Rob Waiz

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Robert L. Waiz, Jr (born January 30, 1963) is a politician of Jeffersonville, Indiana. He works in real estate and has been on the city council and served as mayor for one term. Waiz, a Democrat, was first elected mayor in 2003, defeating two-term incumbent Tom Galligan in the May Democratic primary and then defeating Republican Monty Snelling in the November general election. On May 8, 2007, he lost the Democrat primary against Galligan; who went on to win the general election in Nobember 2007.^[1] Rob Waiz is the first one term mayor to lose his re-election campaign.

[edit] Biography

Robert L. Waiz, Jr was born January 30, 1963 in Louisville, Kentucky to Bob and Barbara Waiz. He and his sister were raised in Jeffersonville. Waiz is a graduate of Our Lady of Providence High School class of 1981 in Clarksville, Indiana and Indiana University Southeast in 1986 with a Bachelors in Business Management. He and his wife, Susan, have two children Lena and Robert.^[2]

Waiz is businessman that is a founder of Waiz Real Estate and Taggart-Waiz Insurance Center. Additionally his career in the political field has brought him a mixture of experience from serving on the Jeffersonville planning commission, the city council, and as mayor.

[edit] Elections

Rob Waiz would serve as a councilman for one term and during that term he would serve as the vice-president and president of the council. Waiz continued to advance politically in 2003 as he filed to run for mayor against Tom Galligan a two term incumbent. Waiz managed to defeat Galligan in a four way primary race while in years past galligan would have three way races. Waiz would go on to win the general election and serve as mayor.^[3]

In may of 2007 Rob Waiz lost the Democrat Primary election to challenger Tom Galligan, which Galligan would go on to win the general election. During his campaign him and his challenger were brought under investigation by the Ethics Commission several times making the campaign controversial. Following the election mayor Waiz filed a complaint with the Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart regarding that several laws regarding the absentee ballots were violated. Stewart filed a petition for a special prosecutor to be appoint due to a conflict of interest with his wife working for the Waiz administration. Clark Circuit Court Judge Daniel Donahue would appoint Ronald Simpson as special prosecutor from Corydon, Indiana.^[4]

The investigation is ongoing.

[edit] Mayor

Rob waiz assumed office and presided over his first council meeting on January 5, 2004. Then just six days later on January 11, 2004 a fire would devastate an entire city block in the historical district.^[5] Waiz would work with the businesses, the city council, and talk with then governor Joe Kernan during the following months regarding the incident to help restore the area.^[6]

November 21, 2005 The city council would pass a smoking ordinance and Waiz would sign it into effect shortly after.^[7][8] This made Jeffersonville the first community in the Southern Indiana Louisville Metro area to pass such an ordinance.

December 1, 2006 Rob Waiz campaigned to abolish the City Court to save tax payers money. This was brought up because City Judge Vicki Carmichael was elected to the Clark County Superior Court bench and was set to take office on January 1, 2007 and rather than continue the court system Waiz wanted to abolish the court like many other cities have done previously in Indiana.^[9] This however didn't succeed. Also during 2006 Waiz helped negotiate a 5 million dollar offer to help aid the Jeffersonville Town Center commercial center development by Vision Land Development.^[10] Which has been in the works since 2002. The 5 million dollars became $7 million dollars in January of 2007 coming from the cities TIF district.^[11] The Town Center has yet to develop any stores as of 2008.

Waiz signed an Ethics Law which would be enforced by a commission of members from an unbiased political stance in 2006.^[12] This created the Jeffersonville Ethics Commission. During Waiz 2007 campaign he asked for the removal of the Ethics Commissions Attorney Larry Wilder on April 10, 2007.^[13] The claims were that Wilder secretly supports the Galligan campaign because his wife Peggy's mass postage address that she lets anyone use. Waiz was answered the next day with Wilder stays by the Ethics Commission.^[14] Wilder used to be the a city assistant attorney until a public falling out in January 2006 in which Wilder resigned.

After losing the primary in may during 2007 Waiz had a very active end to his term. Waiz issued several vetos of the city council for salary wages and a planned annexation. The council overturned the mayors vetos. The annex was overturned on August 20, 2007^[15] and the salary wages were overturned on December 21, 2007.^[16]

In November however Waiz would attend a National League of Cities conference in New Orleans regardless of being voted out of office while the new mayor-elect also attended. The trip has drawn publicity due to the number of officials that attended the conference that were leaving office at the end of the year.^[17]

[edit] External links

• Louisville Business First profile

[edit] See also

• List of mayors of Jeffersonville, Indiana

[edit] References