The seats filled: who holds South Bend's offices

As of November 2026

The frame, with the faces put in: The government article this one joins prints the city's form: a strong mayor, a nine member Common Council elected from six districts and at large, a separately elected city clerk, and the appointed Board of Public Works at the center of the city's contracting. It names one officeholder, the mayor. This article names the rest, seat by seat, as they stand in November 2026. Every council and clerk term now running ends on 31 December 2027, and the next municipal election falls on 2 November 2027. All nine council members are Democrats, a clean sweep the council's own roll calls and the party's filings agree on.

The council as seated: District 1, Canneth Lee, who is also the council's president. District 2, Ophelia Gooden-Rodgers. District 3, Sharon L. McBride. District 4, Heidi Beidinger, seated in May 2026 in the term's one mid-course change, told below. District 5, Sherry Bolden-Simpson. District 6, Sheila Niezgodski. At large, Karen L. White, Dr. Oliver Davis and Rachel Tomas Morgan. The council elects its own officers each January. At the organizational meeting of 5 January 2026, with City Clerk Bianca L. Tirado conducting the vote, Lee was re-elected president and Niezgodski was elected vice president; Tomas Morgan had held the vice presidency through 2025, and McBride had been president in 2023, before Lee took the gavel for the term that began in January 2024. The council's attorney, a post the mayor does not control, is Bob Palmer, named in the council's minutes through 2025 and carried into 2026.

How this council was made: Most of the nine arrived in two elections. In November 2019 the voters newly elected Troy Warner in District 4, Sheila Niezgodski in District 6 and Rachel Tomas Morgan and Lori K. Hamann at large, and returned Sharon McBride and Karen White, among others, according to the South Bend Regional Chamber's summary of that election; White's service runs back to the election of 1999, the longest on the council. Canneth Lee joined the council in 2020, in the District 1 seat Tim Scott had held through the start of that year [the route of Lee's 2020 seating, whether by party caucus or election, is not fixed in the sources gathered for this article]. The election of 7 November 2023 then changed three seats. In District 2, Henry Davis Jr. left the seat to run for mayor instead, filing against Mayor James Mueller in the Democratic primary, and Ophelia Gooden-Rodgers won the open seat. In District 5, Sherry Bolden-Simpson succeeded Eli Wax, who had held the seat through the autumn of 2023. At large, Dr. Oliver Davis took the seat Lori K. Hamann had held, joining White and Tomas Morgan. The six who kept their seats were re-elected the same night, and the whole nine took office on 1 January 2024.

The 2026 change, council to city hall: The term's one vacancy came from inside the administration's own reach. Troy Warner, the District 4 member since 2020 and the council's Committee of the Whole chairman, concluded his council service on Friday 15 May 2026 and on Monday 1 June 2026 became Mayor Mueller's chief of staff, a move the South Bend Tribune reported on 7 May 2026 and the city's own staff page now confirms, listing Warner in the chief of staff's chair. His predecessor in that post, Darryl Scott, chief of staff since September 2024, moved across to executive director of Community Investment, the transition beginning 18 May 2026. Warner's council seat was filled the way Indiana law fills such seats, by the party that held it: at a caucus of the district's seven precinct chairs on 20 May 2026, the St. Joseph County Democratic Party chose Heidi Beidinger, also styled Beidinger-Burnett, in the first round of balloting. Beidinger is a professor of the practice in the University of Notre Dame's Eck Institute for Global Health and a former president of the St. Joseph County Board of Health; she had run for the Indiana House in 2022. She sat for her first council meeting on 26 May 2026 and serves the remainder of the term, to 31 December 2027; the council's own budget priorities filing of 22 June 2026 already lists her as the 4th District member. Who took over Warner's Committee of the Whole chairmanship after his departure is [not fixed in the sources gathered for this article].

The clerk's office, three holders in seven years: The city clerk keeps the council's record and its seal, and the office has changed hands twice in the span the Fort Wayne clerk's office changed once. Kareemah Fowler, elected in 2015 and the city's 22nd clerk, resigned effective 1 August 2019, announcing the step in her own press release of 16 July 2019. Her successor, Dawn M. Jones, was sworn in on 15 August 2019, chosen to fill the vacancy and then elected in her own right; her signature runs on the clerk's filings through the autumn of 2023. In the 2023 Democratic primary the office drew three filed candidates, the incumbent Jones, Jason Banicki and Bianca L. Tirado, who had served as a deputy in the office. Tirado holds the office for the term running 2024 to 2027: she was signing as city clerk in city filings from January 2024, she is the clerk named on the city's current clerk's page, and it was Tirado who conducted the council's election of its 2026 officers. [The precise primary result, Tirado's defeat of the incumbent Jones in May 2023, is the only reading the filings and the succession support, but it rests on the Secretary of State's candidate list and the term record rather than on a named official results report.]

