The City of Fort Wayne saw a major change earlier this year after the passing of longtime mayor Tom Henry, who was battling late-stage stomach cancer.
Henry had served as Fort Wayne’s mayor since 2008, winning his historic fifth term in the 2023 municipal elections over Republican challenger Tom Didier.
Replacing Henry was no easy assignment. On April 20, then-Sixth District Councilwoman Sharon Tucker was chosen as Fort Wayne’s next mayor.
The Allen County Democrats caucused her into the position after two rounds of voting. Other candidates for the position included Michelle Chambers, Austin Knox, Phil GiaQuinta and Stephanie Crandall, all of whom earned enough votes to stay in the race after the first round of voting. Palermo Galindo and Jorge Fernandez were quickly eliminated.
Chambers and Knox withdrew between rounds.
Tucker is the first African American and first woman ever elected as mayor of Fort Wayne. On that day, she said she was most looking forward to addressing mental health in the city.
“I’m looking forward to making sure we create a mayoral council on mental health. Having been the executive director of Vincent Village, I know how important mental health can be and the impacts it has on homelessness.”
Both Tom Henry’s daughter and nephew hugged Tucker after her caucus victory. His nephew, Adam Henry, who has spoken on behalf of the Henry family since the mayor’s death, said “we support Mayor Tucker.”
Tucker was required to vacate her Council seat as a result. Then-FWCS school board vice president Rohli Booker was selected to fill that role a month later.
Tucker was sworn in several days later at the Clyde Theater.
In her speech, Tucker thanked her friends and family for their support before wrapping up by paying homage to Henry.
“I will not pretend that I could ever fit his shoes. But I will absolutely take the path that he has laid out and leave my own little footprints in the sand.”
She said her experience succeeding Glynn Hines as the sixth district city council representative qualified her to finish out Henry’s agenda.
“Being able to take the mayor’s blueprints and move forward with that will be very easy. Probably easier than I thought, but very easy to go through and just add my flavor on it.”
After her first 30 days in office, Tucker reevaluated how easy she expected that transition to be.
“You know, when you're running for office, you really don't think much about the work afterwards, you know, what we see publicly, you see the smiles and you see the shaking of the hands and Mayor Tom Henry made it seem so effortless. But there are a lot of decisions that have to be made. After the ribbon has cut or the swearing in is done, you go right to work at making really hard and tough decisions.”
There were also small things that began to come up that she said she hadn’t considered when she thought about the transition. But she wanted to keep away from any big, drastic changes in an administration that was already moving successfully.
“I think the reality of when that hit a lot of us is, when I came in on Thursday, day two of showing up for work. My team said, "Mayor, all the letterhead says Mayor Tom Henry." And I said, "Well, you know, let's go ahead and change the letterhead. But let's use out all of the business cards so that we don't have that expense on our budget. And once people are done with using the 'Mayor Tom Henry' business cards, then we can look at changing the logos on the business card to read 'Mayor Sharon Tucker.'
So those small things like that that we had not contemplated with the change that we have going forward are things that we're looking at as a collective team inside the city hall.
But in terms of has anyone said what drastic changes do you want to make, I've made it a point and the team has agreed with me to, let's keep things flowing the way that they've been flowing. We've seen great successes in the staff that Mayor Henry has built, there has been no reason to do a drastic change. They're all professionals doing their jobs helping us look good as mayors.
And so why make a change? Right? Why make that change?
We've had to look at some internal things that are a lot different because of course, I'm Mayor Tucker. I do things or look at things a little bit different. The way that I speak is different than the way that Mayor Henry spoke. So that has been a change internally for staff. But in terms of drastic changes to the set up of the functioning of governing? No.”
In some ways, it has not been an easy start to her administration. A spate of police-action shootings by Fort Wayne Police officers drew scrutiny. And the interlocal agreement between the City of Fort Wayne and Allen County which governed emergency medical services within the city fell apart as the county pursued expansions of fire districts outside of city limits.
However, there have been the apparent seamless continuation of Mayor Henry's development projects, including the continued expansion of the Riverfront and the opening of the deep rock sewer tunnel that will help improve the water quality in the city's rivers.
Earlier this month, WBOI sat down with Mayor Tucker to have a more personal conversation about her past eight months as mayor and what she’s learned in that time, as well as where she sees the city moving forward.
It has been a very crazy year in the city, a very crazy year for you personally, but let's kind of start at the beginning, and for sort of people who maybe didn't know your career before you became mayor, do you want to talk a little bit about like your background and what has led you to this seat?
Mayor Sharon Tucker: Absolutely. I spent 32 years in the insurance industry. So, I was navigating lost risk mitigations, helping people protect their assets, and I had gotten to the point where I just kind of felt like I was the dry-eye guy making donuts. It's time to make the donuts.
