Republicans continue to hold all seven Brown County Council seats after voters elected all three Republican at-large candidates on Nov. 3.
Incumbents Glenda Stogsdill-Johnson and John Price decided not to run for reelection this year, opening opportunities for other candidates.
The top vote-getter in the Brown County Council race was newcomer Scott Rudd with 4,260 votes. Twenty-four-year incumbent Dave Critser, who currently serves as vice president of the council, was the second-highest vote-getter with 4,186.
Republican Judy Swift-Powdrill received 3,965 votes. She is currently serving as county recorder, but her term will end this year, before she starts her county council term.
Democrat candidate Ken Birkemeier, a retired banker, received the most votes on that side of the ballot, with 2,574.
This is Rudd’s first time running for a political office, but he has been serving in other roles. He is currently working as the lieutenant governor’s state director of broadband opportunities. Previously, he worked as the county’s director of planning and zoning, was the Nashville town manager and economic development director, and was on several boards.
“It’s refreshing to see that apparently, people have been very happy with what I’ve done and want me to do more. I’m just honored to get the vote of confidence from the county and look forward to serving everybody,” he said.
About county council, “it’s a position I’ve always felt was critically important,” Rudd said.
“I look forward to serving every family, business and resident in the county and looking out for those who need a voice, and if the county has the ability to help folks in the county, then I am going to be a big advocate for that.”
Rudd said his focus will be on helping with the county’s recovery from COVID-19 and “how we can best serve those who have been impacted by that and as quickly as possible get back to the place we were.”
“COVID recovery will be an immediate top priority for me and then moving forward essentially focusing on how we can deliver government services in an effective way as possible and efficiently serve people,” he said.
This could mean moving more services online, like application permits and document signing — “not only better serve the community, but more efficiently carry out government services so that we can sustain our tax rates and just constantly improve and evolve as a government entity,” he said.
Powdrill wants to focus on reaching out to the younger generation to see what needs to be done to make this county a place where they want to live and raise their families.
“We always talk about certain things that we are focusing on, but at the end of the day, I’m 62 years old; I want to talk to the people who are in their 20s and 30s and see what they want,” she said.
“I would love to be able to, with the county commissioners and other entities, to poll that demographic and find out what we can to do make it attractive for them to live here.”
For more than a decade, the population in Brown County has been aging, with those 65 and older moving in and younger people moving out for better-paying jobs or more affordable housing, or both.
Powdrill said she looks forward to serving the county again on council. She also served from 2010 to 2014.
When she takes her seat on the council at the start of next year, she will be the only woman on the board.
Stogsdill-Johnson’s term ends at the end of 2020. She was the only woman on the board after the last woman to serve on council, Democrat Debbie Guffey, lost her re-election bid in 2018.
“I am not shy,” Powdrill said.
“I hope to ask the hard questions. I am not a person who’s just going to shake my head ‘yes.’ I’m going to look at the documents, I’m going to read the documents and I’m going to ask questions.”
Powdrill has worked in county government for 31 years. She was office manager and administrator in the health department for 27 years.
When her term as recorder ends this year, Republican Mary Smith will take over in January after running unopposed in the general election.
Powdrill said she appreciates the voter support and that she wants the community to know they can contact her with any questions.
“If I don’t know the answer, I won’t pretend that I do. I will investigate it and get back to them with the information that they request to the best of my ability. I want to be of service to them,” she said.
Critser will have been on the county council for 24 years at the end of this year.
He thanked voters for casting their vote for him again. He said the next four years he will be focused on making sure the county stays within its budget.
“It’s still scary times with the pandemic,” he said.
He also would like to look into securing more revenue for public safety in the county, including ambulance, police and fire services.
Even though Critser said the county cannot afford paid firefighters, there may be sources of revenue that the county could use to give more money to the volunteer fire departments.
“There’s nothing, I don’t think, that says you can’t give them dollars, that’s for sure,” he said.
He said winning another term did not really come as a surprise to him. “I think the county has kind of switched over to the Republicans, so, not a surprise,” he said.
“What keeps you running is, I look at the county council just like being in a service organization, like the Lions Club. I’m doing it just for the duty. It’s sure not for the money. … It’s not for the headaches it causes, because it’s not worth it hardly.”
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County council at large (three elected)
Republican
David Critser;4186
Scott Rudd;4260
Judith “Judy” Swift-Powdrill;3965
Democrat
Kenneth L. Birkemeier;2574
Kevin G. Fleming;2021
Melissa K. Parker;2181
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