Pete Buttigieg served as mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020. Elected in 2011 as a Democrat, he took office in January 2012 at the age of 29, becoming the second-youngest mayor in South Bend history, and the youngest incumbent mayor, at the time, of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents. During his mayoralty, he acquired the nickname "Mayor Pete". Coming out as gay in 2015, Buttigieg became the first elected official in Indiana to come out while in office, as well as the highest-ranking Indiana elected official to come out. Buttigieg won reelection later that year. In 2017, Buttigieg unsuccessfully ran for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, pledging to resign as mayor if he had been elected. Buttigieg opted against running for reelection in 2019, instead launching a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election. While he subsequently lost his bid for presidency, during his campaign he garnered a high national profile.
Buttigieg focused on urban development during his tenure as mayor. He supported numerous private developments. He also oversaw the sale of numerous city-owned properties to private owners. A key initiative of Buttigieg's first term was his Vacant and Abandoned Properties Initiative, also known as "1,000 Properties in 1,000 Days". This initiative reached its goal of repairing or demolishing 1,000 blighted properties across the city. In his second term, he completed two major infrastructure projects: a $150 million "Smart Sewer" project and a $25 million complete streets program named "Smart Streets" (the latter of which received national accolades). He also took a number of steps to commit the city of South Bend to greater environmental stewardship. This included creating the "Carbon Neutral 2050" plan for the city, which was adopted by the city council. After facing public pressure for the city to act, Buttigieg had the city collaborate with other entities to fund lead paint remediation efforts. He had previously argued that action on remediating levels of lead in South Bend was task for the state government and not the city government. Buttigieg launched a pilot program to provide residents with funding for home repairs, which he subsequently expanded into a larger program. He also funded improvements to city parks.
Buttigieg also established a city identification card program by executive order. Buttigieg promoted the idea of moving the city's South Shore Line station from South Bend International Airport to the city's downtown.
Buttigieg's early tenure had been marred by a scandal involving South Bend Police Department Chief Darryl Boykins illegally recording officers. This led to Buttigieg demoting Boykins, and ultimately asking for his resignation. The firing of the city's first African American police chief sparked backlash. Another controversy during Buttigieg's mayoralty was his actions regarding the opening crisis pregnancy center in South Bend. Buttigieg vetoed rezoning that would have allowed the center to open near an existing abortion clinic. However, he thereafter offered help in finding the crisis pregnancy center an alternate location to operate, with this latter action being criticized by some abortion rights organizations as inconsistent with Buttigieg's pro choice positions. He has also been criticized for South Bend's failure to diversify the racial makeup of its police force, something for which Buttigieg in 2019 conceded failure on his part.
Election and transition
Buttigieg was elected mayor of South Bend in the November 2011 election, with 10,991 of the 14,883 votes cast (74%). In 2011, as South Bend's mayor-elect, Buttigieg supported John Broden in his successful bid to become St. Joseph County Democratic Party chairman. Buttigieg took office on January 1, 2012, at the age of 29, becoming the second-youngest mayor in South Bend history (Schuyler Colfax III had become mayor in 1898 at the age of 28), and the youngest incumbent mayor, at the time, of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents. Buttigieg was sworn in on January 1, 2012, by former congressman Romano Mazzoli at Century Center.
First term Housing, urban development and blight removal initiatives One of Buttigieg's priorities upon entering office was to attract new development to the city. His efforts saw success, and by the end of his two terms hundreds of millions of dollars of new development had come to the city.
In February 2012, soon after taking office, in order to address allegations of improperly awarded contracts and misallocated funds in the Housing Authority of South Bend, Buttigieg and the board of the housing authority requested that the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development conduct a "full audit and investigation" In 2013, federal officials outlined "dire" mismanagement and financial problems, and faulted the board with failure to provide proper oversight to the agency and catch its problems. In October 2014, after the board failed to present a plan to resolve the agency's problems, the federal officials encouraged Buttigieg to take initiative actions, including recommending that he explore "the possibility of replacing all or some existing board members". In January 2015, after all six of the board's members either resigned or saw their terms expire, Buttigieg appointed six new members.
As mayor, Buttigieg promoted the transformation of the former Studebaker plant location into a technology park named Ignition Park. He also supported the development of the "Renaissance District" located near the technology park.
Buttigieg was involved in the creation of a nightly laser-light display along downtown South Bend's St. Joseph River trail as public art. The project cost $700,000, which was raised from private funds. The "River Lights" installation was unveiled in May 2015 as part of the city's 150th anniversary celebrations.
