Public leaders should do what is morally and legally right, said an area leader who spoke at NIU Tuesday.

Rockford Mayor Charles Box received an honorary membership into Pi Alpha Alpha at the 1 p.m. Public Administration awards ceremony. Pi Alpha Alpha is the national public administration honor society.

Box’s speech, which preceded the award presentations, was titled “Public Leadership in Difficult Times,” said Pi Alpha Alpha Secretary Barb Durocher.

“We are trying to set a tone in Rockford of doing the ‘right thing,’ to do what’s right,” Box said. Public servants must realize there are always people who need help, even when most others are well off, he said.

Box also said “new leaders must recognize a duty to react to change.” To do this, public administrators must maintain personal contact with the citizens they serve, he said.

Box said this contact has encouraged Rockford citizens to volunteer to help their community. He said he is proud that they have given their time and talents freely.

Although the 1980s were the “decade of greed,” the ‘90s will be the “decade of need,” Box said. Literacy and the homeless two of the needs that public servants must face today, he said.

Box, 38, was elected mayor April 4, 1989. Box, who is a black Democrat, received 63 percent of the vote in a mostly white, Republican community, said James Banovetz, director of the division of public administration.

Before that, Box was the Rockford City Administrator for eight years. He received degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan.