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8–20 JULY 1985 · THE SHORTEST MAYORALTY
The episode: On 8 July 1985 Mayor Winfield Moses Jr. resigned, having pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor violations of the campaign-finance laws arising from his re-election campaign. City Controller Cosette Simon succeeded as acting mayor — Fort Wayne's first woman mayor — and served eleven days, still the shortest mayoralty in the city's history. Then the Democratic precinct organization held a caucus and voted, 86 of 99 members present, to reinstate Moses himself. He resumed the office on 20 July 1985 and served out his term to 31 December 1987. Simon returned to the controller's office and later worked for Governor and Senator Evan Bayh. The whole of Fort Wayne's first woman mayoralty, until 2024, is those eleven days: by appointment, between a resignation and a reinstatement, in the middle of the mayoralty she interrupted.
Sources: the Story section of this history — the list of mayors of Fort Wayne with the Journal Gazette's caucus reporting; Aim Indiana, "Indiana makes history" (2024), recounting the 1985 succession; Associated Press, 20 April 2024.