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Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry has passed away after a brief battle with cancer.

Allen County Leaders Call For More Diversity On Fort Wayne Boards

Rebecca Green/WBOI News

Fort Wayne Democratic City Council members Glynn Hines, Sharon Tucker and Michelle Chambers were joined by other community leaders Friday in calling out Mayor Tom Henry’s administration for a lack of diversity in appointments to major city boards.

On June 8, local attorney and former city council member Tim Pape sent a letter to Henry highlighting this problem that was later published in the Journal Gazette; Henry responded to WPTA by saying that while Pape’s assessment was correct, there was a “lack of minority interest.”

At-large councilman Glynn Hines says this is offensive to the wealth of qualified Black men and women who haven’t been considered for major community roles.

“If you’ve been in office for 20 years as a councilman and you’ve been the mayor for 12 years, and you tell me that you can’t find qualified individuals -- and I’m not going to curse -- but that’s a load of rubbish," said Hines. "Because either you are absolutely ignorant of the existence of all those folks who are holding master’s degrees and doctorate degrees, or you have no intent.”

Hines went on to note that many Black leaders who’ve moved on from their positions as department heads have regularly been replaced by white men and women under Henry, and most board appointments have followed a similar trend.

But Tucker added that, while this is an effort to raise awareness to the lack of diversity in positions of influence around the city, it’s never too late to correct that.

“It’s not hard to find qualified people, all you have to do is ask," Tucker said. "And we want to be able to partner with the mayor to let him know he has a team of qualified elected officials who can help point out qualified citizens who want to volunteer and do the work that he is asking us to do.”

Pape was present to talk more about his letter. He noted that at age-52 he’s still constantly checking himself and trying to improve what he described as a “narrow view” of the world and race, whether by colleagues or his own children.

He mentioned a new vacancy at the Capital Improvement Board, a seat that Henry must appoint, and gave the mayor a challenge.

“Act now. Within ten days. The mayor has historically, occasionally, removed individuals when he wanted other people to have opportunities to serve," Pape said.

He extended that to current board members, adding, "I am sure that there’s members of these boards that have been long serving that would step aside today and let others serve.”

In an effort to show Henry that minority interest is in fact not lacking, all of Allen County’s African-American leaders and Pape were involved in the curation of a list. Hines says it features more than 20 names of qualified Black individuals of various backgrounds ready to serve the community, and echoed Pape’s point that the CIB vacancy is a good opportunity to begin to correct the situation.

Zach joined 89.1 WBOI as a reporter and local host for All Things Considered, and hosted Morning Edition for the past few years. In 2022, he was promoted to Content Director.