Seven candidates seeking to fill three at-large seats on the Gary Common Council will square off in the May 2 Democratic primary.
The field includes three sitting councilmen and four challengers from a variety of backgrounds. In heavily Democratic Gary, the primary is expected to determine the council’s at-large council members for the next four years.
William Godwin currently represents Gary’s 1st district, but made the decision to run for an at-large seat, he said, in order to better focus on citywide issues. Lori Latham, currently an at-large council member, is running to represent the 1st district; she and Godwin would effectively swap seats if both prevail in the upcoming elections.
Godwin, who was elected to the council in 2019 and has served as its president since 2021, said he wants the city of Gary to continue investing in its downtown infrastructure in order to take advantage of the planned expansion of the South Shore Line from a single to a double track.
“It’s on us to do these infrastructure improvements that will connect to the investments that we have made and that the state and federal government are making in the double track project,” he said.
Godwin underscored his willingness to oppose the administration of Gary Mayor Jerome Prince in areas where his priorities conflict with the Mayor’s. He cited his opposition to Prince’s ill-fated plan to sell Gary’s shuttered Genesis Convention Center to an out-of-state tech company, which ended with the company failing to pay $2.5 million that it owed and being sued by the city, and his support for the community benefits agreement placing obligations on developers seeking tax breaks that prompted Prince to sue the council in 2020.
Ron Brewer, who has served as at-large councilman since 2011, framed his record as one of public safety advocacy, highlighting his consistent support for police and fire department pay raises.
Brewer said he hopes to help build a more harmonious working relationship between the council and the mayor’s office for the next four years.
“There’s a refusal now to work with the Prince administration,” he said. “but I’m open to work with Prince administration to make sure that this community moves forward— the Prince administration or any other administration.”
If reelected, Brewer said he plans to make facilitating new construction projects in Gary a priority. In order to bolster the city’s aging housing stock, Brewer proposed a citywide tax abatement for developers building new homes.
Incumbent at-large councilman Darren Washington, in contrast, told the Post-Tribune that he is “totally against tax abatements.” He supports efforts to bring in new businesses to Gary but said he wants to avoid depriving the city of much-needed tax dollars.
Washington has spent less than a year on the council, having won a special precinct caucus election in August of 2022 to fill a vacancy created by the departure of at-large councilman Mike Brown. He stressed his close alignment with the mayor and his desire for continued collaboration between the council and Prince’s office.
“Most candidates won’t say this,” he said, “but I wholeheartedly support the candidacy of Jerome Prince.”
Washington, whose 86-year-old father lives with him and his wife, said he plans to make caring for Gary’s seniors a core part of his agenda if reelected. He also wants the city to ramp up the demolition of disused and abandoned buildings and hopes to “find funding” to hire more code enforcement officers.
Mark Spencer is a teacher and the director of the Gary Community School Corporation’s West Side Theatre Guild.
If elected, Spencer said he plans to emphasize collaboration with the city’s block clubs other community organizations.
One of his day-one priorities, Spencer told the Post-Tribune, is “investigating the effectiveness of code enforcement and seeing how I can assist with bridging any gaps and offering any assistance to the great work that the men and women of that department our performing.”
He said he would support hiring additional code enforcement officers if the city’s budget can bear it.
Tashaun Brown is an assessment specialist at the Calumet Township Assessor’s office.
If elected, Brown said she would work to ensure that Gary’s Public Works department has the resources necessary to more consistently keep the city’s abandoned buildings boarded up “so it can somewhat seem a little safer for the neighborhood.”
She proposed making a deal with a company that recycles tires in order to put the city’s heaps of discarded tires to sustainable use. Brown also hopes to help attract an additional full-service grocery store to the city, where many residents live in food deserts.
A retired Gary detective and current school resource officer with the Gary Community School Corporation, Sinclair Harley IV told the Post-Tribune that if elected, he plans to prioritize allocating more resources for city services.
“Police department needs equipment. We need manpower,” he said. “Fire department needs equipment. They need manpower. General Services only has 25 people working, so we need some more employees.”
He acknowledged that accomplishing those goals might prove a challenge in the perennially cash-strapped city.
Roosevelt Dixon, the Pastor of Gary’s Christ Center Church, did not respond to a request for comment.
At a March 23 candidate forum hosted by Hilltop Organized Citizens at Indiana University Northwest, Dixon said he would vote against zoning changes that could bring unwanted businesses to Gary neighborhoods.
“We need to put the power back into the hands of the people,” he said.
