Incoming White County commissioners preparing to take office this September with a shared commitment to increasing transparency and accountability within the local government.
Incoming Fifth District County Commissioner Dana Teeple said the recent election results reflect a desire among residents to move away from long-standing political routines.
“I think people are just tired of the same old routine with folks that stay in office longer than they probably should,” Teeple said, “And the lack of transparency from the last several years with our county commission.”
Teeple said he intends to focus on educating the residents of his district on the specific issues facing the county to ensure they are not caught off guard by future votes. Teeple said that in the past, citizens often felt they were unable to provide input on critical matters until it was too late to make a difference.
“I believe in my role I will do my best to help educate the citizens of my district on the on the issues that we’re facing and we’ll try to make sure that decisions aren’t made in the dark so to speak, like they may have been in the past where, you know, nobody knew, seemed to know certain issues that that happened, things that happened, votes that were taken until it was too late to even try to have, have any input,” Teeple said.
Incoming District 2 County Commissioner Erick Dildine said the motivation for his campaign was rooted in the difficulty of getting clear answers from the current commission. Dildine said voters have grown tired of a system that has remained stagnant for the last eight years while taxes continued to rise.
“Transparency,” Dildine said. “We just didn’t have any of it from the current commission the way it stood as it is right now until September first. You just uh couldn’t ever get no answers out of them besides we’ll see what we’ll do about it.”
Dildine said he believes that simply explaining the reasoning behind spending and policy requests will help bridge the gap between the community and its representatives. Dildine said his goal is to find ways to benefit the county without constantly relying on increasing the financial burden on taxpayers.
“Well, that’s one of the big things that I ran on and that is simply transparency,” Dildine said. “I think if you just tell the people the reason why we’re spending their money or the reason why we’re asking for this or asking for that, I think that’ll bring in a lot — I think I think that’ll bring a lot of distrust out, or take a lot of distrust out between the community and the commission.”
Teeple said the commission must also address the lack of zoning in the county to manage the emergence of data centers. Teeple said the goal is to protect limited resources like water and electricity while still respecting the rights of property owners.
“We need to know what’s going on as much as possible, I mean, without stripping any property owner of their — of their right to do what they want to with their property,” Teeple said. “That’s not what we’re intended to do, we’re just trying to protect what limited resources we do have in — in our county um when it comes to water and electric and things like that.”
Dildine said that while the new group of commissioners may not always agree, they share a common morality and a commitment to the people who elected them. Dildine said the new commission will focus on working together to find the best solutions for the county through open discussion.
“Well, I think everybody’s going to have their own, you know, hard lines and I think that may be a problem to conquer those, but as far as standing on — I think we all come into it with more or less the same morality towards it all and that is we just simply want to do what’s best for White County,” Dildine said. “We’re not looking out for each other, we’re looking out for the people that put us in office.”
Teeple said he also hopes to find ways to support the local farming community and help families maintain their land. Teeple said that preventing family farms from being sold off for subdivisions is a key part of ensuring the county grows in a responsible manner.
“I think that if — if we can figure out a way to uh help the generations hang on to their family farms then I think that’ll go a long ways to keeping White County growing in a responsible manner,” Teeple said.
The new term for the White County Commission officially begins on September 1.
