Former member challenges incumbent for Whiteland Town Council Ward 2

A former council member is back to challenge an incumbent for his seat on the Whiteland Town Council.

Scot Ford is going up against current council member Brad Goedeker, who is seeking a second term on the town council representing Ward 2. Both are running as Republicans in the May 2 municipal primary.

Ford had previously been on the town council for five years before he resigned from his at-large seat in May 2021, half way through his second term. He gave up his seat on the council for personal reasons, which would have prevented him from coming to meetings at the time, he said. While he did have disagreements at the time with former town manager Kevin McGinnis, that is not why he left, Ford said.

“I’m not trying to be arrogant, but it takes a lot more than that to intimidate me … I’ve been dealing with the tough parts on the council for years,” Ford said.

Ford decided to run again for the council — this time in Ward 2 instead of at-large — because many people asked him to come back. He said he does not think the current council is doing a bad job, but he thinks they could benefit from his prior experience, and his willingness to ask questions. During his time on the council, Ford had served as president and vice president, and he was also president of the redevelopment commission at one point.

For Goedeker, he wanted to run for one more term to see Whiteland through its period of growth and change, he said. Goedeker joined the town council through a caucus in 2019 to fill the term of a council member who left, and he won the municipal election for Ward 2 later that year. Goedeker also served as president of the council in 2022.

It was a tougher decision this time to choose to run again because Goedeker recently took over operations of Rascal’s Fun Zone in Whiteland, so he has more responsibilities. But he said he feels like he can still do good for the town with four more years.

“I ultimately felt like we needed somebody that was credible, that wanted to serve and try to listen to all sides and make responsible decisions,” Goedeker said. “I know that I’m coming at it from the right point of view. I don’t make votes based on my own personal preferences. In fact, I’ve voted against my own personal preferences multiple times, based on what I felt was best for the town.”

Three seats on the Whiteland Town Council are divided into districts — where council members live in and represent their designated areas of town on the council — and two seats are at-large representing the whole town. Even though the council is divided into these districts, voters will get to vote for all five seats on the council, no matter where they live in town.

Ward 2 makes up southwest Whiteland, which primarily includes the Park Forest and Briar Creek subdivisions. Ward 1 is the only other contested Whiteland race in the Republican primary on May 2.

Republican voters in the primary will select the candidate to move to the November general municipal election. No Democrat has filed for the Ward 2 seat, but there is time for candidates to be slated for the Democratic ticket this summer after the primary.

The Daily Journal asked Ford and Goedeker questions about their priorities and goals for the office. Here’s what they said, edited for length, grammar and clarity:

What would be your top priorities if you are elected?

Ford: I want to continue to monitor the town’s growth, industry wise. So, make sure the

developers meet the requirements of impact fees to make sure they update or improve sewer lines, water lines, what have you because I don’t want any of that passed on to residents. You know, while I served on the board, we had no increase in tax levies, none … my priority is to make sure that the we can preserve the small town feel, and still experience rapid development. Rapid development is inevitable. so It’s going to happen … Also, right up there is public safety. We’ve hired about 11 officers now, if I’m not mistaken. And I know that morale over there is exceedingly high. And they were just finally were able to get new police vehicles … The fire department’s expanding and getting bigger.

Goedeker: With the tornado hitting the town, these changed a little bit. So, helping folks to recover. There’s certainly damage to the town buildings, town property, as well as the citizens and so making sure that we’re doing everything we can to support them both now and going forward. I mean, this isn’t a overnight thing. The effects are going to be lasting for probably a couple of years. Making sure that we have the right support for everyone is definitely a priority … Next, we still have a lot of opportunity to figure out are we going to have new businesses come in, do people want to come in and develop new neighborhoods? Whiteland is a nice place to live and that’s why we have so many you know, people coming in wanting to build homes or apartments or other things like duplexes, senior living, these kinds of things … Then the third is, just developing the right culture going forward, where the town isn’t on a teeter-totter, where things could just go defunct. So, that’s making sure that we’re taking appropriate actions to have the appropriate amount of things that are getting paid off or not too much in debt. We have the right growth. We’re updating streets around town, keeping our utilities in order. Like we’ve had several projects ongoing. We have been updating streets in the neighborhoods. And then, I would also have to say trying to find ways to cooperate more closely with Franklin, New Whiteland and Greenwood. It makes absolutely no sense to me why we are not more inherently involved with each of these towns.

What do you think about Whiteland’s growth in the last five years? Do you think the town should continue this pace of growth?

