Moving on, longtime councilman knows it is time to step down

With his hands cupped together in front of his chin, Jerry Hunefeld evokes an image of endearing patience as he guides the Dubois County Council through its decisions.

He has served as the president since 2017. It is his final stop before stepping down at the end of December.

This past Monday was no different than his many other days over the 46 years he has served on the council. Facing a decision, Mr. Hunefeld, seemingly calling upon his background as a teacher in the Southwest School Corporation, played out the council’s options.

This time it involved a disagreement on how to handle the county’s innkeeper’s tax. At a previous meeting, the council had voted to allow the hoteliers and lodging businesses to pay the room taxes through the state portal rather than through the local treasurer’s office. The treasurer told the council that those businesses — there are 15 entities that pay the room tax in Dubois County currently — supported the decision because it was easier to pay the room tax through the same portal they paid other taxes rather than pay the state and the county separately.

But, the local tourism office objected to the process largely based on loss of control of the funds once they went to the state. They also pointed out that the state would then handle the collections process on late payments rather than it being handled locally. The tourism office is funded solely through those taxes and has a direct interest in ensuring payments are collected. They contend the state would not follow through with collections in a timely manner.

In his typical fashion, after inviting all parties to speak, Mr. Hunefeld explained the council faced two options: allow the previous decision to stand to see if the state process would work out or keep the process local as it has been since the tourism office was established about 30 years ago.

He explained the council found itself a bit whopper-jawed because in making the decision, they hadn’t heard the concerns expressed by Dubois County Tourism. In the end, the council decided to rescind their earlier decision and keep the process in the county.

The previous three paragraphs that can be read in about 30 seconds reflect a discussion and decision that took about 30 minutes Monday morning. The complexities the council works through monthly these days are a far cry from what Mr. Hunefeld stepped into in 1974 when Jim Bilderback asked him to run for the District 4 council seat.

Mr. Hunefeld, a teacher at the time, said he didn’t even know what the council did. Mr. Bilderback assured him it wasn’t much. They just do the budget, he told him.

When Mr. Hunefeld agreed to run, his strategy was simple. He wrote a letter explaining who he was and why he was running for office. Then, the fledgling Republican party agreed to pay the postage to mail it to every registered voter in the district.

It worked.

“I won by 23 votes. So, if 12 people had changed their vote, I would have lost,” he laughed.

Eleven days after election day, Mr. Hunefeld walked into his first Dubois County Council meeting on November 16, 1974.

The meetings were held in the room where the treasurer’s office is now. A long oak table separated the council president and the auditor with the councilmembers spread between them. There was hardly any room left for the public or any news reporters, but according to Mr. Hunefeld, back then no one other than the county government officials ever showed up at the meetings.

“I don’t know them and of course, they don’t know me. I had just defeated a popular incumbent. I’m the youngest person there. I’m the only Protestant,” Mr. Hunefeld said. “I was also, of course, the only Republican. I don’t think they even knew what one of them (Republicans) looked like.”

That first meeting was short. Glen Songer, the auditor, swore in all seven council members: John Sternberg, Othmar Demuth, Felix O. Mundy, Raymond Hohl, Mr. Hunefeld, Richard Eckerle, and Eugene Hostetter.

Then, the council, with its newest member, elected the officers and adjourned.

The only other distinction Mr. Hunefeld remembers from that meeting — and many future meetings — is that by the time it had ended, the air was blue from cigarette smoke. In addition to being the lone Republican and Protestant on the council, he was also a nonsmoker.

The first big decision he was part of involved the county’s “poor farm”. While the name has likely fallen from favor due to modern connotations, at the time, the county owned about 100 acres with an attached home that was available for residents who had fallen on hard times and didn’t have government-supported sustenance. The idea was they could work the farm and eat from what it produced.

Early in Mr. Hunefeld’s term, the commissioners had decided to sell the property because it was no longer utilized and the county continued to pay a few people to maintain it. “It seemed like a big decision to me at the time,” Mr. Hunefeld said.

Now, looking back at 46-years of decisions he’s taken part in, that one pales in comparison to some of the other issues the county has faced. He’s voted on funding two jail projects, adding the county option income tax, starting a tax abatement program, increasing salaries, purchasing property and equipment, adding new taxes, and thousands of new ordinances and necessary adaptions as the county has grown.

And, as Mr. Bilderback said he would, approved the budget 46 times.

It was the last budget cycle that clarified it was time for him to retire. The budget hearings occur in August and this year, as Mr. Hunefeld led the council through the discussions he had a hard time hearing the department heads and other council members. At 82, his hearing was fading.

“I couldn’t hear enough because there were a lot of people talking at the same time. And, you know, hearing aids generally amplify the thing you don’t want to hear, right. And they don’t amplify the thing you want to hear,” he said. “I realized at that time, I just had to make a change.”

He thought he could hang on for a couple more years to at least finish his term.

“I thought I could tough it out,” Mr. Hunefeld explained. “And then I realized that’s probably not good for the county. It’s not good for the council to have somebody who doesn’t know what’s going on, particularly during budget day.”

Another factor weighed heavily on his decision to step down. To his astonishment in 2016 the council switched to a Republican majority for the first time since he had been elected. With the defeat of several longtime Democratic council members, Mr. Hunefeld found himself as the lone senior member of the council in a party that was no longer the minority. As such, he was appointed to serve as president of the council for the first time.

For the man who had ignored advice early on to simply vote against anything the Democratic council members brought to the table, who sought discussion, diplomacy, and good decision-making, Mr. Hunefeld was pushed to the forefront of the governing process and became the face of the council.

The weight of responsibility bore down on him daily.

“To be president is a lot of pressure,” he explained. “I would go to bed every night thinking about it. I’d wake up wondering what was next on the agenda. Sometimes, I’d wake up in the middle night thinking about it. I was even dreaming about it in one way or another.”

When he made the decision it was time to resign, the relief was immediate.

His step down leaves the council with a group that has a maximum of six years experience. But, he feels like they are in a good position. “There’s a lot of great leadership on the council,” Mr. Hunefeld said.

Overall, he’s loved his time on the council and his one piece of advice for anyone seeking office is to take a year to learn as much about their new position as they possibly can.

He plans on remaining busy. Since retiring as a teacher in 2001, Mr. Hunefeld has continued to substitute teach and he’s been on call a lot this year as teachers have had to quarantine due to the pandemic.

He will miss being part of the county’s governance.

“I will miss the people and knowing what is going on in the county,” he added.