Long-time councilwoman, hopeful Democrat face off in District 1 race

A member of numerous city boards and a long-time sitting councilwoman both have plans to turn Greenwood’s oldest district around.

Democrat Matthew Smith serves on the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals, Advisory Plan Commission and Overlay Committee. He is running against incumbent Linda Gibson, a Republican who wants to retain control of the seat she has served in since 2008 when she took over for her husband, a former council member who died.

Together, they have had a voice on the city council for nearly four decades.

Greenwood’s District 1 covers much of Old Town Greenwood, the city’s growing airport and the many established neighborhoods and commercial businesses from Madison Avenue to Interstate 65, and Smith Valley Road to County Line Road. But whoever wins that seat in this year’s highly contested city council race will make decisions that impact the entire city.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

The winner will join the other six district council members and three at-large members and make decisions about spending and development, among other things.

Smith, 30, has lived in Greenwood for five years, and in that time has made many decisions regarding proposed developments as a member of the plan commission. He is running for council in hopes of having a louder voice and more impactful vote on how the city gets developed, he said.

His goals include curtailing the city’s stringent architectural standards that make housing in the city less affordable than it should be, and proposing ordinances that could advance individual property rights if approved.

He has seen firsthand how serious these issues are. More and more use variances are coming before the board of zoning appeals due to outdated rules and standards in the city’s code.

"People are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars just to get before us, and that’s a burden that is too much for the citizens of Greenwood," Smith said.

He also wants to ensure that all Greenwood residents are supported and have equal access to public accommodations. The city does not have any sort of human rights ordinances that protect citizens based on gender, race or sexuality.

"Greenwood hasn’t taken that step and I think it’s something they need to do," he said. "Employers can refuse to hire or serve based on sexual orientation or even gender. I have many friends in the LGBT community who will not live here because of that, and that’s a problem."

Gibson has been a mainstay in the community, having lived in the same Greenwood house since the 1980s and helped serve the community alongside her husband for most of that time.

She is running again because she enjoys serving the people, she said.

“There are so many people out there who have problems. And some people just accept it and say, ‘Well it is what it is.’ Then there are others who just really don’t know where to turn or that there is a place to turn,” Gibson said.

Her reputation, availability and experience are what set her apart from Smith, she said, and not just as a council member. She makes it a point to attend as many city meetings as she can, such as the redevelopment commission, which she served on briefly earlier this year.

"I’m knowledgeable … The public automatically thinks we know everything that’s going on in the city. We don’t, but I think it’s up to us as council members to be educated," Gibson said.

She has specific concerns leading up to this election that she’s like to address.

For example, in District 1, she is concerned that a recently reconstructed section of Madison Avenue from Pearl Street to Noble Street is too narrow. She lives in a nearby neighborhood and has received a lot of complaints from constituents about it. She wants the city to widen the road and add some turn lanes, and plans to make that a focus if she were to win the seat again.

Gibson is supportive of the current administration’s downtown redevelopment efforts, and the growth, throughout the city, that’s followed. She shares Mayor Mark Myers’ vision for the former middle school property, and said she wants developers to think outside the box. She wants to see a "top-notch," unique development. But so far, no proposals have come before the council, she said.

Smith is more hesitant to follow suit until there is a formal plan in place that has gone through all the motions.

“It’s hard for me to judge what should go in there until the mayor’s office has a real solid plan,” he said.

But Smith does support the idea of pursuing mixed-use development in that area, as long as the infrastructure can handle it. He has a lot of questions that need answered before he would declare his support for a project of that magnitude, he said.

Beyond District 1, whoever wins this seat on the council will inevitably make decisions about how areas east of the Interstate 65 and Worthsville Road interchange are developed.

Gibson doesn’t want to see any warehouses further south than where they already are, she has said. That’s not what the comprehensive or land-use plans call for in that area, and she’d like to preserve Worthsville Road as much as possible, she said.

“I want Worthsville Road to stay Worthsville Road. People don’t like going past a lot of warehouses on the way to their homes, and I get that,” she said.

Smith would not support any speculative buildings, but is not opposed to all warehouses, he said. In fact, he moved to Greenwood because it was a blue-collar community where everyone could live and be comfortable, regardless of their socioeconomic status, he said. Sadly, that’s not the case anymore, he said.

He pointed to California Custom Fruits and Flavors as an example of a business move that was good for Greenwood that constituted a tax break.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”The Gibson File” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Name: Linda Gibson

Age: 72

Family: Husband John, deceased; two adult children

Occupation: Retired from Ernst and Young LLP, current city council member

Education: Southport High School

Political experience: Greenwood City Council member since 2008

Memberships: The Social of Greenwood board of directors, Indiana Utility Shareholders Association board of directors, crime watch coordinator of Holman Heights, Forest Park, Reynolds/Longden neighborhoods, Greenwood Plan Commission, past member of Johnson County Solid Waste Management board, past president of wives auxiliary of Greenwood Jaycees, Aspire Johnson County, member of Miles for Myeloma and Greenwood First Baptist Church

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”The Smith File” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Name: Matthew Smith

Age: 30

Family: Wife, Heather; two children

Occupation: EHS Sr. Resource at Pepsico

Education: MBA, Western Governors University; Decatur Central High School

Political experience: None

Memberships: Board of Zoning Appeals; Advisory Plan Commission; Overlay Committee; American Society of Safety Professionals

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About the job” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Greenwood City Council District 1

Term: Four years

Pay: $12,612 per year

Duties: Set annual spending for the city, make policy changes, adopt new local rules and ordinances, approve new taxes, appoint members to various city boards.

District 1: Represents much of Old Town Greenwood, the city’s growing airport and the many commercial businesses from Madison Avenue to Interstate 65, and Smith Valley to County Line Road.

[sc:pullout-text-end]