South Bend's Mayoral candidates on the issues

SOUTH BEND, Ind – South Bend Mayoral candidates James Mueller and Sean Haas sat down with ABC57 to discuss the issues they said the city of South Bend is facing.

When asked what are the most important issues the city is facing they both laid out what they said are major issues they would address.

“It’s gotta be public safety. I think public safety and education are tied at the hip but I think especially in the last few months we’ve seen it get really bad,” Republican candidate for Mayor Sean Haas said.

I’ll be focusing on how to accelerate our growth, how to tackle barriers to opportunities so more can share our growth,” Democratic candidate for Mayor James Mueller said. Mueller continues on to say “we’ve had a bit of a rough summer so we’ve been more focused on public safety,” Mueller said.

Both candidates said crime is a major issue and they have ideas to help fix the problem.

“One of the issues we have in this community is there’s a significant portion of our residents that don’t have faith or trust in our public safety and criminal justice system and that’s something we have to tackle head on,” Mueller said.

“Number one we have to build trust between the community and the people they have to be able to feel like they can help the police officers when there’s an incident of crime whether it’s a shooting or anything else,” Haas said.

When both candidates were asked about the future under each candidate’s administration if elected they each laid out their vision.

“I’d love to see all of our crime statistics fall getting involved in the schools is a big part of that and like I said those two issues like public safety and education are top issues tied together,” Haas said.

“I can’t promise that everything will turn the corner in the first year but certainly the vision that I laid out in my written plan earlier this spring is a vision for 2025 that shows a growing city,” Mueller said.

Both candidates were asked about the proposed federal ban on flavored e-cigarettes and if they believe that is an issue locally as well.

“It’s not an issue locally,” Haas said. Haas continued to say “I’d much rather have people vaping than smoke traditional cigarettes,” He said.

“There hasn’t been a ban on conventional cigarettes so it’s interesting there would be this approach on e-cigarettes but certainly we have to make sure our community is healthy,” Mueller said.

Both candidates also stressed that they are focused on finishing the campaign strong and speaking to the community about their vision for the city of South Bend.