Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the League of Women Voters’ candidate forums looked different this year.
All are taking place over Zoom and are being recorded for the public to view at their leisure. They were moderated by Brown County Junior High School We the People teacher Michael Potts. His students even submitted some of the questions.
Candidates for two Brown County Commissioner seats were the first to answer questions on Sept. 21. Democrat Tracey Callahan Burnett and Republican Chuck Braden are running for the Dist. 1 seat. Republican incumbent Jerry Pittman is running against Democrat Ron Fleetwood for the Dist. 3 seat.
The following are some of the questions asked which weren’t already answered in the candidate questionnaires published in the Sept. 23 paper.
Answers from other races’ forums will appear in the coming weeks’ papers.
Answers have been shortened for space and to reduce redundancies.
Q: (From a junior high student) What one issue or part of county government would receive more attention if you were elected?
Burnett: One issue of county government that would receive a lot of attention if I were commissioner would be in following up on where we’re spending budget money and making sure that the money we spend is getting a good return on our investment of the money that we allocate. … There can be a tendency to get complacent at times, and justifications are no fun at all … but they are a completely necessary part of the process to make sure that we are indeed being good stewards of the money that we are expending on behalf of everyone, and that we’re getting out of it what we assume we’re getting out of it when we entrust people to spend that money for us.
Fleetwood: From my perspective, the roads are a very important part of county government and bridges. We have a considerable amount of problems right now with our bridges. The Democrat produced a report back in 2018 saying we needed $9 million and I believe that was by 2026 to repair and replace bridges. We have a lot of issues with our highways and I would look forward to having the opportunity to help improve that situation. I was highway superintendent here in Brown County from 2003 to 2007, so I have some knowledge and experience with the roads and bridges in Brown County.
Pittman: There are many, many issues that involve the commissioners. Roads are certainly one of the most visible and important things to our constituents, but there is so much more to the job than just our highway department and roads. The commissioners are responsible for all county properties, buildings and infrastructure. I worked hard to ensure that those issues have been addressed over the last four years and have plans for many more improvements in the future. … The most visible things to people, of course, are roads and emergency services. … I am working right now on a new ambulance contract that could probably save the county at least $100,000 or more. … It (the job) does involve a lot of finances. My six years on county council gave me a lot of experience in understanding the county’s finances. I look forward to doing that in the next term.
Braden: … I have to agree with some of the others that are roads are a big issue. I travel on many of the back roads myself, but my understanding is we only get so much money to take care of the roads. I would want to make sure we do not have to borrow to continue to maintain them and then have the taxpayers pay it back. … One of the things I’d like to see is more people move into the county. It’s good to have the tourists and it’s good to get income from them, but I would like to see more people in the county, more kids in the schools and things like that. I have a background in construction and I’ve worked in several communities where they put in a bunch of houses that were entry level-type homes, affordable homes. … I believe there are a few places in the county where something like that would help each of the elementary schools and in turn the intermediate, the junior high and the high school. … We’ve got kids and I know my kids would like to stay here, but they just can’t afford some of the houses that they see for sale.
Q: What do you see as the current economic situation of our county and what role, if any, do you think the county commissioners should have?
Fleetwood: The issues in looking through some of the information that is available on our budgets, we’re pushing the limits. In fact, in some cases, it looks like we’re destined to go over budget. … We need a complete review of where we’re spending our money in order to get our budget under control. That is a very important fact for all members of the county. Our taxpayers like to know that their tax dollars are being spent to help provide them a benefit.
Pittman: It’s been an unusual year with the COVID-19 situation. The county was on a very good track prior to that. We have, of course, always suffered with the budget. We never have enough money. The state, for instance with the roads, doesn’t give us near enough money to take care of the roads we have. I think we are doing the best we can. … There are just not a lot of places we can cut things without really starting to diminish services to the constituency. Certainly, there is never enough money for roads; there is never enough money for increases in salaries. We have a wonderful group of people working for the county right now, very, very dedicated and they have proven this during this COVID-19 crisis. They are really to adapt and to change and what is necessary to keep providing services. … I think we’ve done a good job so far. Certainly, there is always room for improvement.
Braden: I have to agree with the first two. We have a limited budget because we have a limited tax base. I have seen all of the budgets and where it’s spent and how much we have left. It’s getting kind of low. I know we all would like to see a little bit more of a surplus. … We want to keep the emergency management intact because people want their ambulances when they need them. There is law enforcement; we want to make sure we have good law enforcement to keep the public safe, both residents and visitors. COVID is a hot topic. … We want to make sure the health of our community is intact as well.
