March 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Season 1, Episode 11: Newly appointed Indianola Mayor Steve Richardson joins “Indy Unplugged” for an informative conversation as he shares his journey to civic leadership, his background and his vision for the city’s future.
In this episode, Mayor Richardson dives into the opportunities and challenges facing Indianola, all the while the Indianola City Council goes through its budget process amid House File 718. With his unique perspective and commitment to public service, Mayor Richardson offers valuable insights into the complexities of civic leadership and the importance of community engagement.
Fast-forward to a specific topic covered:
- 00:00: Intro
- 00:42: Welcome
- 1:50: On Becoming Mayor of Indianola
- 2:43: Leadership Style in Elected Role
- 7:40: Evolution of Civic Engagement by Citizens
- 11:15: What is House File 718?
- 16:48: Implications of House File 718
- 20:38: How to Engage in Discussions & Share Perspectives
- 25:22: Local and State Leadership & Collaboration
- 32:30: Vision 2030 Update
- 34:32: Working Together & Future Horizon
- 37:04: Final Thoughts & Closing
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Music]
Welcome to Indy Unplugged,
the podcast that’syour front-row seat
to the real talkof Indianola.
I’m Aaron Young,your friendly neighborhood host,
and we’re diving deepinto unfiltered stories,
(00:22):
candid chats and the nitty grittyof our vibrant city.
Think of this as a crash coursein all things Indianola.
No fancy jargon,just real conversations.
So, get comfy,hit that play button
and let's explore the heart and soul of our community
together on Indy Unplugged. For.
Welcome back to another
(00:43):
episode of IndyUnplugged the City of Indianola podcast.
And I got to tell you it's been a minutesince we've done one of these.
It's been a few months actually,
so I apologizefor the lack of churning out content.
We've been
focused on a number of other thingsthat are happening across our departments
and across our communities.
So I'm glad that we're able
to get back and churnout, a new episode of this podcast.
(01:06):
And today's guest, we have a wonderful,wonderful community leader
who was actually just, recently appointedas the new mayor of Indianola.
And I'm talking aboutIndianola Mayor Steve Richardson.
Mayor Richardson, how are you doing today?
Thanks for so much.
You're hopping on. I'm doing fine.
I apologize to for,
a poorly planned
(01:27):
vacation that we took just a couple daysafter the last,
meeting of the council and, my selectionas mayor, but,
it's been ten years since my wife and Ihad had two weeks alone together,
so it was kind of nice. So, yeah,we appreciate that opportunity.
Always had to have that R&R and very muchdeserved to both you and your wife
to be able to, to enjoy some time togetherand see some beautiful sights. So.
(01:48):
Absolutely.
So what does that sound likewhen you hear Mayor Richardson?
What does that mean to you?
And just kind of
go through a little bit of your story ofjust your elected leadership?
Well, at this point,it's weird to be frank about it.
It's just, it's different.
It's it's been a process.
I think I struggled a little bitwith even putting my hat in the ring for,
(02:12):
for the position once it came open and,and for a lot of reasons.
But, the main reason is that,
the mayor loses,doesn't have a vote, and all the decisions
and giving up that votewas kind of critical, especially as we're
bringing on a new city managerand doing a number of other things, too.
But more importantly,I felt that it was important
(02:33):
that we have some continuity fornot only staff, but the community as well.
And that continues.
It is more than justwhat we're doing currently.
It's connecting the pastwith the future as well.
And I think, as you know, Erin, thatand maybe some of your listeners too
and don't know this, but I haveI have a pretty long history in politics
(02:54):
in Indianola and it's and I kind of hateto use that word, politics.
It's just been how I look atmy service to the community.
My job for a lotof years carried me out of this community,
and I didn't have the opportunityto spend time and give to organizations
or, you know, like the rotary or differentgroups like that or civic groups.
And so my contributionwas always being able to provide,
(03:18):
leadership in the citycouncil or, and state representative
in the House of Representativesfor six years.
And so, that was the wayI kind of give back to the community.
And that's what I see it is
today is still my opportunityto give back to this community.
It's been great to me.
And so I, I do feelthat it's been important
that I try to provide
not only the historical content fromthe past, and there's been a lot of things
(03:41):
that come up during thatduring council meetings.
And I've had a lot of council members
call me and ask me about, well, you know,what was what was this decision we,
we did 30 years ago or 20 years agoor why did we do that? And,
and I
think that continuity is importantand for the historical perspective,
but also at current continuity for staffand the fact
(04:01):
that a lot of our council members,have less than three years on the council.
And so it's been kind of good.
And they've reached out to mein a lot of ways,
and I appreciate the relationshipwith all of our council members.
And we don't always agree on everything,but that's okay too.
So, but I think it's been importantthat we all have those conversations
and figure out how to maintainas much as we can at the continuity,
and then move Indianola forwardwith the projects we've got going.
(04:24):
Yeah.
And I think one of the things
that you really honed in on,especially during the interview process,
but you've showcased itthroughout your time as a council member
and just your elected leadership isyou always want to make sure
that everyone has a voiceand that they're heard.
And so during that interview process,you shared that if you send an email,
I'm going to do everything I can to getyou your answer or engage in that dialog,
(04:45):
that same day, just talk aboutthat mentality and how you're going
to continue to leverage that typeof leadership style moving forward.
Well, I'm going to,I'll go back to my mom.
She was mayor from 82, 87, I think it was.
And and her her perspective
was that good, good leader,good government is everybody's business.
And so when I was running for statelegislature, she and I talked and,
(05:08):
and I came up with the kind of the taglineof listening to you, working for you.
And, and it's always been that concept of,you know, mom, kind of honed in
on that early.
And in our conversationswhen she was running for mayor,
she was very much involved inproviding some hours at the at the office.
So she actually literallywent into the office
every other day or whatever the case was.
And I kind of plan on doing the samething, having opportunities for people to,
(05:31):
you know, stop in and chitchat or,you know, actually complain or whatever.
Back to your point, though, about tryingto respond to emails, and phone calls.
My wife wasn't real happy with mea couple of days.
I got some emails on a number of topics.
So we'regoing to probably discuss here tonight
and in the council meetingand a few other things.
And I tried to respond to all of those.
(05:52):
I did have some, some text messagesthat people would not identify themselves.
And I just have to be honest, Erin,I feel it's it's important
that I know who is texting me,especially on my personal cell phone.
And so what I try to make sure is thatI ask that person if they wouldn't mind
providing me with a name or, you know,something so I at least can talk to them.
I had a one person that decidedthey didn't want to do that,
(06:13):
and that's okay, I get it.
But I suggested they email me or phoneme or whatever the case is.
Be glad to talk to them, and I do.
I really see it as a real responsibility.
Of elected officials to respond to people.
They ask certain questions,
and they have legitimate reasonsfor asking those questions.
And so I feel it's really importantthat we take the time
to respond to that,because after all, we're serving them.
(06:36):
That's the important part.
And that's what I've lived my lifeas far as politics have been concerned,
is that I always try to representthe people.
It's not about politics, it'sabout the people that you know and grew up
with in this community and continueto live with in this community.
And, and I really think that's importantthat we listen to what they have to say.
And I think that's just aspects
of everything that I doin my political career.
Yeah.
(06:56):
And I think that stands truefor all of our council members.
You know,
I absolutely believeeveryone ran on that principle
of engaging with the communityand having that dialog.
And I think, you know, for tonight'scouncil meeting that we're expecting
right now, we're recording this podcast,on that Monday, March 3rd.
So this is in advance of, this evening'scouncil meeting.
But, you know, we're likely expectinga full room of community members to engage
(07:18):
in some dialog as we're talking more aboutbudget and allocations and investments
that are going to whether that becommunity organizations or our own staff
department level, to provide servicesacross the board to all the community.
And so I think tonight is a perfectexample of civic engagement at its finest.
But the question I want to hone in onbefore we dive deeper into some of those,
(07:39):
topics.
Mayor Richardson, is from your timeserving on council in the early 90s
to kind of today's world,are you seeing more community members
be more involved
and engaged in those discussionswith your local government,
or is it kind of a slow ripple effect,or what's kind of the
from your assessment,what does it look like?
Well, I have to say thatthat it's always been difficult,
(08:01):
for me to understandwhy we don't get more engagement
at the local level, people,to get more real concern
about what happens on the national levelwith Congress and the president.
They get a little less concernedabout what happens
at the state level with their statesenators and state representatives.
And frankly and honestly,
we have the fewest number of peoplevoting in our local elections.
But those are the ones, the peoplethat represent them on the city council.
(08:24):
And the county supervisors
really have more of a direct effecton their lives
than any of those other folksthat I just mentioned.
And so,
you know, what we do directly impacts
what services our citizens receive.
