SPOTLIGHT ON PRESIDENT OF THE EVANSVILLE CITY COUNCIL RON BEANE

By Michael L. Smith, Jr.

CITY-COUNTY OBSERVER COMMUNITY NEWS WRITER 

This weekly series of interviews aims to find Evansville local mover and shakers that are making a positive impact on the community through their amazing contributions. 

This week I had the opportunity and pleasure to speak with Ron Beane, the current President of Evansville’s City Council, about himself as well as the work he does with the Council to help Evansville prosper.

QUESTION: Tell Us About Yourself and What You Do at the City Council?

My name is Ron Beane, Evansville born and raised. I had a three- or four-year sabbatical out in southern California just after high school. I went to junior college out there, came back to Evansville and attended the University of Southern Indiana. I spent twenty years working for the city, ten years with the Parks Department, and ten years with the Building Commission. The last five years of that time were spent as Building Commissioner, which led up to my retirement. Other than that, my brother and I own Paul’s Tavern over on the east side, so I’ve got experience with running my own business. I did that for ten years and then I started selling food wholesale as well as home delivery.

 I’m currently the President of the City Council of Evansville, which means I preside over all the meetings. I still only get one vote, just like everyone else on the Council, and I do not have control over what gets put on the agenda. Any City Council member can submit anything they want to be put on the agenda. Presiding over the meetings and keeping things as civil as possible is really the big thing. 

QUESTION: So, you retired into working on the City Council? Doesn’t sound like much of a retirement!

I found in my years as the Building Commissioner after getting comfortable on the job, it was the job that I enjoyed most out of my entire working career. I found myself working with developers, builders, the trades, all different forms of government, and it was very rewarding. I enjoyed getting things done. We put a lot of time toward the ending of the completion of the medical school when it was being built, because they had run into some problems, but we managed to help, and they got it open on time. It’s an example like that, where problems must be solved and decisions must be made, and I found I really enjoyed those aspects as Building Commissioner. So, my retirement plan was basically I didn’t want to just stop and not do anything in the community, and City Council was something I already had prior experience with from sitting in on meetings. I knew it was something I could both handle and enjoy because I would be staying involved in the process and in the community. Decisions that they make, that we make, can either help or hinder the progress of Evansville. Personally, I’d rather see the continued growth, the continued smart planning for the future for Evansville. So that was my plan and that’s why I ran to join the City Council.

QUESTION: How has being President differed from your time as a regular At-Large City Councilor?

The main thing that I find, is that it is my responsibility to keep a lid on things during the meetings. But we still have to give people the opportunity and the time to speak. We have kind of unwritten rule that public speakers get three minutes to speak, but if someone is not making new points or is simply rehashing the same thing over and over, we have to call them on it. But if someone is making new points or reading in a document and they’re only part way through, I’ll let them finish. I always want to be respectful, and these people have taken the time to come down to speak their mind, and we certainly don’t want to discourage the public from coming to speak. It’s important that we listen to what the public has to say. 

QUESTION: How has the pandemic impacted the work of the City Council?

Well, the timing was we had just gotten into office around the time that the coronavirus was first starting to spread over here in the US, and that pretty much drove the entire narrative well into March of this year. When the vaccines first came out, I felt we started to turn a corner, but that didn’t last long. I do wish more people would get vaccinated, I wish everyone who can do it would get vaccinated, to keep this thing from popping back up again and again. 

But yes, it was well into this year, at least three or four months, before we were able to begin moving forward on other topics and issues. We had a meeting, about two or three meetings back, that was an extremely productive meeting and an important meeting. Unfortunately, we had some technical issues, so the sound wasn’t working, so no one heard about it. The press and the public missed some important things due to that issue, and there wasn’t much press coverage over the agenda. One of the things we discussed in that meeting was the proposed concrete plant just upstream of us in Kentucky. It’s only a few hundred feet upriver from the Marina, and only about a quarter-mile from our water department’s intake tube on the Ohio River. The proposed concrete plant wants to do dredging and all that, and we talked about it during that meeting… Crickets!

We also discussed the Complete Streets ordinance, which identifies all the things we want included when redoing streets. Things like handicap accessibility, walkable sidewalks, bike lanes, etc. The ordinance recommends that the city check all those boxes when redoing a street, but it also gave us a little bit of an out if/when it just isn’t feasible for the project, such as issues expanding the road on both sides or funding not being sufficient. The Complete Streets ordinance requires that builders look at these options and put them in where possible, but it also doesn’t hamstring them and force them to do these types of projects where it’s not feasible. 

