MANSFIELD — Jodie Perry knew she would be stepping into symbolically brighter lights when she was elected Mansfield’s mayor.
But 15 months into her first term as the city’s top administrator, those bright lights became real on Thursday night as she delivered her 2025 “State of the City” address.
Perry offered her thoughts on the status of the city during a 42-minute Facebook livestream in the studios of DRM Productions, which will later be placed on the city’s website.
“Mansfield is my adopted hometown. I fell in love with this community shortly after I moved here 11 years ago,” the former Richland Area Chamber and Economic Development leader said near the end of her remarks.
“I am so humbled and honored to serve as your mayor and I look forward to all that we will be able to accomplish together throughout 2025. The state of our city is strengthening each and every day,” said Perry, who took office in January 2024.
(Below: Watch Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry’s 2025 “State of the City” address she delivered from the studios of DRM Productions on Thursday evening via a Facebook livestream event.)
Perry said she opted for the livestream event because local lawmakers are still meeting in a Mansfield Municipal Courtroom while their own meeting space is being renovated inside the Municipal Building.
“I chose this format because I thought it would allow for greater amounts of people to see it and some interaction, hopefully, that we will have eventually on social media,” Perry said after the broadcast ended.
“I’m guessing there will be feedback, yes, and one of the things that I like about working on this is the opportunity to interact with residents,” the mayor said.
“We don’t always agree, but I do appreciate that people care about the community enough to share their thoughts,” Perry said.
In her prepared remarks, the mayor primarily cited improvements in the areas of growth, infrastructure and safety she has said have been the priorities of her administration.
She cited economic growth involving Adena Corp., Eaglemark 4, Schmidt Security Pro and Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport with Niss Aviation as its fixed base operator.
“Another good indicator of burgeoning economic development is the strong growth in building permits. Under the leadership of Adrian Ackerman, our Permitting and Development Department had an extremely busy year, issuing 718 building permits, which is an increase of nearly 50 percent over 2023,” Perry said.
“They also performed over 1,000 permit inspections – also a significant increase over previous years.”
Afterward, she acknowledged challenges remain in the city of about 47,000 residents halfway between Cleveland and Columbus.
“Growth remains a top challenge. We have to bring in new jobs. We have to grow our population. So I think we made important steps forward,” Perry said.
“I’m hoping that we can speed that process up as we move ahead,” she said.
(Below is a PDF with Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry’s 2025 “State of the City” address that she delivered on Thursday evening.)
She also acknowledged the need to continue to improve local perceptions.
“Honestly, I think re-instilling pride in the community remains a challenge. There’s a lot of people that I feel still feel discouraged about our future prospects. One of the unique things about (the mayor’s) role is it’s given me a viewpoint of all of the many things that are happening,” Perry said.
“So I’ve remained confident about positive things coming down the pike. But I really want our residents to feel that, too,” she said.
“You just never know who you’re talking to. So people saying nice things about our community really can make a big difference,” the mayor said.
In 1990, many city residents proclaimed the Richland Carrousel Park being built downtown would not benefit the city. Some produced bumper stickers that said, “Will the last person leaving Mansfield please turn off the carrousel?”
Three and a half decades later, the continued impact of the carousel on the downtown district can no longer be questioned.
Those entering today’s Carrousel District, with its stores, restaurants, coffee shop and trendy bars and eateries, would not recognize the North Main Street area in the 1970s and 1980s, especially between Temple Court and West Fourth Street.
Aging and decaying buildings were boarded up, some for so long the utilities had been disconnected. Many, if not most, storefronts were vacant.
Perry said she is hopeful the $19 million Main Street Corridor Improvement project now underway in the city will have a similar positive effect. Federal and state and local grants have reduced the city’s portion of the project to $3.39 million, according to city engineer Bob Bianchi.
(Below is a video produced by the City of Mansfield showing the Main Street Corridor Improvement Plan.)
“I understand it’s causing a lot of (traffic) hiccups for people and it certainly is an expensive project. We are super lucky that we got all the grants that we did or we would just not be able to do it,” the mayor said.