You don't see that at the state level, andyou don't see that at the federal level.
You get some periphery in those things,but you don't get to direct actual
(08:47):
having number police officersthat can be there at your house
when you need to,or the fire department or the ambulance.
You call thatand they're there within a few minutes.
Those are direct thingsthat that we impact as council members,
because we have to make budget decisionsand we have to make hiring decisions.
And all of those things go into that.
And I've always been a little bitof amazed in all the times I've been on
(09:07):
the council, is the the lack of communityengagement, to be honest with you, now,
I understand people are on social mediaand stuff, but a lot of times,
that's again, I think that's
a little bit of a peripheral engagementin the sense that, they're complaining
or they're appraising or, or whateverthe case may be,
but to actually come to council meetings,I've been more a little more impressed
(09:30):
this last time around.
There's been more peoplecome to a lot of our council
meetings,and I appreciate that, I really do.
I mean,
I wish we could have a council chambersbig enough to hold a hundred people
or 100 people to show up at every meeting,you know, but that doesn't happen.
Simply because I thinkas they get to understand the process,
then they really understand why
where their tax dollars goand how they're spent locally.
(09:52):
And you and I have talked a little bit,since I've been appointed mayor
about trying to get some documents outto maybe some restaurants
and thingswhere people are sitting at the table.
And I realizepeople are on their phones today,
but I also know that people still pick upthe little piece of paper
that maybe is in the napkin tray there,and they start looking at that and, and,
having some conversations.
And I did thatwhen I was in the state legislature.
I took around a documentI called Capital Comments every Friday.
(10:15):
I always asked the restaurantsas, hey, it's not political.
You want to read it?
If you don't want me to put it here,that's fine.
But I really would like to try to do thatas much as I can.
On my own dime.
I'm not going to ask the taxpayersto pick that cost up,
but I think it's really importantthat we communicate
as much as we can with the peopleand give us give them the opportunity.
Listen, I list my personal cell phoneon, on on my city website,
(10:38):
you know, and on the city website,and people can have access to that.
And I think that's important because,
if people want to text me or call me.
But again,just please identify who you are.
So I know that you are from Indianola.
You're not from, you know, New Yorktrying to scam me out of something.
Not that it has happened.
(10:58):
It has happened in the past.
But, luckily I caught that at the time.
But the thing is that I just.
It's just a polite thing to say.
Hey, you know, this is Bill.
I'm calling about thisand what's your thoughts?
And I'd be able to share thoseand I'm happy to do that. Yeah.
So perfect transitioninto one of the topics that is,
being widely discussedamongst our citizens here in Indianola.
(11:22):
You know, the city
is going through its budget processand having to go through some,
some budget cuts, whether it bebecause of, where we are with,
the amount of revenue that the city isable to bring in because of, you know, a
commute, development and growth
in terms of our population,but then also in terms of inflation
and of course, the elephant in the roombeing house file. 718.
(11:42):
Right.
For those who you have,like your first introductory conversation
with regarding budget and specificallygetting into house file 718,
how would you how would you describethat piece of legislation?
Well, what it actually is doingis trying to limit the amount of revenue
that the cities have, because citiesrely heavily on property taxes.
(12:02):
And so it's really important that,
people understand how
much they actually pay in property taxesand how the whole system works.
The problem we have is a lot of timespeople and I just
I just got back,as I said on from a vacation open
my my assessment from the county,on my property and my value went up.
(12:23):
And actuallythat would be more money in my pocket
or my family's pocketif I happened to, to not be around.
But the point is that you don't pay that
on that tax ratethat you see in those assessments.
You only pay 47, roughlyabout 47% of that as a resident.
And so you have to kind of figure that inand then the city can only get
(12:44):
you only gets a portion of that, becauseyour whole total tax bill includes county.
And believe it or not, Indianola residentspay county taxes as well.
And the servicesthat we receive from the county
are probablynot as much as one might expect.
But the bottom line isthat we still also pay county taxes to,
so what
(13:05):
your entire tax bill includes county cityschools, a number of other things.
I had a conversationwith one of our, farmers in the area and,
and I told him that, you know, cityresidents pay the brucellosis tax,
which is the disease for cattle.
And he didn't believe me,and I had to take my tax form over to him
and say, listen, this is how this. Yeah,here it is right here.
You know, we do pay,you know, a tax for cattle.
(13:27):
And so there's all kindsof little things on there too.
But the city portion of that tax housefile, 718
has severely limitedthe revenues the cities have.
And what that means isyou have different funds in the city.
And the basic fundwe call is a general fund that's, funded,
covers a lotof our, our departments in the community.
That fund is limitedto $8.10 per $1,000 of valuation.
(13:52):
And I don't knowif you want me to get into the actual
how to how to calculate that.
I and I was thinking about doing thattonight on the council meeting saying,
here's how you calculate what your taxesare going to be from the city perspective.
But what that does, house file718 requires the city
that if you have growth above 3%,
value growth, that you're only goingto be able to capture about 1% of that
(14:13):
if you have growth from 3.1% to 5.9%,you're able to capture 2% of that growth.
If you have growth above
6%, you're only going to be ableto capture about 4% of that growth.
The problem is that all of our expensesand cities and families are seeing this
in their personal budgets as well,
that all of our expenses in the cityare running anywhere from 5
(14:34):
to 9% increases,depending on what you're looking at,
whether it's materials for roadsor other kinds of things.
Those are all running about 9%.
And so then to limitour ability to collect taxes,
to cover thoseexpenses is making it very difficult.
And so we've asked city departmentsto make significant cuts in their budget.
And I'll sit here and tell you right nowthat we are looking right now
(14:56):
at about a $1.8million shortfall out of a $5.5
million budget, that's 34% of that budgetbecause of House file.
718 so the state legislature doesn't
necessarily realize how that all works.
Your personal calculation on thatdoesn't seem to be very much.
I mean, when you really break all of thatdown, you're looking at probably
(15:18):
for a $300,000 house,you're looking at about
$2.25 per month,
increase or decrease because of that810 file versus what we're able to capture
now, which is going to be about 786 or,
yeah, $7.86 per thousand.
That $0.24 doesn't seem like a lot.
And that one cup of coffee that might costyou a month doesn't seem like a lot,
(15:42):
but you add that up to the 5000 residentsthat we have in the community
and on all the other taxes, taxesthat go into this house.
File 718 as well. It's significant.
And so what I will tell the listeners heretoday, Erin, is that
we still have about a $1.8 million hole,even after a lot of the cuts
that we've madeand going to be making this next year.
(16:03):
But again,
I want to remind everybody that actuallyno decision has actually been made yet.
We have to set a maximumthat we can tax for.
And then as we get that maximum set,
we can go in and look at specific thingsthat we're going to cut.
And so I just want to remind everybody
that tonight's meetingand a couple of future meetings
here will only be about discussionsabout things we can cut,
(16:25):
but haven't really actually done that yet.
And that'll have to come down the roadlater as we get towards
the end of the fiscal year,which is in June.
So yeah, that's a great reminder.
Mayor Richardson, to bring up to speedfor listeners who to kind of expect
that timeline and just knowing thatthese are proposed cuts at this point.
But these are somestill some difficult decisions.
And kind of my next questionon that frame of topic is,
(16:47):
has House file 718 createda, for lack of better words
and us versus them mentalitywhere it's city versus non city.
And I'm looking
at specifically potentially at the aspectof for those types of contributions
where you knowhas this piece of legislation prevented
or put a a cap, so to speak,on how much the city might be able
(17:10):
to contribute toward regional partnershipsor other community initiatives
that affect the greater goodthat all of us are able to,
benefit fromfor that type of high quality of life?
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, obviously, when the city has
the ability to collect the full ten levy,you know,
we were giving money to the chamber,to Main Street, to Kyoko, to to balloons.
(17:34):
I mean, we were giving money to a lot ofdifferent organizations, the balloon money
and opera and other places like thatcome out of our hotel motel tax,
which can only be used for,economic development purposes.
And that's a discussion we'll haveon a study session tonight a little bit.
But as far as the other thingsthat we do for the communities.
Excuse me.
(17:56):
Those are going to be affected, too.
I mean, we have to
when you start getting downto the basics of government
and what the essential functions
of government are, peoplesometimes differ on those of functions.
If you really look at a police, fire,water, sewer,
electric, roads,
those are kind of what people think ofas the essential services of government.
(18:16):
But a lot of our citizens and a lot ofthe citizens like me, they have gray hair
and that older think maybe that'sjust all we need to talk about.
But when you talk with our younger folks,that's not the case.
They want libraries.
They want parks, they want parksthat have things for handicapped kids.
You know, they want to have trailsand roads and and bike trails
and the amenitiesthat a lot of the older folks use.