Burnett: The current economic situation in our county as I understand it, from projections from the county’s own accounting people, is looking pretty bleak about a year and a half from now. It’s a completely new world, post-COVID. We’re going to have to accept that. We’re going to have to really look at what we’re not only spending money on, but spending effort. … We cannot continue to spend millions and millions of dollars. … The county commissioners have a lot of duties. We need to make sure we’re focusing all of those resources on our infrastructure right now and making sure that everyone is safe, everyone is fed and everyone is healthy. I think we can do a better job of that. I’m concerned about where some of the focus is right now.
Q: Could you identify the top two to three environmental concerns facing the county and what actions you could take at the county level to address them?
Pittman: One of the major things that we have in the county is soil pollution going into Lake Monroe. Our farmers are doing a pretty good job of controlling that with either no-till or very conservation-till practices that limit the amount of soil erosion. Recently, we just had an update of our flood maps that should help in planning. We also facilitated the revamping of the North Fork of Salt Creek watershed and that was a great improvement that will pay dividends in the future.
Braden: The first thing that comes to mind is just the wastewater treatment for the town of Nashville, to start. I am sure Gnaw Bone and Helmsburg would fall in this category just because of the age of them. … The fact remains that it is an aging system and it does need attention and if we’re going to have more residents in the town of Nashville and the county. We’re going to need wastewater treatment and sewer lines that can accommodate those housing issues as they come up.
Burnett: One is public health and water safety. There have been many statements made by members of the health department that they have not tested water or they have not been able to successfully test water to get enough of an idea of what’s going on in the county, yet to Mr. Braden’s point, sometimes those same people will state there are serious problems here and we need to make sure that we’re actually testing the water. When we make decisions about whether or not people can live on their property or operate their business, we need to make sure those are based on actual data and not anecdotal decisions. I also think that we do need to seriously look at wastewater treatment in the county and how we’re going to handle it. …
Fleetwood: One of the major issues is the availability of clean water because our Brown County Water (Utility) does not have any plans for expansion. They have no plans, nothing that says they can expand to new housing developments, new homes. It’s a problem in Brown County. You have a problem getting a well anywhere, and a lot of places you get water that is so brackish that you can’t drink it because of the layers of rock that we have. I think that’s a major issue. That also affects sewage treatment, is water availability. …
Q: What, if any, is the county’s financial responsibility for the Brown County Music Center and what, if any, additional action is needed due to the pandemic?
Braden: … I think the financial responsibility are the acts that were supposed to be there. I don’t think taxpayers should foot the bill for that in any way. It should be, as they said, with the innkeepers tax and with the acts that come in and any sales or revenues generated from concessions and stuff like that. …
Burnett: I am not certain what the county’s financial position is as it is applies to the music center. I have not read the contracts. … I do know that in no way, shape or form anything with the music center should come back on the taxpayers of Brown County. Whatever it takes to resolve that issue, if it’s not going to be a going business in the future needs to be dealt with, decided and we need to figure out how to deal with it and move on if necessary.
Fleetwood: I don’t believe the taxpayers should be held accountable, but that’s part of mortgage, as I understand it at least, is taxpayers’ money is on the hooks for the mortgage. We have already seen money taken from highway department. I believe it was $150,000 that was used to pay the monthly interest on the mortgage. I don’t know where we’re going from there because it certainly won’t be open up anytime in the near future. I think we need to look at other outside investments possibly coming to the music center.
Pittman: I made the promise that no property tax money would be used for the music center. I stand by that, and it has not been yet, and it will not get my approval to do so. I believe the music center is a key and integral part of our economic recovery in the future. Just today we’ve had 10 parties interested in performing there for 2021. The demand is great. Yes, we borrowed some money from the highway fund, but that will be paid back. I think the project is sound and worth saving. We will do that and I will also keep my promises to not use property tax money for that. By the way, the bank only has the real estate and innkeepers tax to come back on. They cannot come back on the property tax payers of Brown County.
Q: What is your opinion on the number of providers and availability of health care resources in Brown County for medical, dental and mental health, and what role, if any, do the commissioners have in addressing this issue?
Burnett: Anyone who has ever been around me for five minutes knows what my opinion on providers of mental health services, low-income health services, mother and baby services — all of these things are things that we have no social network here for to speak of, and it can’t continue this way. We have to look at those things and figure out how to maintain a safe social network for our citizens so that they don’t die of overdoses, that they don’t end up homeless, and I believe that all of our neighbors are our responsibility and we can do better. As far as what the commissioners can do, I don’t know, but I intend to find out.
