Q&A with Goshen Mayor Gina Leichty
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Last November, Democrat Gina Leichty became the first women elected mayor of the city of Goshen, and the move into public office was one that came rather quickly for her.
In March, Leichty was named interim mayor after former Mayor Jeremy Stutsman stepped down. She had previously worked at Eyedart Creative Studio, a communication and advertising agency she co-owned with her husband, Ben.
Leichty spoke with Inside INdiana Business about the move into the mayoral office, the challenges she hopes to tackle and what it means to be first woman to lead the nearly 200-year-old city. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
What was the path to becoming mayor like for you?
I really hadn’t planned on running for mayor last year. It came as a bit of a surprise. I have been a longtime partner with the city of Goshen through my business; we had a consulting and marketing firm, and we did a lot of community development promotion, and that really had been my focus, just standing alongside the city and being a champion for the city. And then our previous mayor stepped down last summer.
He shared that with me in February of last year, almost a year ago, and asked whether or not I would be willing to consider running for mayor as he chose to step down, and so that really changed my trajectory significantly. It’s one thing to plan on being a partner and then to step into the role was quite different. But after 20 years of experience and commitment to the city of Goshen, it also felt like an appropriate fit and a way that I could continue to support the city that I love so much.
How do you feel your background and your experience with the city benefits your ability to serve?
One of the things that really made it seem feasible for me to step in first as the interim mayor to fill the previous mayor’s position—and part of what contributed to my decision to actually run for the fall election—was having those longstanding relationships, both with people inside the city and with many of the small businesses.
I had worked alongside almost all of the department heads through many projects over the years and then through my work in the community with community development. I had deep relationships with both the not-for-profit community and the business community in this area. And so, they say that progress moves at the speed of trust, and I had a lot of relationships with people that made it possible for me to step in and provide continuity, and then also look ahead at the future to knowing that we have strong ties and strong relationships throughout the community.
What are your goals for your first full term as mayor?
Yeah, it’s an exciting time for our city. Of course, Goshen, like many other cities throughout the state of Indiana is facing some similar issues. Housing is issue number one that we know that we have to pay attention to. And, of course, public safety is another issue that we’re looking to address, as well as all of the quality of place projects that we’d like to tackle.
Starting with housing, READI 2.0 is going to be really important as we’re looking at working with developers to make sure that we have all levels of housing available in our community, both high-end and affordable housing, and that’s only going to be possible with the help of the state’s economic development initiatives. We recognize that with interest rates continuing to be high and with the cost of construction continuing to be high, these projects just wouldn’t happen without some of those additional incentives and those partnerships with the state. So that’s going to be really critical for our community to leverage those dollars.
Secondly, with public safety, everybody in the state is facing the same shortages of police officers. And it’s become a transition over time in our communities, a focus away from some of the trades, things like having an adequate number of mechanics and public safety officers and police officers. One of our initial initiatives that we’ve started to tackle is to really take the long view and to look at ways that we can partner with more closely with our secondary education providers and our public education providers to say, ‘What can we do to build these programs into the school curriculum so that we’re starting kids on these pathways of success for things that we know are going to be jobs that are available in our own home communities, including public safety?’
Finally, the quality of place initiatives, bike trails and things like public pools and focusing on our downtown development, those aren’t just niceties. We know that people are making choices and have more choices than ever about the cities in which they reside. They have more flexibility and work from home. So making sure that our communities are well stocked with a stack of quality of place initiatives and amenities is really vital to our community’s economic survival.
You mentioned downtown, and that’s always a big priority for a lot of communities. What are some of the things that you’re looking to implement to grow downtown Goshen?
One of the things that’s unique about Goshen is it’s had a strong downtown organization for a long time that’s made a dramatic impact. When people come and visit our city, they’re really surprised about the number of historic buildings that have been restored, and the variety of retail shops that we have, and restaurants that we have in our community. But those businesses—while they’re wonderful, and the community has made investments and partnerships through things like façade grants, and our events are well attended—they’re always fragile, because they’re competing against such large economic forces outside. So, we’re doing everything we can to make sure that we are promoting and championing our local and independently owned businesses and make sure that the community knows how valuable that resource is, and everything that we can to be a supporter of that downtown organization and make sure that those businesses have the resources that they need to continue to thrive.
What does it mean for you personally to be the first woman to serve as mayor of Goshen?
That’s a great question. One of the questions that people often ask me is what surprised me coming into office, and I have to admit, while it was exciting to be the first woman to hold the office in Goshen’s 192-year history, I didn’t really think about it that much until I started campaigning, and I would encounter families on the street with young daughters who would come up and they would want to get their picture taken. I was at one of the local restaurants one time, and as I was leaving, I heard the pitter patter of little feet behind me, and I turned around, and it was a little five or six year-old girl, and she said, ‘Thank you for being our president!’ Obviously, she was mistaken about my role, but the significance that it means to families and to young women, I think is it’s bigger than me. And my awareness of that has certainly deepened, and I hope it opens doors for others in the future.
Anything else?
I’m just really grateful to have the opportunity to champion Goshen, and I’m excited about our future and looking forward to the next four years.