The League of Women Voters of Brown County chose the questions to ask the candidates in each race and sent questionnaires to each candidate who has opposition in the primary.
Other candidates will be questioned before the November general election.
Answers appear in the candidates’ own words. Some answers were trimmed to stay within the 150-word limit.
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization.
BROWN COUNTY COUNCIL AT LARGE
Voters can choose three candidates per party during the primary. Voters can only choose three candidates total for this office on the general election ballot.
1. Please describe the occupations, education/training and experience that qualify you for this office.
Kevin G. Fleming (D): Education: Graduate of Paoli High School and Indiana University School of Business. Career/occupation: Government auditor for State of Indiana, retired. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in business with an accounting major from Indiana University. After graduation, I accepted a position with the Indiana State Board of Accounts. Over the course of seven years as a field examiner for SBOA, I audited local units of government including Brown County and Van Buren Township. I also served at the Indiana Department of Labor for nine years, and shorter terms with the Indiana Department of Revenue and Workforce Development. I’ve been a county resident for the past 20 years.
Melissa K. Parker (D): Education: Purdue University, 1997-2000, majored in special education. Career/occupation: Current, housewife; previously, substitute teacher, banking and mortgage loan processor. Because I worked in banking and mortgage, I understand how finances work. I worked as a bank teller and customer service representative, in the data center, and as a mortgage loan processor. This gave me experience working with the public and learning how banks operate. I worked with lenders, appraisers, title agents and surveyors. I was required to learn the government regulations to which financial institutions must adhere. I have the ability to read and understand contracts.
David Critser (R): Education: One-and-a-half years of college. Career/occupation: Florist, retail. Forty years in business. Twenty-three years in county government finance.
Jim Kemp (R): Education: Indiana Wesleyan University, business degree. Career/occupation: McAvoy Kemp Wealth Management LLC, managing partner. I have been a self-employed financial planner supporting my family of clients on the subject of life and money for close to 30 years. As a fiduciary, I understand the importance of trust, and to be absent of trust is to be absent of value. To be truly effective as a leader requires a servant leadership mindset. Therefore, my running for county council at large isn’t about me, it’s about the future of Brown County. It’s about me being an empathic listener, being objective, fair-minded, disclosing my personal biases without the need to judge or try to fix. It’s about asking the right questions and making the right decisions that are in alignment with what Brown County values.
Scott Rudd (R): Education: Brown County High School graduate; Indiana University, bachelor’s degree in public affairs. Career/occupation: Director of broadband opportunities, State of Indiana. My whole career has been focused on public and community service. It’s something that’s in my blood. I currently have the honor of serving the lieutenant governor as Indiana’s first director of broadband opportunities. My prior service in Brown County includes serving as Brown County’s director of planning and zoning, town manager and economic development director for Nashville, and serving on numerous community organization boards and committees. I have served organizations including the Purdue Extension Advisory Board, Brown County Art Guild, Brown County Community Foundation, Leadership Brown County and many more. Understanding the bigger picture of how our community works, where the needs are, and how Brown Countians will be impacted is very important experience that will drive the best decisions for the most people at the lowest cost.
Judith “Judy” Swift Powdrill (R): Education: High school graduate. Career/occupation: Brown County recorder. I have worked in county government for 31 years in a couple of capacities. I was employed for 27 years in the health department as the office manager/administrator. I implemented several grants from the state department of health and was the financial manager for said grants. I planned and implemented the health department budget. I served on county council from 2010-2014. I have recently taken budgeting and finance classes through the Indiana Association of Counties. I have a basic knowledge of the fiscal responsibilities and expectations of our limited funding within the county. I am driven to educate myself on county finances through continued education.
2. Why are you running for this office?
Fleming: I’m very concerned about the future of my local government. We face challenges which could diminish the wonderful quality of life here. I’m concerned that quality of life will suffer without good leadership. There is an unfortunately well-entrenched tendency among our elected officeholders to make decisions in an arbitrary, capricious manner. Good government relies upon factual information and empirical data to make sound policy decisions. Greater transparency can help safeguard against poor decisions, and there is a serious lack of information reasonably accessible to county residents. The county website is scarcely more than a phone directory.
Parker: My motivation for public service should be service to our community. I am running for Brown County Council because I want to make a difference. I want to help ensure that the wasteful spending in certain areas of our county government stops, and to see that any projects undertaken in the county and monies spent, are done so responsibly, as well as, in a way that it benefits ALL of my fellow Brown Countians, and the thousands of visitors that come here every year.
Critser: To help keep Brown County government financially strong.
Kemp: In March 2017, I was recruited to serve on the Brown County Redevelopment Commission. Up to this point, I had lived in the county for nine years and didn’t know much about local county government and really wasn’t concerned. Three years later, after serving as president for two of those years, while working with the Brown County Council, Brown County Commissioners, community of Helmsburg, Brown County Regional Sewer District, Town of Nashville, Brown County Playhouse, Brown County Health Department, Brown County Area Planning Commission, Brown County clerk’s office, Regional Opportunity Initiatives Inc. Housing Study, and OCRA – Thomas P. Miller Brown County Economic Development Plan, I know more today about Brown County then I ever really expected to know. The challenge I face is, do I ignore the future challenges the county is likely to experience? Being a lifelong resident of Indiana and valuing stewardship, I cannot walk away.
Rudd: My goal is to improve Brown County’s financial situation, pure and simple. I have no pet projects or special interests in anything other than that. I grew up here, am raising a family here, and have contributed significantly to the health and well-being of the county over the years. This opportunity will allow me to continue to do that, and I would be happy to serve and represent all the people of Brown County as an at-large county council member.
