Greenfield City Council 1/28/2026

Date: 1/28/26

Recorder: Terry Bynum

BACKGROUND:

Provide relevant links and/or context for the meeting.

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT AGENDA ITEMS AND KEY POINTS

      Dan Riley took a few moments at the start of the meeting to talk about Tom Haines passing away.  Haines was a longtime fixture in Hancock Co. Republican politics, serving as the campaign treasurer for many candidates, as well as the county Republican party.

Regular meeting started off with 2 public hearings, the first about the ordinance re-codifying the Sewer Code–required by the state. No public comments. 

The second was about the 15 year property tax abatement for West Pharmaceuticals(taking over the BWI building) Abatement is 100% for each year.  Public comment against was from Larry Silver, who ALWAYS speaks against abatements. (Larry is a candidate for Mayor-I think on the Libertarian ticket). A spokesperson from West Pharma thanked the council, and promised to be a long term good corporate citizen. 

Both ordinances passed after 2nd & third readings. 

Remainder of meeting was cookie cutter approval of all ordinances and resolutions.  

Approve 4 way stop at New & Blue Roads

Approve $298K for purchase of new police cars. 

Amended personnel handbook to allow for time off for military service. (Apparently, a few police officers are reserve military, and their time off for duty was not part of the handbook.)

Re-affirmed formation of Econ. Revitalization Area–for West Pharma, I think. 

The most interesting and consequential item was a high level discussion about the Department of Local Government Finance. 

All local gov’t needs to file a form 1782 with the DFLG (I’m not sure why)  In Greenfield’s case, they asked the state for authority to impose a 3% excess levy for both the civil city, and the Fire Territory.($996K for city, 39K for Fire)(Based on 3 year growth)  The state responded to the original filing by denying permission for the city, but granting the fire territory.  The discussion at the meeting claimed the state played fast and loose with deadlines.  The 1782 decision was not communicated to the city until 20 minutes before close of business on 12/31.  12/31 is the deadline for appealing the decision.  And the actual letter containing the denial arrived 1/4/26.  Lori Elmore and the city attorney and the mayor all were complaining about the DFLG manipulating the deadlines. 

They had a meeting with the Governor’s office to inform them of what happened, but they don’t think there’s much chance of anything changing.