Shreve says next Indy mayor needs to attract outside investment
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — One Republican candidate for mayor said his business and political experience sets him apart from the rest of the field.
Jefferson Shreve is the founder of Storage Express and served on the City-County Council from 2013 to 2019. He is now running in the Republican primary for mayor. In an interview with News 8 for “All INdiana Politics,” Shreve said he decided to run because he’s upset by the direction the city is taking. If he is elected mayor, he said his first move would be to hire a full-time public safety director. He then would focus on hiring and retaining more police officers.
“The exit interviews are not available to us but we know that they’re voting with their feet,” he said. “They’re making lateral transfers to departments in the donut counties and beyond where our officers feel supported by the administration, which is not the case here.”
Shreve has said the next mayor needs to do a better job of selling the city. Asked what he meant by that, he said the mayor needs to work to attact human talent and capital investment, which dovetails with public safety. He said the city especially needs to find a way to attract young people, noting the success of cities such as Raleigh and Austin in that regard.
The mayor of Indianapolis has the unique responsibility of leading a city that is both the largest in the state and the seat of state government. Asked about the role he sees in working with state government counterparts, Shreve said his past service with the state Republican Party would help his relations with the GOP-dominated legislature but the city still will need to stand on its own merits.
“It would be a false pretense to think that Republicans are going to come in and get a whole lot of money from the other end of (Market Street),” he said. “We’ve got to be efficient, targeted, and do a whole lot of things right with our own resources and our own municipal budget.”
Early voting begins April 4 and the primary will be held on May 2.
“All INdiana Politics” airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on WISH-TV.