Fishers’ first mayoral election set for next year

Fishers residents will elect their first mayor a year earlier than expected due to a change in state law that establishes Jan. 1, 2015, as the date the town becomes a city.

Voters will choose partisan candidates for mayor, city council and city clerk in the May 2014 primary—typically the most-contentious election in the overwhelmingly Republican community—and return to the polls in November.

“The new dates, according to the recently amended Indiana Code, give us a roadmap to follow in the transition to become a city,” Fishers Town Council President John Weingardt said in a statement released Tuesday.

Prior to the change, the switch could have happened in 2015 or 2016.

Residents of the fast-growing suburb voted in November to turn the town of 80,000 residents into a second-class city with an elected mayor and nine-member city council.

The town is governed now by a seven-member town council that appoints a town manager to run day-to-day affairs.

One of the first steps in the transition: redistricting.

Six of the new city council members will represent districts of roughly equal population; three will be at-large councilors.