Ford: We’ve done a pretty good job. Housing obviously is huge. We’ve got … four or three developments going on right now. When I was on the council, Norm (Gabehart, former town manager) was pretty specific that they meet certain requirements. And I was always in agreement with that. So, I’m not sure they’ve had much growth opportunities since I left the council … You’ve got to support growth because if you don’t, you’re gonna get left behind. People say, “Well, why do we need the industry?” Well, the industry pays more. Here’s the deal, industry pays more in taxes, they pay 3% of the assessed valuation, where residents pay 1%. And people say, “that shouldn’t be important.” Well, unfortunately, it’s the taxes that pays the bills. The industry buildings, which go into our TIF (tax incremental financing) districts, we can pay for a lot of infrastructure in that. That then frees up other money for salaries and other equipment and things.

Goedeker: It’s a testament that this is a nice place to work. People treat each other well. We don’t have very high tax rates. We have low crime. Neighbors tend to get along very well. People are looking out for one another and serving each other. And so, what would the alternative to that be? No growth? A growth reduction where people are moving away? We want this to be a place where people want to live, and so I think things are working well on these fronts. And as you know, people relocate, you have to have places that are you know, you’ve got to have good infrastructure in place, roads, water, sewers, utilities, things like that. And I think we are doing those things. Well, I think that the groups that we’ve worked with, both businesses and developers for neighborhoods, are putting in good products. I don’t think that we’re putting in junk. … And certainly, we have some variety of development and not everything is the exact same. We’re not only putting in $700,000 homes that you couldn’t afford or want to live in … I want to allow people to do what they want with their property. Like if this farmer wants to farm on their ground, fantastic. We need more of that. But if this farmer says, “Hey, I’m wanting to retire. I might sell.” If they want to sell it to somebody, who am I to say, “No, you absolutely cannot do that, you must continue on with the same land use.” Like with the Whiteland Orchard (now Mohr Logistics). What in the world was the push back? Somebody had served in the business for many years, and it was time for them to retire and they wanted to sell it to the max value. To me, it seems like some logistics warehouses right along the interstate seemed like a terrific place.

Backyard chickens have been a hot topic in town recently. Do you or do you not support allowing residents to keep chickens in their yards?

Ford: I haven’t seen the final draft of that, and I cannot respond. I’d have to see the final draft of the ordinance. I’m not trying to be vague, but there’s a lot to that. I’ve been around chickens. I know they attract predators. And if they can’t find a chicken, they are going to look somewhere else, and I’ve got an 8 pound poodle I take care of once in a while. I would not be happy if the poodle was taken by some hawk.

Goedeker: I’m kind of in the middle. I don’t have a strong opinion. I have no real interest in chickens. This is something that individual people would like to do. We’re not the first municipality to have this request. This is something that’s been going on probably a decade in the area in Johnson County, Marion County. We’re not the trailblazers. I am very much for people having individual freedoms, and not have the government just come in and tell you everything to do all the time … We have asked that a draft be created (to allow chickens), and I think much of this was based upon what other local municipalities already do. I didn’t find anything in there questionable or anything that seemed outlandish. Certainly, I think there’s some safeguards needed. But I’ve seen many people that are both homeowners or renters, either take care of their house, or not take care of the house, or follow HOA (homeowner association) rules or government rules, or not follow them. It’s kind of like an individual choice … and no amount of government involvement can make you be nice or mean to your neighbors … I want to hear some more dialogue and thought, and not just like, “Hey, I don’t want chickens, I don’t like that guy or I don’t like that woman who lives two miles away from me, I’m going to tell her that she can’t have something.” I think that’s a very weird way of looking at things.

What are your thoughts on the idea of merging Whiteland and New Whiteland?

Ford: Absolutely. I think we should take a look at it … we should crunch the numbers and see how they fall and see who benefits and who doesn’t and make a determination on that. Quite frankly, I don’t think it should be the councils that make the determination. We should put it up for a vote in a general election.

Goedeker: There are three police departments headquartered within a mile of each other. You cannot tell me that there’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in excess spending for no real reason, and all of those departments are clearly cooperating with each other on a daily basis. Do we really need two chiefs and two sets of police (departments) and two sets of cars and mechanics and all this stuff that go along with it? Change is very hard, and so it doesn’t happen overnight. When I initially joined the council, one of my top priorities was to try to work with New Whiteland to see what we can get going … My thoughts or ideas were not received well on the New Whiteland side. But I would like to see things begin to happen. How many people that live here and call New Whiteland home or Whiteland home know where the boundaries are? It’s very confusing. There’s no real difference, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not suggesting some sort of takeover. But like maybe, do we need two different councils, two police departments and two fire departments? There are talented people on both sides. Imagine if we had one operation with all these talented people working together. So, I have not given up on that … so perhaps if there is any engagement on the Whiteland side, I think it would have to be a referendum and we’d have to put it up for a vote to the residents.