(18:38):
We don't really think about that as much.
I mean, I walk the bike trail probablyevery day, some way, shape or form.
You'll see me, probably see me outwalking to Uptown.
You'll see me doing a lot of walking. But,
we don't thinkabout that and see that as necessary.
And in the libraries, for instance,and things like that,
that are really criticalfor young families.
I mean, you look at the turnoutthat comes to the library on,
(18:59):
on all of their kids activitiesand their fun days and their dinosaur days
and everything likethat is just incredible.
And I we forget about that part of it.
You know,when our kids are grown and moved on
and maybe aren't in the area anymoreand don't have family close by,
they may not be participating in those.
And there's other things too.
You know, the functionsand having the parks available for
for disc golf or softball, baseball games,you know, all of those kinds of things
(19:24):
and all those kinds of tournamentsthat our families get involved with.
Soccer,
that all cost money, you know,and those are all things that
that a lot of our families, and some ofour older folks don't think about either.
And I'm not blaming every anybodyin any demographic in our community.
But what I will sayis that when we are a community,
(19:45):
we have to look at all of those things.
You know, people say, wow,we don't need a swimming pool.
Yeah, we don't need this.
We don't need the well,you know, the honest answer is
those are the things that attract peopleto our community,
and those arethe things that help us grow.
And a growing communityultimately means that you can spread
those taxes over more people,which means in reality,
you pay less for the
for the functions of governmentthan you would
(20:05):
if you just didn't have any growth at all.
And those are critical functions.
And people have to understand that.
And, and, and it's hardto, to, to think about all of those things
when I'm looking at my tax billand having to write that check out and go,
go pay the tax bill. But,
listen, I'm just like everybody else,you know, I,
I hate to pay taxes, but I also know thatthere we go for specific things.
(20:25):
If I had to afford my own security systemor I had to find my own police
and fire and all of those kinds of things,that would be you couldn't do that.
So we share that as a, as a community.
And so for those who want to learnmore about,
you know, whether it be house file718 city budget in this process,
but also if they want to reach out
(20:47):
directly to an individual or,group of individuals
to express their opinionsand share their sentiments,
what are the best waysor what types of advice
would you give listeners to engagein that type of next step?
Well, I would suggest a couple of things.
I mean, obviouslyyou're welcome to engage any myself
and our council members are all very goodat responding to to individual requests.
(21:10):
And citizens of our community.
And you
and I would encourage you to come tocouncil meetings and listen and learn.
But more importantly,I think what we can't control
as a city is what happensat the Statehouse in Des Moines.
And I do want listeners to know I'mvery active in the Iowa League of Cities,
and I'm very active.
I'm on their legislative policy committeeand very active in that organization
(21:32):
to try to make sure that the legislationthat comes out of
the state House does not impactour community and in a negative way.
And I think that our citizens
need to reach out to our stateelected officials.
Whether you believe it's our staterepresentative, our state senator,
or even our governor,I mean, anybody that you can reach out to.
(21:55):
I've been having some conversations,and we'll have a conversation
tomorrow with, Directorof economic Development Debbie Durham.
She's going to meet us tomorrow isour league Legislative day at the Capitol.
She willbe speaking to our group ahead of time.
And what people don't really understandhere, is that,
and I'll be talking to herabout this issue, but
what folks don't understandis that when we cut back our budgets
(22:18):
and all cities are doingthis, it's not just the big cities,
but when we cut back our budgetsand we don't do
capital projects like roadsor we don't do, we don't put a new sewer
or new streets or we don't we don't do,some grading that needs to be done
or those kinds of thingsthat are important for our community.
That means those businessesthat provide those services
(22:38):
don't have the abilityto pay their employees and have work.
And so what we're findingand what I'm hearing from developers,
and I'm hearing from constructioncompanies that deal with roads
and underground, like sewer and waterand all of those kinds of things.
I'm hearing that they're they're
next year's,
(22:59):
budgets,so to speak, are really in disarray
because they don't have the backlogthat are out, is out there right now
because cities aren't going to spendany money.
They're dropping all of these projects
from their budgetsbecause they can't afford it.
And we are the same way.
We've dropped a lot of our capitalimprovement plans for next year
because of the budget,and so that affects those jobs,
(23:19):
and it affects the ability of usto grow as a state economically.
I also want to mentionone other thing, too.
You know, we are going to weatherthis as a community.
It will be tough, but we'll weather it.
But what do you do if a small townlike Laconia, for instance, that
maybe has one person that doesthe roads, does the water, does the sewer,
(23:41):
does all the maintenance,all of those things,
and they maybe have a clerkthat comes in one day a week
and they maybe pay their council members
$30 a meetingfor coming to a council meeting.
What do you cut?
I mean, when you have no abilityto pay the increase in fuel
costs, you don't have the abilityto buy the materials
for your roads and our 10% higherthan they were a year ago.
(24:05):
What do you cut?
I mean, you can't cut out that one personis doing everything for your community.
Do you ask volunteers
and they and any, a lot of themhave volunteer fire departments.
How do you buy new fire equipment?
I mean, there's just nothing left to cut.
And so what house file 718 is doing around
is it's really it'shurting a large cities.
(24:25):
But really who it's hurting
are those smaller communitiesof less than 5 or 1000 people
to 500 people and smallerbecause there's nothing left to cut.
I was at a meeting last Septemberin Sioux Falls or Sioux City with,
the Iowa League of Cities,their annual conference.
And I sat at a table with three cityclerks from northern Iowa.
I believe one was from bolt.
(24:45):
I think one was from,
Wesley,
Iowa,smaller towns, some much smaller towns.
And they were that'swhat was their message in September.
And that was a almost a year ago now.
And it hasn't gotten any better. It'sgoing to get worse.
We've got three more yearsof this under House file 718.
It was a five year plan to cut state,
(25:05):
to cut taxes for residents.
But in reality,it's it's really hurting the larger
economic growth of the entire areaand also of the state of Iowa.
And that's what I don't thinkour legislators understand.
And I think also furthermore,I mean, the ripple effect that is caused,
you know, you think of one cut
that is impacted from awhether it be a city department
(25:27):
or a community initiativeand just that ripple effect
it has where it gets deeper and deeperand that impact gets greater and greater
and it all starts,you know, at that forefront of being able
to have that conversationwith your legislators you know, you did,
invite some of our local,
or rather, our state representativeswho represent and, you know,
(25:49):
both the, the House and our senatorsto have a property tax panel discussion
that was back in early January,but it ended up getting canceled.
Get it? Why was it canceled?
Well, mainly because of lack of responsefrom our state legislators.
We had,
I had invited, all of the,
communities in WarrenCounty and Warren County,
(26:12):
itself, the peoplefrom the county administration to attend.
We were going to have it outat the park and rec building
and we were kind of expectingmaybe somewhere around 40, 50 people.
And I invited school district people.
I invited, in fact, I even invitedfolks from Marion County over
because part of the legislative districtsrun into Marion County.
(26:33):
We had some pretty good
response for, a few of the communities.
A few of the communities did not respond,
and that's okay,I understand that, but state legislators,
I couldn't get a commitmentout of any of them to be there.
And so I didn't want to have something
where we were all meetingand discussing things,
but not having some inputinto those folks.
And, and so, I'm not blaming anybody.
(26:55):
I realized schedulesand it was in January,
just before the session started,
and I realized that they're all busy,and I'm not laying blame on anybody.
And they may have had,
you know, busy calendars.
We started this the back probablyat the end of November, early December.
And they may have already had,you know, things on their calendar
that precluded that. But,
I and hope to have
(27:15):
our state legislators,invite them in again,
to a city council meeting,if nothing else.
That I would really loveto have them come in and talk to
cities, school and counties and, folksand have a conversation.
Those are tough conversations.
And I listen,I was a state legislator for six years.
(27:36):
I attended every city council meetingthat I represented
at least one time, opened myselfup to any question they had.
And I attended school board meetingsat least one time.
Of all the schoolboard, school districts I represented.
And I have to tell you that
the first timeI walked into the Norwalk store,
Norwalk City Council meeting and I,I had talked to the city administrator
(27:59):
like a day before, and I said, hey,I got some free time.
Would you mind if I come to the meeting?
He goes, no, fine.
And I don't know if he told himI was coming, but it's like,
why are you here?I said, well, hey, I'm just here.
Listen, if you got questions for me,I'd love to take questions.
And so during their public comment time,they peppered me with questions,
which was perfectly fine.And that's what I wanted.
And then we got it on a regular scheduleand put it in and had opportunities
(28:20):
to do that.
But, no, I and I
and I only had to represent three citiesat that time was Norwalk, Carlisle
and Indianola.