Those were two important items on the City Council’s agenda, items that Zac Heronemus and Ben Trockman had the lead on. They worked with the AARP of Indiana, and that was a big deal as well. The AARP represents the elderly and obviously elderly people want sidewalks they can walk on and exercise on. I really want to give credit to the AARP, as well as Councilman Heronemus and Councilman Trockman, they were all instrumental in getting everybody to sit down, talk through all the points, and pull out the points that everybody could agree on. It’s probably the best piece of legislation that we’ve passed, in my opinion. We can only tackle issues like that because we have fought so hard against Covid and are finally able to start working on other projects.

QUESTION: What brought you to civil service and running for City Council? 

Right, so, I’ve always felt drawn to civil service. I found myself in the mayor’s office more than a few times as Building Commissioner, either talking to contractors or developers about projects that needed to get done. I felt like I had a good, common-sense approach to things. My approach is, I don’t focus as much on how we got here or who’s to blame, all I need to know is where are we now and where do we need to go, and let’s find out how we are going to get there. Everything else is just noise, so let’s not focus on that. I have the ability to do that and to ask questions of people to get them thinking the same way. I really enjoyed that time, and it was the most productive and fun job I ever had in my life. So that’s where the draw came from. There are so many factors to these things, the City Council, the County Council, the County Commissioner, the Mayor’s office. We are currently in the middle of going through all the regulations around solar panels, what are the rules going to be, etc. We are of the mind that we want to make it as simple as possible for a homeowner to put solar panels on their property, with the least amount of regulation, with the least amount of restrictions, so that if it viable and they get enough sunlight they can do it.

So, anyway, it is those kinds of things that have drawn me to civil service and City Council. I enjoy the work and thought if I could be successful in running for City Council that I would be able to continue that work.

QUESTION: What motivates you to continue your good work within the community?

It helps that I know the people on the Council I am working with routinely put aside their differences to do what’s best for Evansville. If it’s good for Evansville, we’re for it. Whether it is something conservatives like or liberals like, whether it is supported by Republicans or Democrats, that’s not what we are looking at. We’re looking at whether it’s good for Evansville, and if it is, we’ll support it. When I sit down with anybody on the Council, we don’t start off by taking note of who has an R or a D in front of their name. We sit down and talk about the issues and talk about the possible solutions.

Another part of it is the problem-solving aspect, as I’ve said. I enjoy that type of work, I’m good at it, I can help talk to people and get us to find some common ground. But yeah, it goes back to the problem-solving, the challenges of the job that I find I’ve always enjoyed in my previous careers.

QUESTION: How do you recommend the community engage with the City Council?

Well one of the best ways is to go on our website, all the information you could need is on there, including how to get a hold of any member of the City Council. Our email addresses are there, as well as when each meeting is scheduled and what is on the agenda. Read up on upcoming meetings and what exactly is going on in the city. I also recommend that they come to a meeting. Try to come to a meeting. Get there early, because crowd size is limited, but if there’s something they want to speak on they should come down. If there are needs, if there are issues that people think need to be addressed, it’s important that they communicate with their City Council people and the mayor’s office as well. Send it in writing. We need to know, and we need to people to get out and engage in the meetings. We’ll hear them out.

QUESTION: Any last piece you would like our readers to know about?

One of the great things about my experience so far in the City Council, is I’ve been exposed to projects outside the purview of the city. I was introduced to a young woman named Jaimie Sheth, who has her own foundation called the JDSheth Foundation. She’s building homes for veterans, and because of my experience as Building Commissioner, I was able to help her navigate those aspects a little bit. We’ve been working on that, and it looks like it may be up and running in the spring of next year. The funding is all in place, all donations so no tax abatements or tax dollars spent. The veterans will eventually be able to buy the house for 50 or 60 cents on the dollar. If they need any additions added due to disabilities, such as ramps, those will be built into the house. So that’s been an exciting, fun project to work on.

I’ve also been working with Robin Mallery on a community kitchen, which is basically going to be a commercial kitchen set up, where in the event of a disaster or a Covid surge or another pandemic, the kitchen will be available fully equipped, for people to bring food and feed people that need to be fed. All free. The second aspect is, in non-emergency situations, non-profits that deal with daily hunger issues will also be able to use it, perhaps at a small fee, to use the kitchen set up as well. So that’s all in the works now and those two projects have really been both eye-opening and exciting to see come together.

Footnote:  Ron Beane is an Evansville native, a former business owner, attended the University of Southern Indiana, and is the current President of the City Council of Evansville. 

Michael L. Smith, Jr is a profile writer for The City-County Observer and is currently completing classes at Ivy Tech Community College in pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism.  If you know someone who deserves to have a spotlight shined on their contributions to the community, please email the author at msmith1221@ivytech.edu