At-large Johnson County Council candidates talk budget priorities, road repairs

Six candidates are vying for three at-large Johnson County Council seats this fall.

Republican incumbent Melinda Griesemer is seeking the office alongside Republicans Ron Bates, who was caucused onto the council in September, and current Johnson County Treasurer Michele Ann Graves. Newcomer Democrats looking to be elected are Blythe Potter, Michael Chiappetta and Saad Tawfeeq, who was slated by the Democratic Party after former candidate Charrie Stambaugh dropped out.

Griesemer has served on the council since 2020 and wants to continue her work on the county’s fiscal body.

“We have made a lot of strides and great progress in elevating county employee pay. We’ve made great progress with the roadways. We have pushed for mental health in our county and made great progress with that and we have as a county council put $100,000 towards the county food banks,” said Griesemer, a registered nurse. “So we’ve made a lot of progress and I want to continue to see the county grow productively.”

Bates served as a member of the Greenwood City Council from 2004 t0 2023. Last month, he assumed a vacant county council seat, serving until Dec. 31 unless he is elected outright Nov. 5.

Bates, who is a teacher at a Christian school, was led to run for office again because of his religious philosophy. He said God instituted the family, the government and the church and Bates believes God wants believers involved in government.

“It’s kind of ingrained in me because of what I do as a believer …” Bates said. “You have a life of service … We’re not saved to sit, we’re saved to serve.”

Several of the candidates decided to run for office because of their love for Johnson County. This includes Graves, who has been the Johnson County Treasurer since 2016.

“I want this county to remain a great place to work, live and raise a family, and that’s why I am running for county council,” Graves said. “I have the experience in finance and community service necessary to be effective as a council member.”

Chiappetta is also running because of his love for the county he has lived in for 30 years. He wants to focus on quality of life in the rapidly growing county.

“I would really like to participate in preserving and improving on the quality of life inside of our county,” Chiappetta said. “As we grow, the open spaces that we have and the amenities that we have, we need to preserve those as the population increases and the amount of open space disappears.”

Other candidates chose to run to give the county something new in office and fulfill the needs of residents. Potter aims to disrupt the long-standing super majority locally and in the state to more accurately represent constituents.

“There needs to be other voices at the table, women, people of color — [the] global majority — and just better functional decisions being made by people who are using the end result of these decisions,” she said.

Tawfeeq would like to “empower” the community and families, he said.

“I believe it is time for me to be running for Johnson County Council to empower public safety officers, to empower our families,” Tawfeeq said. “To provide safe working condition opportunities and decent incomes, work for a safe and clean environment, for good streets and roads and parks and schools for economic growth and opportunity for all of our citizens in Johnson County.”

The Daily Journal reached out to each candidate and asked several questions about their priorities and thoughts on current issues facing the county. This is the first part of those answers, while the second part will be published in the Friday paper and publish online Thursday.

Their responses have been edited for length, clarity, grammar and repetition.

If you are elected, what would your top budget priorities be?

Bates: Being on the county council is approving a budget each year, and living within your means, knowing what the revenue streams are, and if there was ever a call for a tax increase [it should be] very much scrutinized … So you basically are looking for the needs of people in terms of a livelihood, in terms of inflation and so forth. And are we keeping up with inflation? Employees … and their salaries, are they getting a decent wage? Are they getting decent benefits in terms of health insurance and things of that nature? So, there’s a big picture there. You have to look at all that. Certainly, you would try to put a little bit of priority on first responders, which is your fire, policemen, as it applies to the unincorporated areas of Johnson County.

Chiappetta: The top budget priorities of Johnson County right now are law enforcement and roads, and they should remain that. … One additional priority we should have to maintain our quality of life is to focus on expanding our parks and our trails and our open spaces and our recreational facilities. As you can see, the developers, with all good intentions, are going to fill up the county because people want to move here, it’s a great place to live. As that occurs, if we don’t set aside these spaces, we won’t be able to continue to enjoy the quality of life that allows us to get outdoors, enjoy recreation, walk on trails, go to parks, things like that.

Graves: The government gets its money from the hard-working taxpayer. I think we need to be more efficient with the money that we do have and I will be a good steward of taxpayer dollars. … For road and street repairs, many state and federal grants are available to assist local governments with road repairs, and we should maximize our search and applications for these grants in order to provide more funding for our roads and streets. … Public safety … as far as what their specific needs are, I would need to have more conversations with our sheriff. I know that it’s an important issue that we all need to thrive in our community, but I’m not able to comment on specifics until I get more in-depth with our sheriff.

Griesemer: One, keeping taxes low. I have been the only person on the council that voted against raising taxes. Two, supporting law enforcement by providing mental health resources for county residents. I voted to support mental health treatment in Johnson County. Three, providing county residents with efficient use of their tax dollars with government services. One of these items included my vote to upgrade the software in the treasurer’s office, which allowed for tax savings to the taxpayer. I am on the opioid remediation board for the county. I will help decide where those funds will be dispersed throughout the county to help with addiction treatment. Four, supporting small businesses and families in Johnson County by making sure government services are useful and efficient.

Potter: I’d want to reorganize it so that infrastructure and connectivity are a top priority. It is very hard for people to get anywhere on foot, mobility aid, bike — anything other than a vehicle. It is a great privilege to have a vehicle, and many people do, but we shouldn’t have to be stuck with vehicles only, particularly with our aging population, our kids, just making community accessibility safer. … Just really being able to dissect it, and not adding taxes but if this is what we’re limited to, perhaps we pause political pay raises if we can’t afford to take care of the parks and [implement] the trail plan that was approved in 2019.

