Foster
A Greenwood City Council member has resigned, but he will continue to serve residents in a new role.
Council member Drew Foster tendered his resignation on Sunday so that he could take on a new position as one of Greenwood’s assistant city attorneys, council president Mike Campbell announced at the start of Wednesday’s city council meeting. He had to resign because it is illegal to serve on the city council while being an employee of the city.
Foster attended the meeting Wednesday, moving a few chairs down to act as the city council’s legal representation for the meeting as part of his new role. He was looking for a change, he said.
“It’s different, but you got to roll with the punches,” Foster said.
Foster had been serving as one of the city council’s at-large members since Feb. 17, 2021, when he was selected in a caucus to serve out the remainder of former council member Bob Dine’s four-year term. Dine resigned a little more than a year ago, on Jan. 4, 2022, to work in a supervisory security role with the City Court.
Throughout his two stints as a council member, Foster helped pass the city’s nuisance ordinance, which requires that all places of lodging have a city license, and outlines procedures for probation and revoking the license for those that have a high number of calls for police, fire, code and health department violations. This ordinance has been in the spotlight for the last several months due to the city’s legal fight against Red Carpet Inn and Fanta Suites.
He also helped pass the city’s riverfront district ordinance, which opens the door to more restaurants and bars that want to serve alcohol.
As part of his new role as city attorney, he will draft legal contracts on the city’s behalf, negotiate with vendors, advise the mayor and city boards and prosecute ordinance violations, he said.
Foster considers his new role as another way to serve the community. Prior to his most recent stint on the city council, he served as a member of the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals.
He’s also served the county as a whole as a deputy prosecutor with the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office for 19 years. He resigned from the prosecutor’s office late last year, saying he didn’t want to work for Prosecutor Lance Hamner, who recently took office.
“This is just another way of public service, which is what I’ve been doing all my life,” Foster said. “Hopefully, I can affect change and help people in the city attorney’s office like I did when I was on the council.”
Foster is the second former prosecutor to join the city’s legal staff in the last few months. Former prosecutor Joe Sayler joined the city’s legal staff as an assistant city attorney in November.
The county GOP is planning a caucus to replace Foster, a Republican, which will take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 2 in the council chambers at the Greenwood City Center, 300 S. Madison Avenue.
Any Republican in the city of Greenwood is eligible to run to replace Foster. Those interested should send a letter of interest and an executed and notarized copy of a CEB-5 form to Beth Boyce, county GOP chairperson, at 845 Richart Lane, Greenwood, IN, 46142 by 7 p.m. Jan. 30.
Precinct committeemen representing every section of the city will select his replacement from the list of candidates who have filed, Boyce said.
Candidates should be able to serve until Dec. 31, the end of the seat’s current term. The seat is one of three at-large seats up for election this year.