“If we only base our projects on what the city taxes can afford, we just couldn’t do a lot of the things that I talked about tonight.
“I think in retrospect people are going to look at these few years, both actually what started under Mayor (Tim) Theaker and then continuing here, as kind of a transformational time when maybe we shook off the feelings of the past and really started to embrace what the new century is bringing to us,” Perry said.
Other challenges also remain.
In her broadcast remarks, Perry praised the work of the city’s 465 employees.
But she didn’t mention the fact about 150 of those workers represented by AFSCME Local 3088 have been working under the terms of a contract that expired a year ago as work continues on a new deal.
New labor deals with the Fraternal Order of Police William Taylor Lodge 32 and International Association of Firefighters Local 266 are also on the near horizon.
The mayor also didn’t address a potential new community swimming pool, something the city has lacked since its last remaining public pool closed at Liberty Park in 2021 due to expensive maintenance concerns.
After her address, Perry said she remains supportive of a public pool in the city.
“The location is the topic of discussion at the moment. Once we decide on that, then we can begin to build the plan and we will know how much (money) we need to raise. We’ll go after lots of grants for that as well.
“I have thoughts that I’m working towards. I can’t say too much more than that at the moment, but it’s not something that I’ve forgotten about even though I didn’t mention the word pool tonight,” the mayor said.
In her address, Perry did praise the work of the city’s safety forces, including a police department that saw a net gain in sworn officers in 2024. The mayor said Part 1 crimes, the most serious, declined 20 percent last year, coming off a 2023 that saw a record 12 gun-related homicides handled by the police department.
Part 1 crimes,” as defined by the FBI‘s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, include violent crimes like murder, rape, robbery and aggravated arson, as well as property crimes like burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.
“The city, like so many other law enforcement departments across the country, had been understaffed for several years. We were able to have a net gain of five officers in 2024 for a total of 82 sworn officers and 39 civilian personnel (as of December 2024),” she said in her address.
“As you can imagine, the process to become an officer is quite extensive with testing, physical testing, background checks and training. It is slow and methodical work to build up your numbers, and I am so thankful to the team in the police department who works on recruiting every day. We are making significant progress with personnel levels which allows us to do more things like community policing, specialized bureaus and more,” she said.
She also praised the fire department, which responded to 11,895 calls for service in 2024, including more than 10,000 for medical emergencies.
“The (fire) department worked with community stakeholders to create their first strategic plan, and new mission, vision, and core values. They implemented the MARCS radio system, which significantly enhanced communication reliability and operational coordination.
“They also developed a comprehensive training program that sets standards in core areas, and received grants for essential fire officer training that is taking place throughout 2025. Chief (Dan) Crow worked on strengthening mutual aid relationships with neighboring departments and is continuing to look at ways to enhance that this year,” she said.
The mayor also complimented those in other city leadership positions, including Public Works Director Louis Andres and Safety Service Director Keith Porch.
“I know that one of the most important decisions any leader makes is the team with which they surround themselves. As I came into this position, I spent a lot of time thinking about the type of administration I wanted to have.
“I needed leaders who were knowledgeable in areas that I was not. That would be honest with me about their opinions on decisions we had to make even when it differed from mine. That would treat our employees, residents, and businesses with respect at all times, and be able to be transparent and communicative,” she said.
Perry remains bullish on the city’s future and cited improvements made since she took office, including economic development, revitalized city parks, upgrades to the local bike/walk trail system and overall improved infrastructure.
“After the retirement of our longtime economic development director (Tim Bowersock), we formed a new partnership with the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development to serve as our chief ambassador for growth.
“With Ellen Heinz, Barrett Thomas, and the other chamber staff, we are already off to a strong start in terms of helping local businesses grow or relocate here,” she said.
“We are a city on the cusp of great opportunity. We are a city seeing the first fruits of major changes that will strengthen us even more.
“While it is true that we have many challenges yet to face, my first 15 months as mayor has confirmed for me that there is great reason for optimism as we look at our collective future,” she said.