VOTE411 Voter Guide

The Lake County Surveyor’s Office is important for development review, flood control, water quality, and maintaining survey monuments. The Surveyor’s Office works as the technical advisor to the Lake County Drainage Board. We manage over 600 miles of county-regulated ditches and storm sewers. We also manage and maintain the county GIS online mapping system. Our MS4 water quality program is responsible for reviewing new developments to make sure our water quality is protected and flooding is controlled. The office is also in charge of maintaining and perpetuating over 1000 government surveying markers that are crucial to new development.

I am honored to be the current serving Lake County Surveyor, and we are continually improving the office to be more efficient and to better serve the public. We have digitized tens of thousands of pages of paper documents including large format maps “in-house” without additional expense for taxpayers. We continue to put more information online for easy access by the public. I have worked with the staff to reduce office clerical staff and increase field survey crews and drainage crews. We are in the process of updating our Stormwater Ordinance to better reflect the more intense rainfall events we are experiencing and to better protect wetlands on the local level.

Our office works closely with the Auditor’s Office and the County Council to ensure we follow all ordinances and state laws concerning financial record-keeping best practices. We also make sure all employees who handle money complete Internal Controls Training to ensure all money is accounted for properly, in accordance with the State Board of Accounts rules.

I work to make sure our office has a collaborative and inclusive atmosphere where all members of our team have input. I want to make sure everyone has buy-in to our projects and day-to-day operations with the ultimate goal of serving the public the best we can. Each member of our team adds value to our office.

I am most proud of my roles as a husband to my wife Sara, and father to my two amazing children, John (age 9) and Elise (age 6). In addition to the work we have done in the Surveyor’s Office, I am proud of my additional service roles representing Lake County in the Region and the State. I served as the Governor’s appointment to the Indiana Drainage Task Force. I currently serve as the Lake County Plan Commission President, the Northern Indiana Director of the Indiana Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management (INAFSM), the NIRPC Executive Committee and Chair of the NIRPC Environmental Management Policy Committee, and the Vice Chairman of the Kankakee River and Yellow River Basin Development Commission. I am also a proud life-long Lake County resident and life-long Democrat. I would encourage voters to visit our website and reach out if they would like more information or if they have ideas for the Surveyor’s Office.

Surveyors office encompasses many sectors in our county. It is vitally important establishing property boundaries, resolving property disputes, real estate transactions, planning urban development, building bridges/highways and irrigation planning to name just a few reasons the office is so important.

The office currently has many OSHA violations and unfair bidding practices. Therefore, if elected I would implement comprehensive compliance to OSHA standards and demand 3 bid proposals for every project.

Quite simply I will adhere to all rules and procedures as outlined by the Indiana State Board of Accounts.

First and foremost I will be on the job every day insuring the employees of the office are providing the services the taxpayers are paying for. Secondly, I will establish safe working conditions so the employees will work confidently and comfortably.

If elected, I will work diligently daily to reform the surveyors office into Indiana's highest rated surveyors office.