Getting students in Government

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Tim Yocum: You know, you got to believe in the process. If you don’t believe in the process, then, you know, of course people think my vote does not count. Yes, and it does count.

Good government is open and transparent and communicates with people.

I come on excavating business, and so I’d go out and do different projects in the county to help local organizations. I love doing that.

But you can’t change the world. You can make a difference in the future of a county.

In this problem we have today, if you’re not, you’re not a servant before you become elected. You’ll never be a servant to the people.

David Martin: Welcome to the good government show. I’m your host, Dave Martin. On this episode, we’re talking about youth, high school kids, teenagers and how they’re getting involved in government. In Vermilion County, Indiana. Vermillion is in the western part of Indiana, with Illinois as its western neighbor. Tim Yocum is the president of the Vermilion County Board of Commissioners. President Yocum created the commissioners mentoring program.

This is an award winning program. Listen to this. We talk about how this was created to get students involved in local government. Listen to this excellent example of good government in action. As Tim will explain, this is a program that instills the ideas of good government to these young people who someday, maybe the county’s next commissioners. Tim had some rough election that we talk a little bit about that.

In fact, he ran for state office, although he didn’t win that campaign. He continues to serve at the county level, where he’s even expanded the mentoring program. So coming up, my conversation with Vermillion County, Indiana Commissioner Tim Yocum. Right after this.

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Dot org slash podcasts.

Tim Yocum: My name is Tim Yocum. I’m president of commissioners of Remain County, Indiana. that our county is is on the Illinois state line. halfway between, Indianapolis and Saint Louis. If you really want to look and see.

David Martin: That’s the area.

Tim Yocum: We’re from.

David Martin: And how are things there?

Tim Yocum: Things are great.

David Martin: Things are great. Great, great. Okay, good. That’s part of the, I guess some people might call it the rust Belt area. a lot of challenges. how are you dealing with us?

Tim Yocum: We’re doing well. times are good, and you got to keep positive.

David Martin: You gotta keep positive, all right?

Tim Yocum: And keep looking for a better day and positive hope out there for the future in our county.

David Martin: And, one of the things that we talked about a little bit before we turn the mics on and fix the bikes was, you’ve got a program, it sounds like, that engages kids in government and get some excited about government. How did this idea come together?

Tim Yocum: Well, it happen one day I was thinking about our youth, and I’ve always been.

David Martin: Just grand ideas. Come in the shower, you know, pretty much.

Tim Yocum: Or they also come in bad times. You know, some inspiration comes in bad times usually.

David Martin: Yeah.

Tim Yocum: But, in thought came to me. How do we promote our youth as future leaders and get them involved in local government?

David Martin: Because kids don’t know about local youth. They know who the president is, but they don’t know what county commissioners are. Right?

Tim Yocum: Right. And they don’t know the other offices. They don’t know. They don’t know why. When do I grow up? And I have to go do something about my tax bill? Yeah, I got to go see something about, I got a case filed against me or they don’t know where to go. They have no idea how government works.

David Martin: And so what was the problem they were trying to fix?

Tim Yocum: My problem was to promote a program that would would open their understanding to government and how it works, and let them also be a part of the process of how government.

David Martin: Works well and being a part of the process. That’s got to be the most important part.

Tim Yocum: Correct.

David Martin: Because, you know, here’s what we do, here’s what we do. But, yeah. Okay. what was the reaction from your fellow commissioners from other folks in government? And, and then what was the what was the reaction from the, the people on the other side that were the students were coming from?

Tim Yocum: It’s all been positive. Every bit of it’s been positive. we started at local school corporation.

David Martin: There’s no such thing as everybody being on board. So that was it.

Tim Yocum: Yeah, I there’s never been nothing negative said okay.

David Martin: Program. Okay.

Tim Yocum: I mean it’s all good for anything for youth. It educates the youth and promotes them in a positive light in our school, corporations is always good.

David Martin: So what’s the program?

Tim Yocum: Program is Commissioner’s mentoring program. And it was started about six years ago in our county. And we have two school corporations. We have, in order to remain in South Remain School Corporation. And we deal with those students there and we let the teachers select one or sometimes two students to send them to our program.

David Martin: And how often is this? Every semester.

Tim Yocum: Every year we have meetings, two meetings, and we alternate between evening means and morning meetings. And we do it during the time of schools going on, because during the summer, you know, they’re not available.

David Martin: So every month is a new student. Every month that. Yes. Okay.

Tim Yocum: Yes. New students.

David Martin: So you’ve got like, well, I guess maybe ten a year that come through the program.

