The four Republicans vying for two at-large seats on Franklin Common Council were born decades apart and have different ideas, but share the same goal to move the city forward.
Incumbent Shawn Taylor, a 49-year-old sales manager and youth sports coach, is asking voters to keep him in office. While challengers Clayton Black, a 22-year-old Franklin College graduating senior; Ross Shilts, a 28-year-old fitness manager; and Todd Shuck, a 60-year-old businessman and property developer, are asking for voters to give them a chance.
The other sitting at-large council member, Bob Heuchan, did not file to run again.
All seats of Franklin’s legislative body are on the ballot, but no challengers have filed to run against incumbents in the council’s residency-based seats. The current council members are Josh Prine, District 1; Anne McGuinness, District 2; Jennifer Price, District 3; Kenneth Austin, District 4; and Irene Nalley, District 5.
All Franklin voters will have the opportunity to select two candidates in the at-large race and the unopposed race for their district-based city council seat.
Unopposed races for Franklin mayor and clerk-treasurer are also on the ballot; Mayor Steve Barnett is up for reelection, while Jan Jones is running to replace current Clerk-Treasurer Jayne Rhoades, who is retiring.
No Democrats have filed to run for any Franklin office in the general election, but they still have an opportunity to do so after the May primary.
To help voters make their decision in the at-large city council race, the Daily Journal asked the candidates their takes on issues facing the city.
Here’s what they said, edited for length and clarity:
Why are you running for this office?
Black: I am the youngest city council candidate, but I don’t view that as a challenge. If anything I’ve viewed it as a positive thing. I think the city needs some younger leadership, especially on the city council. In high school I was involved in numerous student organizations, student council, you name it. One of the organizations that I was particularly involved with was the Franklin Mayor’s Youth Leadership Council. I was one of the inaugural members back in 2016. And then my senior year of high school, I did a year-long internship with the city working with the mayor’s office and spending three to four weeks of the year with all the other city departments. So, I became super involved and, as a result, super invested in the city.
Taylor: When I first got into it, I wanted to kind of just help the city grow. I’ve got three kids the biggest thing is I want them to have a place to come back to. I want them they go to school, do trade school, or whatever they happen to do. I want them to come back and live in Franklin. I came here in ‘92 and I haven’t left. I love Franklin, I love the way it’s growing. And just the whole vibe of the city and the way we’re we’re moving forward.
Shilts: My mother (Kim Van Valer) was the city court judge for some time and I helped run her campaign in 2019 … I think a lot of us have this tendency to think that politics is something like, way out there above us, like beyond our capabilities, but I started working on the campaign and I started to realize I can do this; anybody can do this. So, I decided to run for office and I started going to city council meetings and a lot of the committee meetings, just trying to learn. I thought, if I’m gonna run for office, how am I going to be a good candidate (and a good elected official), not just somebody who can win, but somebody who gets things done.
Shuck: I thought of this immediately upon graduation. … I thought, someday I would like to serve at the city level. I was busy for a long time with business and raising kids and my life is to a point where I think I can add one more thing to the plate. So I want to give back to the city. I’ve given a lot of different ways but not at this level; this is a whole new level for me.
What would be your top goals for this office?
Black: Some of the top goals I have is maintaining the small-town feel and tradition … I think we’ve been able to achieve preserving that small-town feel, especially with the downtown revitalization project under Joe (McGuinness) and finished under Steve (Barnett.) But I think we need to go beyond that when it comes to preservation, especially since the city is growing. When it comes to economic development, there are a lot of warehouses being developed to the east of Franklin and … I think it kind of takes away from the small-town feel. People come to Franklin to get away from major areas like Greenwood, Fishers and Carmel. I don’t want us to become like them … Whether it be the astronomical development they’ve done to some of the recent crime that’s happening in Greenwood — people come here to avoid that. It’s my ultimate goal to make sure that that does not reach down here to Franklin.
Taylor: Continue with the building up of the housing … and then the other thing with Steve (Barnett) and I kind of in the background are working on — and Bob — is trying to get some youth sports facilities up and going. Because we have some at the parks but … there are no fields for soccer there, the baseball fields need revamped. … Downtown is beautiful, the amphitheater is rolling, we’ve got all of these things happening. Now, how we’re going to fill up those houses? That’s one thing that will either bring people or deter people. Greenwood has built just built all those new fields and the fieldhouse. Center Grove’s got those things, too. What’s going to make them come to Franklin if they are involved in that and there’s no place for the kids to play?
Shilts: I have three major goals … Forming a historic preservation committee, housing, and forming what is essentially a committee of public outreach … That would be a committee that meets once a week where people come in and voice their concerns. Sometimes they want to blow off steam. Sometimes it would be ‘I have a concern about this project or this thing that the city is doing.’ So they can come in, they can make their voice heard, and it’s a little bit less formal than say, a city council meeting where you’re confined to five minutes and you’re in a much more formal setting, which I think freaks people out a lot. Sometimes they act in a way that they wouldn’t ordinarily and it creates sort of this divide between the council people and the people they serve.