Swift Powdrill: Through my 31 years of experience and institutional knowledge as manager of the health department, my service as county recorder, and as a lifelong resident, I have a diverse outlook on the needs of the county. If elected to county council, I feel I have responsibility to the county and myself to look at the big picture and see the financial impact of the needs and tasks that keep our county functioning at a good baseline with other comparable counties within our state. While providing those needs and solving issues, we need to have a firm grasp on county spending and financials as well.
3. Please identify three key county challenges that require action by our local officials. What are your plans for addressing these?
Fleming: Transparency: Information necessary for oversight of government administration is far too difficult for citizens to obtain. The county has an internet domain, but it contains almost no access to information. This needs expedited attention. Officeholders also need better information. The disastrous clear-cutting at the State Road 135 overlook resulted in a substantial loss of county assets in saleable timber, and no information about its value is available, nor is a full explanation of the disposition of proceeds, or the sequence of events undertaken by the responsible parties. 2. County taxes are excessive and a serious hardship on many. Paying county employees for lunch breaks and health insurance for part-time employees and officeholders needs rethinking before any tax increases. 3. Roads have deteriorated excessively and require immediate attention. The highway department requires structural change, greater efficiency, a more robust resurfacing program, and a far more customer service-friendly approach to citizen interaction.
Parker: 1. County roads: It is my hope that the county council members can collaborate, with input from our fellow citizens, to make sure the county’s needs are met. Our road department is sorely lacking in equipment to properly maintain our roads. Why? Where is the equipment we used to have? I want to make sure that funds are correctly appropriated. 2. Proposed sewer in the Bean Blossom area: Since there is a need for a sewer system in Bean Blossom, the upgrade and expansion for Helmsburg’s system for the town of Bean Blossom to hook onto should be the focus. 3. Financial transparency: I believe that each county office should keep the county’s website updated with this information so that it is readily available to any person. I believe this should also be published in The Democrat: Expenditures, how much, what for, to whom, etc.
Critser: Declining population. Sewage disposal. Affordable housing.
Kemp: Short-term, less than 24 months: better preparedness for unanticipated expenses. Intermediate, three to 10 years: inflation and the rising cost of county government. Long-term 10 to 30 years: our local economy and a deteriorating tax base. The challenges facing Brown County are not unique to Brown County, and there are no quick fixes. Only by gathering a solid fact pattern and by creating a shared vision for the future of our county will we be able to make decisions that are in alignment with protecting, preserving and promoting our way of life in Brown County.
Rudd: 1. Finances: It’s no surprise that Brown County is not in the best financial situation. It doesn’t have to be that way. I will work to improve our finances in order to position our county to better respond to the community’s needs, public services and availability of quality infrastructure. 2. People: Brown County is comprised of people from all walks of life. I will work to find ways to keep our young people living in the county, help seniors stay in their homes longer, and enhance community services to people struggling with mental health and addiction. 3. Collaboration: We have to work smarter, not harder, to make up for our county’s small size and deliver the important public services that are required to support our community’s well-being. I believe we are stronger when we work together to overcome our challenges, and will strive to bring people together to do just that.
Swift Powdrill: There are many issues that need to be examined; however, they may not all fall under the county council’s responsibility. 1. I would like to examine other counties’ health plans to see what types of plans and services are working. Our philosophy has been to provide a could package for employees, as we could not pay higher wages, but I want to make sure we are still fiscally responsible. 2. The deterioration of our infrastructure is a chief concern. Water lines need updated and basic technological needs are necessary for folks to be able to live comfortably here. I am hoping we can find a balance without overdeveloping our rural community. Affordable housing is another issue that needs to be examined. 3. We need to encourage younger adults to move to Brown County. I would like to have a panel of young professionals to ask them what would attract them to live here.
4. How should the council determine financial priorities of the county?
Fleming: The council needs to take a hard look at how policy has resulted in unnecessary expenditures which has created a bloated budget. Several policy decisions have been capriciously entered into without a sound basis. The health insurance program was adopted unwisely and is excessively costly. The county has long continued to pursue a policy to unnecessarily convert septic systems countywide into sanitary sewer system hookups without an established need to do so. Commissioner Diana Biddle described her rationale for supporting a more restrictive septic ordinance as based upon her opinion and not on empirical data. When the commissioners and council plow ahead with ideas based upon unsubstantiated opinions rather than objectively considering data, it results in unnecessary, unwise and costly policy decisions. As a county council member, I will call out such actions and advocate that proposals be based upon objectively considered data supporting such proposals.
Parker: These should be determined by “must do” vs. “want to do.” Again, I want ALL Brown Countians to benefit, not just a select few.
Critser: Need, not want.
Kemp: My question is, how does the council work toward making certain the county always has more money at the end of each month without raising taxes and/or incurring any short- or long-term debt? To do so requires the county to be very clear about what it values and/or doesn’t value. Once we understand what we value, we can begin to prioritize those values. For example, if the county values safety and security first and the environment last, then the decisions are based on those values. The real challenge is allowing everyone who is willing to be a part of the conversation to have a voice — a voice so they can feel understood and their opinions matter while we work toward a collective vision for our beloved county that we all call home.
Rudd: The people of Brown County are the priority. The people start businesses, create opportunity, raise families, pay taxes and make Brown County the place it is. Identifying how we can better serve our residents and businesses will be my focus. Making Brown County a more attractive and affordable place to live, own a business, retire and raise a family will drive our success.
Swift Powdrill: Through a financial plan which is currently being worked on for our county. We need to address these infrastructure issues in a cost-effective and timely manner. The cost of improvements always trends upward. We need to set the financial foundation now so we do not continue to get deeper in the hole of disrepair. Waiting just makes it more expensive.