Tim Yocum: Well, it’d be half the half of nine months, so about 5 or 6.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: You know, and we alternate back and forth between two school corporations.

David Martin: Okay. junior seniors, where are they in?

Tim Yocum: They’re usually juniors or seniors are usually seniors, because the juniors still have another year of possibility of being a part of it. So yeah, the school.

David Martin: You might get a few voters.

Tim Yocum: well, that’s something else. Have seniors when we get them there. We also got programs where we promote, youth in government as far as going to schools and get them register to vote. We also do that in this program. We do now, which commission mentioned for a while there in the courthouse, we we go by the clerk’s office.

We ask them they’ve been registered to vote and if they haven’t, we offer that opportunity for them to do it that day when they’re there at the at the yeah.

David Martin: Because you got him, you got you got him, you got a captive audience.

Tim Yocum: And so it’s not it’s not a political party thing. And in our county, right, when you register to vote, you have no party affiliation. When you register, you don’t have to proclaim our Democrat or Republican, you know, I mean, that’s our are the rules of our state. So it’s not something that we’re trying to get into to join one organization or the other.

It’s just getting them registered, getting engaged.

David Martin: So you’ve got a program, commissioners, mentor program, and the schools pick the students. Correct. Do you know what they’re looking for in the students?

Tim Yocum: We’re looking for students that possibly have aspirations in in government.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: Or that are or showed some type of, maybe in our economics class or maybe government class. They say, you know, and they see that student, you know, and that’s just one of the big things that that, that I see in all organizations today is what are we doing with the future, right. Someday someone’s gonna be taking my place.

But how are we preparing?

David Martin: Yes.

Tim Yocum: And in government today, there, it seems like there’s so much of a disconnect of younger people in government.

David Martin: Yep. And.

Tim Yocum: And to me, I’d like to find a future leader of our our county may state, maybe find a future president of United States. You know, someone does that.

David Martin: Well, yeah. Somebody. Yeah. He’s got see this in those.

Tim Yocum: Youth and you.

David Martin: Today because Indiana ever had a president.

Tim Yocum: a good friend of mine was vice presidents here recently. Mike Bennett.

David Martin: Okay. prior to him, Benjamin Harrison, I don’t know. I don’t know how.

Tim Yocum: Harrison. Harrison.

David Martin: Okay. All right.

Tim Yocum: I know for sure. And, Matthews, I believe, was a governor. No, I’m going to governors now.

David Martin: Okay, but.

Tim Yocum: No.

David Martin: All right.

Tim Yocum: But anyway.

David Martin: So, so so they’re looking for students who are excelling in civics classes, subbing classes, economics classes. I’m sure you probably have a few people on the student council who show up for this. Right. And so what they get to what’s the program you say? How did how did how did they get how did their parents drop them off? What?

Tim Yocum: Well, first of all is the the once we have a name from school, right? Then I call the local, sheriff’s department, and I tell them we got a student that wanted to be picked up at the flagpole at 8:45 a.m..

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: On Tuesday.

David Martin: Morning. Yes.

Tim Yocum: And they need to be there before 930, because commissioners court starts at 930.

David Martin: All right.

Tim Yocum: And so the sheriff’s department goes picks them up, they get a ride in the sheriff’s department car.

David Martin: They get out of the backseat.

Tim Yocum: No, they get set front. They get that from. So they actually get some experience. Also about riding in a patrol car, which I think is kind of unique. Sure. For a young person.

David Martin: Absolutely. By their choice. And so that makes it better. so what’s the what’s the day you put him through?

Tim Yocum: Well, the day starts, as I said, being picked up by the local sheriff’s department, which is a big deal. They brought today, and I meet them when they come and let them in and take them in, and I bring them in, and I have them sit between me and the other commissioners for the actual meetings. They’re not they’re not sending a crowd.

David Martin: The right up front of the day.

Tim Yocum: They’re sitting right there. We get all the paperwork, air mails, got all the paperwork goes through, we hand it through. They they gavel in the meeting, they start the meeting, we gavel a meeting in and call it to order.

David Martin: Yep.

Tim Yocum: And so they’re active part of of the conversation. Of course they can’t respond to anything going on there. But they they do see everything going.

David Martin: On I’m sure afterwards they ask questions. What what are the questions they ask you?

Tim Yocum: Well, there’s so many questions they could ask.

David Martin: Yes.

Tim Yocum: And probably by the time they’re done after meeting everybody, they but.

David Martin: I mean, are they asking like procedural questions or are they asking like, why do you do this or.

