Joel Lowe selected for vacant Owen County Board of Commissioners spot

Joel Lowe, was selected through a caucus of the Owen County Republican Party to fill the Owen County Board of Commissioners seat vacated by Dale Dubois in August.

At the start of the caucus, party chairman, Tony Voelker read the rules of the caucus outlined under IC 3-13-11. Voelker also explained the process of the caucus. Caucus votes are done with a secret ballot and require a majority of the available votes. If no one candidate has a simple majority, they eliminate the candidate with the fewest amount of votes and vote again for the remaining candidates. This process continues until one candidate has the majority of votes. In the event that there is a tie, the chairman of the party breaks the tie.

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Each of the four candidates were able to speak for three minutes before having individual questions from the precinct committeemen. At the end, questions were asked of all four individuals.

The candidates for the caucus were Don Bingham, Joel Lowe, Connie Murphy and David Risk.

Bingham used his three minutes to talk about the comprehensive plan, what the original goals of the plan were, his role in it, and that the plan needs more public input.

Lowe spoke about his experience. He previously worked at Cummins, was born and raised in Owen County and is a disabled veteran. He said he wanted to give a fresh perspective to the position and really look at the western part of the county.

“I’m entrenched in this county,” Lowe said.

He also shared that he believes that Owen County should build from within and highlight all of the wonderful things in the county, get people invested in the county and capitalize on what Owen County has to offer.

Murphy said that she made the move to Owen County, specifically the Freedom area four years ago from Hamilton County.

“I was a city girl all my life until I moved down here,” Murphy said. “I knew from day one that this place was someplace special.”

Murphy previously worked for the City of Carmel and currently works for the state park.

Risk, whose family owns Diamond K Sweets, focused on the need for change, particularly the need for the council and the commissioners to get along.

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“To me that’s like having an engine with no oil,” he said of the conflict between the two sets of county officials.

Commissioner Gary Burton, who was one of the 15 precinct committeemen present, said that Commissioner Bob Curry brought the idea of no longer having night meetings to him, and that moving back to morning meetings only will be voted on by the end of the year for 2023. He said it would eliminate the comp time that employees accrue when at the evening meetings.

“It saves the county money,” Burton said.

Burton said he wanted to make sure that was in everyone’s daily life since it has been talked about.

Bingham opposed removing night-time meetings.

“Without a local newspaper anymore proving any updates on the commissioners, you are isolating yourselves from the people who work during the day,” Bingham said.

“To your response, before I took in as a commissioner here, they had morning meetings only. I am the one that got back to nightly meetings for the public thinking that is the best thing to do. It became a situation where instead of getting positive feedback from the public, it was a time for people to fight and argue,” Burton said. “We’ve also checked, Don. We’re one of maybe two or three counties in the whole State of Indiana that even hold night-time meetings, not that it’s right or wrong.”

According to their websites, 19 counties – Clark, Floyd, Fulton, Gibson, Harrison, Henry, Jefferson, Jennings, LaPort, Martin, Morgan, Ohio, Perry, Pulaski, Scott, Starke, Sullivan, Switzerland, and Wells – all have at least one meeting that starts at or after 5 p.m. The aforementioned counties account for approximately one in five or 20 percent of Indiana’s 92 counties. Data for precise meeting times could not be found for eight other counties.

Bingham later asked if public comment would be limited to just one meeting per month.

“Correct.,” Burton said. “So everyone here knows we don’t have to allow any public comment, that is state law. Once you’re elected into that office, the public has already voiced their opinion. You’re the person that speaks for them. We do not have to take public comment at any meeting. That’s not how I rule it, it’s state law, but we do.”

Burton has not been directly elected to his position as commissioner and has instead been caucused in twice. Burton was originally caucused into the seat vacated by Donnie Minnick. The late William “Billy” Roberts then won the seat in the 2018 election before passing one month into his term. Burton was then caucused into the position again, and he is vying for another term in this fall’s election.

Sheriff Sam Hobbs, who was also a precinct committeeman, spoke up and asked the candidates about the idea that they work for the public.

“You become an employee of the taxpayers. Some people forget that. Some people think that because they’re elected that they’re above the taxpayers. We’ve seen people come and go as elected officials. Their thought was just that,” Hobbs said. “Becoming an employee of the taxpayers and not just elected officials does that change your mind? You become an employee of the county, as elected, but you work for the taxpayers. You work for everybody. I’m a firm believer the public has the right to speak up and say exactly what’s on their mind, because you work for them.”

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The candidates were also asked why they didn’t run two years ago.

Bingham said that he still worked for the Economic Development Corporation and wasn’t ready to make the financial investment. Murphy said she had just started a new job and was not settled yet. Lowe said that he finally had had enough and that good people needed to step up. Risk, who ran against Dubois, said that he lost by 75 votes and that he had only campaigned within his district, not county-wide. He said that if he had, they might not have had a caucus that night.

In the initial round of voting, Lowe received the necessary votes to reach a majority. Lowe was then sworn into office. His first meeting as county commissioner will be Tuesday, Sept. 6.

This article originally appeared on Evening World: Joel Lowe selected for vacant Owen County Board of Commissioner's spot