The lack of minority leadership in Mayor Greg Ballard’s administration has been the topic of many discussions heading into the final days before the Nov. 8 election.
At the Recorder’s request, the administration provided a list of individuals in a leadership position who report directly to Mayor Ballard. The list included eight minorities, but only two are African-Americans in Ballard’s cabinet: Olgen Williams, deputy mayor for neighborhoods and Greg Wilson, director of the Department of Minority, Veteran and Women Business Development, and no African-American women.
The criticism of the lack of diversity is in comparison to previous Republican administration’s said Amos Brown, strategic analyst for Radio One and host of “Afternoon’s With Amos” on WTLC-AM (1310). Brown also is a columnist for the Recorder.
Brown noted that Mayor Steve Goldsmith, who served from 1992 to 1999, chose James Toler as the city’s first African-American chief of police and that administration also included Nancy Silvers Rogers, another African-American as a deputy mayor. Additionally, Bill Hudnut, who served from 1976 to 1991 selected Joe Shelton as director of public safety and Joe Slash, who is currently president of the Indianapolis Urban League, as deputy mayor. During Hudnut’s administration, Paula Parker-Sawyers also served as deputy mayor.
“In the first of this year, the mayor described himself as being the best mayor for the African-American community,” Brown said. “You set yourself a high standard and at that point you have to measure what have you done better to only have two African-Americans in your cabinet compared to the previous mayor.”
Ballard quotes former Secretary of State Colin Powell when defending not only the African-Americans within his cabinet but also the small number of minorities in leadership.
“In his leadership books he says that organizational charts don’t really mean much, it’s who has the influence,” Ballard told the Recorder. “If you look at lines on a chart they’re meaningless. It’s who you talk to and who helps move the ball forward. Anybody who leads by an organizational chart is doing it the wrong way.”
Ballard added that two of the city’s most positive programs are led by African-Americans; the Food Resource Network, headed by Douglas Hairston, director of Indianapolis Front Porch Alliance, and the Ex-Offender Re-Entry program led by director Maxine Bryant. The drawback is that neither Hairston nor Bryant reports to Ballard.
“It’s not about who talks to you in an organizational chart. It’s about who has authority over major departments of city government with responsibility for employees, a large section of budget and making and implementing policies,” said Brown. “There isn’t one major city department that has a sizable number of employees headed by an African-American and we’ve had that in the past. That is a problem.”
Another diversity criticism of the Ballard administration is the lack of women in leadership positions as well. It’s the first time since Richard Lugar was mayor from 1968-75 that there isn’t a woman deputy mayor.
In a letter signed by three women – Billie Dragoo, RepuCare Inc., Deborah Collins Stephens, a consultant, and Denise Herd, president of Herd Strategies LLC – to the Indianapolis Business Journal last week it complained that the mayor’s office, “was not in step with women.”
“Out of 17 top positions, the administration has only one appointment that is a woman,” the letter said. “Women make up the majority of the American voting population, and utilizing them in the political system brings different attitudes and perspectives. Research has shown that when women are present in leadership positions, the bottom line improves.”
Ballard said that he has an open door policy and everyone in his administration serves a role in his decision-making.
“The fact is I have very strong African-Americans in my leadership team,” he said. “I see them routinely and they influence me routinely.”
