Mayor Greg Ballard will announce Tuesday he’s hired an assistant city manager from Texas as the new public safety director in Indianapolis.
Troy Riggs informed his superiors today he had been offered the job and had accepted, said Corpus Christi City Manager Ronald Olson.
The mayor has scheduled a news conference at 10 a.m. Tuesday to introduce the new public safety director. Riggs was in Indianapolis today, Olson said.
As assistant city manager for safety, health and neighborhoods, Riggs was in charge of police department, fire, parks and recreation, code enforcement and animal care in Corpus Christi.
Riggs took the assistant city manager's job in November. Previously, he'd been police chief in Corpus Christi, overseeing 450 officers in the Gulf Coast city.
Olson said Riggs used his experience as police chief to improve neighborhoods by combining the effort for all the departments at his disposal.
“He organized a group that focused on the most challenging neighborhoods and tried to figure out how to improve the quality of life,” he said.
Olson said Riggs has “tremendous communications skills and knows how to explain issues.”
“It doesn’t surprise me” that Riggs got the job, said Corpus Christi Mayor Joe Adame. “When we hired him we said we wanted someone who would be desirable to others. Our loss is your gain.”
Before going to Texas, Riggs spent 20 years with the police department in Louisville, Ky.,
Officials in Louisville and Texas said Riggs still has family in Louisville and this will be a chance to stay close to them.
Riggs was one of four candidates, two from out-of-town, who were finalists for the job vacated by former Director Frank Straub.
Marc Lotter, spokesman for the mayor, said Ballard made up his mind last week.
“He wanted to sit on it a couple days and consider it,” Lotter said today.
Lotter refused to disclose the mayor's choice.
Other finalists were Indianapolis Fire Department Chief Brian Sanford; Indianapolis Homeland Security Chief Gary Coons; and Todd M. Keil, former assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Department of Public Safety consists of these divisions: Animal Care and Control, Homeland Security, Indianapolis Fire Department and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
On Friday, the mayor named a new Animal Care and Control appointee, Daniel T. Shackle, a code enforcement lawyer and Army veteran, the Star reported.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Interim Chief Rick Hite is awaiting a waiver to become a certified police officer in Indiana before taking over IMPD, the Star has reported.