Tim Yocum: I think most of the time they’re kind of sitting there and all because and then the other thing is sometime in county commissioners meeting, you, got you, you got to watch it. Because sometimes people come and some people can get upset in meetings. And so we try to try to keep good control where they don’t they don’t see that.

David Martin: Quite, you know, get turned off by all these all the people screaming and yelling. and so, so they attend a, the commission meeting. then what do they do?

Tim Yocum: Well, after the meeting, I call ahead on the Friday before the meeting and we send out a letter to all the officials, elected officials in the courthouse stating we have.

David Martin: A courthouse just like your town hall, your county hall, city hall. Right.

Tim Yocum: Well, almost all the public officials are have an officer county courthouse.

David Martin: Right.

Tim Yocum: So it’s convenient. And so I send a letter to them letting them know we have X student coming. Right. Be prepared to tell him what your job is and importance of your job and how it affects the people, the students as they grow up.

David Martin: Yeah.

Tim Yocum: And so we go to auditor. We go to the clerk. We go to the assessor, we go to entire court. That’s probation officer.

David Martin: Okay. You know.

Tim Yocum: And end of last week, the last stop is usually if the judge okay. And sometimes if there’s a court case going on and it’s open, you know, in child cases you can’t be anywhere. Right. Sure. But if we have regular case going on, we have them go in and sit in on a case and see how that process works.

David Martin: Okay. What’s the stop the kids are most excited about? What have you heard? Like what’s the what’s the feedback?

Tim Yocum: I think biggest thing is riding in a police car. That’s one of things. No, but I think setting there.

David Martin: Pick them up. Drive. Hey, there. Yeah, there’s the county. Of course we know that. We’re going to drive here out of a police car right now.

Tim Yocum: But to be sitting there, right there in the middle of right where it’s going on is, is you can’t get no closer than that.

David Martin: No, I suppose not. And what’s the you know, what’s the takeaway for the kids?

Tim Yocum: The takeaway from the kids is they they learn how government works by sitting in a commissioners meeting. Number two, they learn about all the officers in the courthouse and how they could impact them in their future decision making.

David Martin: Any of these kids turned out to be summer interns or, you know, political science majors or I guess is they’re too young a six year old to be, the next mayor. But, what’s the follow up?

Tim Yocum: Well, I see, I see a lot of them, and I know them, and they’ve turned out to be pretty good people in the community. Good. And what I’m watch and I approach some of them trying to get them involved to be future leaders. And as far you know, they start off as a precinct committee and something small and then build off of that.

But the whole thing is, if we can educate these young people and how government works for them and not against them, right. And they have more or understanding how each officeholder works. And the value of that is very important as far as their future lies.

David Martin: Well, you know, speaking for myself, you know, and nobody grows up saying, I want to be a county clerk. I want to be a county tax assessor. do you think you’re getting some kids, if not, excited about it, like, interested in and are open to it?

Tim Yocum: The biggest impact, I think, on them is and also we send them a certificate that they can use as they have completed a commissioners mentoring program that they can use. And little things like that are important. Also, if someone put in a for something at school and they’ve been through this program with the county commissioners and and that.

David Martin: Looks good on your resume, you’re listening to college Notre Dame for for example. Right. things like that. and how many kids have gone through this program totaled you can you guess?

Tim Yocum: I’d say probably 25.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: 2020.

David Martin: Five. Have you thought about expanding it or.

Tim Yocum: Yeah, we I.

David Martin: Think capacity for that.

Tim Yocum: We well, here’s the current thing with the current secretary state of Diego Morales, who’s a friend of mine. I expressed to him, are there also another program called a committee? chairman mentoring program that we have, which is another another different situation. But I’ve been talking to the Secretary of state. I’ve known him for years. He just got elected.

And I’m trying to take my different programs I have for youth and development on a state.

David Martin: Level, okay.

Tim Yocum: And these things will engage these young people and it will hopefully give them some type of a more education, how it works and hopefully find future leaders. I mean, they’re out.

David Martin: There. Yes. Well, they have to be. Yeah, they have to be. Well, this does sound like a good government program to get people excited about good government. What else is going on? What else? You what else are you working on?

Tim Yocum: I also have a, chairman mentoring program.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: I am also Republican chairman of the county.

David Martin: All right.

Tim Yocum: And again, I seek for young people who want to be involved. So I went to the state of Indiana, and I started this called Chairman Mentoring Program. As county chair. I want them engaged in the political process on Election day. And so after speaking with the State of Indiana Election Division, I had that approved.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: On Election Day, you can’t go in and out of any poll place. You can only go in and out of polling place. You’re voting.

