If “all politics are local”, what happens to politics when local journalism degrades?
Recently Mr. Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of our hometown, South Bend, Indiana, has ascended higher among hopefuls for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Ricky Klee
His rise is accompanied by the decline of our local newspaper, the South Bend Tribune, troubled as some other small city papers are. The South Bend Tribune has seen its pages reduced, its printing press shuttered, the end of local ownership after 147 years, the departure of some of its better journalists.
What difference has this made?
Consider diversity in city spending. We have an institution chartered by ordinance called the Minority and Women Business Enterprise Diversity Board. It was begun by Mayor Stephen Luecke in 2011 to monitor and to encourage opportunities for Minority and Women Owned Businesses, especially with city contracts.
This is an important Board, considering our city’s diversity, and the challenges we face. For example, South Bend is 26% African-American. The unemployment rate for African Americans in our city is nearly double the unemployment rate for Caucasians, and African-American households earn roughly half of what Caucasian households do locally.
What has happened with this Board during Mayor Buttigieg’s tenure, which began in 2012? In 2014 the Board met nine times. Following the September 29th, 2014 session, the Board’s archives do not record a meeting until March 27th, 2018 — a discontinuance of three-and-a-half years. During this time, I made repeated requests to the Mayor’s Office, asking why this Board with mayoral appointees was not meeting. There was no reply. I contacted four South Bend Tribune reporters about it. There was no response.
What was happening with city spending and diversity? According to the 2015 City of South Bend Diversity Purchasing Report (DPR), out of over $90 million dollars spent by the City of South Bend, none went to a certified African-American Owned Minority Business.
In the 2017 DPR, out of 1,349 contracted vendors, only one, Sanco Distributing, was listed as an African-American Minority Owned Business. The City of South Bend spent over $101 million dollars in 2017. In 2017, this solitary African-American Minority Owned Business was awarded a city contract for $707.88.
In 2018, the Board was scheduled to meet three times. It canceled one meeting and had another with insufficient members for a quorum. There are no posted meetings for 2019.
By ordinance, the City of South Bend should annually produce a report on city spending and its utilization of Minority and Women Owned Businesses. Yet South Bend’s online Board archives have just one such report posted during Mayor Buttigieg’s tenure.
This has not been reported by the South Bend Tribune, nor discussed by Mayor Buttigieg.
My neighbor is an African-American businesswoman. Her work supports herself and her grandchildren. For six months, her application to the city for help in expanding her business has gone unanswered.
What happens to politics when local journalism degrades? Our community has been uninformed about the exclusion of African-American Minority Owned Business from city contracts, and the struggles of local Minority and Women Owned Businesses to grow. The consequences affect my family, my neighbor’s family, and our neighborhood, as well as our politics, local and national.
Ricky Klee
Ricky Klee is a longtime South Bend resident and an instructor of the humanities at local colleges and in a state correctional facility.