And I attended all of those meetingsand school board meetings and, and,
you know,as a, as a person that represents folks,
if you don't sit and listen to peopleand listen to their perspectives,
you don't get the
opportunity to really understandwho you're representing.
(28:43):
And it was a great opportunity for me.
And I just would encourageour state legislators to do that.
Yeah. You know, you're goingto get a tough question or two.
But the bottom line is,
that's what you're therefor, there to listen to people.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you said earlier,you know, working better together
and that includes at all levelsfrom both the local and the state level.
And that's one thing I you wanted meto talk a little bit about what my,
(29:05):
some of my goals are and my goalsare literally to work, you know, is,
Supervisor Ericksonand I have had a lot of conversations,
and she has, taken that positionand we've had text and,
and emails back and forth,and it's been very productive.
I appreciate thatthe that, that connection.
I always had a good relationshipwith Ernie Cook
(29:25):
when he was on supervisorsbefore and, and Crystal McIntyre as well.
And I apologizefor not knowing the other two
as well as maybe I shouldand I hope to have opportunity to do that.
I've already had conversations with,
some of the city administration in Norwalkand hope to meet with
the mayor of Norwalkand the mayor of Carlisle here
shortly, would invite anybody elseif they're mayor of Milo
(29:45):
or anybody else wants to come, I'dor Martindale love to have them too,
and just have a conversation about, youknow, things we see and what we're doing.
And I will encouragewhoever we hire as a new city manager
to meet with those folks as well.
What comes out of this a lot, Aaron,
is this opportunities to share services.
If we can find ways to share serviceswith Norwalk or Carlisle
(30:06):
or the city of and or the school districtin an old school district,
or the county supervisors,whether it's personnel,
whether it's equipment,whether it's facilities of some type.
I'm all in.
If we can do thatand provide all of our taxpaying citizens
an opportunityto reduce the cost of doing business
as a city or county or school district,I'm in.
So that's one of my goals, iswhen we're talking about
(30:29):
goals, is to try to figure out waysthat we can share services.
We did that in the 1990s.
We have a plaque in City Hall that says,we received from the League of Cities,
2000 1993 award for
a community project, which was our jointfuel facility, which included at that time
and still does to a portion to a partthis day the city of in in all of the in,
(30:51):
in all school districtin the Warren County we buy fuel jointly.
We get larger discountsbecause of the bulk fuel that we buy.
We have the facility on Northsixth Street.
That will have to be moved eventuallybecause that development of that area
hopefully will be more ofa, residential commercial area.
But the bottom line is, right now,I believe if I saw the numbers correctly,
(31:14):
we're paying about $1.94 for gas, all forour city and school and county vehicles.
I think diesel is running about 240,if I remember.
My numbers might be a little off,but that's the rough numbers.
So you can see the savingsthat we're having.
I remember the first year we did thatin 1993 for the city of In and All Alone.
It was a $62,000 savings.
And I know that's just gotten biggeras time went on, but
(31:37):
that's been going onnow for 30 some years, 32 years.
And we hope to continuethat at least with the school
and in the city,because the county's moving south of town.
But I hope that we can
maintain that and and continueto serve the citizens with that thing.
Another thing that came out of that,
Aaron, was the fact
that we are self-funding our healthinsurance as the city of Indianola.
We started that with Norwalk and Carlisle.
(32:00):
For whatever reason.
I don't I don't know the history.
I was out of the city politicsfor a number of years there.
I don't understand the history between why
Norwalk and Carlisle dropped out of that.
But we have a very healthyself-insurance fund
right now that allows us to have lowerinsurance rates because of that.
And so we are saving taxpayer dollarsby doing those things.
Anything that we can do,whether we can share personnel,
(32:20):
whether we can do it,those kinds of things,
those are the things that happenwhen you have a tight budget
and can look at opportunities.
Everything's on the table,
and I would welcome any opportunitieswe could do with that.
And finally, I think one of those thingsthat are definitely on the table,
you know, as we kind of examinethis dynamic plan that currently called
Indianola Vision 2030 with all the movingpieces and intricacies,
(32:42):
kind of what kind of updateare you able to give listeners right now
where things currently stand,especially as we're talking through,
some of these budget discussions as well?
Well, it's tough because our
we don't have the ability to borrowa lot of money right now,
and we don't want to borrow a lot of moneythat that is going to cost
taxpayers20, 30, 40 years out in the future.
(33:04):
So I think it's going to be baby steps.
It's not going to be thingsthat you're going to see, big,
huge buildingsthat we're going to ask for,
bond issues onor we're not going to do those things.
I think it's going to be babysteps to start with.
We do have the Regents Building.
RegentsBank is moving out sometime this month.
The question then is, what do we do?
Do we start looking at some renovationof that current facility
(33:26):
and start making some baby steps of maybemoving one department or two departments
out of current city hallinto a renovated, regions building.
I have asked thatmaybe we take a look at the front portion
of that Regents building.That's right on the square.
If we can horizontallyor vertically create a separate property
regime for that.
So eventually the city could sell that offto somebody if they want to have
(33:49):
a business or a wholesale or,excuse me, a retail facility there.
I think those arethose are great things we can do.
I don't want to impede
some of the progress of Main Streetand the chamber's having on those issues.
But when we do move down the road
and whatever that is, I thinkit's probably going to be on beyond 2030.
But when we do move down the pathof not having to use that building
(34:11):
in the full extent that it's there,
that maybe we can still put
a retail business in there and providesome more services on the square.
So we're trying to look at those things,
but I think it's going to be babysteps right at the moment.
And what we can do to maybemove 1 or 2 departments out of City Hall.
Just my thinking. I'm not in that.
I don't have a decision on that anymorein the council.
Council will have to make those decisions.
But again, I think that's probablywould be somewhat of a kind of a baby step
(34:36):
that we could take and show peoplethat we're trying to make progress
and be responsiblewith the dollars we have
and how we're going to use those dollars.
Yeah.
And like I said at the start,very much remains a dynamic plan,
trying to figure out
what is the best solution across the boardfor all the departments,
but also overall for the greatergood of the community,
which also includes, you know,the business community, which has been,
(34:56):
offered a an
incredible seat at the tableto really help, generate
some of these ideas and solutionsto, approach this full, full board plan,
especially in regards to the Indianoladowntown Main Street district.
What could be, the best benefitfor both residents and visitors?
Right, absolutely.
And, listen, I, I was on the Main Streetboard for a little while.
(35:18):
I because of thingsthat have happened in the council and,
and my appointment to mayor,it just seemed more responsible for me
to move off that let somebody elsehave the opportunity. But
at the same time, I'm very appreciativeof what the things that they're doing.
And I do all Erica,
call this morningand I'll try to get to that as well.
(35:39):
But I think we have to be very cognizantof the fact
that the city's doingall we can with that $1.8 million deficit.
We've got to figure out something
that's 33% of our 810 budget,our general fund budget.
That's a that's a huge deal.
And so if you had a 33% holein your personal budget,
I'm thinking you'd make a lot of cutsand the things you're doing to. So
(36:01):
hopefully we can wecan get through this and work through it.
It won't always be this way.
But I would encourage peopleto contact our state legislators,
contactyour city council members, contact me.
If I can give you some helpand suggestions, contact you.
I'm sure you'd have some opportunityto talk with folks as well
about that, but, I think we as a communitycan move forward.
I, I always said and I said in my, in my,
(36:25):
interview as a council,
sometimes in your worst opportunities comethe greatest opportunities.
And so I really do thinkthat we've got some opportunities
now to look at some ways that we cancontinually save taxpayer dollars,
like to join for your facilitythat's been going on for 30 years.
You know, that's that's incredible.
And the amount of moneythat we've saved our, our,
self-funded health insuranceto save the city, thousands
(36:46):
and probably millions of dollars,to be honest about it,
because our insurance rates, you know,
are anywhere from 200and some dollars and on up sometimes.
And so, you know, just, just to saythat over 30 years is just incredible.
So I hope we can find opportunitiesin those kinds of tough decisions
that we have to make.
Yeah.
Well, Mayor Richardson, I just want tothank you again for joining me today.
(37:07):
You mean you're busy guy?
A lot of people want to talk with you,and you've got
you've got a lot of things on your plateand conversations to be had.
And I'm sure we'll likelyhave you on well, in the future.
And likely.
I mean, we haven't talked aboutthis more in depth,
but I know you will probably have,another show where you're breaking down.
Maybe council meetings are just moreof the topics and discussions
(37:27):
that are, at the, at the forefrontthat our community are facing.
We'd love to do that.I'd be here any time you want me.
Me if it's earlymorning, late in the afternoon or evening,
whatever works for you.
And of course, you got family andyou need to spend time with a little girl.
So, But I'll be glad to come backany time.
