Indiana Newsdesk's Joe Hren sat down with Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight and talks about progress on the new baseball stadium and downtown walking trail. Plus the mayor updates us on the city budget preparations and what the mayor was thinking while following the events in Ferguson, Missouri.
Listen to their full conversation above. Here are some highlights:
Hren: I see where you met with new educators in the school system here, what did you tell them?
Goodnight: Kokomo Center Schools hired 41 new teachers and this is something we've done, this is our third year. I do a short orientation with them and talk about our partnership with the school system and tell them about the community. We have a strong network of young professionals, so I do the introduction and give them contact information on how to be involved with some of the other young professionals in the community.
Hren: How is next year's city budget coming along?
Goodnight: We don't have it completely together, I have a meeting with the controllers office tomorrow to finalize. We've been meeting with department heads getting their priorities in place. There isn't going to be major changes, but they'll be some shifting within categories whether it be personnel or capital expenditures.
Hren: When you were watching what was going on in Ferguson, Missouri, what was going through your mind as mayor of Kokomo?
Goodnight: A lot went through my mind... there was a statewide publication a few months ago that talked about the militarization of local law enforcement. And it's not something I really ever thought was a good idea. In some ways, watching what happened in Ferguson somewhat confirmed that. The other issue I think is important, is requiring officers and encouraging them to live inside the city. When you have a large number of officers who don't have the same racial background or are not residents of that city, there's an issue of trust when you're dealing with strangers as opposed to someone you've grown up with.
