Monroe County
County Council Candidate
Geoff McKim
It has been an honor to have served Monroe County Citizens on the County Council for the past 8 years, where I am the senior Democrat and have served as president of the Council for 4 of those years. During that time I earned a reputation for fiscal leadership. More importantly, my council colleagues and I, including my fellow at-large councilors who are also seeking re-election, Cheryl Munson and Lee Jones, have worked well together as a team for the betterment of our community. We have consistently fought for a vibrant local community and an effective county government that benefits all residents. Some of our accomplishments I’m most proud of include:
-Providing additional funding for support of individuals with developmental disabilities
-Fostering a partnership between the County, the City, IU, and Ivy Tech to ensure that the Small Business Development Center has a dedicated staff right here in Monroe County to help local entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses
-Fighting for that desperately-needed sidewalk on Leonard Springs Road and working across government entities like the Bloomington City Council to share the costs
-Providing additional funding for youth services, and supporting a reorganization of the youth services department to provide better outreach and services to the public
-Supporting county employees by ensuring that our compensation system remains competitive
-Extending the westside economic development area, in order to make investments in quality jobs in Monroe County
-Fostering the launch of the County’s active transportation system, including the completion of the first phases of the award-winning Karst Farm Greenway, a partnership with the Sheriff’s Department to patrol the greenway, and fully funding the maintenance and upkeep of our trails
-Providing the Community Sheltering Project emergency homeless shelter with short-term funding to keep its doors open
-Participating in the I-69 Local Collaboration Group and serving on the Metropolitan Planning Organization to ensure that Monroe County is treated fairly by the state
-Investing in a modern 911 dispatch center
-Funding for drug court, to help people suffering from addiction back onto their feet and into the workforce
And if you return my colleagues and me to office, we will continue to fight for an effective county government that benefits all residents and builds on the natural strengths of our sense of place here in Monroe County. And some of these initiatives are already in motion. We will:
-Invest in the infrastructure that will allow for the former ground zero of PCB contamination in Bloomington to be returned to use
-Extend Monroe County’s greenways to connect to the Ellettsville Heritage Trail and the B-Line
-Work with INDOT to obtain significant additional funding to mitigate the impacts of I-69 on our local roads and streets
-Make strategic investments in public safety and put our 911 system on a more sustainable funding base
-Make strategic investments in our public transit system, to meet the needs of both urban and rural residents
-Continue to pass responsible county budgets that balance available revenues, appropriate levels of taxation, and levels of service
As important as policy initiatives are, my true passion comes out in trying to make government more accessible to the public. Every elected official and candidate talks about transparency -- but transparency is meaningless unless the public is educated about the workings of government. I am dedicated to making the sometimes arcane processes of local government more understandable to citizens. My blog (http://in53.wordpress.com) highlights important issues of local government that aren’t covered by the commercial media, and has been cited by candidates and elected officials alike as their go-to source for local government finance news. I participate in public forums on tax policy, local finance, and education, and in community programs like Leadership Bloomington-Monroe County and the Monroe County Citizens Academy. If you return me to office, I will continue to work to make local government more accessible to all.
Please support my bid for re-election to the Monroe County Council both in the primary and in the general election.
For more information, please visit my campaign web site at http://geoffmckim.com
Additional candidate information:
Candidate website
Chamber of Commerce Questionnaire