The controller: The city's money office has had two holders in the Mueller years. Daniel T. Parker served as city controller from December 2018, signing as controller into the autumn of 2022. His successor is Kyle J. Willis: the city's 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report dates the start of Willis's controller term to 6 February 2023, he was signing the city's claims by July 2023, he signed the transmittal letter of the adopted 2026 budget, and the Tribune's coverage of the 2027 budget hearings in September 2026 still names him in the post. The controller heads the Department of Administration and Finance and reports to the mayor; his deputy is Paulette Johnson, named in the 2025 adopted budget. [One loose thread: Parker's own professional profile carries his controller tenure to January 2024, a year past the start the city's financial report gives Willis. The report is the stronger record and is the date printed here; the overlap is noted because the record does not explain it.]

The Board of Public Works: The frame article calls this board the city's chief appointed instrument, the body that approves contracts and buys real estate. Its five members are all mayoral appointees serving indefinite terms, and the city's board page, updated 29 April 2026, names them with their appointment dates. Elizabeth A. Maradik, the board's president, appointed 14 April 2015. Joseph R. Molnar, its vice president, appointed 8 January 2020. Murray L. Miller, appointed 26 March 2021. Breana N. Micou, appointed 21 November 2023. And Abigail E. Magas, appointed 6 January 2026, the newest change on the board. The board's own clerk is Hillary R. Horvath, its attorney Michael Schmidt, both named in the board's May 2026 minutes, and it meets at the city's own City Hall, 215 South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the building the city moved into in 2025.

The mayor's lawyers: Two law offices serve the government the frame describes, and both can be named. The city's Department of Law is headed by the city attorney, Jenna Throw, promoted from assistant city attorney on 31 July 2023 when the post was made full time; her predecessor, Maclean DeRose, retired that July after 32 years with the department, according to the department's own 2023 annual report. Throw is still presenting the administration's bills in the Tribune's council coverage of July, September and October 2026. The council's separate counsel, Bob Palmer, is named above with the council's officers. As of November 2026, then, the frame is filled: a mayor in his second term, nine named council members, a clerk in her first term, a controller in his fourth year, five named members on the Board of Public Works, and both law offices held by named lawyers.

Sources:

1. South Bend Common Council, signed minutes and roll calls, docs.southbendin.gov: 9 October 2023 (the pre-2024 roster and officers), 24 June 2024, 10 March 2025, 28 July and 11 and 25 August 2025 (the seated nine, the 2025 officers, Council Attorney Bob Palmer, City Attorney Jenna Throw appearing), and the Organizational Meeting of 5 January 2026 (Lee re-elected president, Niezgodski elected vice president, Clerk Tirado conducting).
2. Indiana Secretary of State, 2023 Municipal Primary Candidate List (Davis Jr. filed for mayor; Gooden-Rodgers and Jorden Giger filed for District 2; Oliver Davis filed at large; Jones, Tirado and Banicki filed for city clerk).
3. South Bend Regional Chamber, "Municipal Elections 2019," 7 November 2019 (Warner, Niezgodski, Tomas Morgan and Hamann newly elected; McBride and White re-elected).
4. South Bend Tribune, 7 May 2026, "Mueller administration sees leadership changes; Warner leaves Council" (print edition 11 May 2026), and 20 May 2026, "Beidinger chosen to replace Warner for vacant Common Council seat"; WNDU, report by John Bailey, 20 May 2026 (the caucus, the first meeting of 26 May 2026, the term to 31 December 2027); City of South Bend, "Meet the Staff," updated 8 October 2026 (Warner as chief of staff).
5. City of South Bend, "2027 South Bend Common Council Budget Priorities," filed in the Clerk's Office 22 June 2026 (Beidinger listed as 4th District member).
6. Kareemah Fowler, press release, 16 July 2019 (resignation effective 1 August 2019); Hoosier Women Forward, profile of Dawn M. Jones (sworn in as city clerk 15 August 2019); GoodParty, office page for the South Bend City Clerk (Bianca Tirado, term 2024 to 2027); City of South Bend, City Clerk page, updated 2 October 2025.
7. City of South Bend, 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, officials table (Willis's controller term from 6 February 2023); Redevelopment Commission claims records, 11 July 2023 (Willis signing as controller); Bill No. 68-22, October 2022 (Parker signing as controller); 2026 Adopted Budget, transmittal letter; South Bend Tribune, 2 September 2026 (Willis named in 2027 budget hearings coverage).
8. City of South Bend, Board of Public Works page, updated 29 April 2026 (the five members and appointment dates, the board clerk), and the board's minutes of 12 and 18 May 2026 (Board Attorney Michael Schmidt).
9. City of South Bend, Department of Law 2023 Annual Report (Throw promoted 31 July 2023; DeRose retired July 2023); South Bend Tribune council coverage, 27 July, 14 September and 12 October 2026 (Throw as city attorney).