Fort Wayne City Council held its first meeting Tuesday night, following the inauguration of its newly elected body last week.
Most of the faces were familiar, but Democrats Sharon Tucker (6th District) and Michelle Chambers (at-large) made their Council debuts in the meeting. Their additions dwindles the 7-2 majority Republicans enjoyed down to 5-4.
When Mayor Tom Henry spoke with 89.1 WBOI at the end of 2019, he noted this new party advantage could the city’s priorities bolder over the next four years, but still emphasized his desire to work with the body as a whole.
Henry sat down with Council to address members, and echoed a similar sentiment.
“What I'm asking is to look beyond our normal way of working on a lot of the plans and programs and protocols and initiatives that the city of Fort Wayne historically has looked at,” he said.
Over the last several weeks, Henry has emphasized community health as a key priority for his administration the next four years, which remained the case Tuesday night.
Council leadership was also determined, and Republican 3rd District councilman Tom Didier was elected the body’s president with 1st District Republican Paul Ensley serving as vice president.
This created an early rift among members of Council; the final vote was 5-4 for both spots -- along party lines -- with Tucker and Chambers expressing disappointment over the Republican-heavy nature of leadership for the coming year.
They noted that at-large Democratic councilman Glynn Hines has served on Council since 1999 but has never served as the body's president. He was the vice president to Republican John Crawford in 2019, and was nominated to be president Tuesday night.
Didier will now be tasked with assigning chairs and co-chairs to the regulations, finance, public works and city utilities committees, which should be determined by next week.
