County Councilman candidates answer questions during Thursday evenings forum held at the Hancock County Public Library. Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
The League of Women Voters of Hancock County hosted a voter forum for candidates running for at-large seats on the Hancock County Council on Thursday evening at the Hancock County Public Library’s Greenfield location.
Four of the seven candidates running were present at the forum — Democrats Frank Rock, Jr., Carol Pearson and Linda Robinson alongside Libertarian Luke Lomax. Republicans Robin Lowder, Kent Fisk and John Jessup were not present at the forum. Lowder declined the invite due to a prior commitment while Fisk and Jessup did not respond.
Each of the candidates responded to every question asked by Hancock County voters on topics ranging from budget cuts to construction. The county council controls the county’s fiscal responsibilities, having final say on the budget and control over appropriations. Its members also serve on the various committees and boards of the county government.
Each candidate’s responses were as follows by topic, organized by when they were first mentioned:
TAX ABATEMENTS:
All four candidates said they generally opposed the approval of additional tax abatements.
Lomax blamed those abatements on current county councilman and absent candidate Kent Fisk, who he falsely claimed was chair of the Hancock Economic Development Council. The HEDC’s current executive director is Randy Sorrell, and the county government is represented on the council by current councilman Jim Shelby and the president of the Hancock County Commissioners, Bill Spalding. Fisk is the council’s current representative to the redevelopment commission. Lomax went on to say that the abatements were the cause of the vacancies in the “warehouse jungle” in the northeastern portion of the county.
Robinson said that there was a “time and place” for abatements, but that they shouldn’t be common. She also specifically listed abatements as the reason for empty warehouses along Mt. Comfort Road.
Pearson said that abatements should be contingent upon commitments by companies to hire a certain number of workers within the county.
Rock called existing abatements “one of the worst mistakes the county could ever have made.”
TRANSPARENCY:
All four candidates said that transparency needed to be improved by the county council.
Lomax claimed that the council met “behind closed doors,” which the council is legally disallowed from doing. All council meetings are open to the public on the second Tuesday morning of each month. Lomax went on to suggest town halls to give the public a chance to speak on policy before it was finalized at council meetings. The other three candidates went on to endorse the idea, but all credited Lomax with the idea.
Robinson noted that the microphones often were not connected to speakers at county government meetings, making it difficult for those in attendance to hear what the members of the council and other boards are saying at meetings. She said that the equipment in the council chambers needed to be upgraded for those reasons.
Pearson also implied that the council held closed-door meetings. She went on to suggest that the public was not allowed to speak at county council meetings, when all county council meetings have a time dedicated to public comment in addition to time for comment at any public hearings.
Rock said that the council needed to improve its use of technology as it relates to transparency, noting live streaming of meetings and virtual participation in meetings as ways to improve participation and transparency. A state law passed last year requires all public meetings to be live-streamed by July of next year.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT:
Lomax said that a moratorium on building new warehouses would be necessary to continue responsible growth within the county. He went on to praise McCordsville’s downtown project as an example of positive growth.
Robinson said she thought the growth was a positive but was unsure of how to manage it.
Pearson said that the county needed to ensure public safety was properly funded in order to handle the additional people within the county.
Rock said that the county needed to ensure that utilities and housing expanded to match the growth. While utilities and housing are not within the purview of the council, they are covered by some of the boards which the council has representatives on.
IMPACT AS A MINORITY PARTY:
Lomax said that “bipartisan is Libertarian,” going on to say that the biggest way he could have an impact on the council would be if he was elected alongside two of the Democrats speaking with him at the forum and that, as a third-party politician, he could serve as a mediator between two sides of a debate.
Robinson said that compassion and honesty would allow her to work with fellow council members from the other side of the aisle, referring to herself as a “problem solver.”
Pearson said that her skills as a communicator would allow her to clearly state her ideas and help her convince Republican members of the council to change their minds on decisions.
Rock said that the key to impacting the council as a member of the minority party would be building relationships with the other members of the council.
PARKS:
Lomax said that the government had no place in park development, saying that public parks require people who don’t use them to pay for them.
Robinson said that the county shouldn’t appropriate additional money for parks, but said that it should utilize grants to increase green space within the county.
Pearson said that the county should be building new parks and funding additional green space, specifically saying the county should hire additional grant writers to secure more funding.
Rock suggested approaching farmers around the county about purchasing any untillable land for building new county parks and said that each township should have a recreational facility.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:
Lomax echoed his tune on parks, saying that public transportation was not something the government should be involved in.
Robinson specifically noted the necessity of public transportation for elderly residents of the county who no longer drive, suggesting that grants could be used to fund a small-scale bus operation.
Pearson suggested collaborating with IndyGo and suburban municipalities around Indianapolis to connect Hancock County with the rest of Indianapolis, citing Chicago to say that connecting the exterior portions of a metropolis was a possible and worthwhile endeavor.
Rock suggested the leasing of busses, a program similar to one he saw in his home state of Louisiana, to begin a small-scale public transit system which the county could build on.