David Martin: Right.

Tim Yocum: And that’s the limit.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: With the program I started, we have 17 precincts and.

David Martin: So we don’t say vote early and often in your in your town. No. Okay, good.

Tim Yocum: We, we as a state a friend of mine started the election day voting ID where you got a voter ID law.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: Todd Rokita who was our secretary state. Now he’s attorney general for the state of Indiana and a former U.S. congressman. He started he, voter election law that you were required to have photo ID that’s been adopted in many, many states. But what I want to do, I want to take young people and have them involved Election day to see everything that happens.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: As I said before, you can’t go in out of polling places. That gets.

David Martin: Lost. Are they old enough to be poll workers?

Tim Yocum: Yeah, that’s another program or two.

David Martin: All right.

Tim Yocum: And so what we do on Election day, if I’m not running for office, I can’t do it when I’m running for office because I can’t go in at a polling. Right and right now. All right, now I am a I’m the candidate for the 42nd, House race for the state of Indiana.

David Martin: Oh, you’re going to you’re you’re running for state office.

Tim Yocum: I should win a state by state position.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: I’m serious.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: But, so what we do with the students is I have again, how.

David Martin: Do you have any kind of commissioner.

Tim Yocum: Tenure? They’re elected. My third term.

David Martin: Oh, my. All right.

Tim Yocum: I’ve been a county chairman for 20 years.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: Remain county had no one elected. No one. No Republicans at all elected in 40 years. I was the first Republican elected a countywide seat in 40 years. Since then, I’ve took every office except to show I’m enemy number one, I guess.

David Martin: Okay, but.

Tim Yocum: Back to my commission, my chairman’s program. Being a chairman, I talked to Steve India and I said, how can I grant? How can you grant me access to take these students in every polling place?

David Martin: Yep.

Tim Yocum: They said, I can assign those students as poll book holders and give them the title that.

David Martin: Yeah.

Tim Yocum: And I can take them any polls.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: So we start the day off in the morning, and I go and take them to every poll in entire county. We go in and we check and see how many people vote, not how who voted. There’s a data sheet there, says how many people voted. We keep track of that. We make reports, we go and use. I have a nice lunch.

A local place provides a nice lunch for all of us to go, okay.

David Martin: And do the in places where the vote is not as strong, do you quickly mobilize, knock on doors, get out to vote?

Tim Yocum: No, because I can’t do anything like that.

David Martin: Okay?

Tim Yocum: When I’m taking a student, it has not to do with politics.

David Martin: Yeah.

Tim Yocum: You know, I mean, it has to do with me trying to get more people to vote for me or.

David Martin: No, no, no, I’m just saying just get get, you know, don’t forget to vote. Don’t forget to vote. I mean, I’ve I’ve certainly worked elections and I.

Tim Yocum: Know we.

David Martin: Voting day, you know, don’t go. Please make sure you get out and vote.

Tim Yocum: But to take a student, put them in some way of of doing that would, would you know, it would be political.

David Martin: I know that you said you the Republican chair you’re doing this the Republican chairman, his office, the kids that are recruiting Democrats, Republicans just.

Tim Yocum: Had no political affiliation.

David Martin: To it. Okay. All right.

Tim Yocum: So you’re under a neutral to neutral. So what I do, I take him with me. We go in every polling place we take and keep track of how much data and what’s going on. We go have a good meal. Yeah. We also go into the election division.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: we have three people on that would be the county clerk, Republican and a Democrat appointed those positions. And they’re accounting, you know, doing stuff. I take them introducing everybody in the clerk’s office, and they see how that’s going on. Yeah, the press usually shows up every time and does a special on these young people involved in politics.

David Martin: Right.

Tim Yocum: And so they get to see the whole process.

David Martin: Right. I was going to say I mean that’s that’s an incredible, you know, that’s an incredible day.

Tim Yocum: But you can’t but you can’t take anybody in and out polling places. Yeah. So I got the special exemption from the state of Indiana that gave me permission to do this.

David Martin: Right. Because they’re kids, they’re learning. They’re they’re not campaigning. Right, right. And there they are, I guess essentially kind of almost poll watchers.

Tim Yocum: Yeah. They’re like poll watchers.

David Martin: Right.

Tim Yocum: And so but they get experience of going in out every poll which you.

David Martin: And what’s the what’s the reaction like from the school from the from the community.

Tim Yocum: You know, it’s good. It’s always good. We won. Like I said, we won. that’s another program I talked briefly about two that.