And I left that career after 32 years, and I went into another career where I was helping mitigate risk, and that was in working with homelessness. And the risks were equally important, probably even more important, because it was the risk of vulnerable children that didn't have a place to live, and vulnerable parents that didn't know how to navigate and make decisions that needed to be made to pull themselves out of the world of homelessness.
I've been involved in politics. Of course, before becoming mayor, I was elected to the county council, and I served five years there, and then I left county council and was elected to City Council. I served four years, which would be one term there and then at the very beginning of my second term as a sixth district city council person, I was caucused in as mayor after we lost Mayor Tom Henry.
A great segue from that, because of the way that your term started with the passing of Mayor Tom Henry, I imagine there was a weirdness of balancing that grief -- not only was he the mayor, but you had worked with him, shared a party with him and losing a close person in your life -- and also the excitement of getting to be the mayor. In those first few months, how did you balance those two feelings?
ST: I'm not even sure...
It's a lot.
ST: Yeah, no, it's fine. I am probably... it's going to be easy and hard for me to answer this, and I'll give you the unfiltered version, if you would. So I categorize everything, and I'm always there to do a specific job or to manage a specific job, and I've learned early on how to manage my emotions. When you've worked with individuals that are unhoused, you don't have the luxury of being emotional. And when you have worked with people who call you when they're in the middle of a car accident or a building that's burned down, or an employee that's fallen and seriously injured themselves, you have to self-check your emotions.
And so maybe fortunately and unfortunately, when we lost Mayor Tom Henry, I had to self check my emotions as well and do what I'm responsible for doing. And so for me coming in every day, showing up with a smile on my face was more about trying to encourage the team and help the team deal with the loss that they were dealing with, more so for them than for myself. Because while I am the mayor now, we forget that there is a whole team of 2200 people who had just lost their leader as well. The city 265,000+ people lost their leader as well. And most of the focus has been on how did I feel when, in theory, there were more people suffering than me, and so I had to show up every day to help care for those individuals.
As you've moved into the position because of the unconventional start, how have you created your own agenda as mayor, while also being cognizant of the agenda and the policies that people voted for last fall?
ST: That's a great question. You know, the agendas that people voted for was the same agenda that I voted for because I cast a vote for Mayor Tom Henry last year too, because I believed in his policies. When I sat on the council table, I believed in those policies as well. So it was not, and has not been challenging for me to be able to see those projects come to completion, see them through and/or see a continuation of the success that we've been seeing in Fort Wayne, because I've been supportive of them throughout this time.
So as mayor now, I've had the luxury and the opportunity to start to see those come to completion and start my new and new programs on that identify with me as Mayor Tucker. So for example, the council on mental health and how mental health is impacting individuals being unhoused downtown, that would be an initiative that's my initiative that I get to see through to completion. I also we're working on the sister cities. That's a Mayor Tom Henry's initiative. Or even before Mayor Tom Henry, he expanded the sister cities. But now I get to pick that up and go into a direction of maybe I'll expand it and add some more communities, or maybe we'll just keep it going the way that it's going.
So there doesn't have to be an either-or, it's a both-and, and that's the way that we've been flowing under my new leadership, with what we've had because, like I stated before, I voted for Mayor Tom's initiatives as well, so I'm very supportive of them.
I wrote this question before last night, but it kind of works out that you were at the city council meeting last night (December 17), and I was covering it specifically because of Vincent Village. How has the, like, transition between being on City Council and now working as like, sort of not above, like, you know, a very different relationship with City Council than being on it. How has that been for you?
ST: Co-equal, but different area? You know, it's been both positive and it's been challenging, because I have had prior relationships with the council. I assumed that coming over, I would be able to just, 'Oh, it'll be life as usual, right? We'll be able to just keep flowing, and things will be no questions asked,' because they all know me, they know my personality, they know how things work. That wasn't necessarily true, that was the wrong expectation. And so I found myself disappointed from that, because I found out that they scrutinized things that I thought that they would automatically know that I was being a great steward of.
They gave me a great level of scrutiny on those, the budget would be one. You know, we put together what we thought was a sound and quality budget, but they did their job in making sure that they scrutinized my budget and cut things that they believed or perceived were not needed. Where I'm from this role, knowing like we absolutely needed those things, right? So that would probably be one of the toughest lessons that I had to learn right away from transitioning the two places.
But I also know that, because I had served on the council, I know what it felt like when we were not necessarily notified or ignored, if you would, on certain things. So I make sure not to do that. I'm not falling into that trap. So even though there are tough conversations that need to be had I take the bull by the horn, and I call those tough conversations, and I have them because I know what it was like from both sides now. I'm living what I wish I had of understood as a council person and now as mayor, I know from historical data what it was like as a council person and Mayor, and what I can say the two roles are different. One is a financial steward. One is a function steward. One finances the city. One makes sure the city functions. And those roles are not always in alignment with each other.
How weird is it being on like the opposite side of that podium when you have to go talk to them? Is that like standing in front of a firing squad, in a way?
