SPRING FORWARD
STRIKING OUT
The Panthers softball team lost 6-5 and 4-3 during its doubleheader against Georgia State University.
Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead Sunday at 2 a.m.
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Dai ly Eastern News WWW.DAILYEASTERNNEWS.COM
THE
“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID”
VOL. 97 | ISSUE 117
Friday, March 8, 2013
charleston | government
administr ation
Mayor to move on, focus on family Officials respond Inyart to retire after 8 years of service to city
to assault concerns
By Amanda Wilkinson City Editor Mayor John Inyart considers himself head coach for a great team. After his term expires, Inyart said he plans on spending more time with his family and focus on running his business. “(The city) has a great team, and they have a change in the head coach position,” he said. Just shy of being in office for a decade, Inyart has been mayor for eight years. “I’ve found that (the mayoral position has) taken a lot of time from other things – my family, my business,” he said. “It’ll be good to get back to those things.” Inyart is the franchisee of the Midas Auto Systems Experts in both Charleston and Mattoon. He said he also plans to play more golf in the summer. “I can tell you that my golf game has suffered the last several years,” Inyart said. “I haven’t played much golf at all. I’m not very good, but I’ve gotten even worse.” While he said he is going to enjoy having less work to do, he will miss the position of mayor. “There are obviously going to be parts of the job that I won’t miss but there are going to be many, many aspects of the job that I am going to be miss,” Inyart said. He said one aspect is being able to make a direct difference in the town he grew up in. Inyart said being in local government, he might hear of a problem and get it fixed right away. “(People on the county and state level) don’t have that luxury a lot of times,” he said. “I can get stuff done. Things can happen.” Beginning his first term in 2005, Inyart said he had goals he wanted to achieve as the mayor of Charleston. He said he wanted the city to embrace the city manager form of government. Inyart said Scott Smith, the city manager, was already in the position when Inyart was elected. “We just simply needed to spend time outlining duties and working our way toward making sure he was the guy in charge of day-to-day operations,” he said. Inyart said building a good team with Smith was key for the city manager form of government to work. Part of the current form of government is that Inyart is a part-time mayor. He said he works about 15-to-20
Staff Report
Dominic Baima | The Daily Eastern Ne ws
Charleston mayor John Inyart has been the mayor for the past eight years and will not be running in the upcoming April 9 election. Inyart said he is looking forward to focusing on his family and business.
hours per week including time in his office at his business and time at home. “There’s a reason it only pays $10,000 a y e a r,” I n y a r t s a i d . “ It’s a parttime
job.” He said another one of his goals was to improve customer service within the city, meaning he wanted to make sure city workers were visible in the community. “They’re much more identifiable in the community,” Inyart said. “It’s very easy to tell now who works for the city, and I think that’s important. It’s makes us accountable to the taxpayer.” Inyart said his background in business helped him complete his third goal of making the city more business-friendly.
“I think we’ve been proactive both in the planning department and the city manager’s office in working with new businesses or potential ne w businesses when they come to town,” he said.
Inyart said he has been able to advise potential businesses coming to
town. A lot of the issues that have come across his desk have been communication problems, he said. “They’re the same sort of issues I have spent my life working with, in both retail and service business, where you have to be accountable and you have to take care of the problem,” Inyart said. He also said the relationship between the city and Eastern has greatly improved.
At about 4 p.m. Thursday, Dan Nadler, the vice president for student affairs, sent out an email to students in response to concerns about sexual assault and violence on Eastern’s campus. The email outlined concerns about educational campaign recommendations and existing programs and services, including the Health Education Resource Center and the Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Service. Nadler said in the email that the Sexual Assault Task Force submitted the list of recommendations to him on March 1. The educational campaign includes hiring a sexual assault/violence prevention and intervention specialist, developing a social marketing campaign called the “No More Secrets” campaign, creating a Sexual Assault Task Force section of Eastern’s website, expanding existing Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming, installing security cameras in parking lots, increasing the number of on-campus blue emergency phones and establishing a group of trained students to provide walking escort services for increased safety. The list of recommendations also includes the services different programs on campus provide to survivors of sexual assault and educational processes for prevention and intervention. For the full list of prevention and intervention recommendations go to dailyeasternnews.com.
“I think, finally, we’ve had good relations with Eastern over the years, and we’ve had strained relations with Eastern over the years— off and on,” Inyart said. “I think the relationship between President Perry’s office and my office is probably the best it’s ever been.” He said he credits Perry with connecting with the community and him meeting with Perry on a regular basis. Through working closely with Perry, Inyart said they increased pedestrian safety around campus. Despite completing several goals in his career as mayor he admitted that he was not able to get some projects done that he wanted to get done, Inyart said For one project, he said there are some vacant properties he wished he had been able to redevelop and return to the community not as a public figure. However, Inyart said the city was able to renovate and resell several houses. “It physically looks different than it did eight years ago,” he said. “I take pride in that.” While Inyart is moving on from the mayoral position, he said the job of mayor is never done. “It’s funny because this is not a job that’s ever really done,” he said. “The day I walk out of here, somebody else is going to slip right into the seat, and they’re going to take up the same challenges that I had.”
Board proposes $16,000 decrease
MAYOR, page 5
DECREASE, page 5
STUDENT BUDGE TS
By Samantha McDaniel Student Governance Editor The University Board budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2014 was about a $16,000 decrease from the current budget. Danny Turano, the UB chairman, along with David Simms, the vice chairman, and the coordinators presented the UB budget for the FY 14. The UB requested a budget of $200,091, a $16,398 decrease.