New at-large members increase Democratic power on Evansville City Council
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With three new Democratic at-large members elected to Evansville’s City Council in November, the party will hold eight of nine seats on the legislative body in the new year.
Mary Allen, Courtney Johnson and Paul Green were the top vote-getters for the at-large seats, defeating two Republican incumbents and holding on to a seat vacated by a Democrat who chose not to seek re-election.
Evansville also elected a Democratic mayor, Stephanie Terry, who will succeed three-term Republican Mayor Lloyd Winnecke. He opted not to seek re-election.
Inside INdiana Business interviewed the three new at-large council members to see what they think they think Democrats will be able to accomplish with control of mayor’s office and a dominating majority on the council.
Mary Allen
Allen is the owner of Sixth and Zero, a small-batch skincare and refillery, and a community activist in Evansville. Her first political endeavor was being treasurer for Ben Trockman’s first city council campaign. Allen said a few books, podcasts and a conversation with an incumbent city councilman inspired her to run for office.
But she said it was a proclamation reading of sustainable development goals at the Mayors for Peace rally in 2022 set her campaign in motion.
“I thought, this is what I’m going to do. I want to do this. If I can be in a position where I can have more impact on making these [goals] a reality for our community and holding all of our people accountable, including myself, to filter all of our decisions through, ‘Does it work toward these goals for our community?’…I want to be in that position.”
Allen’s main priority is improving the quality of life for Evansville residents and spread a spirit of positivity.
“My goal would be when someone moves here, we have a culture shift, and we say, ‘Oh my gosh, welcome to Evansville. What are you interested in? What do you like? There’s a group, there’s an organization, there are amenities. We can hook you up with the right people. We want you to enjoy it here,’” she said.
Improving the city’s roads and parks also is high on Allen’s to-do list.
“I would love for us to focus on our riverfront. There’s a riverfront plan, and they’re working on that whole development. And I cannot wait,” she said. “Just having community pride and investing in our basic assets to increase community pride and overall wellbeing.”
Courtney Johnson
Johnson runs the not-for-profit Young & Established, a mentoring organization focused on inspiring and motivating youth while addressing the challenges they face every day.
“I felt we needed more resources and more things in our community and more access to things for our kids in our community,” said Johnson. “I know we have the YMCA Boys and Girls Club and all of these facilities, but there are a lot of individuals that are left out. That’s the reason why I started Young & Established.”
The University of Southern Indiana graduate said he put his name on the ballot to become a voice for those who aren’t being heard.
“I wanted to change some things. I’ve been involved in our community for over a decade, and there were things that I didn’t feel were done right,” Johnson said. “When I would reach out to certain individuals, I would never get a call back, never get an email, never got anything. And that bothered me because if you take that position, you’re supposed to serve.”
Johnson’s main priority is youth engagement. He believes the city is losing young people who would rather live in Nashville, Indianapolis and Louisville because they don’t see peers getting involved and making a change.
“A lot of my friends have left and haven’t come back. That was my plan, too: graduate from USI and get out of here as quickly as possible. But I got invested in our community. That was one of the reasons why I ended up staying.”
Paul Green
Green owns Taylor’s 2 Steakhouse in Oakland City. Three years ago, he retired from IBEW Local 16 after serving 15 years as business manager. During Green’s time with the union, he got involved in projects with several organizations, such as Easterseals and Aurora, a housing solutions agency.
“When I retired, even though I could serve on those boards, I didn’t have all the ways to make those things happen other than going out and talking to the people who came after me,” he said.
Green ran for office so he could have a platform to support organizations like he did when he was at IBEW. While he favors public safety and infrastructure improvements, his main priority is mental health.
“I thought [being on city council] would put me in a position to help people, especially when it comes to mental health issues because they create a catalyst to drug use and crime and especially homelessness.”
Green participated in Aurora’s 48 Hours in the Life, calling it an eye-opening experience. Volunteers spend 48 hours in shelters and on the streets during the project.
“Once you get out there, you find out how much you don’t know. That was a reason that I ran [for office], to be in a position to help people that are less fortunate,” he said. “There’s a lot more work to be done, and I want to be there to support whatever efforts and programs are available to us. People need our help.”
Business development
Green also wants to make Evansville a more business-friendly community, saying the ordinances the area plan commission must adhere to hurt business development and expansion.
“When you impose a bunch of rules that maybe add ten or 15 or 20 or even $30,000 to a renovation project, a lot of times, you kill that project. Those things we need to eliminate, or at least put in a system that you can look at those on a case-by-case basis because you’ve got to have a system where existing businesses can expand,” he said.
Green said the ordinances need to be reviewed to understand what’s slowing or stopping business development in the city.
“If businesses can’t expand, and we can’t bring in new businesses that build new facilities, construction people don’t work, and new jobs don’t get created, and we don’t get tax revenue,” he said. “I’ve heard about parks. I’ve heard about public safety. I’ve heard about all the things that people would like to see in our community. And 99% of those things cost money. If you want to pay for those things, you’re going to have to create revenue.”
Allen believes Evansville has some good initiatives to attract remote workers and bring people into the area. However, she agreed there needs to be fewer business barriers.
“There’s a lot of red tape in development,” she said. “I’m a small business owner. I’ve had my own little red tape issues, and you’ve got to work through the systems. It’s just not smooth.”
Allens said there needs to be more education and communication with developers.
“Decreasing some of those [barriers] to be set up to be more attractive and an easier process for a business to be able to come in and get going,” she said.
Back to basics
On the campaign trail, Allen said much of what she heard from voters was about getting back to the basics.
“We’ve done a lot of work in development for downtown. We need to continue that,” she said. “But we’ve got to get back into the neighborhoods and work on improving their parks, roads and sidewalks.”
Green said he’s heard people say there’s nothing to do in Evansville, but he has a different viewpoint.
“When I was campaigning, I was going to different functions to meet people, and there are tons of things to do in this town. There aren’t a ton of things for low-income people to do in this town,” he said. “We’ve got to come up with something where low-income families can participate and have activities for them.”