Ask the Mayor
A weekly program where mayors from Bloomington, Columbus, and Terre Haute answer questions about your community. We also delve into new and long-term city topics.
The show airs on WFIU on Wednesday mornings at 6:45 AM and 8:45 AM
- First Wednesday of the month: Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon (R)
- Second Wednesday of the month: Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun (D)
- Third Wednesday of the month: Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson (D)
Submit a question or comment to news@indianapublicmedia.org and follow us on X: @AskTheMayor
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"At the mayoral level, there's only so many levers you can pull as state, federal and frankly, international policies and failures really combine." - Mayor Brandon Sakbun
Joe Hren
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WFIU/WTIU News
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"Local solutions to local problems is the way to go, and we want to bring a proven strategy to folks at the higher levels of government to open that dialog." - Sakbun on safe property initiative -
"It wouldn't surprise me if from their perspective, the best thing to do is to move anybody who's homeless to a larger community. Is that the right way to deal with it, no. But I assume it happens." -Mayor Mary Ferdon -
"I have a lot of people tell me that they don't vote anymore because they don't think that who's in office makes a difference." - Thomson on canvassing neighborhoods -
"Until we're ready to have these conversations about transforming the state economy, we're just going to find more ways to cut employees and cut services." - Mayor Brandon Sakbun -
"We don't like the word gerrymandering, and so I think I'm hoping that the state legislature just chooses not to redistrict at this point in time and keeps to the schedule that we do." - Ferdon on redistricting -
"That's actually the case that's deeply concerning to me and to many others, that if in our state we cannot depend on the validity of a legal contract, what are we standing on?" - Thomson on constitutionality waiver case -
"It's pretty defeating for some of our employees, right? They are consistently recruited by the private sector, by other municipalities... our department heads, our assistant department heads, almost all have been offered jobs." - Mayor Sakbun on retention during budget cuts -
"We will be using dipping into our reserves to make sure that we have a balanced budget." - Mayor Mary Ferdon on 2026 budget -
The city aims to allow buildings with up to five bedrooms in residential areas to increase affordability. Thomson said she inherited a $16 million deficit and wants to reduce it to $10 million. -
"We need code with teeth, because I'm sick and tired of investors with Florida or California zip codes coming in buying these properties," - Sakbun on unsafe housing conditions.
