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Dems have crowded field for at-large seats on Porter County Council

Democratic voters in the May 7 primary are tasked with paring four Democratic candidates vying for the three at-large Porter County Council seats currently held by Council President Mike Brickner, R, Andy Bozak, R, and Sylvia Graham, D, down to three. The three incumbents are all running for reelection, along with three additional Democrats and four additional Republicans.

Despite announcing at the end of a county council meeting earlier this year that she would not be running for a fifth term, Graham quickly changed her mind.

“I got to thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’ I still have all my faculties. Why shouldn’t I?” she said. “I feel that my job isn’t done. I feel that I’m very much aware of what the people want.”

Graham understands that to include good roads, low taxes, safety, and for her to be a voice for them on the council. She said her number is in wide circulation and people know they can call her with a problem.

She said a recent call from a resident seeking information on the possible formation of a West Porter Fire Protection District is one example. “She couldn’t get anybody to talk to her,” Graham said. “She couldn’t get anybody to return her calls, and she said, ‘My gosh, you’re the first person who’s returned my calls.’”

Graham said she has the best attendance record of anyone on the council and her goals moving forward are to make sure the county is ready and building for the future. “To be ready for that you have to be building now,” she said, but still “be able to know we can afford what we’re doing.”

Erik Wagner, of Porter, served on the Porter County Council for a year in 2022 following the death of Bob Poparad. Before that, he served six years on the Porter Town Council. He’s currently serving on the Porter Board of Zoning Appeals.

“There’s talk about new tax increases that might be a potential for a new bond. That’s a little worrying for me,” Wagner said. He’s a proponent of continuing to leave the principal from the sale of the county hospital untouched and is pleased with the focus Sheriff Jeff Balon has placed on hiring social workers.

He said the dynamics of the council have changed since he served two years ago. “When I was on it there was not as much hostility,” he said. “I’m not sure what happened, but every meeting I’ve been at (this year) there’s been yelling.”

He’s looking forward to adding his level-headed personality back into the mix, as well as pushing the county to focus more on ecotourism. Beyond the controversy surrounding former Indiana Dunes Tourism CEO Lorelei Weimer and tourism board president Mitch Peters, Wagner thinks tourism needs more support from the council and board of commissioners.

While Wagner’s, the family restaurant which he manages, benefits from being only 2 miles from the beach, he would like to see visitors lured deeper into the county. “If we could pull those people south the economy would just blow up,” he said. “It would be insane what the potentiality could actually be.”

Bob DeRuntz says he can pull directly from experiences as co-president and chairman of negotiations for the Duneland Teachers Association to help run the county.

“I’ve learned how important it is to build genuine relationships even when you disagree because we can accomplish more when we talk to each other rather than at each other,” said the Chesterton High School history teacher.

He wants to focus on the issues that he sees most affecting the public in Porter County: long-term infrastructure development; public safety; and maintaining and managing well through the Porter County Foundation the proceeds of the sale of the hospital to help subsidize the maintenance of the lowest county tax rate in the state.

“If we can keep our county taxes low, you can continue to promote business investment and job growth,” DeRuntz said.

As a member of the Porter County Parks & Recreation Board, DeRuntz said it would be disappointing to step down from that post if elected to the council, but he would be uniquely situated to understand what the parks need and ensure they get it.

“It’s a matter of will,” he said. “You have to want to make that a priority when you do have the ability to do it.”

There is a need, for example, to turn at least some of the part-time parks department positions full-time so that good employees can afford to stay in their jobs and make a career with Porter County Parks & Recreation.

Valparaiso attorney Susie Talevski is most concerned that the county start planning for the infrastructure needs stemming from rapid growth. “I don’t think a lot of that is well thought out,” she said.

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She hopes, this, her second attempt at the council (the first was in 2018), will be the start of more female leadership in the county. “I’d love to see three or four women on the council,” she said, pointing out that Graham is the lone female among seven.

She would also like to see the Porter County Foundation come up with a grant-making policy for some of the hospital proceeds. “I don’t know if I totally agree with it,” she said of the foundation’s current policy of not using the principal.

“I understand what their rationale is, that they want to maintain it for future generations, but on the other hand, we’re here now. I wouldn’t use a lot of it, but maybe it would be a little bit more flexible.”

Talevski was one of the members of the public who pushed for a more open process for the distribution of $33 million in Federal American Rescue Plan Act Grant money received by the county. Indiana’s Public Access Counselor gave a favorable ruling to a complaint she filed with that office and said two of the county’s three commissioners “likely” violated the Open Door Law in coming up with plans for the funds.

“I always say the most important people in the county aren’t the elected officials, but the citizens who are holding the elected officials accountable,” she said.

Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.