ST: I don't feel it's a firing squad, but you can feel a little small when you're- you can't feel a little small. But, no, standing at the podium, when I look across and see I look at their faces that I consider friends, right? I consider them all friends, and so when I talk to them, I am trying to talk to them as co-heirs in the success of the city. And as co-heirs in the success of the city, I know that they have a responsibility, which is different than mine, and I know that I have a responsibility which is different than theirs. So, I attempt to talk to them the same way that I would talk to the server that comes to my table with respect.
Earlier this year, talking to one of our other reporters, you had a great answer about like, what surprised you about being in the role, which was that there was that there was all this stuff that you expected to just know how to do that you were then were like, 'Oh no, I have to, like, people have to, have to teach me what I'm doing.' How has it been now that we're, you know, several months on?
ST: I think part of that, too, was me struggling with a calendar, and folks doing a calendar. Well, that's a blessing in disguise. I can easily say, like, talk to Christy or talk to Cassandra. Cassandra will get it taken care of for you. Or, oh, I can't do that unless I talk to my PIO team. I think they have trained me. I think that I'm properly trained now on how to accept their help, and that is very humbling for me to even say it like that, as a strong, independent person, accepting help is probably one of the hardest things for a person of my character to do. I've never been afraid of admitting my limitations, but have always been hard or stubborn when it comes to admitting that I need help and I have been able to shed that shield, if you would, and I gracefully accept all the help that I can now.
Before we move forward, let's look back for a moment and what are like the one or two like highlights for you, perhaps policy wise, or just in the city in your time this past year?
ST: Oh, man. I mean, we've done so much stuff in the last year that people aren't even aware of and how government functions from this area. But let me... one thing that sticks out to me that has always hit me, and it's not a policy, it really is a perception. And it has to do with I was at Aldersgate Church at a backpack giveaway, and they had asked me to come and speak. In fact, they asked me to come and give the opening prayer. And a mother and her two kids came over, and she said to the kids, 'this is the mayor.' And the young lady who was there was probably about 12-14, I don't know the age, and she just kind of like whatever you know, Mayor, okay, and walked away. Didn't think anything about it. But there's a young man, a little boy, that was there. He must have been seven or eight years old, and he looked at me, and then looked back at his mother, and then he looked at me again, and he says, 'Are you really the mayor?' And I said, 'I am.' And he gave me the overall once up and down head look. And was squaring me up right? And then he just reached in and gave me the biggest hug, and he didn't say another word, and he turned and walked away.
That moment has stuck with me forever, because I have always had a strong weakness for children, but it gave me the real, reality of how kids are seeing us as adults, seeing leadership, identifying themselves in our leadership, in the importance of the work that we do to the next generation. And so that probably is the one thing that sticks with me most. You can see on my credenza over there that I have photos and stuff that I've received from children in our community. That makes it worth everything to me, if we aren't doing this so that we can do it for our children, our babies and the next generation, then for what?
And so for me, every park ribbon that we cut, every building that we break ground on, those are all things that connect to children for me. Kids need a place to have activities. Parents need a place that's safe to take their kids to. Parents need great opportunities for employment, great housing. When we cut ribbons on buildings, the housing is for parents. When we bring in jobs, it's so parents can do what they need to do to be able to provide for their children and for the next generation. So when I look at, yes, these are buildings going up, but I'm looking at how they connect to our kids and to our next generation.
And looking ahead, first full year in office. What are your goals? What are the top priorities for you for the city?
ST: Number one; Continue to make Fort Wayne a family-friendly, safe place to be. We live here. We live here. And how do we make that living experience worthy for everyone?
How about personally, you know, you've gone through this huge, huge shift this year, right? So what about personally? Like, what are your goals for you for next year as mayor Tucker, but also just as Sharon Tucker?
ST: What does Sharon want to do? I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about myself. That's a sad thing. I just realized that I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about what I want to do. I can tell you that I want to continue to listen to the community so that I can continue developing a community. Those things make me happy.
Personally, I love to craft. So I like to go into my craft room and create things that, again, I give away to people. That makes me happy. I want to see my daughter achieve her dreams, and so I'm working really hard to try to help her realize the things that she wants. And I want to keep peace for my family, right? At the end of the day, I want my husband, to be able to get off of his factory job, come home and find a place that is comfortable and relaxing for him to be able to feel like he is has earned a moment of peace. And so, those are the things that mean the most to us right now, whether we're putting together a puzzle or I'm crafting or he's watching the Colts, or she's creating music, which is what she loves to do. That is important to us, because we sacrifice a lot of private time, and so personal moments together mean a lot for us right now, and it's totally changed the way we think about life, or the way we used to think about life.
In fact, I was saying to a friend the other day, you know, we see people like upset or disappointed over simple, small things. And from this bird's eye view of the world, things that are important have definitely changed for me. Important things have definitely changed.
