Greencastle councilman explains no vote for Economic Development Contract

For months, Greencastle City Councilman Vincent Aguirre has grown frustrated with what he perceived as a lack of goals from the Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development Center. 

After having discussion on the proposed contract for professional services between the City and Kristin Clary, director of the Greencastle/Putnam County Economic Development Center, was tabled in December and not brought up in January, the matter came to a head during the council's February meeting. The council approved the measure in February with a 5-1 vote, with Aguirre being the lone no vote. 

"I am not trying to undermine the work being done. I just think we should set goals, and this shouldn't have been a three month process that ended in a vote that ended very quickly with no discussion from council. This should have been an easy conversation to have. I am just asking for smart goals," Aguirre told The Putnam County Post. 

With the contract final, Aguirre said he is not going to relent from his desire to see goals.

"This board meets four times a year, so I am going to keep bringing it up, I guess. I can't imagine much will change, but I will be very clear, I hope nothing bad happens to this city's economy. But, if it does, I want to be clear, apparently, I was the lone voice trying to make sure we are prepared for that. It truly terrifies me. I am not afraid of good trouble, especially when I know what I am asking for is extremely reasonable," Aguirre continued. 

The vote came after Clary offering a presentation in which she said the city's housing study was complete and noted that there are two housing options in the works, while the city owns another 22 acres behind the Putnam County YMCA that is ready to be developed. 

"Our housing study is completed and finalized. They did a deep dive on the 22 acres behind the YMCA. We have got a design book study for that. We have 120 units at Seminary Square and we have the 94 units on South Street. We do not want to flood the market with new housing, so we are being very strategic. We have plans in place for the next two to four years and how many units we will bring on board. We are excited about that. Housing is a really big deal. We have two under contract right now," Clary told the council. 

Clary said her office is focused on Marion County and the surrounding donut counties, as commuting patterns show people live in Putnam County but work outside the county. 

Prior to the vote, Councilman Darrel Thomas took a moment to chastise anyone against the contract. 

"That right there ladies and gentlemen is why we need to pass the contract and quit messing around with this minutiae that doesn't mean anything. I spent 20 years in public service, I have looked at many of these and never ever voted against the contract or the job they do. You all probably learned something in the last 10 minutes," Thomas said. 

The contract is for $60,000 from the City of Greencastle to Clary, and spells out 10 things the development center will do for the city. Those 10 things include: maintaining a staffed, not for profit economic development organization, marketing the city of Greencastle to potential economic development projects and prospects. manage the review process for abatements and work with local industries to retain and expand through abatement requests. 

For Aguirre, that isn't enough.

"This contract has been a contract in place for 20 to 30 years in various shapes and forms and it is to contract with the economic development office to do a series of tasks. In 2024, I asked for changes to that contract and there were some small changes made. This past year I was asking for some more changes and an understanding of what the organization does," said Aguirre, who also serves as the council's liaison to the economic development board. 

Aguirre admitted that while the economic development center does a lot of things, he is unsure how success is measured. 

"I want to be really clear, there are a lot of people at every step who are taking this personal, and this is not personal. I've never said I think this organization is failing. I don't think I've ever said anyone in this organization is bad or doing a bad job, but what I want to be crystal clear on is we can't measure those things without measurable goals." Aguirre said. 

The first term Democratic candidate said he is aware of HR groups that take place with the board, reports that are coordinated by economic development, as well as a revolving loan opportunity for businesses.

"There are a lot of things getting done, but the question for me remains how do we measure how our economy is successful, and that is the sticking point," Aguirre said. 

Aguirre said Greencastle's economy has been "driven" by DePauw University.

"I came here in 2008. I really started paying attention more in 2013, and our economy has been driven by DePauw's efforts, and those have often been in collaboration with the city. DePauw and Stellar Grants, DePauw and Green and Gold Initiative. Outside of that, I don't feel like there has been a direct and goal driven process to grow our process. You can say this organization brought these jobs here one time, maybe the hourly rate has gone up a little bit, but there hasn't been a 10 year plan on how we grow our economy from anyone. Without Green and Gold and the Stellar, what would have grown in this community? I don't think there has been the leadership anywhere to show what would have grown. The YMCA is the only thing I can think of that was community driven and executed," Aguirre said. 

In recent months, Greencastle has welcomed a Little Caesars Pizza and a Church's Chicken and there are talks that Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robins are headed to Greencastle. However, Aguirre isn't convinced that is success.

"I think if there was a clear set of goals, we could measure if that is success. You can debate that is growth, new business and that is good for us, and another will say we need more small businesses or a new industry with high paying jobs. There are a lot of arguments, but, as a community, we would be able to measure if that is a huge success if we had goals. If we had goals, we could measure that success. We need to measure these things. If we don't measure these things, we don't have a vision or a guided star to where we are headed. I don't think it is that controversial," Aguirre said. 

As for goals he would like to see, Aguirre would like to see Greencastle's unemployment rate come down relative to the rest of Indiana, as well as the economic development center coordinate business retention, workforce development, talent matching and job access initiatives to connect residents with stable employment. 

He said success will be measured by ranking in the top 50 percent of Indiana communities for lowest unemployment by 2026, rank in the top 25 statewide by 2030 and said it matters because lower unemployment signals economic stability, stronger household income and a healthier, local economy.

"All I have asked for is smart goals, which are specific and measurable goals. In conversations with the executive board, one thing we talked about and made a lot of sense is what is best for the city from an economic development standpoint is local income tax dollars. As industries grow and they hire more people, that comes back to local income taxes. One goal that should be super easy to agree on is increasing local income tax base. That can be done by improving wages or adding more people into the workforce. Either way, the city gets more income tax," Aguirre said. 

While he notes there have been some big economic development things happen in Greencastle, Putnam County and around the state, Aguirre voices concern over any kind of negative change. 

"Housing prices are going up, businesses are starting, my 401K is doing better than ever, all of these things are true for everyone. What I am really concerned about, and I hope it never comes to this, but what happens when things go bad? When everyone starts to fail, I don't know if we are in a position to succeed beyond that. I don't know because I can't measure it. Maybe we are ready, I don't know. If a big employer or a big, staple institution shut down today, maybe we are prepared for that, but I don't see any metrics to support that right now. I can't imagine the devastation if that happens. It would probably be like when IBM left, and we have to be doing everything right so when that moment hits, we aren't caught off guard," Aguirre said.