Part-time mayor who makes less than $19,400 yearly trying to hold US city together
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Mayor Rob Rue of Springfield, Ohio, who took office not even a year ago, has taken on a part-time post that has been anything but that over the last several days.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – It has been a chilling couple of weeks for Springfield, Ohio, since former president Donald Trump pulled the city into the presidential race with baseless claims that Haitian immigrants there were abducting and eating household pets.
Trying to hold the city together has been Mayor Rob Rue, who took office not even a year ago, taking on a part-time post that has been anything but that over the past several days.
“This job as mayor was never supposed to have this type of intensity,” said Mr Rue, 54. “But when you sign up to serve a city, you never know what is coming.”
It recently fell on Mr Rue to declare a state of emergency, allowing the city to expedite contracts for any additional security that becomes necessary, particularly if Trump decides to visit, as he said he intended to do.
The election-year pressures are unusual in Springfield, where day-to-day operations are normally overseen by a city manager. The mayor, as the head of the City Commission, is the face of local government. But it is not supposed to be a full-time role, reflected by an annual salary of just under US$15,000 (S$19,400).
The recent transformation of Springfield into a national flashpoint has complicated Mr Rue’s efforts to manage the city’s growing pains following the arrival of thousands of legal immigrants from Haiti. Their eagerness to work entry-level manufacturing jobs boosted Springfield’s economy and helped ease a decades-long population decline. But their strain on the city’s health clinics, schools and rental market prompted an angry reaction from some long-time residents.
In July, as anti-immigrant sentiment was beginning to build, Mr Rue and the city manager, Mr Bryan Heck, appeared on a Fox morning news and talk show. They said the new Haitian arrivals were taxing the city’s resources and that they needed more help from the federal government. Their appearance helped thrust Springfield into the national immigration debate.
By that time, rumours about immigrants had begun to metastasise on social media, where some Springfield residents shared baseless hearsay about missing pets.
After Trump chose to amplify those falsehoods on a national stage – despite a city official having told his campaign beforehand that those claims were wrong – Mr Rue repeatedly went on cable news to push back.
“When your city is misrepresented, you want to get out there and represent who we really are,” he said. NYTIMES