I appreciate it.
Well, hey, listeners,
thank you so much for tuning inon this week's episode of Indy Unplugged.
(37:50):
Again, make sure you leave that comment.
Leave a review.
That way
we're making sure that we're able to,hit the mark with each and every episode.
Again, my sincere apologies.
It's been about a month or two
since we've been churning outmore of these episodes for Indy Unplugged.
We'll get back in the swing of things.
There's a lot to talk abouthappening in our community, and who knows,
maybe next time you'll be a futureguest of Indy Unplugged.
[Music]
Welcome to Indy Unplugged,
the podcast that’syour front-row seat
to the real talkof Indianola.
I’m Aaron Young,your friendly neighborhood host,
and we’re diving deepinto unfiltered stories,
(00:22):
candid chats and the nitty grittyof our vibrant city.
Think of this as a crash coursein all things Indianola.
No fancy jargon,just real conversations.
So, get comfy,hit that play button
and let's explore the heart and soul of our community
together on Indy Unplugged. For.
Welcome back to another
(00:43):
episode of IndyUnplugged the City of Indianola podcast.
And I got to tell you it's been a minutesince we've done one of these.
It's been a few months actually,
so I apologizefor the lack of churning out content.
We've been
focused on a number of other thingsthat are happening across our departments
and across our communities.
So I'm glad that we're able
to get back and churnout, a new episode of this podcast.
(01:06):
And today's guest, we have a wonderful,wonderful community leader
who was actually just, recently appointedas the new mayor of Indianola.
And I'm talking aboutIndianola Mayor Steve Richardson.
Mayor Richardson, how are you doing today?
Thanks for so much.
You're hopping on. I'm doing fine.
I apologize to for,
a poorly planned
(01:27):
vacation that we took just a couple daysafter the last,
meeting of the council and, my selectionas mayor, but,
it's been ten years since my wife and Ihad had two weeks alone together,
so it was kind of nice. So, yeah,we appreciate that opportunity.
Always had to have that R&R and very muchdeserved to both you and your wife
to be able to, to enjoy some time togetherand see some beautiful sights. So.
(01:48):
Absolutely.
So what does that sound likewhen you hear Mayor Richardson?
What does that mean to you?
And just kind of
go through a little bit of your story ofjust your elected leadership?
Well, at this point,it's weird to be frank about it.
It's just, it's different.
It's it's been a process.
I think I struggled a little bitwith even putting my hat in the ring for,
(02:12):
for the position once it came open and,and for a lot of reasons.
But, the main reason is that,
the mayor loses,doesn't have a vote, and all the decisions
and giving up that votewas kind of critical, especially as we're
bringing on a new city managerand doing a number of other things, too.
But more importantly,I felt that it was important
(02:33):
that we have some continuity fornot only staff, but the community as well.
And that continues.
It is more than justwhat we're doing currently.
It's connecting the pastwith the future as well.
And I think, as you know, Erin, thatand maybe some of your listeners too
and don't know this, but I haveI have a pretty long history in politics
(02:54):
in Indianola and it's and I kind of hateto use that word, politics.
It's just been how I look atmy service to the community.
My job for a lotof years carried me out of this community,
and I didn't have the opportunityto spend time and give to organizations
or, you know, like the rotary or differentgroups like that or civic groups.
And so my contributionwas always being able to provide,
(03:18):
leadership in the citycouncil or, and state representative
in the House of Representativesfor six years.
And so, that was the wayI kind of give back to the community.
And that's what I see it is
today is still my opportunityto give back to this community.
It's been great to me.
And so I, I do feelthat it's been important
that I try to provide
not only the historical content fromthe past, and there's been a lot of things
(03:41):
that come up during thatduring council meetings.
And I've had a lot of council members
call me and ask me about, well, you know,what was what was this decision we,
we did 30 years ago or 20 years agoor why did we do that? And,
and I
think that continuity is importantand for the historical perspective,
but also at current continuity for staffand the fact
(04:01):
that a lot of our council members,have less than three years on the council.
And so it's been kind of good.
And they've reached out to mein a lot of ways,
and I appreciate the relationshipwith all of our council members.
And we don't always agree on everything,but that's okay too.
So, but I think it's been importantthat we all have those conversations
and figure out how to maintainas much as we can at the continuity,
and then move Indianola forwardwith the projects we've got going.
(04:24):
Yeah.
And I think one of the things
that you really honed in on,especially during the interview process,
but you've showcased itthroughout your time as a council member
and just your elected leadership isyou always want to make sure
that everyone has a voiceand that they're heard.
And so during that interview process,you shared that if you send an email,
I'm going to do everything I can to getyou your answer or engage in that dialog,
(04:45):
that same day, just talk aboutthat mentality and how you're going
to continue to leverage that typeof leadership style moving forward.
Well, I'm going to,I'll go back to my mom.
She was mayor from 82, 87, I think it was.
And and her her perspective
was that good, good leader,good government is everybody's business.
And so when I was running for statelegislature, she and I talked and,
(05:08):
and I came up with the kind of the taglineof listening to you, working for you.
And, and it's always been that concept of,you know, mom, kind of honed in
on that early.
And in our conversationswhen she was running for mayor,
she was very much involved inproviding some hours at the at the office.
So she actually literallywent into the office
every other day or whatever the case was.
And I kind of plan on doing the samething, having opportunities for people to,
(05:31):
you know, stop in and chitchat or,you know, actually complain or whatever.
Back to your point, though, about tryingto respond to emails, and phone calls.
My wife wasn't real happy with mea couple of days.
I got some emails on a number of topics.
So we'regoing to probably discuss here tonight
and in the council meetingand a few other things.
And I tried to respond to all of those.
(05:52):
I did have some, some text messagesthat people would not identify themselves.
And I just have to be honest, Erin,I feel it's it's important
that I know who is texting me,especially on my personal cell phone.
And so what I try to make sure is thatI ask that person if they wouldn't mind
providing me with a name or, you know,something so I at least can talk to them.
I had a one person that decidedthey didn't want to do that,
(06:13):
and that's okay, I get it.
But I suggested they email me or phoneme or whatever the case is.
Be glad to talk to them, and I do.
I really see it as a real responsibility.
Of elected officials to respond to people.
They ask certain questions,
and they have legitimate reasonsfor asking those questions.
And so I feel it's really importantthat we take the time
to respond to that,because after all, we're serving them.
(06:36):
That's the important part.
And that's what I've lived my lifeas far as politics have been concerned,
is that I always try to representthe people.
It's not about politics, it'sabout the people that you know and grew up
with in this community and continueto live with in this community.
And, and I really think that's importantthat we listen to what they have to say.
And I think that's just aspects
of everything that I doin my political career.
Yeah.
(06:56):
And I think that stands truefor all of our council members.
You know,
I absolutely believeeveryone ran on that principle
of engaging with the communityand having that dialog.
And I think, you know, for tonight'scouncil meeting that we're expecting
right now, we're recording this podcast,on that Monday, March 3rd.
So this is in advance of, this evening'scouncil meeting.
But, you know, we're likely expectinga full room of community members to engage
(07:18):
in some dialog as we're talking more aboutbudget and allocations and investments
that are going to whether that becommunity organizations or our own staff
department level, to provide servicesacross the board to all the community.
And so I think tonight is a perfectexample of civic engagement at its finest.
But the question I want to hone in onbefore we dive deeper into some of those,
(07:39):
topics.
Mayor Richardson, is from your timeserving on council in the early 90s
to kind of today's world,are you seeing more community members
be more involved
and engaged in those discussionswith your local government,
or is it kind of a slow ripple effect,or what's kind of the
from your assessment,what does it look like?
Well, I have to say thatthat it's always been difficult,
(08:01):
for me to understandwhy we don't get more engagement
at the local level, people,to get more real concern
about what happens on the national levelwith Congress and the president.
They get a little less concernedabout what happens
at the state level with their statesenators and state representatives.
And frankly and honestly,
we have the fewest number of peoplevoting in our local elections.
But those are the ones, the peoplethat represent them on the city council.
(08:24):
And the county supervisors
really have more of a direct effecton their lives
than any of those other folksthat I just mentioned.
And so,
you know, what we do directly impacts
what services our citizens receive.
You don't see that at the state level, andyou don't see that at the federal level.
You get some periphery in those things,but you don't get to direct actual
(08:47):
having number police officersthat can be there at your house
when you need to,or the fire department or the ambulance.
You call thatand they're there within a few minutes.
Those are direct thingsthat that we impact as council members,
because we have to make budget decisionsand we have to make hiring decisions.
And all of those things go into that.
