The people of Logansport have spoken. Just shy of 1,000 people signed a petition demanding Chris Martin's resignation as mayor. In the past week, the number of people signing that petition surpassed the number who voted for Martin in 2023. About 20 people a week have signed the petition over the last three weeks, and that momentum far outpaced any Martin referred to in his exit speech. I appreciate all those independents, Republicans and Democrats who cared for our city's future and signed it.Much like a Republican mayor from Frankfort who endorsed Martin in 2019, Martin has resigned well before the end of his term.
The unprecedented call for a Logansport mayor's resignation is a sign to all of us that there is work to be done to improve our city. Taking credit for progress in Logansport should not be about how boastful you can use hyperbole. It should be about honest to goodness results that people can believe and see in parks, streets, public safety, qualify of life, economic development, housing, retail selection and a sense of place. People who have left Logansport or visited it recently sense that we've lost our way from that shining day when we cut the ribbon on the Hoosier Heartland highway. We earned funding for a bypass, but much of the prosperity we'd hope for has now bypassed us.
Richard Nixon gave the victory signal on the White House lawn as he exited after Watergate. Martin has essentially done the same thing as Logansport residents anxiously await his departure from a post he was incapable of adequately, responsibly fulfilling.
While we all have a stake in our community's future, our city council must work across party lines to accomplish the kind of progress Logansport deserves. Council members and the clerk-treasurer's office have had to take on more than their share of responsibilities in this administration.
Civil city and utilities employees are working hard for all of us and they deserve the kind of government they and we can respect. Rundown neighborhoods need property maintenance enforcement that has been sadly lacking. Our unemployment rate according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was among the top 20 worst in Indiana.
As I appealed to the council last year, the best progressive cities in the nation are turning to a model that includes a professionally trained city manager and a council working shoulder to shoulder with a part-time mayor. This would be an appropriate time to further study that model and to work with the School of Public Environmental Affairs at Indiana University which trains hundreds of non-partisan city managers for other states. In Indiana, Merrillville and Fishers are sterling examples of communities that were once smaller than Logansport but blossomed into much more with a long-term commitment to a city manager/city council relationship. In the 1990s, State Sen. Tom Weatherwax, a Republican, shepherded legislation through the Indiana General Assembly that allowed cities Logansport's size to have city managers for the first time. It was a good concept then and it would be a progressive move for our city now. As a member of the opposing party, I concur with those efforts, which I endorsed as a Pharos-Tribune editorial writer.
We have many issues from vacant storefronts downtown to a rising crime rate previously reported in the Pharos-Tribune. We desperately need housing and our own economic development efforts have stalled under Martin's leadership. Without Bill Cuppy, we would not have economic development at all. Huntington County unfortunately is about to find that out.
Logansport deserves public officials who aren't about padding resumes, but are about building out our community for better -- for this generation and beyond. To that end, let's support those who are trying and who understand, as Chris Martin did not when people applauded in the city council chambers after I suggested he resign, that Logansport deserves better.
This is still the City of Bridges. Let's build our bridge to a more prosperous future.