Shuck: My goal would be to add my experience to the council. The council has a great representation right now. I have experience through the years and residential development and commercial development and I own several businesses. And so I think what the council does is basically what I do on a daily basis. So it’s gonna be on a bigger stage than I do, personally. So my goal would be just to add to what’s already happened.
Do you think Franklin should continue the current pace of growth? How would you think about growth as a council member?
Black: Growth is coming down from Greenwood, just more people are moving into Johnson County. So, we have to learn to adapt. Franklin has a very unique challenge because a lot of folks here in Franklin, me being one of them, want to try to keep Franklin small. At the same time, we want to be welcoming our community and people want to share in the treasure that is Franklin … I don’t believe that warehouses and warehouse jobs are a long-term feasible economic plan for the city. So one of the examples I often point to is B2S Life Sciences, a professional small business that moved into town because we are gifted enough to have a small liberal arts college. I think working with the college closer to try to attract some of the smaller businesses that have a bit more of a professional mindset is something that we should try to invest in.
Taylor: I think it’ll slow a little bit because a lot of the housing things that are coming in now were already plotted long for I got here … I don’t know how many more places are really talking about putting in a really big neighborhood. Unless the farmers really want to sell all the farmland that’s about where we are right now within the city. There are really not too many holes to build. So, I think it was it’ll slowly still grow. I don’t want it to become stagnant by any means. And we need to have some new housing, but we also need to have some different looking housing, some different neighborhoods and things like that.
Shilts: Growth by itself isn’t a bad thing. But we need to be worried about the type of growth that we’re doing … I think when people have these concerns about things like the warehouses; I mean, foot per foot, acre per acre; those buildings create much more income for the city than residential neighborhoods. But I think there’s something to be said about what is lost there. At its heart, Franklin is a residential city. We have developed our downtown to where we have locally owned businesses throughout … Growth for the sake of growth, either financially or any other way, is something I think that I worry about for the city. I think if we’re going to want to bring people who want to move in here to become Franklin-ites, who enjoy the same kind of things like taking part in volunteer organizations.
Shuck: That comes up quite a bit from my clients, my family, neighbors, friends; they all want to know where are we headed. I think the city is going to continue to grow; we just have to make sure that it’s the right type of growth for what we’re trying to accomplish here. I think most people would agree that Franklin gives you that hometown feel. And it’s kind of really why we all gravitate (here) … You have to figure out where you want to be. Do you want 10,000 more people to come in here and live? Do you want the schools to get bigger? We want we always want bigger, but we also want we want better so we have to balance that.
Do you welcome additional housing growth in Franklin; are we attracting the right types of housing?
Black: I think we need to be tactical about what types of housing we build in Franklin. The real cheap cinderblock homes that are being built just across the Indy metro area are something that I don’t find attractive for Franklin, both for economic reasons, but also just marketing reasons … So it’s something that we need to put our heads together not only as a city council but also with the community and other organizations and even the county to try to address those issues … Some folks in Franklin tend to recognize but ignore the fact that, especially from a youth perspective, we have a lot of underprivileged folks and folks that are homeless. So I think partnerships with nonprofits and charitable organizations — like KIC-IT or Habitat for Humanity — are some organizations that the city should partner with and have more discussions with.
Taylor: We’ve got vertical apartments, single-story apartments, condos … and the neighborhood up north by Astral is going to have different types of housing … I think we’re hitting all the right spots. And we’ll continue to see the downtown houses keep getting rebuilt and configured and cleaned up and I think that’s the next place to work on. We’ve got the FDC (Franklin Development Corporation) program that’s helping fix up older houses over on Yandes Street, Kentucky Street and Johnson Avenue.
Shilts: We’re facing housing pressure on two fronts. The first is we have people who live outside the community who want to move in because they see the kind of city that we are and they want to be a part of it — that’s a simple demand-supply problem … The sort of second pressure I think we’re facing is the growth in Franklin’s homeless and unhoused population. Unfortunately also importantly it’s not a simple supply-demand problem … There are people like KIC-IT and Interchurch Food Pantry, United Way — all of these people have the resources, they have the training, they have the know-how to help these people out. I think the city, working in tandem with them, to help solve these underlying issues is the path forward on that homelessness issue.
Shuck: For a long time, the conversation was always we do not have enough apartments. Now we’re seeing people come in and they probably did a cost analysis and they said okay, ‘what are the needs in this area and for apartments,’ because people kept talking about we need apartments. You’re seeing that growth now. Once they fill up, I believe that there’ll be another analysis by these companies that do that type of work and they’ll decide whether the city has enough. Much like restaurants when they come into town, they don’t necessarily come to town just because we want them to come into town.
Some residents have expressed concerns about the number of warehouses being built in the city. How do you feel about additional development of this type?
Black: I just think it’s unfortunate that often too many times it’s too late when the public does find out … The different warehousing units have been in the works for years now. So it would be very difficult to try to stop something of that magnitude, but you’re looking at the rest of the farmland that’s out there. Ultimately, it’s up to those that own that farmland to choose what they want to do with it … That’s a discussion between the city and those who own those properties and invested folks that want to buy those properties. It’s something that is a discussion for the future and I don’t think it’s something that the city should necessarily endorse.