And I've always been a little bitof amazed in all the times I've been on
(09:07):
the council, is the the lack of communityengagement, to be honest with you, now,
I understand people are on social mediaand stuff, but a lot of times,
that's again, I think that's
a little bit of a peripheral engagementin the sense that, they're complaining
or they're appraising or, or whateverthe case may be,
but to actually come to council meetings,I've been more a little more impressed
(09:30):
this last time around.
There's been more peoplecome to a lot of our council
meetings,and I appreciate that, I really do.
I mean,
I wish we could have a council chambersbig enough to hold a hundred people
or 100 people to show up at every meeting,you know, but that doesn't happen.
Simply because I thinkas they get to understand the process,
then they really understand why
where their tax dollars goand how they're spent locally.
(09:52):
And you and I have talked a little bit,since I've been appointed mayor
about trying to get some documents outto maybe some restaurants
and thingswhere people are sitting at the table.
And I realizepeople are on their phones today,
but I also know that people still pick upthe little piece of paper
that maybe is in the napkin tray there,and they start looking at that and, and,
having some conversations.
And I did thatwhen I was in the state legislature.
I took around a documentI called Capital Comments every Friday.
(10:15):
I always asked the restaurantsas, hey, it's not political.
You want to read it?
If you don't want me to put it here,that's fine.
But I really would like to try to do thatas much as I can.
On my own dime.
I'm not going to ask the taxpayersto pick that cost up,
but I think it's really importantthat we communicate
as much as we can with the peopleand give us give them the opportunity.
Listen, I list my personal cell phoneon, on on my city website,
(10:38):
you know, and on the city website,and people can have access to that.
And I think that's important because,
if people want to text me or call me.
But again,just please identify who you are.
So I know that you are from Indianola.
You're not from, you know, New Yorktrying to scam me out of something.
Not that it has happened.
(10:58):
It has happened in the past.
But, luckily I caught that at the time.
But the thing is that I just.
It's just a polite thing to say.
Hey, you know, this is Bill.
I'm calling about thisand what's your thoughts?
And I'd be able to share thoseand I'm happy to do that. Yeah.
So perfect transitioninto one of the topics that is,
being widely discussedamongst our citizens here in Indianola.
(11:22):
You know, the city
is going through its budget processand having to go through some,
some budget cuts, whether it bebecause of, where we are with,
the amount of revenue that the city isable to bring in because of, you know, a
commute, development and growth
in terms of our population,but then also in terms of inflation
and of course, the elephant in the roombeing house file. 718.
(11:42):
Right.
For those who you have,like your first introductory conversation
with regarding budget and specificallygetting into house file 718,
how would you how would you describethat piece of legislation?
Well, what it actually is doingis trying to limit the amount of revenue
that the cities have, because citiesrely heavily on property taxes.
(12:02):
And so it's really important that,
people understand how
much they actually pay in property taxesand how the whole system works.
The problem we have is a lot of timespeople and I just
I just got back,as I said on from a vacation open
my my assessment from the county,on my property and my value went up.
(12:23):
And actuallythat would be more money in my pocket
or my family's pocketif I happened to, to not be around.
But the point is that you don't pay that
on that tax ratethat you see in those assessments.
You only pay 47, roughlyabout 47% of that as a resident.
And so you have to kind of figure that inand then the city can only get
(12:44):
you only gets a portion of that, becauseyour whole total tax bill includes county.
And believe it or not, Indianola residentspay county taxes as well.
And the servicesthat we receive from the county
are probablynot as much as one might expect.
But the bottom line isthat we still also pay county taxes to,
so what
(13:05):
your entire tax bill includes county cityschools, a number of other things.
I had a conversationwith one of our, farmers in the area and,
and I told him that, you know, cityresidents pay the brucellosis tax,
which is the disease for cattle.
And he didn't believe me,and I had to take my tax form over to him
and say, listen, this is how this. Yeah,here it is right here.
You know, we do pay,you know, a tax for cattle.
(13:27):
And so there's all kindsof little things on there too.
But the city portion of that tax housefile, 718
has severely limitedthe revenues the cities have.
And what that means isyou have different funds in the city.
And the basic fundwe call is a general fund that's, funded,
covers a lotof our, our departments in the community.
That fund is limitedto $8.10 per $1,000 of valuation.
(13:52):
And I don't knowif you want me to get into the actual
how to how to calculate that.
I and I was thinking about doing thattonight on the council meeting saying,
here's how you calculate what your taxesare going to be from the city perspective.
But what that does, house file718 requires the city
that if you have growth above 3%,
value growth, that you're only goingto be able to capture about 1% of that
(14:13):
if you have growth from 3.1% to 5.9%,you're able to capture 2% of that growth.
If you have growth above
6%, you're only going to be ableto capture about 4% of that growth.
The problem is that all of our expensesand cities and families are seeing this
in their personal budgets as well,
that all of our expenses in the cityare running anywhere from 5
(14:34):
to 9% increases,depending on what you're looking at,
whether it's materials for roadsor other kinds of things.
Those are all running about 9%.
And so then to limitour ability to collect taxes,
to cover thoseexpenses is making it very difficult.
And so we've asked city departmentsto make significant cuts in their budget.
And I'll sit here and tell you right nowthat we are looking right now
(14:56):
at about a $1.8million shortfall out of a $5.5
million budget, that's 34% of that budgetbecause of House file.
718 so the state legislature doesn't
necessarily realize how that all works.
Your personal calculation on thatdoesn't seem to be very much.
I mean, when you really break all of thatdown, you're looking at probably
(15:18):
for a $300,000 house,you're looking at about
$2.25 per month,
increase or decrease because of that810 file versus what we're able to capture
now, which is going to be about 786 or,
yeah, $7.86 per thousand.
That $0.24 doesn't seem like a lot.
And that one cup of coffee that might costyou a month doesn't seem like a lot,
(15:42):
but you add that up to the 5000 residentsthat we have in the community
and on all the other taxes, taxesthat go into this house.
File 718 as well. It's significant.
And so what I will tell the listeners heretoday, Erin, is that
we still have about a $1.8 million hole,even after a lot of the cuts
that we've madeand going to be making this next year.
(16:03):
But again,
I want to remind everybody that actuallyno decision has actually been made yet.
We have to set a maximumthat we can tax for.
And then as we get that maximum set,
we can go in and look at specific thingsthat we're going to cut.
And so I just want to remind everybody
that tonight's meetingand a couple of future meetings
here will only be about discussionsabout things we can cut,
(16:25):
but haven't really actually done that yet.
And that'll have to come down the roadlater as we get towards
the end of the fiscal year,which is in June.
So yeah, that's a great reminder.
Mayor Richardson, to bring up to speedfor listeners who to kind of expect
that timeline and just knowing thatthese are proposed cuts at this point.
But these are somestill some difficult decisions.
And kind of my next questionon that frame of topic is,
(16:47):
has House file 718 createda, for lack of better words
and us versus them mentalitywhere it's city versus non city.
And I'm looking
at specifically potentially at the aspectof for those types of contributions
where you knowhas this piece of legislation prevented
or put a a cap, so to speak,on how much the city might be able
(17:10):
to contribute toward regional partnershipsor other community initiatives
that affect the greater goodthat all of us are able to,
benefit fromfor that type of high quality of life?
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, obviously, when the city has
the ability to collect the full ten levy,you know,
we were giving money to the chamber,to Main Street, to Kyoko, to to balloons.
(17:34):
I mean, we were giving money to a lot ofdifferent organizations, the balloon money
and opera and other places like thatcome out of our hotel motel tax,
which can only be used for,economic development purposes.
And that's a discussion we'll haveon a study session tonight a little bit.
But as far as the other thingsthat we do for the communities.
Excuse me.
(17:56):
Those are going to be affected, too.
I mean, we have to
when you start getting downto the basics of government
and what the essential functions
of government are, peoplesometimes differ on those of functions.
If you really look at a police, fire,water, sewer,
electric, roads,
those are kind of what people think ofas the essential services of government.
(18:16):
But a lot of our citizens and a lot ofthe citizens like me, they have gray hair
and that older think maybe that'sjust all we need to talk about.
But when you talk with our younger folks,that's not the case.
They want libraries.
They want parks, they want parksthat have things for handicapped kids.
You know, they want to have trailsand roads and and bike trails
and the amenitiesthat a lot of the older folks use.
(18:38):
We don't really think about that as much.
I mean, I walk the bike trail probablyevery day, some way, shape or form.
You'll see me, probably see me outwalking to Uptown.
You'll see me doing a lot of walking. But,
we don't thinkabout that and see that as necessary.
And in the libraries, for instance,and things like that,
that are really criticalfor young families.
I mean, you look at the turnoutthat comes to the library on,
(18:59):
on all of their kids activitiesand their fun days and their dinosaur days
and everything likethat is just incredible.