David Martin: Takes in to talk about all the good government projects you.

Tim Yocum: Want. Okay, I’m gonna talk.

David Martin: Because we’re the good government. Yeah.

Tim Yocum: All right. So. But we take those students, and they get to actually see how government works that day during election.

David Martin: Okay?

Tim Yocum: They get to go to polling place and see how they, you know, the voting process and everything. And it just a complete picture of how voting works that day. Yeah. The other program we have is years ago during Todd Rokita administration, secretary of state, probably 12 years ago, we started program collection day live in a program. No one did anything with it, but I took it and I got it to the place where I had a stood.

The program is 16 half year old, seven year old kids can work the polls.

David Martin: All right. Okay. As poll workers, as checking in signing. You make checking your ID, checking your signature, helping you put your. I don’t know how you vote there, but how to assisting in the actual voting process.

Tim Yocum: That’s so. So what we did the program was for about State of Indiana, but then you had to go before election board. Yeah, it had to be unanimous decision by your local election board to to start the program.

David Martin: Okay. It was.

Tim Yocum: Passed. So we started this program for election Day Life and I started it. And how many students working? It’s not that the student works. The student gets paid even better. It’s got to have a permission slip by the parents.

David Martin: Yeah.

Tim Yocum: And the local school has got to let them out. And they get paid $175 working.

David Martin: Oh. That’s it. That’s what I said. And most schools are closed on election Day anyway.

Tim Yocum: I know ours not know.

David Martin: I’m in New York City. No election day schools are closed. Mostly because that’s where they do the voting.

Tim Yocum: Yeah. No, no. Open all.

David Martin: Day. So the big national election.

Tim Yocum: So what we do and then a student has to the big thing is to student. And when we talk to them we say listen you cannot miss this. No you can’t sleep in, you can’t call in sick because a sheriff’s going to come and get you.

David Martin: Because you maybe won’t be sitting up from the front seat that day. Maybe. So what are so what are the kids saying? What’s the feedback you get from them?

Tim Yocum: Well, they usually say it’s a long day. Sure, because they have to be there like 530 in the morning and they don’t get to leave till 6:00, and they’ve got to stay off their phones.

David Martin: Yeah. That’s that’s let’s kill them. Torment. Yeah.

Tim Yocum: But what time.

David Martin: Your polls close.

Tim Yocum: At 6:00.

David Martin: Oh, that’s £0.06.

Tim Yocum: 680 6 p.m. and we provide a meal. So there’s no reason for them to leave. But but it get they are actually there’s only one thing that cannot be in a poll. They cannot be a judge.

David Martin: Okay?

Tim Yocum: It can’t be a,

David Martin: A supervisor.

Tim Yocum: Yeah. They can’t be. They can’t be.

David Martin: That that that makes sense.

Tim Yocum: What is it? It’s not the judge. It’s the,

David Martin: I it’s the supervisor. The person who’s in charge of that.

Tim Yocum: They can’t be. They can work all the other place, all the polls, but they can’t operate in that.

David Martin: But what is it? What’s the feedback from them? You okay? It’s a long day, but what do they what do they think of the process? I mean, do you think youth, do you think that this program has helped kids feel like, oh, elections are free, are fair? Everything’s you know, I see how it works.

Tim Yocum: I think it lets them know there is a value of an election.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: That’s something we have right now. There’s so much people being say, well, my vote don’t count.

David Martin: Yes.

Tim Yocum: I ran for office in the city of Clinton. I lost by one vote.

David Martin: That’s rough.

Tim Yocum: And you know what he did?

David Martin: You voted for the other guy. No, no.

Tim Yocum: I they asked me if I was going to have a recount, and I said, there’s no way I want to file for a recount. I believe the process works and it does it right. Why should I debate it?

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: But then so, you know, you got to believe in the process. If you don’t believe in a process, then, you know, because people think my vote does not count.

David Martin: Yes.

Tim Yocum: And it does count.

David Martin: And you’re living proof I lost my what, bro? Yeah. but do they come away and say, oh, I see how elections work? Okay. Yeah, it is a fair process. It is. It does work.

Tim Yocum: I think they do. Because and also depends on what role they play during that election. If they are a judge or a clerk because, you know, they do different processes, they’re a different responsibilities. But that’s all been featured. If you Google this information, you’ll see where it’s all out there.

David Martin: All right. Well, I hear you’re doing good work for, getting students and youth, involved and excited about good government. So I want to find out what your thoughts are. A good government.

