Beth Malloy is the city’s new deputy mayor. She discussed her new duties with Editorial Page Editor Tracy Warner. Here are excerpts of the interview; listen to the entire interview by going to The Journal Gazette’s home page at www.journa1gazette.net. Click “Opinion,” then click “5 Questions for Beth Malloy.”
1You worked in Chicago for Mayor Daley and as a consultant. What attracted you to Fort Wayne?
I love cities, first of all. But, secondly, the thing that I think somewhat surprising when you come to Fort Wayne is that there are a lot of locally owned restaurants and great places to eat here. On top of that, it’s a very alive and growing downtown, and I love downtown. And then thirdly, something that I didn’t realize until I started looking to live here, was all the different kinds of neighborhoods. It’s a great place. And then on top of that, I had worked for the administration for a little bit, and it’s a really well-run city.
2This is a question we have heard from a number of readers: Why does Fort Wayne need a deputy mayor?
It’s 24/7, 365 days a year, you are never off work here. There’s a lot of demand for being aware of what’s going on. Additionally, there are about 2,300 to 2,400 city employees. In the private sector, if you had a company that large, you would expect there would be a chief operating officer who was minding the store, making sure there is coordination among all of the different lines of businesses; for example, in this case it would be division heads. The reason we need a deputy mayor and what my job is, is to make sure that the vision that the mayor has outlined is actually getting implemented.
3What are the first few things you would like to get accomplished?
I am meeting and getting briefed … to understand what we’re doing and how we’re doing and what people think. I also probably met 25 or 30 different people in the community to find out how they would like to be working with city hall a little better. I’ve been very involved in the Navistar project, so that’s part of the mayor’s efforts to retain jobs. The city had invested in 311 (call center) three or four years ago and really probably hasn’t exploited that in the way that we could, which is to basically understand every request that a resident or business makes here and start to anticipate the kinds of services we could be delivering and the timing of that. And then additionally I’m interested in knowing how we can do a better job as an administration of making sure our procurement policies make it easy for people to learn how to do business with us.
4Most of the people who have held this job have lived in Fort Wayne a long time and probably been involved in city government. Are there some advantages to coming from the outside?
Sometimes when you come in from the outside, you can’t help but ask, why is it you do that? I’m hoping that outside perspective can kind of inject some creativity into what we are doing.
5Beth, coming from Chicago, I think probably the most important question for a lot of our readers is “Cubs or White Sox?”
Cubs! Are you crazy? I have a home in Chicago that my son actually lives in right now, and it’s five blocks from Wrigley Field. We are dyed-in-the wool Cubs fans – sorry, all you Sox fans.