And I we forget about that part of it.
You know,when our kids are grown and moved on
and maybe aren't in the area anymoreand don't have family close by,
they may not be participating in those.
And there's other things too.
You know, the functionsand having the parks available for
for disc golf or softball, baseball games,you know, all of those kinds of things
(19:24):
and all those kinds of tournamentsthat our families get involved with.
Soccer,
that all cost money, you know,and those are all things that
that a lot of our families, and some ofour older folks don't think about either.
And I'm not blaming every anybodyin any demographic in our community.
But what I will sayis that when we are a community,
(19:45):
we have to look at all of those things.
You know, people say, wow,we don't need a swimming pool.
Yeah, we don't need this.
We don't need the well,you know, the honest answer is
those are the things that attract peopleto our community,
and those arethe things that help us grow.
And a growing communityultimately means that you can spread
those taxes over more people,which means in reality,
you pay less for the
for the functions of governmentthan you would
(20:05):
if you just didn't have any growth at all.
And those are critical functions.
And people have to understand that.
And, and, and it's hardto, to, to think about all of those things
when I'm looking at my tax billand having to write that check out and go,
go pay the tax bill. But,
listen, I'm just like everybody else,you know, I,
I hate to pay taxes, but I also know thatthere we go for specific things.
(20:25):
If I had to afford my own security systemor I had to find my own police
and fire and all of those kinds of things,that would be you couldn't do that.
So we share that as a, as a community.
And so for those who want to learnmore about,
you know, whether it be house file718 city budget in this process,
but also if they want to reach out
(20:47):
directly to an individual or,group of individuals
to express their opinionsand share their sentiments,
what are the best waysor what types of advice
would you give listeners to engagein that type of next step?
Well, I would suggest a couple of things.
I mean, obviouslyyou're welcome to engage any myself
and our council members are all very goodat responding to to individual requests.
(21:10):
And citizens of our community.
And you
and I would encourage you to come tocouncil meetings and listen and learn.
But more importantly,I think what we can't control
as a city is what happensat the Statehouse in Des Moines.
And I do want listeners to know I'mvery active in the Iowa League of Cities,
and I'm very active.
I'm on their legislative policy committeeand very active in that organization
(21:32):
to try to make sure that the legislationthat comes out of
the state House does not impactour community and in a negative way.
And I think that our citizens
need to reach out to our stateelected officials.
Whether you believe it's our staterepresentative, our state senator,
or even our governor,I mean, anybody that you can reach out to.
(21:55):
I've been having some conversations,and we'll have a conversation
tomorrow with, Directorof economic Development Debbie Durham.
She's going to meet us tomorrow isour league Legislative day at the Capitol.
She willbe speaking to our group ahead of time.
And what people don't really understandhere, is that,
and I'll be talking to herabout this issue, but
what folks don't understandis that when we cut back our budgets
(22:18):
and all cities are doingthis, it's not just the big cities,
but when we cut back our budgetsand we don't do
capital projects like roadsor we don't do, we don't put a new sewer
or new streets or we don't we don't do,some grading that needs to be done
or those kinds of thingsthat are important for our community.
That means those businessesthat provide those services
(22:38):
don't have the abilityto pay their employees and have work.
And so what we're findingand what I'm hearing from developers,
and I'm hearing from constructioncompanies that deal with roads
and underground, like sewer and waterand all of those kinds of things.
I'm hearing that they're they're
next year's,
(22:59):
budgets,so to speak, are really in disarray
because they don't have the backlogthat are out, is out there right now
because cities aren't going to spendany money.
They're dropping all of these projects
from their budgetsbecause they can't afford it.
And we are the same way.
We've dropped a lot of our capitalimprovement plans for next year
because of the budget,and so that affects those jobs,
(23:19):
and it affects the ability of usto grow as a state economically.
I also want to mentionone other thing, too.
You know, we are going to weatherthis as a community.
It will be tough, but we'll weather it.
But what do you do if a small townlike Laconia, for instance, that
maybe has one person that doesthe roads, does the water, does the sewer,
(23:41):
does all the maintenance,all of those things,
and they maybe have a clerkthat comes in one day a week
and they maybe pay their council members
$30 a meetingfor coming to a council meeting.
What do you cut?
I mean, when you have no abilityto pay the increase in fuel
costs, you don't have the abilityto buy the materials
for your roads and our 10% higherthan they were a year ago.
(24:05):
What do you cut?
I mean, you can't cut out that one personis doing everything for your community.
Do you ask volunteers
and they and any, a lot of themhave volunteer fire departments.
How do you buy new fire equipment?
I mean, there's just nothing left to cut.
And so what house file 718 is doing around
is it's really it'shurting a large cities.
(24:25):
But really who it's hurting
are those smaller communitiesof less than 5 or 1000 people
to 500 people and smallerbecause there's nothing left to cut.
I was at a meeting last Septemberin Sioux Falls or Sioux City with,
the Iowa League of Cities,their annual conference.
And I sat at a table with three cityclerks from northern Iowa.
I believe one was from bolt.
(24:45):
I think one was from,
Wesley,
Iowa,smaller towns, some much smaller towns.
And they were that'swhat was their message in September.
And that was a almost a year ago now.
And it hasn't gotten any better. It'sgoing to get worse.
We've got three more yearsof this under House file 718.
It was a five year plan to cut state,
(25:05):
to cut taxes for residents.
But in reality,it's it's really hurting the larger
economic growth of the entire areaand also of the state of Iowa.
And that's what I don't thinkour legislators understand.
And I think also furthermore,I mean, the ripple effect that is caused,
you know, you think of one cut
that is impacted from awhether it be a city department
(25:27):
or a community initiativeand just that ripple effect
it has where it gets deeper and deeperand that impact gets greater and greater
and it all starts,you know, at that forefront of being able
to have that conversationwith your legislators you know, you did,
invite some of our local,
or rather, our state representativeswho represent and, you know,
(25:49):
both the, the House and our senatorsto have a property tax panel discussion
that was back in early January,but it ended up getting canceled.
Get it? Why was it canceled?
Well, mainly because of lack of responsefrom our state legislators.
We had,
I had invited, all of the,
communities in WarrenCounty and Warren County,
(26:12):
itself, the peoplefrom the county administration to attend.
We were going to have it outat the park and rec building
and we were kind of expectingmaybe somewhere around 40, 50 people.
And I invited school district people.
I invited, in fact, I even invitedfolks from Marion County over
because part of the legislative districtsrun into Marion County.
(26:33):
We had some pretty good
response for, a few of the communities.
A few of the communities did not respond,
and that's okay,I understand that, but state legislators,
I couldn't get a commitmentout of any of them to be there.
And so I didn't want to have something
where we were all meetingand discussing things,
but not having some inputinto those folks.
And, and so, I'm not blaming anybody.
(26:55):
I realized schedulesand it was in January,
just before the session started,
and I realized that they're all busy,and I'm not laying blame on anybody.
And they may have had,
you know, busy calendars.
We started this the back probablyat the end of November, early December.
And they may have already had,you know, things on their calendar
that precluded that. But,
I and hope to have
(27:15):
our state legislators,invite them in again,
to a city council meeting,if nothing else.
That I would really loveto have them come in and talk to
cities, school and counties and, folksand have a conversation.
Those are tough conversations.
And I listen,I was a state legislator for six years.
(27:36):
I attended every city council meetingthat I represented
at least one time, opened myselfup to any question they had.
And I attended school board meetingsat least one time.
Of all the schoolboard, school districts I represented.
And I have to tell you that
the first timeI walked into the Norwalk store,
Norwalk City Council meeting and I,I had talked to the city administrator
(27:59):
like a day before, and I said, hey,I got some free time.
Would you mind if I come to the meeting?
He goes, no, fine.
And I don't know if he told himI was coming, but it's like,
why are you here?I said, well, hey, I'm just here.
Listen, if you got questions for me,I'd love to take questions.
And so during their public comment time,they peppered me with questions,
which was perfectly fine.And that's what I wanted.
And then we got it on a regular scheduleand put it in and had opportunities
(28:20):
to do that.
But, no, I and I
and I only had to represent three citiesat that time was Norwalk, Carlisle
and Indianola.
And I attended all of those meetingsand school board meetings and, and,
you know,as a, as a person that represents folks,
if you don't sit and listen to peopleand listen to their perspectives,
you don't get the
opportunity to really understandwho you're representing.
(28:43):
And it was a great opportunity for me.
And I just would encourageour state legislators to do that.
Yeah. You know, you're goingto get a tough question or two.
But the bottom line is,
that's what you're therefor, there to listen to people.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you said earlier,you know, working better together
and that includes at all levelsfrom both the local and the state level.
