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Former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith is challenging Indiana mayors to do more with less.
He’s the namesake of The Sagamore Institute’s new Goldsmith Prize for Innovation in Local Government, which honors the Republican’s work during his two terms as mayor. Sagamore Institute President Teresa Lubbers announced the prize’s creation on Wednesday at AIM Indiana’s Mayor’s Conference at the Bottleworks Hotel in Indianapolis.
The award will recognize a bold, sustainable solution that leverages technology and data, fosters collaboration, empowers public employees and innovates creatively, according to a news release from the Indianapolis-based think-tank. Lubbers said submissions will be evaluated based on the scope of the innovation, not on the specific issue it addresses.
The winner will be partnered with a graduate student in a relevant field of study and a $40,000 stipend to pay them for a year. The community leaders will also meet with the Goldsmith Prize team or advisory board five times to monitor the project’s progress.
Former U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks and Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Group and Cook Medical, serve as co-chairs for the competition.
Mayors from all over the state are invited to submit their ideas from May 1 to July 31. The winner will be announced at AIM Indiana’s annual Ideas Summit this October in French Lick.
The challenge is timely. A property tax cut signed by Gov. Mike Braun this month may leave local governments cash-strapped.
“There is a way to make government better, faster and cheaper,” Goldsmith said Wednesday. “It’s easy to make government cheaper and worse… it’ll be a very, very challenging time, but that should unleash a lot of creativity in the state, if we think about it in that way.”
Goldsmith himself faced that challenge. During his two terms, from 1992 to 1999, his administration reduced the city’s spending every year and cut property taxes for five years straight. At the same time, the city invested $1.3 billion in neighborhood infrastructure and attracted $7 billion in private-sector investment for major projects like the completion of Circle Center Mall and an expansion of the Indiana Convention Center.
Goldsmith went on to become a deputy mayor of New York City and now serves as a thought leader in local government. He is the Derek Bok Professor of the Practice of Urban Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and director of Data-Smart City Solutions at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University.
Yonkman and Brooks will lead the process of selecting innovative ideas. Brooks served as deputy mayor under Goldsmith from 1998 to 1999. In 2001, then-President George Bush appointed her as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.
Brooks said there are opportunities within cities to use new tools, recruit younger talent and bring in new ideas. She said the prize, which can be for new ideas or scaling existing initiatives, can be that “spark” that helps leaders pursue change.
Yonkman noted that he has never held a public service position. However, as a business leader, he has collaborated with governments on projects like a new medical device facility on 38th Street in Indianapolis and an affiliated grocery store intended to fill a gap in fresh food availability, as well as creating a collaborative zone to improve the neighborhood.
He said he pulls from his people-focused business, which he says isn’t too different from government work, to provide a different perspective.
“Government is inefficient,” Yonkman said. “Every time we interact with it, I am shocked by how inefficient, how old the systems are, how disconnected and siloed it is from business.”
A panel of seven leaders from the business, nonprofit and government sectors—including Lubbers, of the Sagamore Institute, Goodwill CEO Kent Kramer and former Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez—will review the submissions. The Top 10 selected by the panel will be invited to present their ideas on August 22. The panel will then select a winner.
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