The council's firsts and long servers

1896 – today

The first woman to hold public office in the city: Before any woman sat on the council, one held city office by the council's own appointment. Catherine Esmay, president of the women-led Progress Club, led the club's campaign for kindergartens in the 1890s — a campaign Indiana University South Bend's landmark history describes as making "life uncomfortable for the members of the council for several weeks" — and the all-male council selected her to serve on the school board. The landmark record credits Esmay as the first woman to hold public office in South Bend. The office was appointive and the body was the school board, and the record is printed at exactly that size.

The first woman elected to the council: Janet Allen, a conservative Republican who had come to South Bend from Ohio as a girl, was elected to the Common Council in 1963 — the first woman ever elected to it — and was re-elected. She was, the election record is careful to note, of no familial relation to the Republican mayor of the day, Lloyd M. Allen, with whose spending and taxes she regularly clashed. In 1971, at 67, she stood as the Republican nominee for mayor — the first woman to run for the office — and lost to the Democrat Jerry Miller by roughly 10,500 votes, the closest a woman has come to the mayor's office in the record; her profile as a mayoral candidate stands in the Government section's account of that election.

The first Black council president: Charlotte Pfeifer-Gillam, who sat on the council from 1995 to 2007, was its first Black president and held the presidency for three terms — a record carried in the People section, where her profile stands, and stated here because the presidency is this section's subject. The council's earlier Black membership runs through the statehouse entry below: J. Chester Allen, after his two terms in the Indiana House, won election to the Common Council, and Jesse Dickinson, the reporter-politician of the People section, was of the same generation of the city's Black officeholding.

The presidents: The council's presidency is a one-year dignity passed among its members, and the record names its holders unevenly; those documented in the sources read for this section are printed here at that size. Stephen Luecke held the presidency twice during his council service of 1988–1997, before his appointment as mayor. John Voorde was president during Mayor Kernan's first term. Ann Puzzello, a teacher who served twelve years on the council, was its president in 1989 and again in 1994; she left in 1995 and was returned by the voters in 2003. Roland Kelly, a former banker and news anchor, represented the Third District for sixteen years before standing down in 2007. Derek Dieter was president from 2009 to 2013, within council service of 2004–2015, before becoming St. Joseph County surveyor. Oliver Davis was president by October 2014, when the minutes show him presiding, and Tim Scott, of the First District, held the presidency into the late 2010s. Canneth Lee holds it as this record closes.

The longevity mark: Karen L. White, at large, was first seated in 1999 and sits still — more than a quarter-century on the council, the modern measure of council service, chairing its Personnel and Finance committee in the minutes of the 2020s. Henry Davis Jr., of the Second District, has sat since 2008, having won his seat in the 2007 primary against a twelve-year incumbent; he stood for mayor in 2015. Eugenia Braboy's service is recorded in the Community Hall of Fame's roll: a member of the Common Council and a trustee of the South Bend Community School Corporation — the two bodies, council and school board, between which so much of this section's service runs.

Sources:

1. Indiana University South Bend, African American Landmark Tour, "Linden School" — Catherine Esmay and the Progress Club campaign; Esmay credited as the first woman to hold public office in South Bend, selected by the council to the school board.
2. South Bend Community Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame Archives (South Bend Education Alliance) — Janet Allen as the first woman elected to the Common Council; Eugenia Braboy's council and school-board service; Ann Puzzello's twelve years and presidencies of 1989 and 1994 (Alumni Association newsletter, summer 2016).
3. The mayoral-election record of 1971 (standard references, citing the Tribune) — Janet Allen, first woman elected to the council (1963), Republican nominee for mayor 1971; no relation to Mayor Lloyd M. Allen.
4. City of South Bend, Common Council minutes, 13 October 2014 (city document archive) — Council President Oliver Davis presiding; and 10 March 2025 — Karen L. White at large.
5. Roland A. Kelly Jr. obituary, South Bend Tribune (27 May 2007) — sixteen years on the council, Third District.
6. The People section of this history — Charlotte Pfeifer-Gillam's council service 1995–2007, first Black council president, three terms as president; Jesse Dickinson.