Gary Mayor-elect Melton reveals top priorities ahead of Dec. 30 inauguration

Serving as the Mayor of Gary comes with challenges often faced by leaders of much larger cities.

Between a diminishing tax base, thousands of abandoned buildings that serve as magnets for crime, and a lack of private investment, enacting a detailed plan and ensuring its success is a heavy lift.

Incoming Gary Mayor Eddie Melton laid out his vision for combating blight, improving governmental efficiency and nurturing Gary’s struggling economy in an interview with the Post-Tribune. The former state senator’s first term will come with substantial advantages — the projected completion of ongoing infrastructure projects and new state funds that he helped secure in Indianapolis — as well as considerable challenges — the end of federal pandemic relief funding and deteriorating city facilities, to name just a few.

“The Melton administration will operate with uncompromising transparency, accountability and integrity to make Gary greater every single day for our citizens,” Melton wrote in a note included with the plan. “I invite the community to take part in this new chapter in Gary’s history.”

Melton collaborated the plan for his first 100 days with an array of Gary community leaders, including Urban League of Northwest Indiana President and CEO Vanessa Allen McCloud, Gary Advocates for Responsible Development president Dorreen Carey, and Gary Housing Authority CEO Taryl Bonds.

Infrastructure

Core to Melton’s vision for Gary is revitalizing the city’s downtown, replacing vacant lots and crumbling facades with new developments that will generate tax revenue.

Melton’s first year in office will see the completion of two projects expected to help the city attract new businesses and residents — work to convert the South Shore Line between Gary and Michigan City from single to double track is expected to be completed in mid-2024, as is a new fiber network hub and job training facility in the historic Union Station building.

Senate Enrolled Act 434, which Melton authored in the Indiana State Senate earlier this year, established a blighted property demolition fund and paved the way for state investment in future infrastructure projects including, potentially, a new convention center and the revitalization of Gary Metro Center.

“I’m extremely optimistic about downtown,” Melton said. “Downtown is going is going to happen. I’m not saying it’s going to happen in my first term but we will begin to see the fruits.”

Melton’s 100-day plan includes launching a Downtown and Broadway Planning Summit to engage stakeholders in the implementation of SEA 434 and other development along the thoroughfare. The Mayor-elect also plans to commission a study that will inform future work on the city’s roadways, including possible changes to traffic lights and one-way streets.

“How do we redirect truck traffic out of downtown make it more pedestrian friendly?” he said. “We don’t have the population that we once had, so we need to study the traffic patterns just to see where we are, where the main thoroughfares, the most highly trafficked areas are located.”

Melton said he plans to apply for state infrastructure funding through Indiana’s second Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI 2.0), which was announced by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb in September. Applications for the program, which is administered by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, are due in late February and funding awards will be announced later in the spring.

Located less than 1,000 feet from city hall, the derelict Genesis Convention Center building has sat vacant since 2020, when Prince closed it in order to save the city money. Since then, the building has been damaged by theft, vandalism and the elements.

What to do with the building has been a hotly debated topic in Gary over the last three years. The city is currently seeking a $1 million Brownfields Multipurpose Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would help fund testing and remediation efforts at the Genesis Center, City Methodist Church, and other iconic disused buildings.

Melton said that his first priority with the Genesis Center will be securing the building to prevent further damage. Then, he said, the city needs to assess the center’s condition to determine next steps.

“Depending on what the cost is going to be, we have to make a decision on what that’s going to look like, if it can be salvaged,” Melton said. “Should we combine that with our READI 2.0 grant that we’re applying for to redevelop downtown? I need the data. I need the facts first to make the final decision.”

Staffing

Melton started to fill out his cabinet on Thursday, when he announced that Derrick Cannon Sr., a 24-year veteran of the city’s police force and a former deputy chief, will replace Anthony Titus as police chief and Larry Tillman, a firefighter and the president of Gary Firefighters Union Local 359, will replace Mark Terry in the Fire Department’s top job.

He offered limited details on who will fill other key roles in his administration. He told the Post-Tribune that “the majority of the cabinet members will be new cabinet members” after he takes office.

Chris Harris, a former volunteer coordinator for Melton’s mayoral campaign who was selected by Prince to be the city’s new executive director of redevelopment in October, “is the right person to have in that position,” Melton said.

The Mayor-elect also plans to hire a city engineer, a role the city has gone without for years, and seek grant funding for a full-time grant writer role.

Melton said that he plans to forgo the deputy mayor role in his administration, instead hiring a chief operating officer tasked with improving efficiency in city government by developing performance metrics for each of the city departments.

Guaranteed Savings and the Gary Common Council

On Dec. 5, the Gary Common Council voted down a resolution approving a guaranteed energy savings contract with Leopardo Energy, LLC, with members citing a lack of communication between Prince’s administration and the city’s legislative body over the arrangement. The contract, which involves energy-saving improvements to key city infrastructure, would guarantee the city roughly $23 million in savings over a 20-year period, with Leopardo required to reimburse the city in the event that the savings don’t materialize.

Melton told the Post-Tribune that he plans to restart the process that lead to the development of the plan.

“There are too many options out there for us to lower that cost, and I know that for a fact,” he said. “I would feel more comfortable if we reissue a request for proposals.”

He also said that he plans to make communication between the Mayor’s office and the city council a priority, with the hope of preventing future friction between the entities.

“The plan is to set up frequent one-on-ones or group meetings with the council to share our policy recommendations and positions on issues,” Melton said.

ARPA Funds and Projects

One of the key responsibilities of Melton’s term will be overseeing the use remaining federal funds provided to Gary through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The 2021 federal law requires that State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024 and entities have until the end of 2026 to fully exhaust the funding.

More than $80 million in ARPA funds has been a substantial boon to the perennially cash-strapped city. Gary has used the money for an array of programs and projects, including a mobile mental health crisis response initiative, a new health and wellness facility, grant funding for nearly 100 local businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a down payment assistance program for homebuyers, and major renovations to six “jewel parks” across the city.

“We have a short window of time,” Melton said. “A lot of the projects that have been funded have not been implemented, have not actually happened.”

The Mayor-elect said he hopes to ensure that the jewel parks are “prepared and ready to go before the season opens up.” Management of the projects, which have so far faced a series of setbacks, should be shifted from the Parks Department to the Public Works Department, Melton said.

Melton said he has met with the Prince Administration and the Interfaith Action — the group responsible for a grassroots push for the mobile mental health unit — to discuss implementing the program. Earlier this year, the Prince Administration opened an application process for a crisis response initiative project manager, the extended deadline for which passed on Nov. 15.

“I know that they may have had a few respondents,” Melton said. “I haven’t reviewed them. So we’ll see what that looks like, if we need to reopen that up.”

Melton said he plans to review crisis response programs in other cities to inform how Gary’s program will be run.

“My key concern is sustainability,” he said. “I want to look at models around the country and figure out how it was funded because if we had to rely on City dollars, that would be pretty difficult (to sustain).”

adalton@chicagotribune.com