COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther has officially been sworn in for his third term.
Ginther was sworn in Saturday at COSI by his wife Shannon and was joined by dozens of community leaders.
He said he's grateful to once again have the opportunity to lead the city he was born in for another term. In this next term, Ginther has a clear focus on what his goals are.
"Everything's gonna revolve around safety, housing, and transit. You know we want to be the safest big city in America, we've seen some progress there but we're not where we want to be. And so that's gonna take all of us working together continuing to do prevention, intervention, and enforcement," he said.
Ginther added that a big focus in addressing safety will involve hiring more police officers and funding for additional police training.
In December, Ginther was accused of engaging in ex-parte communication with a judge regarding the west Columbus Greyhound bus terminal case. When asked about it, he said that he thinks it's important as an elected official to share information with other community leaders about what's on the minds of the people they serve.
"I called the judge after there was a homicide at that bus stop that weekend to let her know how concerned people were. People in that neighborhood were afraid, they were scared and they wanted us doing everything we could to help make them safer. So we're going to continue to work with folks of all walks of life to make sure we're making our community safe," he said.
When looking ahead to the future, Ginther said he has hopes for growth through making the right kind of investments in the city.
"I believe the next 10 years are probably going to be the most consequential for this city. We don't want to just get bigger, we want to be better. That means we have to invest in ourselves and our infrastructure and grow the right way," Ginther said.