Alison Cole

Candidate Q&A

How do you plan to reach out to constituents about what their needs are?

To start, the traditional places to find information – websites, social media platforms, all need to be updated to reflect current relevant information that people need now. The Trustee Facebook page needs to have postings about events, services and resources that are for the constituents. It should not be a platform for the trustee to highlight their accomplishments and social affairs. Other social media platforms that reach different age groups need to be created and kept up to date with current information. The website needs to be continually updated with current policies, procedures, events and available resources and made accessible for anyone to find on the website. I will meet with all stakeholders in the community who serve families who struggle financially including CAFÉ, LaPlaza, Jane Pauley Health Care Center, MSDLT and the Far Eastside Community Council. The Far Eastside Community Council will have completed its Quality of Life plan which has included a yearlong planning process to identify citizens’ concerns and hopes. This document will be an important guide to identify where there is opportunity to work alongside other stakeholders to begin addressing issues raised by the community. Campaigning has revealed to me that folks are feeling burdened and hopeless. To directly connect with the community, I will conduct a couple of community meetings across Lawrence, inviting other community leaders including educators, health care providers and social service agencies to join in, so we can collectively learn about the people’s major concerns. In addition to continuing the current Trustee’s practice of participating in community outreach events, I would like to have the Trustee host its own community fair that provides information about services of the Trustee’s office and invites other service providers, educators and businesses to participate in the resource fair.

What is the top issue your township is facing and how would you address it as trustee?

Housing is the most pressing issue for our community. In 2025 over 62% of the aid the Lawrence Township Trustee provided was for rental and mortgage payments. The Financial Assistance fund is tiny in comparison to the need. Despite the lack of resources, I believe the elected position of Trustee should be the community’s lead advocate in addressing the housing crisis. If elected, I would make the following initiatives priority projects:

• Participate in the annual countywide Homeless Count to determine how many Lawrence families and individuals are experiencing homelessness.
• Develop resources to help families who are experiencing homelessness until they can be permanently safely housed.
• Partner with the Lawrence Small Claims Court to share Trustee resources and help strengthen the court’s successful Eviction Prevention program.
• Begin dialogue with owners of expiring subsidized housing units to work to preserve the projects’ affordability.
• Identify and work with affordable housing developers who want to build affordable housing, helping them navigate burdensome regulatory processes and identify sources of funding to help close funding gaps.
• If required, help establish a not-for-profit housing development corporation for Lawrence Township.
• Work with small landlords to help them identify financing and other funding to produce affordable rental units and connect landlords with responsible tenants who need affordable housing.
• Identify rental communities that fail to provide habitable units and work with tenants to help them to advocate for their rights.

No other elected officials in our communities are specifically tasked to tackle the housing crisis. Yes, the mayor, city councils, state representatives should be working on the housing issue, but that is not their only concern. The trustee can champion the cause and serve as the facilitator to tackle the housing crisis directly.

Considering the expected declines in revenue because of property tax cuts, how would you manage your office’s budget?

While it is difficult to determine exactly the Trustee’ financial performance for a given year compares to the proposed budget (The trustees are not required by law to provide this information), I reviewed several previous financial year-end financial reports and I can immediately see ways to spend these precious limited funds in manner that will increase the amount of money directly serving low income people. First, I would eliminate the position of Deputy Trustee. I plan on serving as a full-time Trustee and therefore will not need to have a deputy. Granted, the Trustee, Deputy Trustee and CFO are paid out of the Township Fund, not Township Assistance Fund. However, if the Deputy does not need to be funded, a Township Assistance funded staff could be moved to the Township Fund, thereby generating additional funds to be used for direct assistance to people in need. A Trustee Case Manager (or maybe more) could be paid with Township funds and transferred to the Lawrence Small Claims Court Eviction Prevention program. Again, the most prevalent request of the Trustee’s office centers on housing expenses. The two offices should work together to help prevent evictions (which too often leads to homelessness) or help families relocate to affordable housing if they must leave their existing residences. Township Assistance funds can be used to assist these families.

A second thing I would do immediately is eliminate the use of the Township Assistance funds on “partnerships”. In 2025, the Lawrence Trustee dedicated over $75,000 to not-for-profit agencies. While these agencies engage in worthy causes, they do not provide direct immediate relief to families in crisis, for which these tax dollars are dedicated. With taxpayer funds shrinking, the Trustee must start to diversify funding sources, including seeking and securing grant resources. I have successfully secured over $1 million in grants over the course of my career, and I believe there are opportunities to seek corporations, foundations and other philanthropic resources to close funding gaps. Finally, a Township Government does have bonding authority to raise revenue. More research needs to be done to determine what kind of projects a Trustee can undertake with this authority.

Should township government be consolidated, or should specific services be consolidated, to better manage resources and save taxpayer money?

I stand in solidarity with the leadership of the Indiana Township Association (ITA) who helped craft and pass Senate Bill 270 this past Indiana legislative session. This law will reduce the number of township trustees by 300 by January 2028, which is an excellent start. Even more important, the bill begins to define the base performance measurements all Trustees should strive to achieve to improve effectiveness. The amount of duplicative and wasteful expenditures spent on maintaining these forms of government needs to be addressed. The Indianapolis Star exposé revealed that in 2025, $20 million was spent on just the salaries of the Trustees and their boards, while only $25 million went to help people and families in crisis. That is unacceptable. While the bill excluded Marion County, I would be interested in looking at how the nine Marion County township trustee services could be combined and streamlined. A countywide administration would eliminate many of the Town Board members and some of the Trustees, saving the taxpayer money. (I recognize the Wayne and Pike Township have far greater responsibility, providing fire protection to their communities. Hopefully they will consider consolidating with IFD to save money and become more efficient.) Equally important, by consolidating the administration into one body, the policies and rules around administration of funds would be standardized so that all residents of Marion County needing help would have uniformed access to the funds. While I believe there should still be satellite offices located in each township for convenience’s sake, residents would have far more freedom to access services where they are and not have to travel to a single township to receive such help. Further, by combining the township assistance funds into one pot, the distribution of the funds would be more equitable. Afterall, just because Lawrence collects less in property taxes because of our state park, a federal government center and a reservoir than say Wayne Township whose taxbase includes a racetrack, doesn’t mean Lawrence Township has fewer people in need. Combining the financial assistance tax pool will help to reach more people.

How would you improve residents’ access to township assistance?

The current Lawrence Township trustee requires all applicants to apply online before they can even apply for an appointment, which is often set for 3 weeks later. I tested the online Lawrence township trustee application and found it to be excessively intrusive and far too demanding for the purpose of obtaining a one-time, relatively small assistance from the Trustee’s office. Immediately I would cease with the use of this tool and return to booking live appointments and even taking walk-ins. I would significantly revise the requirements for being considered for trustee assistance. The state law governing Trustees’ eligibility requirements for
assistance are very prescriptive in some ways but are surprisingly silent on such simple things as setting an income limit on who to help. The Federal Poverty level is not mentioned in the state law; each trustee can set their own rules. In simplifying and streamlining the application process, the Trustee can begin to regain the trust of residents who currently avoid the trustee all together. To be clear, not every resident will be able to be served. New policies will probably need to be developed to classify severity of need to justify help being granted. But the process will no longer be humiliating. Further, by eliminating the time-consuming review of needless paperwork, Trustee staff will have more time to assist residents in securing help from other agencies and programs. Related to the previous question regarding declining tax revenue, refocusing staff time to provide resource navigation services to residents would be a better use of the dwindling taxbase. With proactive, solution-seeking help, residents will hopefully access the financial assistance they need, even if it is not money directly from the Trustee.