The two men who are vying for an open seat on the Johnson County Council want to be a voice for their communities on the board that oversees spending on county road projects, the sheriff’s office and jail and local courts.
Rob Henderson, the Republican candidate, has been the District 2 representative since he won the seat in a 2015 caucus. Now he hopes to serve a full four-year term so he can complete some council objectives he’s had a hand in crafting, he said.
Thomas Jackson, the Democratic candidate, is a newcomer to politics, who has lived in Greenwood for more than a decade. He’s running because his constituents deserve to have a voice in local government, something they don’t have now, he said.
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The seven-member board oversees the county’s finances and road projects, and has the power to add or change taxes. It includes a council member for each of the county’s four districts as well as three at-large representatives.
District 2 represents part of Pleasant Township and all of Franklin Township. Only registered voters who live in the district will vote for this council member.
As the county’s population and the opioid epidemic continue to grow at a rapid pace, council members are tasked with figuring out what to do about a crowded jail and growing workloads in the criminal justice system.
If Henderson retains his seat, his top priority would be finding a way to alleviate overcrowding at the jail, which is something the state is already urging the county to take action on. One way to do that is to reevaluate how juvenile delinquents are handled, he said.
“I think our juvenile detention center itself is a very large asset that takes a lot of money to operate, and I think it’s under-utilized. I feel very strongly that there needs to be a juvenile detention program of some kind; I just don’t know that it needs to be in that facility,” Henderson said.
“Is there a better re-purpose of that building to serve our community, to serve our taxpayers?”
Henderson said he would only support a long-term fix to the jail overcrowding issue.
He also plans to encourage the council to consider establishing a human resources department and look at ways to enhance the information technology and marketing efforts.
“I think that needs investment in both personnel and equipment. We don’t really have a defined HR program, and it’s makes it very challenging during budget time to look at employees across multiple departments,” he said.
Henderson is proud of the efforts the county has made recently to establish a redevelopment commission. He hopes to help get that new venture off the ground, he said.
“Hopefully we see it at all levels as a collaborative effort. What’s good for the county is good for the cities and what’s good for the cities is good for the county,” Henderson said.
He came to the county council from the Franklin City Council because he wanted the city to have a voice at the county-wide level, something he said wasn’t there before.
Henderson is senior vice president of commercial loans at Mutual Savings Bank in Franklin. He is a graduate of Franklin Community High School and Indiana University. He’s lived in Johnson County for 42 years.
Jackson is the senior deployment leader at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis. He served overseas in Iraq as a military officer after he graduated from Southport High School. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Taylor University and master’s degrees in emergency and disaster management, organizational leadership and healthcare administration. He is working on a doctorate in public health at IUPUI.
“I think what’s unique about me is my overall life experience — my military experience and education level. But I also have a heart for our community,” Jackson said.
His range of studies gives him a clear perspective on several of the issues the county is facing, especially the opioid crisis, he said.
“As I study the drug epidemic that’s happening in Johnson County and around the rest of Indiana and the U.S., I am glad that we as a society have started to see drugs as a healthcare problem and not so much as a criminal problem. If I am fortunate to graduate three years from now, I will focus a lot of my attention on helping improve the healthcare system in the state of Indiana,” Jackson said.
If the county were to experience some sort of disaster, he would be able to lend his expertise in that area as well, he said.
But more than anything, he’s running for his constituents and for his country, he said.
“How can we narrow the gap between elected officials and the people that they represent?” he said.
“If the council has (seven) republican members and they all have the same economic, social and political philosophy, there won’t be much debate for what’s happening in our communities. That doesn’t represent us. This is not a 100 percent republican county.”
He reads the council’s meeting minutes and tries to keep up with what’s going on throughout the county, but he would have to study all of the issues in more detail and ask his constituents what they’d like to see before he developed opinions about local issues or made decisions, he said.
His top priority would be getting more residents involved.
“I believe council members should participate in public hearings and public debates and support those kinds of discussions,” Jackson said.
“It seems like every time we take two steps forward, we take one step back in the people that we elect, and it is the responsibility of every citizen to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
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Johnson County Council District 2
Represents: Part of Pleasant Township and all of Franklin Township
Duties: Approving the county budget, including how many sheriff’s deputies will patrol the roads and how much should be spent on road projects. Approves any new or increased taxes, such as the wheel tax on vehicle registrations or an increased local income tax for expenses related to the jail or public safety.
Term: 4 years
Salary: $8,352
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Name: Rob Henderson
Party: Republican
Residence: Franklin
Family: Wife, Brandi; children Jack and Abbie
Occupation: senior vice president of commercial loans Mutual Savings Bank
Educational background: Franklin Community High School; bachelor’s degree from Indiana University
Political experience: Franklin City Council, 2012 – 2015; Johnson County Council 2015 – present
Memberships: Hopewell Presbyterian Church, Franklin Elks #1818, F & AM Franklin Lodge #107, Franklin Rotary
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Name: Thomas Jackson
Party: Democrat
Residence: Greenwood
Family: Single father of three children
Occupation: Hospital administrator at Indiana University Health
Educational background: Southport High School; bachelor’s degree from Taylor University; master’s degree in disaster and emergency management from Columbia Southern University; master’s degree in organizational leadership from Brandman University; master’s degree in healthcare administration from The George Washington University; doctoral student in public health at IUPUI
Memberships: Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)
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