Taylor: We will continue to add some more out there toward the eastside and there’s a couple that are planned on the northside … I think it’s kind of the ideal space for us to put things like that. The city actually needs some of those buildings for the assessed value … You can bond against them to help build a sports park and (we used it to build) the amphitheater. I know a lot of people will talk about it — there’s no place to park downtown — if we want to build a parking garage, we could use TIF … A lot of those older buildings are now starting to come off the TIF and they’re paying full taxes now.
Shilts: I think people are going to want to buy land to put warehouses on … I think the city’s role is to perhaps maybe use those incentives a little bit better to incentivize the kind of businesses that we want to see, which are generally small, owned by people in the community, not just some faraway entity that might happen to franchise here, people who happen to see an opportunity here. (We should) incentivize investment that’s going to come here and stay here because it has a reason to beyond just profit, too. We need to be using those incentives to encourage businesses that do not flow out as easily as they are flowing in.
Shuck: There is already a plan in place for warehouses to come, right? But where does that stop? I think that’s where the council comes into place. And figures out where are we going, where’s the end? What’s the end game for us in the warehouses? They do generate a tremendous amount of property tax revenue; it is earth-shattering the numbers that come in. I believe we do also need residential neighborhoods.
The use of tax abatements has been criticized. Do you think they are necessary; how would you approach decision-making on tax abatements?
Black: I do think tax abatements are good when treated the right way and when there’s the correct oversight. The fact of the matter is businesses will not move forward with their projects if an abatement is not on the table. So, I’m not against tax abatements at all … they have a big role to play in bringing businesses to Franklin … I think the numbers those businesses report back to the city to renew their tax payments should be looked at critically, just to make sure that they’re abiding by the terms in which we all agreed upon.
Taylor: If we don’t do it none of those (warehouses) are going to show up … I think we’re very lucky that Amazon didn’t apply for anything, but Energizer’s got one and Target’s gonna have one. That’s one of the big decision-makers, they’re not to bring those jobs here without it … I don’t want a ton of them, but I think it’s unnecessary that we have them within the city to be able to bring the assessed value, bring jobs to the city and keep things moving forward. And ultimately, the farmers, they’re the ones who decide when they want to sell that out. But I don’t see too many out there outside of what’s already planned there.
Shilts: Tax abatements are tools. They can be used well and they can be used poorly … I would ask what is the Economic Development Commission saying, is this something that they think is going to contribute to the city? What is it going to contribute in a way that maintains that small-town feel, or is it just that we want to get money flowing into the city’s coffers for projects like the amphitheater and that kind of thing? So I think, looking at the committee findings, sometimes we might end up disagreeing on if this is necessary for the city one and whether this is what’s good for the city.
Shuck: It is a tool that is necessary for us to be competitive … (But) you have to analyze the cost of that tax abatement in the short run, and also the costs of that tax abatement in the long run. How does that going to affect the citizens of Franklin now and in the future? You’d have to rely on your planning department. The cost analysis that’s going to be done with the financial people involved, then you make a decision based on the numbers. If that’s not what your gut feeling is, you’ve got to have some concrete facts.
About the job
What: Franklin City Council At-Large
Term: Four years
Pay: $8,302.58 a year (2023)
Duties: Set annual spending for the city, make policy changes, adopt new local rules and ordinances, approve new taxes, appoint members to various city boards.
The Black File
Name: Clayton Black
Party: Republican
Age: 22
Family: Unmarried, no children
Occupation: Indiana House Republicans legislative intern, selected for Governor’s Fellows program post-graduation
Educational background: Franklin Community High School, Franklin College graduating senior
Political experience: First-time candidate
Memberships: Kappa Delta Rho Fraternity, Franklin College student organizations, former Franklin Mayor’s Youth Council member
The Taylor File
Name: Shawn Taylor
Party: Republican
Age: 49
Family: Wife Carla, three children
Occupation: National Sales Manager, Pro Industries
Educational background: Floyd Central High School, Franklin College
Political experience: Franklin City Council, one-term incumbent
Memberships: Franklin Economic Development Commission vice president, Franklin high school football coach, Franklin girls basketball youth coach, Franklin high school baseball booster club.
The Shilts File
Name: Ross Shilts
Party: Republican
Age: 28
Family: Unmarried, no children
Occupation: Fitness manager, Compass Park
Educational background: Franklin Community High School, IUPUI
Political experience: First-time candidate
Memberships: Volunteer for The Historic Artcraft Theatre, Interchurch Food Pantry
The Shuck File
Name: Todd Shuck
Party: Republican
Age: 60
Family: Wife Denise, three adult children
Occupation: Owner, Shuck’s Financial Services, Heartland Storage
Educational background: Tipton High School, Franklin College
Political experience: First-time candidate
Memberships: Franklin Chamber of Commerce vice president, Victory Christian Church, Raising Spirits