Tawfeeq: First, infrastructure development and maintenance, maintaining and improving certain infrastructure, like roads, bridges and public facilities, and plans for sustainable development that address current needs while planning for future growth. Second, public safety funding, ensuring the funding for the law enforcement and fire departments and emergency services, focusing on supporting personal and equipment and technology that enhance safety in the community. Third, affordable housing initiatives, supporting affordable housing development by cooperating with nonprofits, plan commissions and developers. … An affordable housing project could ensure more residents have access to the safe and affordable homes.

Many county roads are behind on maintenance or aren’t adequate for today’s traffic, What do you think the county should do to prepare for future needs?

Bates: To fail to plan is a plan to fail, and so you have to plan, you have to look ahead. You have to look into the future and find out what you think the future needs are. Of course, Johnson County is a growing county and so you have to look at the roads. You have to look at other things — bridges, all this infrastructure that you put it all under that umbrella of infrastructure — and you just have to properly allocate: here’s the funds we have now, here’s the funds that we’re looking for, prospective funds for the coming year, and this is how we need to allocate it. And then I would want to work with those who are responsible for that, like the highway superintendent and so forth and so on the county level, of course, and find out what their vision is, and what they think their needs are, and how much they think they need to operate on a yearly basis.

Chiappetta: I believe that as we develop the county, we need to ask the developers to chip in on ensuring that we have an adequate road system to be able to support the development that’s going to occur. So as an example, there’s a tremendous amount of distribution centers being built in Clark Township. However, the roads — past the ones that have been produced to support the distribution centers — simply can’t support the traffic. So in the future, I believe that we should have an active partnership and a requirement by the zoning boards and by the local government that as we develop these industries and housing and commercial centers that enough funding is put towards the road system as a partnership between the private developers and the local government.

Graves: We need to look for more state and federal grants that we can use to fund these projects.

Griesemer: Well, the county is currently working on that. We have addressed that this past session. In the past four years I’ve been on the council, roadways in Indiana will forever be an ongoing project. And we appropriated money for the expansion of I-69, we have appropriated money throughout the entire county to address roads.

Potter: Putting that as a priority. I mean, that is accessibility and infrastructure, in my opinion. Obviously, that’s not necessarily just pedestrian traffic, but if we’re fixing roads, we can add bike lanes, trails, things like that, better crosswalks. And really, I think a lot of that also goes into collaboration with other municipalities and surrounding counties because unincorporated Johnson County gets divvied up, but then you’ve got Greenwood and you’ve got Whiteland and you’ve got Bargersville and you have all these other places that I don’t know that they’re communicating when these big plans are being made.

Tawfeeq: We need to make wider streets and walkways; we don’t have a walkway on a couple of roads here in Johnson County. … There are a couple of roads that don’t have a traffic signal. …When I get elected, [I will] sit with the council members and give them the strategy that I’m going to be working on for the streets, roads, parks.

ABOUT THE JOB

Johnson County Council At-Large

Represents: Johnson County as a whole

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.

Term: Four years

Pay: $11,978 per year (2024)

The Bates File

Name: Ronald (Ron) Bates

Age: 76

Residence: Greenwood

Family: Wife, Donna; four children

Occupation: Educator at Suburban Christian School

Education: Charles G. Ross High School, Missouri; Tennessee Temple University bachelor’s; Tri-City Bible College master’s; Maranatha Baptist University, history graduate certificate

Political Experience: Served two terms on city council in Illinois city; Greenwood City Council member from 2004-2023; current Johnson County Council member from caucus vote until end of year

Memberships: Johnson County Republican Women’s Club, Suburban Baptist Church

The Chiappetta File

Name: Michael F. Chiappetta

Age: 70

Residence: Bargersville

Family: Wife, Michele; one adult child

Occupation: Self-employed consultant; Retired from Eli Lilly

Education: Indiana University Bloomington bachelor’s; UC San Diego master’s and PHd

Political Experience: Ran unsuccessfully for Clark Township Board

Memberships: Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Johnson County Democratic Party, Purdue Extension Master Gardener

The Graves File

Name: Michele Ann Graves

Age: 61

Residence: Trafalgar

Family: Husband, Mark; two children

Occupation: Johnson County Treasurer

Education: Indian Creek High School, 1981; IUPUI

Political Experience: Johnson County Treasurer since 2016

Memberships: Johnson County Republican Women’s Club, Johnson County Republican Central Committee, Johnson County Board of Finance

The Griesemer File

Name: Melinda Griesemer

Age: 53

Residence: Greenwood

Family: One adult daughter

Occupation: Owner/director of Indianapolis Medical Consulting

Education: Purdue University

Political Experience: Johnson County Council member since 2020; unsuccessfully ran in 2019 caucus for Indiana House District 93; unsuccessfully ran for Indiana House District 57 in 2022

Memberships: National Rifle Association, Mary Bryan Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution

The Potter File

Name: Blythe Potter

Age: 42

Residence: Bargersville

Family: Husband Michael; three children

Occupation: Co-owner of Bargersville Wellness; massage therapist, esthetician, yoga teacher

Education: Franklin Central High School; Siena Heights University, BAS in massage therapy and MBA

Political Experience: Ran unsuccessfully for Bargersville Town Council 2023, DNC delegate 2024

Memberships: Leadership Johnson County graduate; member of various professional organizations, Center Grove Ambassadors and Emerging Leaders Project and DEI Task Force, Aspire Johnson County and Greater Franklin Chamber of Commerce, Veterans for Indiana PAC

Military service: U.S. Army Reserves Military Police Corps 2002-2012, Personal Security Detail/bodyguard deployed to Iraq 2005-2006

The Tawfeeq File

Name: Saad Tawfeeq

Age: 36

Residence: Greenwood

Family: Unmarried; no children

Occupation: Formerly employed in software industry

Education: GED

Political Experience: First-time candidate

Memberships: None provided