Two Republicans and one Democrat are vying for the two at-large seats on the Whiteland Town Council.
Republican Joesph Sayler, the current council president and a local attorney, has been a council member since 2018 and is asking for more time to make a difference for the town, he said.
Republican Richard Hill, a general manager, joined the council via caucus in 2022 after former council member Scot Ford vacated his seat. Hill is asking voters to give him his first full term.
Democrat Jacquelyn “Jaylen” Withem, a project analyst with an engineering firm, is asking voters to give her a shot.
All voters who live in Whiteland town limits are eligible to cast a ballot in the at-large race on Nov. 6. Voters will be asked to pick up to two candidates for the office.
Whiteland Town Council Wards 1, 2 and 3 are also on the ballot but those races are not contested.
The Daily Journal asked the three at-large candidates the same set of questions about their experience and ideas for the town. Here’s what they said, with minor edits for clarity and repetition.
What made you want to run for office?
Hill: I’ve been involved in the planning commission for 12 years and the BZA. I’ve kind of been around the block for a while. The caucus opening was a new experience for me. I think I’ve done halfway decent. I think we’ve got a good group of people, and we’re headed in the right direction. So, I wanted to continue to progress moving forward. And I’m throwing my hat back into the ring and going through this process.
Sayler: There’s a lot going on with the town. And I thought I could continue to try to be of service. It’s not a huge time commitment, but it’s a fair time commitment, especially being president. But it’s just a way that I can continue to be involved with the community that I live in. Local government is probably the most important government in the day-to-day of people’s lives. It’s where the lights stay on, the streets are cleared, streets are paved — all those little things that people take for granted. And that if that’s done well, at a local level, it allows … your localities to thrive and to attract more business and more people to it. And it just makes for a better quality of life for everybody.
Withem: Obviously, I have zero experience in politics. But as a parent, and as a wife, I like the idea of being involved in my town. I see a lot of people complaining on Facebook, and you can’t do anything about any problems until you’re actually willing to put yourself out there. So my feeling was … that I want to be able to represent the people who are complaining because they may not feel comfortable going in front of the town council. I had been to multiple meetings, so I felt like if I could at least represent their voice, and vote in a way that represents how they feel on something, then I can make a difference.
What would be your top priorities if you are elected?
Hill: The town and Johnson County went through some tornado issues. So we have some things that would be important that we obviously rebuild, some of them are structures. I’m interested in putting in redundancy or double redundancy, on the water towers and things like that so we don’t lose water and generator systems for backup when we do lose power — just learning some of those things of what we did right and what we did wrong. I think the current leadership is doing a good job in pursuing some of that. My job is just to make sure that we cover all the bases and we try to implement some of those things. Obviously being fiscally responsible; I think that’s key in any government leadership role. … We do have some things in place that we’re looking into for infrastructure and some of the needs that we foresee in the future on funding requirements. We’re looking at state, local and federal grants and things like that, where we can tap into those programs to do our research and due diligence. … Another thing we’re doing is we’ve reached out to a consulting firm for planning the (comprehensive) plan, I think it’s gonna be beneficial to the town.
Sayler: My top priority would be to both improve and expand the infrastructure of the town. Our sewer treatment plant definitely needs some upgrading, and we’re in the process of that, and then we’ll have our own water and sewer utilities and keeping all those running smoothly, is super important. But with the TIF district, becoming active out at the interstate, the town is going to be in a very good position to have a significant financial base to expand our infrastructure and improve it. This means both quality of life as well as the ability to attract more business, more development and more good things for the town. In particular, I think that we don’t have any real park system at present. And I’m really excited about making something happen on that front.
Withem: If I’m elected, I would be really just being aware of everything. I know that sounds so vague, but there’s a stormwater board and planning and zoning. And just being aware of what’s going on with those meetings, because the board of zoning appeals and the planning commission, those items will eventually come in front of the town council. So I want to attend those meetings, or at least read the information so that by the time it gets to me, I’m already looking to see what the constituents are saying . … I really want to focus on bringing those items to their attention. … When we bought our house in Oakville, everybody’s like, ‘Oh, what is there to do?’ And I was like, ‘Well, you know we don’t have parks per se of our own. But there’s a park in New Whiteland, there are things in Greenwood and Franklin.’ I want people to be able to stay in their community and spend their dollars in their community. So just working with the comprehensive plan and planning and zoning and the other boards to make sure that we’re following the town’s 10-year comprehensive plan but also that we’re creating an environment where our residents have something to do without having to drive 20 minutes.
