GREENFIELD – Larry Silver is no stranger to Greenfield City Council meetings.
As the Libertarian candidate for mayor in next month’s election, he has attended meetings regularly, voicing opposition during public hearings on tax abatements or other issues he feels strongly about.
A lifelong Greenfield resident – except for a five-years in Indianapolis – Silver has a firm view on how he thinks the city should be run.
“I think the city should be run more like a nonprofit,” said Silver, 41, who has spent the past 13 years working as the central Indiana regional manager for Salvation Army family thrift stores.
The purpose of the stores is to raise funds for the Salvation Army’s substance abuse program, he said. It’s an issue that’s close to his heart since he lost a step brother to addiction in 2011.
Silver said his experience in the nonprofit world is what makes him the best choice to become Greenfield’s next mayor.
He feels the city’s overall budget should be minimized and any overage at the end of each year be returned to the taxpayers.
“I feel like the city should be run as a nonprofit rather than for-profit, which it currently is. As a nonprofit, we get a budget and we have to work within that budget. That approach is what I want to bring to the city,” said Silver, who is running for his first public office.
The candidate said he’d work with the city clerk to return any overage to taxpayers in the form of personal checks at the end of each year.
“We’d analyze the budget and see what’s left at the end of the year and figure out how to divide that up between each taxpayer that lives in Greenfield,” said Silver.
“Then going into the new year, however much money we spent the year before, we know that worked, so we’d use that as the new budget. We don’t have to keep adding to it … so the checks (to taxpayers) would eventually stop,” he said.
Silver said he’s a former Republican who switched to the Libertarian party shortly after COVID changed the world’s landscape in 2020, turned off by the amount of government oversight that took place in the public’s handling of the pandemic.
“I did research and found the Libertarian party of Indiana had a Hancock County affiliate, so we started talking and it went from there. I’m proud to be part of the Libertarian party,” he said.
Silver said he’s also proud to be a near-lifetime resident of Greenfield, where he was raised by his grandmother just north of the city limits.
“My grandma worked three jobs trying to take care of me,” said Silver, who previously attended Greenfield-Central schools but switched to online school for his high school diploma.
“That way I could do online classes and work third shifts to help her out,” he said.
Silver said he’d consider it an honor to lead the city of Greenfield in a new direction, toward less government and more rights for property owners.
When asked what are the three biggest issues Greenfield is facing, his response was improving traffic, restoring property rights and reducing the city’s budget.
“Traffic congestion and the condition of our roads and sidewalks, we need to get improved,” said Silver, who added that he aims to take over control of Ind. 9 and U.S. 40 from the state.
“Once we do that, we will be able to maneuver our own traffic laws. We can do away with no left turns and be able to get it to where traffic is going fast. I would also like to look at adding a road behind Kroger down to Spring Street, so it runs parallel to where Broadway is now,” he said, adding that the city’s sidewalks also need improved.
“The second thing is, I want to restore property rights. Through this whole campaign I’ve been preaching almost, if you own property you should be able to do what you want,” said Silver.
“One issue that came to me is people want backyard chickens. I’m for backyard chickens. If it’s on your property, it’s nobody’s business to say, ‘No, you can’t raise chickens or put up a fence’. Right now, anything to do on your property, you have to go through the city or the county, but I want to cut the government out of it. You’re paying taxes. You should be able to do what you want,” he said.
Silver said the third-largest issue he’d focus on as mayor is reducing the city’s budget — especially the mayor’s office and the parks department.
He had proposed reducing the mayor’s salary from $89,000 to $55,000, but discovered that a state law prevents that from happening.
“So I plan on taking the $89,000 and donating that (difference) to different departments throughout the city to help get that budget down,” he said.
Silver also suggested cutting the parks department budget, which is just under $2 million, by more than half to around $800,000.
He suggests reaching out to local volunteers to take on some of the work necessary to maintain and improve local parks. He’s also an advocate for better accessibility and transparency in city government and would push for long hours at city hall, even if that meant he was staying until 6 or 7 p.m.
To follow Silver’s campaign, visit ResetGreenfield.org.
