Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry announced his newly appointed Deputy Mayor Tuesday.
Karl Bandemer has a long history with Mayor Tom Henry. In the early 80sBandemer was in charge of economic development when then city council member Henry served. Henry attributes Bandemer with encouraging a diversity of industry in town, after Fort Wayne had lost thousands of manufacturing jobs at that time.
He also lauds Bandemer for his leadership, government experience, and aptitude for economic development.
Most recently Bandemer has worked with Greater Fort Wayne Inc. and the Downtown Development Trust, and was instrumental in their latest plan for the future downtown development set to house Ash Brokerage’s national headquarters.
“I have a real soft spot, a passion for downtown development, I’ll be perfectly honest with you" Bandemer says. "I hope to be able to continue in that role in some capacity, so that certainly is a passion along with economic development.”
Henry describes the duties of Deputy Mayor as the Chief Operations Officer for the city. He says since his own job requires being out in the community so much, it’s necessary for someone internally to take on operations and to meet with division and department directors to make sure daily objectives are met.
Salary negotiations haven’t happened yet, but Henry says the position pays over 100 thousand dollars per year.