With tornado recovery ongoing, what ideas do you have to build the town back better?
Hill: We have like our maintenance shed and things like that have been destroyed. We’re presently looking into a temporary housing concept for the fire department. … You know, those types of things, you just have to go through the process. We’re involved with the FEMA and federal funding. So, we have to abide by their requirements. … So those are all priorities, and our leadership is doing a wonderful job of reporting and putting those things in perspective.
Sayler: A couple of things that we’re really working on are some power redundancies for our water, and our sewer utilities to make certain that those remain online in the event of anything like this happening again. Now, they both did remain online during this tornado, but in a limited fashion. But as far as backup generators, and that sort of thing, I think that’s very important. Another thing is collaborating with the other municipalities around us in any sort of disaster response, whether it be for us or to help them out. I think that’s really important. I was really impressed by the way the other municipalities around us and the county stepped up to help us out. But we’re in the process of formalizing a disaster coordination plan, through interlocal agreements.
Withem: Carmen Young and Slim Young have both done a really great job. And I was impressed as a resident that not only did they step up, but really just knocked it out of the park and provided so many resources. And they were transparent with what they were doing and sprung into action. …. Unfortunately, this situation is one that I feel like you can’t ever prepare for because you never know if it’s going to happen and how badly off the rebuild process will be for the fire department and the sewer plant. … I guess if anything could be improved, maybe just some transparency, and maybe it’s already out there. And I’m just unaware of what our insurance coverage is for those kind of buildings.I know we share our finances, and that’s public knowledge. But maybe once they figure this all out, just showing, ‘hey, these are the policies that we have. It’s more than enough.’ And also, maybe just a timeline … because these are expensive projects. I know the sewer plant would be very expensive to rebuild whatever parts of it were damaged. And then also just looking at what can we as residents do to help, if anything.
What should the council prioritize for remaining land use?
Hill: Going back on the history of being involved in the town politics, I can remember that in the planning commission, we couldn’t get commercial to come because they wanted rooftops. So we had to focus on rooftops. … So at this point, I’m all about balance, You’re not going to please everyone. Now we do have the warehouses … we have people out there who are very interested in this location, because of the growth and because of what we’re able to do. I personally think we need to bring in jobs, to offset some of the growth that we’ve had. It would be nice to bring Fortune 500 companies to the area. Maybe we look at other housing developments. Maybe we look at some retail with some restaurants and things of that nature. Things are moving fast. But we also have to take a step back and assess everything.
Sayler: One thing that really needs to be done is that there needs to be a transition from the Industrial Light or the Light Industrial Commercial projects out near the interstate to the old town for lack of a better term for it. That shouldn’t be warehouses or manufacturing facilities up against residential. So I’d really be interested in having a transition there, whether that be through some form of commercial and park, within that kind of swamp that’s there. There isn’t a ton left unless you go …. east of the interstate. But that would be a long way off.
Withem: Following the 10-year comprehensive plan, because the town paid for that for a reason. I think what people don’t realize is that a lot of those homes between Cooper Tire and 65 are county property, they’re not within the town of Whiteland. So we have areas that could be annexed in. … There are opportunities for us to grow a little bit and kind of take on residential that’s already there that they aren’t directly linked to a town. But also we have … warehouses going west of the roundabout on the southwest corner, and I think just remaining loyal to that plan. I would love to see some mixed-use developments, where maybe there’s kind of like a strip mall at the bottom that maybe it’s a three or four-story building where apartments are up top. We have a lot of single-family homes and we have duplexes, but the odds are that the reality is people who are single people can’t qualify for a home maybe because of credit. … I would love to see some businesses so that we don’t have to leave our community to shop. And I just would really love to see places where our town could go, having another sit-down restaurant.
What can the council do to support road improvements?
Hill: We’ve developed a capital improvement list … it gives us a guideline on things that are needed. Roads are one of them, resurfacing the roads is a big priority for subdivisions. Some of the developments that come in, that is one of the negotiation points … that they’re going to take care of that and make sure that they’re sustainable. We also have an interest in roundabouts. We have these things on our radar. … We’re a small municipality, so we don’t have oodles and oodles of cash available. We have to be creative on our funding sources, through grants and things like that through federal funding. … We’re gonna have money coming in, in the next few years that we haven’t had that where we can help kind of funnel these funds into certain areas, and obviously, infrastructure is on my agenda.
