Berger getting ready for re-election bid

LIMA - Petitions for next year's mayoral primary election aren't due until February, but Mayor David Berger is getting his in order now.

Berger is circulating petitions needed for his name to appear on the ballot for what would be a sixth term. He always takes seriously election challengers and said he looks forward to the community process of elections.

He and his administration have many irons in the fire, especially with economic development, including real estate investments, corridor master plans, plans for Global Energy and the associated job ready site, research and development work such as American Trim projects and a city budget to keep afloat in the midst of a tough economy.

"There's lots that we're in midcourse now that I want to get done and lots of new opportunities for the city I want to help chart the course for," Berger said.

Berger could face some serious challengers in his re-election bid.

Long rumored to be considering a run for the office, Allen County Sheriff Dan Beck was noncommittal Monday.

"I'm sheriff until the end of the year and then I'll decide what to do after that," Beck said.

Responding to speculation about local black ministers looking for a candidate to challenge Berger, the Rev. H. Frank Taylor said the Coalition for Change, a group formed by ministers to address civil rights issues, hasn't decided on a candidate to support.

"We're in the process of putting together a set of requirements we want from the mayor's office, whoever becomes mayor," Taylor said. "We want the criteria for what we need before we lend our support to anyone."

The coalition is primarily concerned with minority representation in the Police Department and inequality in the judicial system, Taylor said.

Civil rights and race relations issues brought forward after a fatal police shooting in January remain, Berger said, and he and many people are responding to them. Berger and Commissioner Dan Reiff established stakeholder groups to tackle 80 community priorities identified earlier this year and the Charter Review Commission is reviewing civil service rules.

"They are not things I would campaign on. I'll be talking about the fact that we're engaged on them, but to campaign on them would demean them," Berger said. "They require not just campaign promises but need deliberate discussion and decisions."

If more than two people run in the May primary, the top two vote-getters move on to the November general election.