunteering as executive director of the U.S./Mexico Border Mayors Association, which he founded a year and a half ago.

Cook is also in the process of writing a memoir about his time as El Paso mayor.