By the end of Buttigieg's first term, South Bend had sold off 71 city-owned properties. An example was the former Bendix Corporation headquarters and factory, which the city sold to Curtis Products in 2014. In late 2014 and early 2015, South Bend negotiated the sale of the city-owned Blackthorn Golf Course. The LaSalle Hotel was sold to developers in 2015 for conversion into apartments. Also in 2015, the city sold the former site of the College Football Hall of Fame to JSK Hospitality.
One of Buttigieg's signature programs was the Vacant and Abandoned Properties Initiative. Known locally as "1,000 Properties in 1,000 Days", it was a project that aimed to repair or demolish blighted properties across South Bend. In late September, Buttigieg announced that the program had reached its goal three months before its scheduled end date in November 2015, declaring that more than 1,000 homes had either been demolished or refurbished. By the thousandth day of the program, before Buttigieg's first term ended, the city was reporting that more than 1,000 homes had either been demolished or repaired. While there were no reports of family's being evicted due to the program, some locals who had acquired blighted properties with the intent of repairing them were dismayed that their properties stood at risk of code-enforcement fines or condemnation. The majority of properties impacted by the program were in West Side neighborhoods with sizable black and Hispanic populations. In 2019, Buttigieg would acknowledge that many of the homes demolished had been in communities of color, and that this had led to early distrust between his administration and these communities.
Buttigieg set aside $2 million in his 2014 budget to create comprehensive plans for corridors along Lincoln Way West and Western Avenue. This would lead to improvements that began to be implemented in 2019.
Policing South Bend adopted the National Network for Safe Communities' Group Violence Intervention approach in 2014, launching the South Bend Group Violence Intervention program.
During Buttigieg's first term, the city's police force continued to struggle with a high homicide rate, a problem which preceded his tenure. The annual number of murders in South Bend was 18 in 2012, 9 in 2013, 17 in 2014, and 7 in 2015.
Darryl Boykins In 2012, after a federal investigation ruled that South Bend police had illegally recorded telephone calls of several officers, Buttigieg demoted police chief Darryl Boykins. Boykins had first been appointed in 2008 by Mayor Stephen Luecke and reappointed by Buttigieg earlier in 2012. Buttigieg also dismissed the department's communications director, the one who had actually "discovered the recordings but continued to record the line at Boykins' command". The police communications director alleged that the recordings captured four senior police officers making racist remarks and discussing illegal acts. The city is 26% black, but only 6% of the police force is black. Buttigieg has written that his "first serious mistake as mayor" came shortly after taking office in 2012, when he decided to ask for Boykins's resignation. The city's first ever African American police chief accepted the request. However, the next day, backed by supporters and legal counsel, Boykins requested reinstatement. When Buttigieg denied this request, Boykins sued South Bend for racial discrimination, making the argument that such a taping policy had been present under previous white police chiefs. Buttigieg settled the suits brought by Boykins and the four officers out of court for over $800,000. A federal judge ruled in 2015 that Boykins's recordings violated the Federal Wiretap Act. He called for the eradication of racial bias in the police force. Buttigieg's handling of the matter, including his ousting of Boykins, was seen as hurting his relationship with the city's African American community.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Buttigieg came under pressure from political opponents to release the tapes, but said that doing so would be a violation of the Wiretap Act. Since 2012, the South Bend Common Council (city council) had been fighting in court for the mayors' office to comply with a subpoena of the police department that the council had issued for the audio recordings in question. The subpoena had been issued to facilitate their investigation of Boykins' removal as police chief. However, the officers' featuring in the recordings have fought the Common Council in court to block the public release. In April 2019, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Steven Hostetler ruled that the effort by the Common Council to obtain the tapes had legal merit warranting a trial. On May 10, 2021, St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Steven Hostetler further held that the officers lacked legal standing to prevent the council from being given the recordings. The officers appealed the ruling in a brief filed with the Indiana Court of Appeals. The appeals court reversed Hostetler's ruling; instead finding that the officers had standing. This opened the possibility of a trial to block the release. In August 2022, the Common Council filed an appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court. In January 2023, the Indiana Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, allowing the Appeals Court's holding to stand, and clearing the path for a trial to decide on the possible release of the tapes.
Other civic matters In June 2012, fulfilling a campaign promise, Buttigieg hosted an economic summit for the city.
In his first year of office, Buttigieg oversaw an update of the city's phone and email systems as well as a redesign of the city's website. In 2013, Buttigieg oversaw the city's launching of a 3-1-1 system.
In May 2013, the city put in place its first shared lane marking for cyclists.
In January 2013, Buttigieg joined the national group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.