Peter J. Nemeth is an American politician and judge who served as the 28th
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of
South Bend, Indiana
South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...
.
Early life
Nemeth graduated from
St. Joseph's High School in South Bend in 1959.
City councilman
Nemeth served as a member of the South Bend Common Council.
[
]
Mayoralty
Nemeth was first elected mayor of South Bend in 1975
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.
Events
January
* January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
.
In 1977, Century Center
The Century Center Convention Center, designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, broke construction in 1974 and opened in 1977, has been managed by SMG since July, 2013. The center, built on the banks of the West Race canal, overlo ...
was opened. In the summer of 1977, Nemeth was able to secure $528,000 in Economic Development Administration
The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides grants and technical assistance to economically distressed communities in order to generate new employment, help retain exist ...
funds for the construction of a lighted parking lot near Century Center and improvements to nearby Island Park.
Among the projects Nemeth championed was the East Race Waterway, which was later funded and constructed during his successor Roger Parent's tenure.
Along with others, Nemeth fought to prevent the ceasing of South Shore Line
The South Shore Line is an electrically powered interurban commuter rail line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) between Millennium Station in downtown Chicago and the South Bend International Airport in ...
passenger service when Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...
was looking at ending the service.
In 1979, the city sold-off its Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
.
Nemeth did not seek reelection in 1979, and was succeeded as mayor by Roger Parent.
Deputy prosecutor
Nemeth served as a deputy prosecutor.[
]
Judicial career
For twenty years from 1993 until 2013, Peter Nemeth served as the judge/probate commissioner on the St. Joseph Probate Court.
Nemeth had been appointed to the judgeship in 1993 by governor Evan Bayh
Birch Evans Bayh III ( ; born December 26, 1955) is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and Democratic Party politician who served as a United States senator from Indiana from 1999 to 2011 and the 46th governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997.
Bayh w ...
to fill out Nemeth's father's term.
Nemeth played a role in the establishment of St. Joseph County's Juvenile Justice Center.[
In 2007 a court-ordered audit of the Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility found numerous deficiencies and rated it as "not satisfactory" or "needs improvement" in 13 of 27 areas reviewed. On December 17, 2007, Nemeth informed governor ]Mitch Daniels
Mitchell Elias Daniels Jr. (born April 7, 1949) is an American academic administrator, businessman, author, and retired politician. A Republican, Daniels served as the 49th governor of Indiana from 2005 to 2013. Since 2013, Daniels has been pr ...
that he would refuse to send female juvenile offenders to the facility, declaring it understaffed and that it was "neither safe nor productive" to send girls to the Indianapolis facility.
In early 2012, Nemeth announced he would forgo seeking reelection to another term as a judge. Jim Fox was elected to succeed him in the judgeship.[
In December 2012, a month before his retirement as a judge Nemeth agreed to a sanction from the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC), which required him resigning from the St. Joseph County Probate Court bench.][ In August 2012, the Judicial Qualifications Commission had filed a misconduct charge against him, alleging that he violated the code of judicial conduct in a 2011 guardianship hearing when he suggested that it was inappropriate for taxpayers to pay for a ]sign language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
interpreter for a woman seeking custody of a deaf teenager because she, "hadn't paid taxes for several years." Similarly his father was removed for making racist comments from the bench. At the time of his announcement not seek re-election, he was the subject of several pending complaints with Indiana Supreme Court JQC that were ceased by the agreement. His courtroom not only oversaw matters of juvenile justice but of heard all sealed cases of adoption, termination of parental rights, and then name changes of the wards. Those records were maintained on the Quest computer system used only by the JJC court and which are not accessible to the public, adopted children years later, or the numerous parents or grandparents, who lost their children. Grandparents in Indiana have no rights, and he enforced those denials without hesitation or expressing any personal concerns, which was often his practice as a former politician turned state court judge. [
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemeth, Peter
Mayors of South Bend, Indiana
Living people
Indiana Democrats
Probate court judges in the United States
Year of birth missing (living people)