After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City. Former Mayors Kazeem Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter of Seattle, Delphia and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen.

Dot org slash podcasts.

So we have a questionnaire here. Are you ready? Are you? Yes, I’m right. you said three terms as county commissioner. Correct. And now you’re running for state office. Correct? Define good government.

Tim Yocum: Good government is open and transparent and communicate with people and concern and has responsibility to the voters.

David Martin: Okay. How do you judge your success or lack thereof, not just, you know, elections. That’s every four years, but week to week, day to day. How do you know if you’re doing a good job.

Tim Yocum: As far as county chairman in 2020, Vermin County has never had a complete election. There was always gaps in in in offices and not a complete field of the ballot. In 2020, I, as Republican chairman, searched and found highly qualified candidates, people who were educated, people who knew whatever they were been elected for. I put them all in those positions.

Remain county. I voted for 100%. every one I put on that ballot, it was a total sweep of the entire county. That was based on the work that I did to find people in that county that was good candidates. It could do something.

David Martin: Yeah, government. So on that day you felt like you done a good job. It was.

Tim Yocum: Amazing. It was crazy.

David Martin: Most of the other times, you know, when you don’t have big watershed events, how do you know if you’ve done a good job?

Tim Yocum: Well, I go back and look at the approval of the people.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: this last election, I was bombarded. I had filed lawsuits against me. It was a rough this election, it probably anyone ever went through in their life.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: And they was bound and determined. Since I had clean slate that I was arch enemy number one in our county. Yes, but I kept my mouth shut, and I won anyway.

David Martin: Okay. All right.

Tim Yocum: And so the approval of the people is to me, is still there, regardless of 10 or 12 people that.

David Martin: You know, if people feel like you’re not doing a good job or if anybody in government is not doing a good job, you know, not just elections, what should they do?

Tim Yocum: They should call up that person, talk to him directly.

David Martin: Yeah, I.

Tim Yocum: Have issues come up that have people have posted things on social media. I call them up and I say.

David Martin: Listen, you surprised.

Tim Yocum: Most time they.

David Martin: Are. Yeah.

Tim Yocum: But they they’re not they’re not used to that. Someone in authority calling him up and actually concern about what they think. And many times, even if they’ve posted things negative about I end up having a friend out that because, hey, he came and talked to me and he’s open and transparent.

David Martin: All right. What would you like to see people do if they don’t like the way things are going.

Tim Yocum: By vote, vote, there’s an answer to term limits. Everybody said about term limits I want to get rid term limits. Just vote them out. Yeah I mean it’s that simple.

David Martin: Yes.

Tim Yocum: I mean but there might be some people that are doing a great job and term limits gets rid of them. So I mean, you and some people have been in government long enough to, you know, they develop good things. Yeah. I mean relationships and and they can get things done where someone new coming in, they got to start all over.

David Martin: So vote. Yeah. again three terms as a county commissioner. What would you like people to know from the inside about government and how government works? What should they know that they don’t know?

Tim Yocum: Well, the whole perception of government don’t work is wrong.

David Martin: Well, that’s why we’re here at the Good Government Show to help that. So what can you add to this?

Tim Yocum: It’s just an open communication. When you when you see something happen in a community, many times your thoughts and what you think is not correct. And many times it’s motivated by people who just don’t like certain people being elected. Yeah, but what I encourage you to call that person up. If you got elected official, call him up and say, I just want to talk to you.

Go find out the facts. I started a new thing in in our county that I got one hour into my end of our meetings. I always have an open chair there and and I started as the open chair. Anybody out there at once come up and talk to me, because I have large sign of papers. And in anybody, if you have a question, come and ask me about it.

I will give you the facts and you can sit right beside me and talk to me anytime.

David Martin: You are out in the community. One of the things about county government is that it is, many people say it’s it’s the government. It’s closest to the people. Correct. Are you at the gas station? Are you at the baseball field? Are you at the football? The high school football game on Friday night? are you out and accessible and people stop?

Tim Yocum: You sure they’ll do it all the time. I even a local church. Yeah. Devote my time of giving into that and help them seen it that work.

David Martin: So? So after church, is it more about church or is it more about government?

Tim Yocum: Well, I try to stay out of that.

David Martin: You don’t want to bring.

Tim Yocum: Politics into into your church, but you you just tell what the facts are and then make the early termination.

David Martin: So who’s your political hero? Who do you look up to? Who inspired you? Who inspired me to do all this?

Tim Yocum: One day I walked to the local Sarah.

David Martin: One day. Yeah.

Tim Yocum: And Mrs. Church, she was there.

