TAMPA, Fla. — Weeks before stepping down as mayor, Spectrum Bay News 9 joined Bob Buckhorn in a trip in what he affectionately calls "the mayor-mobile."

"I'm driving people crazy trying to get things done," Buckhorn said.

Meanwhile, inside City Hall, there's a clock that's been counting down the end to his mayoral term. There's also a dry-erase board in the corner of his office with a wish-list of sorts.

"I keep a list here and I have for eight years," Buckhorn said. "And as we go through and complete things, I check them off."

But it's the challenges that are not on the list, the memories that you don't see in his office that have helped shape Buckhorn's two terms as mayor.

In Seminole Heights, residents will never forget the summer of 2017, when tragedy struck the community. Buckhorn helped lead the charge for a serial killer.

"You're going to bring his head to me," Buckhorn told Tampa police during a roll call in the Seminole Heights neighborhood back then.

His candor gained national attention.

"Was it more colorful than most mayors? Probably," Buckhorn said recently. "But it got the point across."

His leadership, at that time, helped rally a community.

"It was almost like he was a father, not a mayor," said business owner David Hanssen. "He brought the community together and you could tell that he cared."

And for Buckhorn, that's a big part of what being a mayor is all about.

It's a 24-7 job with a mobile office, going from one event to another, handling the big picture and dealing with the unthinkable.

"For all the ups and downs, good and bad, lightness and darkness I have seen, it's been an amazing eight years and I've loved every minute of it," Buckhorn reflected. "Even the bad days, even the bad days, I love doing this job."