Bipartisan group of mayors' initiative seeking more local authority

The group of mayors met Wednesday at the Omni Severin in Indianapolis to launch their Trust Local campaign.

“We think a lot of the decisions being made right now at the Statehouse could be, should be made locally,” Lewis said Thursday. “We as mayors are the closest to the people. We’re in the trenches and they seem to limit our ability to make important decisions that affect all our communities.”

Lewis was joined Wednesday by mayors Duke Bennett of Terre Haute, Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Andy Cook of Westfield, Allan Kauffman of Goshen, Joe Stahura of Whiting, and Lloyd Winnecke of Evansville.

These mayors represent cities from as few people as 2,000 to as many as 100,000, Lewis said. What works for one city may not work for another.

“We’ve just come together to say, ‘Look, we understand the job the legislature has, but they need to listen to us and we need to be able to make decisions locally,’” Lewis said. “We’re not saying we want to tell them what to do; we’d just like for them to listen.”

Some of these decisions being made on a state level that Lewis believes should be made locally include transportation funding and infrastructure, mass transit and laws regarding annexations.

Lewis said Wednesday’s launch went well, and it is too early to know what exactly the group will be doing to affect change. But a press release stated it will also focus on educating voters to elect candidates in 2014 who have a strong commitment to local authority and local decision making. The website states lawmakers have recently made decisions at the Statehouse that significantly harmed Indiana communities, without listening to local feedback. Lawmakers who are unwilling to listen to input from local officials should be replaced.

The Trust Local campaign was started by Whiting Mayor Joe Stahura, who is the current president of the Indiana Conference of Mayors, which is sponsoring the campaign.