David Martin: This is.

Tim Yocum: Mrs. Churchy.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: Now she’s 96, okay. And she said, hey, you want to get involved in government politics? Her son was running for sure.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: And that’s what it all started.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: And what’s unique.

David Martin: Obviously Mrs. Churchy is influential. Oh, Mr..

Tim Yocum: She started.

David Martin: Me. Yeah. And what? So who is she? She is for those of us who don’t know her, she.

Tim Yocum: As I county chairman, she was my vice chairman at 90 some years old. She was the oldest one to be elected to city seat in probably history of Romaine County.

David Martin: Oh my gosh.

Tim Yocum: Yeah. She’s 90. She’s 96 now.

David Martin: all right. But she 60 years ago she could run for president.

Tim Yocum: But see what happened. It’s unique in her life. When I became county chairman, there was no Republicans elected any seat in her lifetime. Her husband was sheriff.

David Martin: Yeah. Remained.

Tim Yocum: County politics was Republican orientated. It all went away. I told her 20 years ago and I said, Lorena, I said in my lifetime, in your lifetime, I want you to see the return of Republican Party that night in 2020. We sit there and count the votes, and the votes come in. I told Marina, I said it.

David Martin: Happened, okay.

Tim Yocum: The return of the party.

David Martin: All right. so she is your missus. Church. You all right? it was this something you always aspired to be? What got you to get other than her? It was something you thought about. Did you, grow up wanting to be president of the United States? Well.

Tim Yocum: I always thought the world could be better. And a lot of people say you can’t change the world. However you can. It might be a small world, but you can’t change the world. You can make a difference in a future of a county, you know, and I you know, I worked in many, many different elections. I mean, Mike pence, a friend of mine, worked for Trump.

I went to Daniels. I went to all those over the years. I worked in all the campaigns. But my inspiration to me was I was start already doing things. I did a lot of community projects in the county. Yeah. I mean, I come own excavating business, and so I’d go out and do different projects in the county to help local organizations.

I loved doing.

David Martin: That. Yeah.

Tim Yocum: And when I did that, it got me to the front that people are saying, oh, you know, why don’t you go ahead and run for office? Because I was proven that, you know, in what I’ve done in in this problem we have today, if you’re not, you’re not a servant before you become elected, you’ll never be a servant to the people.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: All right. And have thing in local government, state government is we have people that get elected, a state government that go from here to state government. That’s not good. You need to go through the process. I’ve been through the process of local government. I know how county government works.

David Martin: Right.

Tim Yocum: So therefore, when I go to state government, I understand how it needs to work below me. It’s very important to know that.

David Martin: So I have never been to your town. I have never been to Northern Indiana. I think I was in Indianapolis once for about a day. take me out. Where are we going? What are we having? What’s the dish of, of, of, Vermilion County? What is it that everybody eat.

Tim Yocum: There you go to Clinton City. The Clinton Clay called, every year we have the, Little Italy festival.

David Martin: The World festival.

Tim Yocum: Little Italy.

David Martin: Say it again.

Tim Yocum: Little Italy festival in Little Italy.

David Martin: Okay. And I’m from Brooklyn. Be careful with Italian food.

Tim Yocum: So anyway, that’s a big deal, and I nothing. What I’ve started to is to first, race on the Wabash River. I started at four years ago.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: No one has navigated the Wabash River from from a standpoint of a an event.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: And I started that event four years ago. And it’s canoe and kayak race from Montezuma, Indiana to Clinton, Indiana. All right. The weekend before election.

David Martin: Weekend, we got off topic. Yeah. This is this sounds fun, but what do we have? In what. Let’s see.

Tim Yocum: What do we do? We would usually go eat something probably Italian. They’re in a local town okay. Or go up north and eat at, Covered Bridge restaurant of chicken and noodles. And. All right are our staple things that we all eat. Usually.

David Martin: Like what? What else were the staples of your county? That’s sort of out.

Tim Yocum: Cheeseburger and fries. Cheeseburger fries. Oh, I mean, that’s that’s,

David Martin: All right, that’s it. Basic stuff. Yeah. Okay. you’ve talked about a few projects. This is the good government show. We bring it back to good government. Tell me about a good government project you’re working on now. You’re excited about.

Tim Yocum: Good government project. Right now, I’m working on just a plane project.

David Martin: Yep.

Tim Yocum: Okay. we, currently have our Amlwch service, and we contracted out.

David Martin: Your ambulance service. Yes.

