During a visit with the Deseret Morning News editorial board in 2007, then-candidate Ralph Becker was asked if his low-key style and evenhanded approach to campaigning would get him noticed. His reply, in so many words, was he hoped voters would look hard and choose substance over style.

They did.

Now, as Mayor Becker gets sworn in today, residents of Salt Lake City hope he will hold fast to that thought. As the old maxim has it, an empty can makes more noise than a full one. And Becker has never been a noise maker. In fact, as a legislator, he was known for skills that hardly made a peep — diplomacy, organization, diligence, hard work and a sense of duty.

Say what you will, when it comes to life in the City-County Building, those qualities may not have a lot of flair, but they feel like fresh air through a window. The time has come to buckle up, hunker down and get things done.

There is much to do. Downtown Rising must be risen. Fences must be mended with the Legislature. Bruises and wounds inflicted by past regimes must be addressed and dressed.

Salt Lake City, of course, has been known for decades as the Crossroads of the West. Now, in his own words, Becker says the city itself is at a crossroads. Social services, the arts, business, religion and taxes are all on the agenda. And what the city needs is not a firebrand shouting "Follow me!" but a competent manager with a track record for crafting plans that actually work.

If the past is an indication, Becker is such a man. What this town needs is a good wonk. And Salt Lake City residents chose wisely in selecting a mayor who prefers cooperation to confrontation and prefers competence to being combustible. Becker appears to be a marathoner, not a sprinter — the kind of leader who doesn't care who gets credit as long as things get accomplished.

After all, in governing it's not what you do, but what you get done.

Becker comes to the job prepared — in training, temperament and talent.

He has shown he is more than a doer, he can get it done.