Editor’s note: Commissioner candidate Kyle Birkemeier prepared this statement for the League of Women Voters of Brown County’s candidate forum on Oct. 4. He later submitted it as a letter to the editor.
To the editor:
Thank you to the League of Women Voters for holding these valuable forums.
I’m Kyle Birkemeier and I want to be your next commissioner. I have a background in government, corporate and nonprofit leadership, strategic planning, analytics and research, grant writing, and technology. I was born and raised in Brown County, have a master’s degree in leadership and administration, and work for IU in data science, overseeing budgets and strategies that make the university more efficient.
My previous government experience includes creating a highly successful county comprehensive plan in Arizona, much more applicable than documents our county government operates on. As your commissioner, I will work to develop a real comprehensive plan that will be the basis for future decisions for the county while maintaining our unique Brown County spirit and community.
My opponent likes to speak about paving roads, however an often heard complaint I hear on the campaign trail is the terrible shape of our roads. Under my leadership, we will identify the areas that need the work, use the best materials and techniques to build roads that last, and develop a plan to make sure our roads continue to be repaired with the best oversight and leadership.
Studies show that our population is declining by more than 20 percent and our schools face unprecedented drops in enrollment. This data has been known for years, and our current leadership, no action has been taken.
I know how hard it is for a young family to move here. Obstacles include the high cost of the property and our overburdening income tax that is the fifth-highest in the state.
I will work to change our tax structure and to find ways to encourage young people to succeed and thrive here.
I will help create an economic development plan that brings jobs to our county.
I will help create a committee to market Brown County to families that want the Brown County lifestyle.
I will work with the planning department to offer families and businesses information on where to find the right property and how to navigate our county ordinances.
I have fought the septic ordinance that was presented and will continue to make sure that our county develops ordinances that allow reasonable growth, not stop it.
Five years ago, the state started the broadband initiatives, and thanks to Town Manager Scott Rudd and the electric co-ops, we are finally starting to see the results. I vow to bring the internet to everyone in the county, but we can’t stop there. I will use the internet for economic development and attracting residents, and to modernize county services, offer more services from our website, develop apps for reporting issues with roads and water, and streamline document retrieval, etc. Having good internet is one thing; having a plan to use to it to full capacity is another.
Our county is in the middle of an opiate epidemic and has been for years. In the last four years under my opponent’s leadership, the county has done nothing to address this problem. I will end the culture of inaction.
I will work with the new judge to fund a drug court that will intervene to help addicts get off opiates rather than sending them into the spiral of recidivism.
I will work with the court and the health department to get grants to fund medically assisted treatment for addicts and appoint a committee of experts and caring people in our town to help users get off drugs.
I will work with the sheriff’s department and prosecutor to get the needed resources to go after the suppliers and keep the drugs out of our county.
Our county has a transparency problem. I will vow to end the culture of closed-door meetings and secret deals that have resulted in mistrust. As commissioner, I vow to abide by open meeting laws, to commit to conducting public business in a public forum.
I saw my opponent lead the use of condemnation through eminent domain to seize land from Gary Oliver and the school corporation for a pet project to move a monstrous bridge here from Clay County with no transparency. Diana Biddle represented Brown County in Clay County to move the highway bridge to the Olivers’ property.
I will use my expertise in trail design to complete the Salt Creek Trail from the park to Deer Run and will never use eminent domain or give the authority to others to use. I will work with property owners and find a compromise that benefits us all.
I will support passing a measure that all legal notices must be posted on the property affected by government actions to ensure that the property owners and neighbors are aware of government actions.
We need a fair and equitable tax system. Currently, the tax burden lies heaviest on the declining working population and is not sustainable. Furthermore, it is driving away young families and workers. I will lower your taxes, not only by fixing the tax system, but by reducing waste in our government.
The commissioners rely on a high-priced law firm for everything from basic legal needs to secretarial work. We do not need to be paying lawyers $500 an hour to drive four hours to public meetings when we have a great group of lawyers who live here.
I will curtail the use of outsourcing, accountants, property assessors, etc., and will hire people qualified for the jobs. I train the employees we have so we can stop wasting money outsourcing our government to these high-priced companies.
I will also create a group and lobby the state for money for the many public lands we have here and a share of the state park gate fee.
I have the passion, drive, and time to be the leader that our county needs. I will work hard for you and be the type of leader that inspires and empowers our boards and ends the culture that we currently have.
Kyle Birkemeier, Brown County