And that's one thing I you wanted meto talk a little bit about what my,
(29:05):
some of my goals are and my goalsare literally to work, you know, is,
Supervisor Ericksonand I have had a lot of conversations,
and she has, taken that positionand we've had text and,
and emails back and forth,and it's been very productive.
I appreciate thatthe that, that connection.
I always had a good relationshipwith Ernie Cook
(29:25):
when he was on supervisorsbefore and, and Crystal McIntyre as well.
And I apologizefor not knowing the other two
as well as maybe I shouldand I hope to have opportunity to do that.
I've already had conversations with,
some of the city administration in Norwalkand hope to meet with
the mayor of Norwalkand the mayor of Carlisle here
shortly, would invite anybody elseif they're mayor of Milo
(29:45):
or anybody else wants to come, I'dor Martindale love to have them too,
and just have a conversation about, youknow, things we see and what we're doing.
And I will encouragewhoever we hire as a new city manager
to meet with those folks as well.
What comes out of this a lot, Aaron,
is this opportunities to share services.
If we can find ways to share serviceswith Norwalk or Carlisle
(30:06):
or the city of and or the school districtin an old school district,
or the county supervisors,whether it's personnel,
whether it's equipment,whether it's facilities of some type.
I'm all in.
If we can do thatand provide all of our taxpaying citizens
an opportunityto reduce the cost of doing business
as a city or county or school district,I'm in.
So that's one of my goals, iswhen we're talking about
(30:29):
goals, is to try to figure out waysthat we can share services.
We did that in the 1990s.
We have a plaque in City Hall that says,we received from the League of Cities,
2000 1993 award for
a community project, which was our jointfuel facility, which included at that time
and still does to a portion to a partthis day the city of in in all of the in,
(30:51):
in all school districtin the Warren County we buy fuel jointly.
We get larger discountsbecause of the bulk fuel that we buy.
We have the facility on Northsixth Street.
That will have to be moved eventuallybecause that development of that area
hopefully will be more ofa, residential commercial area.
But the bottom line is, right now,I believe if I saw the numbers correctly,
(31:14):
we're paying about $1.94 for gas, all forour city and school and county vehicles.
I think diesel is running about 240,if I remember.
My numbers might be a little off,but that's the rough numbers.
So you can see the savingsthat we're having.
I remember the first year we did thatin 1993 for the city of In and All Alone.
It was a $62,000 savings.
And I know that's just gotten biggeras time went on, but
(31:37):
that's been going onnow for 30 some years, 32 years.
And we hope to continuethat at least with the school
and in the city,because the county's moving south of town.
But I hope that we can
maintain that and and continueto serve the citizens with that thing.
Another thing that came out of that,
Aaron, was the fact
that we are self-funding our healthinsurance as the city of Indianola.
We started that with Norwalk and Carlisle.
(32:00):
For whatever reason.
I don't I don't know the history.
I was out of the city politicsfor a number of years there.
I don't understand the history between why
Norwalk and Carlisle dropped out of that.
But we have a very healthyself-insurance fund
right now that allows us to have lowerinsurance rates because of that.
And so we are saving taxpayer dollarsby doing those things.
Anything that we can do,whether we can share personnel,
(32:20):
whether we can do it,those kinds of things,
those are the things that happenwhen you have a tight budget
and can look at opportunities.
Everything's on the table,
and I would welcome any opportunitieswe could do with that.
And finally, I think one of those thingsthat are definitely on the table,
you know, as we kind of examinethis dynamic plan that currently called
Indianola Vision 2030 with all the movingpieces and intricacies,
(32:42):
kind of what kind of updateare you able to give listeners right now
where things currently stand,especially as we're talking through,
some of these budget discussions as well?
Well, it's tough because our
we don't have the ability to borrowa lot of money right now,
and we don't want to borrow a lot of moneythat that is going to cost
taxpayers20, 30, 40 years out in the future.
(33:04):
So I think it's going to be baby steps.
It's not going to be thingsthat you're going to see, big,
huge buildingsthat we're going to ask for,
bond issues onor we're not going to do those things.
I think it's going to be babysteps to start with.
We do have the Regents Building.
RegentsBank is moving out sometime this month.
The question then is, what do we do?
Do we start looking at some renovationof that current facility
(33:26):
and start making some baby steps of maybemoving one department or two departments
out of current city hallinto a renovated, regions building.
I have asked thatmaybe we take a look at the front portion
of that Regents building.That's right on the square.
If we can horizontallyor vertically create a separate property
regime for that.
So eventually the city could sell that offto somebody if they want to have
(33:49):
a business or a wholesale or,excuse me, a retail facility there.
I think those arethose are great things we can do.
I don't want to impede
some of the progress of Main Streetand the chamber's having on those issues.
But when we do move down the road
and whatever that is, I thinkit's probably going to be on beyond 2030.
But when we do move down the pathof not having to use that building
(34:11):
in the full extent that it's there,
that maybe we can still put
a retail business in there and providesome more services on the square.
So we're trying to look at those things,
but I think it's going to be babysteps right at the moment.
And what we can do to maybemove 1 or 2 departments out of City Hall.
Just my thinking. I'm not in that.
I don't have a decision on that anymorein the council.
Council will have to make those decisions.
But again, I think that's probablywould be somewhat of a kind of a baby step
(34:36):
that we could take and show peoplethat we're trying to make progress
and be responsiblewith the dollars we have
and how we're going to use those dollars.
Yeah.
And like I said at the start,very much remains a dynamic plan,
trying to figure out
what is the best solution across the boardfor all the departments,
but also overall for the greatergood of the community,
which also includes, you know,the business community, which has been,
(34:56):
offered a an
incredible seat at the tableto really help, generate
some of these ideas and solutionsto, approach this full, full board plan,
especially in regards to the Indianoladowntown Main Street district.
What could be, the best benefitfor both residents and visitors?
Right, absolutely.
And, listen, I, I was on the Main Streetboard for a little while.
(35:18):
I because of thingsthat have happened in the council and,
and my appointment to mayor,it just seemed more responsible for me
to move off that let somebody elsehave the opportunity. But
at the same time, I'm very appreciativeof what the things that they're doing.
And I do all Erica,
call this morningand I'll try to get to that as well.
(35:39):
But I think we have to be very cognizantof the fact
that the city's doingall we can with that $1.8 million deficit.
We've got to figure out something
that's 33% of our 810 budget,our general fund budget.
That's a that's a huge deal.
And so if you had a 33% holein your personal budget,
I'm thinking you'd make a lot of cutsand the things you're doing to. So
(36:01):
hopefully we can wecan get through this and work through it.
It won't always be this way.
But I would encourage peopleto contact our state legislators,
contactyour city council members, contact me.
If I can give you some helpand suggestions, contact you.
I'm sure you'd have some opportunityto talk with folks as well
about that, but, I think we as a communitycan move forward.
I, I always said and I said in my, in my,
(36:25):
interview as a council,
sometimes in your worst opportunities comethe greatest opportunities.
And so I really do thinkthat we've got some opportunities
now to look at some ways that we cancontinually save taxpayer dollars,
like to join for your facilitythat's been going on for 30 years.
You know, that's that's incredible.
And the amount of moneythat we've saved our, our,
self-funded health insuranceto save the city, thousands
(36:46):
and probably millions of dollars,to be honest about it,
because our insurance rates, you know,
are anywhere from 200and some dollars and on up sometimes.
And so, you know, just, just to saythat over 30 years is just incredible.
So I hope we can find opportunitiesin those kinds of tough decisions
that we have to make.
Yeah.
Well, Mayor Richardson, I just want tothank you again for joining me today.
(37:07):
You mean you're busy guy?
A lot of people want to talk with you,and you've got
you've got a lot of things on your plateand conversations to be had.
And I'm sure we'll likelyhave you on well, in the future.
And likely.
I mean, we haven't talked aboutthis more in depth,
but I know you will probably have,another show where you're breaking down.
Maybe council meetings are just moreof the topics and discussions
(37:27):
that are, at the, at the forefrontthat our community are facing.
We'd love to do that.I'd be here any time you want me.
Me if it's earlymorning, late in the afternoon or evening,
whatever works for you.
And of course, you got family andyou need to spend time with a little girl.
So, But I'll be glad to come backany time.
I appreciate it.
Well, hey, listeners,
thank you so much for tuning inon this week's episode of Indy Unplugged.
(37:50):
Again, make sure you leave that comment.
Leave a review.
That way
we're making sure that we're able to,hit the mark with each and every episode.
Again, my sincere apologies.
It's been about a month or two
since we've been churning outmore of these episodes for Indy Unplugged.
We'll get back in the swing of things.
There's a lot to talk abouthappening in our community, and who knows,
maybe next time you'll be a futureguest of Indy Unplugged.
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