Tim Yocum: And so it’s a government subsidized because there’s not enough runs in our county. So we have to subsidize the service because larger and less service make enough runs that can make so sure, what we’ve done is I’ve just been working on for two years. developing two brand new Amlwch facilities for a county that will be there that we can own in, in, in the future if we contract out and what service, they don’t have to come find their own place.

There’s always a facility.

David Martin: Okay.

Tim Yocum: What was unique that just happened?

David Martin: and I would imagine that leads to quicker response time. Yes. Yeah.

Tim Yocum: And so but what happened is we took and and prime and county’s is I found out is they don’t dream they don’t they they’re not ready for things. They, they come along and they, they get a grant and they say, oh, I got a grant. I gotta go do something about it. Right. Well, I started what I’m starting to do now is we’re developing what we want our dream and having a design and setting on a shelf for future.

David Martin: So good long term planning.

Tim Yocum: Good long term. So why they did I design news to Amlwch facilities? I did it two years back and two years ahead of it’s ready grant money coming up. I mean there’s 5 million come from the state. So I, I got the design done everything. So what’s so unique about this is both we are north of south from Maine High School.

And they’re both on a main highway going to it through our county.

David Martin: Yep.

Tim Yocum: We talked last week with North a main school. North remains school gave us property on the very north side of their high school for new and was.

David Martin: Facility great.

Tim Yocum: With the South Vermillion.

David Martin: Yeah.

Tim Yocum: We talked to Fairview Town Board. They gave us permission to put one on their property right across from South. And so we have two new Alamos facilities are being funded, 50% and are both going right next to our high schools.

David Martin: Now, what you got to do is you got to have some Red cross classes and teach these kids to be, EMTs and medical technicians. Right. Tim Yocum, the president of the commission, County Commission of Vermillion County in Indiana, thank you for stopping by. And, hey, keeping these kids engaged, that is a great program, great project.

Tim Yocum: Hopefully we’ll find a future leaders of our county and our state and maybe of our nation.

David Martin: So in a couple of years time, the next guy I talked to will be one of your one of your mentees. Correct. Tim, thanks for stopping by.

Tim Yocum: Thank you.

David Martin: I want to tell you what our friends at the LA Academy of Science are doing. The City Academy is a national association for local health department data collectors. Through the Academy of Science, County health directors are coming together to measure their county health issues the same way. Here’s the problem. There are over 3000 counties in the U.S. and they all count differently.

We live in a data driven world. We need all the public health data to be counted the same. Let’s say you want to see if your community is overweight or vaping, or in other ways, less healthy than your neighboring counties. To determine this, you’ll need to measure these problems the same. You also have to ask the same questions, different results, but same data points.

LHC Academy is working with a National Center for Disease Control, creating a standard to count and collect data. The same way you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, they create the process and make sure everyone is looking at the information the same way. This means a county in Connecticut can compare their data with a county in California, it’s apples to apples.

Now with the Academy, counties and other governments are pooling resources and sharing data and creating a huge database library that means lower costs, more accurate results, and better information for everyone. Sound like a government, right? If this sounds like something you want to get for your county or your city, check them out at LA Academy of science.org. That’s HD Academy of science.org.

What is it the county government does? That’s the question county commissioners get asked the most. And the simple answer is everything on the good government show. We’re so lucky to have talked with so many county commissioners and other county officials that have shown us how effective county government is. County government dates back to get this 1634, making it one of the oldest forms of government in the United States.

Think about it. Roads. Highways. Hospitals. Schools. Recycling, law enforcement. Water, sewers, and most of the county. Those services are maintained by the county that’s county government. The National Association of Counties represents all 3069 counties across the USA. Naco helps county government work better together through things like sharing best practices. When county government works well, well, that’s just good government.

See, you can change the world, says Vermillion County Commission President Tim Yocum. But it just might be a small part of the world. But you can make a difference and it sounds like Tim is making a difference in the lives of future government leaders. We like that. I also like that his mentor, its local leader, Mrs. Churchy, who inspired him to get into government.

Find the facts. He says good advice and if you want the facts, there’s a chair right next to Tim Yocum at the next county Commission meeting. That’s our show. Please like us and share with your friends or viewers right here. We’re listening now and check out our website. Good government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling the stories of good government in action everywhere.

Join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is a good government show.

The Good Government show is a Valley Park production. Jim Ludlow, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder are the executive producers. Our show is edited and produced by Jason Stershic. Please subscribe then share us and like us and reviews. That’s the best way to make sure we’re able to keep telling these stories of our government working for all of us.

Then listen to the next episode of The Good Government Show.

**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.