Fleetwood: I think the number of healthcare providers is low. I think if you look at how long it takes to get service right now, we don’t have a walk-in clinic and we have enough people here that we should have one, because there are a lot of emergencies that have to be taken out of the county to be serviced. I think that is something, along with the ambulance service, that we need to be taking a good look at as leaders of the county.
Pittman: Actually, for the number of residents we have, I think we’re doing fairly well. We cannot afford to have a hospital in this county. But Bloomington and Columbus both have facilities that are relatively close. For many people in the county, the Brown County Health and Wellness Center is available. You can get an appointment there pretty quickly. We did have another doctor come to town when Dr. Alessi left. We have some chiropractors. … The most important part of that equation though, of course, is the ambulance service, which for those cases that need to be seen in a serious way can be delivered to Columbus or Bloomington relatively quickly.
Braden: We have the health and wellness center and then the Salt Creek Family Practice. We have some, yes. As far as the county goes … it wouldn’t hurt to have another practitioner or two to help out. I know that next to the county building there is the office where I’ve seen lots of people going in to get help. … There are resources out there. As far as the mental health and the help for substance abuse, I really feel the county could use some more of that.
Q: What is the role of county commissioners regarding appointed boards in terms of member qualifications, identifying board responsibilities, and monitoring performance?
Fleetwood: Those are definitely part of the commissioner responsibilities is to appoint these boards and appoint the highway superintendent. They all need to be monitored by the commissioners in order to verify they are doing their appointed tasks. They also need to be vetted well on the front end to verify that they are capable of providing necessary ability on those boards. …
Pittman: It’s always a challenge as commissioner to find people who are qualified and will be willing to serve. … I did develop a standardized policy for commissioner appointments this past year. I put it in writing. … A lot of those appointments are tied to having certain qualifications, such as to be on the board of health, most of those positions have to be a registered nurse or a doctor and so forth. … Certainly, it’s a large part of the commissioner duties, because those people represent us and we want to hear from them. I do require they report back to us on a regular basis.
Braden: … I have seen that sometimes the applications are few and far between. … I think, first of all, the citizens in the community and the county need to step up and be willing to at least serve for a short time in those roles; then, yes, have them checked to make sure they have the qualifications, like some kind of health background if they are on the health board.
Burnett: It’s critical the county commissioners make sure that boards don’t have positions that stand open for too long because it affects their ability to do business. It is difficult to get people in any society to volunteer to do things, but as we all know, here in Brown County, we have more than our share of people who are willing to step up and be part of the solution. … We may need to reach out to people and get their buy-in and convince them we are worth their time, and I think that’s a commissioner responsibility.
Q: When planning action on county land, what action, if any, should the county commissioners take to verify and oversee compliance with existing land use mandates — for example, the clear cut on State Road 135?
Pittman: Certainly, primarily, our planning and zoning department is responsible to ensure that developments are done according to the law. There was breakdown with the parks and rec department over that clear cut. There were a number of things that were not done according to protocol. I was disappointed in some of the members of that board for not stepping up and taking their responsibility. However, once again, when you appoint people to a job, you hope and pray they do the best job they can and that they act in everyone’s best interest. Once you appoint them, you can’t really control the decisions they make. That’s why it’s very careful and very important for you to find people who will act in the public’s best interest. That’s what we’re all here for is to serve the public and not ourselves, our friends or our family.
Braden: Typically, when people want to do something, usually, they call me and ask what they can do on the land, if there are any restrictions. The commissioners are right next door (to his office in the planning and zoning department) and can probably ask that as well. … The commissioners need to find out what the planned uses rules are for that area before anything takes effect.
Burnett: Absolutely, due diligence should be conducted, as Mr. Braden brought up, to make sure that the planned use is zoned properly. It’s confusing to me because I worked for an agency who had 7,000 employees and we never had anyone but our legal people sign contracts. I am confused as to why a parks department employee can sign a very valuable lumber contract on behalf of the county, and at the end of the day, the buck stops with the commissioners. They are responsible for those people and there has to be some checks and balances on who can sign off on the contract on behalf of the entire county. … We cannot just let managers sign legal contracts.
Fleetwood: Existing land use mandates may be on the original deed to the land. We don’t know that of all cases, but how the county obtained the property, of course, would have to do with that, but also what’s done with county property actually belongs to residents in the county. There has to be concern for what they think should happen as members of the public, because it’s their land.
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Watch the forums that have occurred so far on YouTube:
Brown County school board: https://youtu.be/hGdapMVrEcA
Brown County Council: https://youtu.be/tnUiPjo1tUM
Brown County Commissioners: https://youtu.be/YGR-FEzHePI
U.S. Congress 9th District: https://youtu.be/rWQTa3-qe4I
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