Condrey, 38, was elected in 2019 as Middletown’s first female mayor after living in the city for about 3 1/2 years. She has come to understand that residents don’t realize what happens inside the Middletown City Building, including that some departments may only have three to five people, or maybe a single employee is responsible for something across the city.
“That was a really good experience for me and its something I hope to pass on this information to citizens so that they can understand that stuff,” she said. “To me, that was the biggest thing I learned during this first year.”
To add challenges Condrey faced, the coronavirus pandemic has caused unprecedented changes for all parts of government.
“I came in with my eyes wide open and knowing that it was not a job I held before and absorbing everything, realizing that I needed to learn as much as possible,” she said. “I also learned the mayor’s job isn’t structured as I expected. It’s what you make of it. You can be as involved or not involved as you want.”
Other things she’s learned is how much heart and work Council Clerk Amy Schenck puts in to prepare various city proclamations to commend citizens and various community organizations. And She also learned learning the big pair of scissors used for newly-opened business don’t cut. “I don’t think most people know that,” she said.
Condrey said she likes working on teams, especially when she has the opportunity to collaborate and think creatively with the experts, meaning our city staff and our city partners.
“When I have the opportunity to meet with them and talk about ideas for our community, that’s the part I enjoy the most,” she said.
Expectations of herself
Condrey said she expected to make “the right decisions for the right reasons,” which comes with listening to numerous opinions from throughout the community.
She is hoping become a buffer between the city building and citizens by providing answers and information to shift the community from having negative comments to more positive discussions.
“That’s one of my goals, to help educate the citizens about the city government more to the point where so that they don’t have these conspiracy theory-like questions so they can feel comfortable and trust the city government more,” Condrey said. “We’re never always going to completely trust the government because that’s just the nature of the beast. However, I would like to see Middletown be its own biggest fan.”
Leadership style
As a leader, Condrey said she likes to inspire people and promote healthy communications.
“The No. 1 thing is to be approachable,” she said. “We have to be candid with our leaders or we’re not effective as a community.”
She also asks for accountability of herself and others, she said.
“But at the end of the day, accountability comes down to communications,” she said. “Merely communicating the ‘why’ of what were doing.”
Economic Development
Condrey said she wants to focus on Middletown’s “bookends,” the Riverfront/Downtown area and the Interstate 75 corridor. However, she said the city will also work in the middle as well, but it has to focus somewhere or it will be ineffective everywhere.
She hopes to get more involved with The Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton to help support small businesses.
Condrey believes supporting small businesses is falling too much on the city and wants to shift some of that to the chamber.
“I want to help them empower our small business owners,” she said.
Condrey hopes to see the Towne Mall master plan completed and construction start next year. She likes the project because there are multiple parties with vested interests involved and City Manager Jim Palenick has worked successfully in the past with the consultant who has a track record and a trust level established.
She also wants to increase communications with high school- and college-age citizens. Condrey wants to focus on developing a residential vibrancy to encourage them to live and work in Middletown after they graduate, and a downtown corridor goal.
Regrets/accomplishments
“I feel if you do the right thing for the right reasons and you put your energy in to something, then you shouldn’t have any regrets,” Condrey said.
She said she was proud of the city’s response to the pandemic, new businesses activity and residents’ peaceful but vocal response to unrest following the death of George Floyd in police custody in May.
“There’s a lot to be said for our citizens on how they handled this year,” Condrey said. “This could have totally decimated any community and we didn’t let that happen as a community. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself.”
About the Author
