Newcomers, especially those who fail to understand Indianapolis’ Midwestern with a dash of Southern nuances or who come from smaller cities, don’t have a great track record coming here to run major institutions.
Some of the most egregious past failures have included Dr. Esperanza Zendejas at IPS, Linda Mielke at the city/county’s library system, and more recent disasters were Douglas Rae at the city’s Animal Control agency and Marc Williams’ flame-out running at Circle City Classic.
Many have forgotten, though, what happened the last time an outsider was brought in to run a major city/county government agency. In 1992, incoming Mayor Steve Goldsmith hired Leon Younger, from Cleveland, to run the Indianapolis Parks and Recreation Department. Younger was such a disaster that Parks didn’t get turned around until Joe Wynns became director eight years later.
Past performances by outsiders is the expected ill-omen for the new Public Safety Director Dr. Frank Straub, the first out-of-towner to head this critical agency. It is also worth noting that the last time someone with a doctorate ran the department was Dr. Murrell Lowery, Mayor Bill Hudnut’s first public safety director.
When news of Straub’s possible appointment was circulating, I shared my concerns here in this column, and those concerns haven’t gone away. But frankly, Straub put on an initial good first impression with me and many others in our community during his first whirlwind visits to the city’s leadership and media.
Straub does have administrative experience with eight years as public safety director of White Plains, New York.
However, Mayor Greg Ballard also stressed his experience, although short, with the New York Police Department as their Deputy Police Commissioner for Training. Though in that position less than two years, Straub was at NYPD during its most traumatic time – the aftermath of September 11.
Straub deserves some of the credit for putting a large, new recruit class on New York’s streets during the most stressful time for any municipality in American history.
But, the question in 2010 is does Straub, after handling public safety in a mostly affluent New York suburb, have the capability and sensitivity to understand the complexity that’s Indianapolis?
The mayor’s minions understood the importance of Straub talking quickly with the African-American community. Hours after he hit town, Deputy Mayor Olgen Williams hosted 25 ministers in a meeting with Straub.
Then Straub came to our community, giving his first live interview on our WTLC-AM1310 “Afternoons with Amos” program where he explained why he chose to leave his native New York to work in this Midwestern (but somewhat southern) town.
“One of the biggest attractions in all honesty was Mayor Ballard,” Straub explained. “You have an incredibly committed Mayor who really sees the importance of public safety and has thrown the weight of his office behind it. It is critically important that somebody in this position, regardless of the city and the venue, have the support of the person running the city.”
Straub added, “His (Ballard’s) commitment to public safety goes beyond words. The mayor throughout our conversations very specifically talked about not only strengthening and raising the bar in the departments, but also about building strong and sustainable community collaborations.”
“He’s very much in sync with my beliefs in terms of policing,” Straub recounted.
Straub also played against expectations. A lifelong New Yorker, Hoosiers expected Straub to be a cross between Rudy Giuliani and Al Sharpton. Instead Straub came across as temperate, with just a trace of a New Yawk accent and none of the pushy stereotype.
In his resume, Straub bragged about his record of hiring and promoting minorities, including African-Americans, in White Plains. But in our interview, Straub surprised me with a view somewhat contradicting the mayor’s views about taking race into account in hiring and promotions.
When I asked Straub how could he increase the diversity here like he did in White Plains without taking race into account, he said, “Clearly in any organization, public or private you want the best people in the positions doing their jobs. I’m not 100 percent sure that I agree that race should not be a factor.”
Straub continued, “The idea is, and the goal is to find talented people regardless of the color of their skin or their ethnic origin and move them through the organization. We need to give folks both the skills and the incentives to make it worth while for them to move their career forward.”
Straub made his point even clearer to me and our community by saying, “Race is a factor. You can’t deny that race is a factor because you have to have a police department, a fire department, an EMS service and an animal control service that is reflective of the community that it serves.”
“The question becomes,” Straub continued, “How do you recruit people, how do you keep them engaged and how do you give them the skills to come into the organization and move up in the organization?”
Reading Straub’s resume I saw that he was on a panel at the 2008 Congressional Black Caucus Weekend event. He also testified last summer about youth violence before a Congressional subcommittee. His testimony on dealing with police community relations was surprising. And he echoed some of those views during our interview.
“What seems to work throughout the country is very focused aggressive policing tactics aimed at the individuals that drive violence and disrupt life in neighborhoods,” he said. “At the same time it is important to make sure that the communities are not victimized by strong aggressive policing. And that true sustainable partnerships and collaborations are formed between the police department and the community.”
Straub told the Indianapolis Star that curbing juvenile crime would be a major priority. Yet on the radio, he talked about the pressure schools are under to perform. Pressure that causes schools to push kids out into the streets where they get caught up in crime.
That’s not what we’ve heard from Public Safety Directors in the past. And how Straub works with schools to keep students in school and not out committing crimes in our streets will be a major challenge.
Our community’s gonna’ be in a watch mode about Frank Straub. Can he break the outsider jinx? Time will tell.
See ‘ya next week and Next Year!