Sayler: Historically, we’ve partnered with the state on Community Crossing grants … which has enabled us to repave almost the entire town within the last five or six years. That doesn’t deal with the truck traffic, that’s resurfacing. As far as traffic goes, the TIF money that will be captured from the developments by the interstate is earmarked for infrastructure improvement and there’s going to be a lot of it in the next few years. So I would be very interested in both widening and strengthening Whiteland Road in particular, as well as the Graham Road corridor down to Paul Hand and Tracy Road in the hopes of alleviating some of that traffic and providing an outlet for the congestion that builds up down by the interstate most days.
Withem: They’re already working so hard using Community Crossing matching grants to repair the roads … and so I think they’re using that money wisely. Some of the roads to people really need to be taken into consideration, like Whiteland Road, for instance, to west of 31, we share that with New Whiteland. So we have to partner with other areas in order to make repairs … And can we work with the county to cover areas like from the roundabout to I-65 — most of that road isn’t ours, it’s the county’s. So just having that communication with the county on a regular basis, maybe a standing meeting, to discuss and then follow up on items that need to be repaired.
When you think about Whiteland in five years, what do you envision?
Hill: Whiteland has always been a hometown, small-town kind of concept. As much as we can, I’d like to maintain that feel. But you have to grow with the demographics, or you’ll be left behind. So I foresee us making improvements infrastructure-wise … I don’t know that we’ll ever have a pool, but we’d like to have like a government center and those kinds of things within reason of what we’re capable of doing. So, I see a vision of continuing growth … bringing in jobs. I don’t see as being like a Franklin or Greenwood, where you’re just gonna explode. But I do see us progressing in the right direction in the next five, 10 or 15 years, and tapping into this consulting firm is going to help guide us.
Sayler: I would envision it to be very much the same town in a lot of ways than it is that it is now. And the only real big difference that I would envision is that I would hope that we would have a thriving park system. I would hope that we would have a new public safety infrastructure out in that gap between the interstate and old Whiteland. I would envision that we have significantly upgraded our water, sewer, roads and really every facet of our infrastructure.
Withem: I would definitely hope that all the warehouses they’re currently building are leased or rented, whatever the process is. … I want to see that the construction on the school is done. … For me as a parent, that tells me that they’re increasing the schools, I can stay in this town, they can accommodate my children. I really would love to see a park, it doesn’t have to be huge, but knowing that most of the neighborhoods that go in, have to build some kind of park space … And I’d love to see some kind of collaboration between New Whiteland and Whiteland, I don’t think it has to be combining them — I wouldn’t be opposed, depending on what the residents think. … Creating more neighborhood watches, we do have a small town, but people are moving out of the bigger cities because they want to live in that small town. So maybe just having some kind of community partnership between the police department and the communities so that we can stay up to date.
About the job
What: Whiteland Town Council, At-large
Term: Four years
Pay: $6,000 a year (2022)
Duties: Set annual spending for the town, adopt local rules and ordinances, appoint members to various town boards
The Hill File
Name: Richard Hill
Party: Republican
Age: 57
Years lived in Whiteland: 48
Family: Wife Anita, two children
Occupation: Labcorp, senior manager; global sourcing and procurement
Educational background: Center Grove High School, IUPUI, BS; Indiana Wesleyan, MS
Memberships: Victory Christian Church; Nostalgic Nova
Political experience: Whiteland Town Council member since 2022
The Sayler File
Name: Joseph Michael Sayler
Party: Republican
Age: 42
Years lived in Whiteland: 15
Family: Wife Mary, nine children
Occupation: Municipal attorney, public defender
Educational background: Seton Home School, Fargo, North Dakota; Christendom College, Front Royal, Virginia; Ave Maria School of Law, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Memberships: Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church, Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Johnson County Bar Association
Political experience: Whiteland Town Council member since 2018
The Withem File
Name: Jacquelyn Marie (Jaylen) Withem
Party: Democrat
Age: 41
Years lived in Whiteland: 7
Family: Husband Allen, one child
Occupation: Project Analyst, Wessler Engineering
Educational background: Avon High School; Ivy Tech, AS General Studies; Purdue University, BS, Engineering and Technology (graduating 2023); Purdue University, MS, Organizational Leadership (starting in 2024)
Memberships: None
Political experience: First-time candidate
