Transcript
Narrator 0:03
Thomas Jefferson once remarked that the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government. Although Jefferson was referring to the federal government when he wrote these words, local leaders have found the same to be true. At the Richard M. Fairbanks Symposium held at the University of Indianapolis on October 9, 2013, former Indianapolis deputy mayors Michael O’Connor and Michael Huber and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, discussed the importance of leadership in local government. During his remarks, O’Connor reflected on the rewards that came from working in the mayor’s office. He observed that in local government, you can make a real difference in people’s lives.
Michael O’Connor 0:50
Phenomenal, and I mean phenomenal things have been done in this city. When you—I’m the beneficiary of a job where I travel a lot—and when I tell people I’m from Indianapolis, they inevitably ask me, how did you get what you all have accomplished done? How, you know, we’re now talking about bringing a Super Bowl to Indianapolis the second time. Cities our size located where we located, don’t get the Super Bowl, but it is, as everybody that is up here can attest, and several people sending out there can attest, it is a tough job that grinds you on a daily basis and that you end up making monumental decisions in the course of your normal day to day activity. And you don’t know you’re making monumental decisions when you make them, and yet they become incredibly important decisions. And I think, having just experienced this as a community, every person would tell you, the day a police officer is killed is undoubtedly the worst day you will experience. Or a firefighter, anybody involved, anybody a public employee, but anybody, anybody involved in public safety, we had both a firefighter and a police officer, a couple police officer killed. It is—I felt it again recently—it zaps the community. And I think the day you get to help a normal person is the best day. The day you can…the thing I love now I have been at the federal and the state and the local level. The thing I liked about municipal government is you could make a decision that you’re going to change something today and it’s going to be changed tomorrow. They’re still arguing in Washington, D.C. about the things they were arguing about when I was at EPA in the 1990s. The best part about municipal government is you’re helping real people and you can make a difference in their lives.
Narrator 1:04
Huber, who became President and CEO of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce after his time in municipal government, recounts his involvement in government and its importance in building Indianapolis infrastructure.
Michael Huber 2:57
Best day, I think, was it was the introduction of the proposal to sell the water company and the wastewater and the sewer system to Citizens Energy Groups, because that was something that I had been working on for about 18 months. When you work in this environment, you work on a lot of things that might not see the light of day. And I had put so much effort into that, as had a few members of our team, and what satisfied me that day was that I felt we had elevated the debate. Now we, anytime you propose something, you give people something to shoot at, and again, there are very legitimate arguments for and against that transaction. But I felt like, Okay, finally, we’re going to talk about utilities. We’re going to talk about infrastructure. You know, the next year was, was really hard, but if process of getting something out in the public a lot of times, sort of gives you some satisfaction.
Narrator 3:40
Like O’Connor and Huber, Mayor Buttigieg, see city government as the most essential type of government when it comes to sustaining people’s everyday well being.
Pete Buttigieg 3:49
I think it’s certainly the case that in local government, you don’t have the luxury of indulging or retreating into partisan camps nearly as much, because stuff simply has to get done. We need a federal government, and the shutdown of the shutdown of the federal government is dreadful, but if a city government shuts down within about 48 hours, the place would become uninhabitable, because, among other things, we provide drinking water, and if you don’t have that, you can’t lift so it doesn’t get more basic than that. I’m certainly a fan of mayors being in Congress, because there are people we can work with better and the same, I might add for the state legislature, where I sometimes worry that mayors and cities are being treated like just another interest group, and we really count on the state to continue to have policies that benefit us. And would love to see more people with local government experience. Here I am talking about experience at my age, but but I think it’d be a real benefit at every level.
Narrator 4:40
O’Connor believes local government is a vital part of every community, and looks fondly upon his years in government.
Michael O’Connor 4:47
It taught me so much being at municipal government, being at a decision making level. It was equally as difficult as it was, and as time consuming as was, still by far the best job I’ve ever had.
Ted Frantz 4:58
This podcast was produced by the Institute for Civic Leadership and Mayoral Archives and the Department of Communication at the University of Indianapolis. It is made possible by the support of the Richard M Fairbanks Foundation, Indiana Humanities, and the Lily Endowment. For more information, please see our website, uindy.edu/mayoral.