Another term for Tom Henry

The Journal Gazette
October 30, 2011

Voters willing to look past party labels to choose the best candidate for mayor won’t have an easy decision: Tom Henry and Paula Hughes are well-qualified candidates.

Unfortunately, their campaigns have too often been more of a nasty distraction than a guide to help voters choose. Democratic incumbent Tom Henry is not like President Obama, and the city’s debt is both well managed and appropriate. Republican Paula Hughes is not a tax-crazy liberal out to stop leaf pickup.

The mayoral election comes down to two questions:

•Should voters fire Tom Henry?

•Has Hughes made a compelling case she would be a better mayor?

The answer to both questions is no, and Henry has earned re-election.

Record of accomplishment

With the candidates squaring off over how to spend the expected $75 million from the lease and sale of City Light to I&M, voters should remember that Henry is directly responsible for getting the deal with I&M. Though criticized at the time for challenging I&M, Henry’s hardball negotiating led to a settlement that resulted in I&M paying the city $39 million over the next 15 years. The settlement also makes the $35 million already in a trust account from the expired lease of City Light now available for other uses.

This deal is the kind of accomplishment that many mayors around the state would hang their hats on, warranting re-election.

But Henry has other historic accomplishments to his credit.

Under Henry and Police Chief Rusty York, the city finally reached agreement with county officials to merge their emergency dispatch operations, a pact that eluded officials for years. The city and county will finally have their police operations in the same building. The city and county also agreed to share space in the building that formerly housed Lincoln National Corp. Henry and county officials reached agreement to streamline local government approval for new businesses and new business locations.

Though Henry made missteps with public transparency early in his term, his administration made great strides with its SmartGov website, posting city contracts, expenditures and much additional information that was previously available only by going to city offices and wading through pages and pages of data.

The city’s new garbage contract has greatly increased recycling and saved money for the city and its residents.

And consider that Henry has made all this happen without the cuts in public safety staffing that other Hoosier communities face. Indeed, with crime down, police and fire staffing are minor campaign issues compared with past years.

The Hughes campaign

For her part, Hughes brings a record of accomplishment from her service on the Allen County Council from 2003 to 2010. Hughes helped lead a new group of council members to bring major improvements to county government and its finances. She played a major role in improving both the processes and the outcomes in developing a county budget, including paying off a lingering debt to state government.

Hughes has made the city’s debt one of her top campaign themes and considers the issue so important she would use all of the money from the City Light lease and sale to pay down debt. While her proposal is certainly more definitive than the one the appointed Legacy Task Force recommended, it is shortsighted and uninspiring. The city’s debt is already on track to be substantially lowered over the next mayoral term.

While Hughes has made city finances her top campaign issue, Henry has a record many conservatives would praise. The budget is lower than when he took office, he consistently spends less than budgeted and cash reserves are growing.

(An independent candidate, Haley Ahrendt, has barely campaigned and isn’t likely to be a factor in the race.)

Another term

Henry’s record would stand up against many other Fort Wayne mayors after just one term. But consider that many of the accomplishments of his immediate predecessors – Graham Richard, Paul Helmke, Win Moses – came after re-election.

Henry has earned the job for four more years.