This story has been updated.
GREENFIELD — After three years on the Greenfield City Council, Keely Butrum is hoping to bring her financial expertise and independent voice to the Hancock County Council.
Butrum is one of five candidates running for three at-large seats in the Republican primary. Other candidates are incumbent Kent Fisk and Robin Lowder, Kirk Jocham and Ray Richardson. (A story about Fisk appeared in the Tuesday, Feb. 18, edition of the Daily Reporter. Stories on the other candidates will appear later this week.)
Butrum became a city council member for District 3 in 2017, after the death Councilman John Patton.
“I was already entertaining the idea of running for the city council seat in the next election, which would have been four years out. I had talked to several people about doing that when John Patton passed unexpectedly,” Butrum said. “So that created the caucus opportunity. John Patton had encouraged me to run for that seat, and so I without question threw my name in that hat.”
She did not seek a full term in the 2019 council election and left the council at the end of the year.
Butrum has been a financial planner for 15 years and recently started her own business. She said that experience has prepared her well for many aspects of local government service, especially the budgeting process.
“I really enjoy being an independent thinker, assessing situations and possibilities and alternatives, and trying to be a problem-solver and make the best choices for both the short- and long-term,” Butrum said. “That is a lot of what happens on the city council.”
Her financial expertise, she said, was also a major reason why she wanted to run for county council.
“I really wanted a seat at the table in that discussion,” she said.
Butrum said her accomplishments on the city council included refining the council’s process for allocating funds to nonprofits so that the most essential and operationally stable organizations were receiving funding. That also involved placing a cap on the percentage of the city’s economic development funds that could be granted to nonprofits.
“There was not an official cap, and as the community grows and we have more nonprofits and more citizens to serve and more evolving social needs, I wanted to see something in place where there was a limit,” Butrum said. “I felt like implementing a cap that would carry on to future councils was the smart thing to do financially for the taxpayers.”
Butrum said she was also proud of occasions when she expressed views that differed from the rest of the city council. For example, she was the sole vote on the council against an ordinance banning archery within city limits.
“I’ve stood on my principles regardless of being in the minority,” she said.
More recently, Butrum advocated for Greenfield to adopt less restrictive policies relating to beekeeping within city limits. She voted against an ordinance that regulates the number and location of hives on a person’s property and that also required beekeepers to register with the city.
“I don’t believe people need their government’s permission for this,” Butrum said at the time, calling the registration “totally unnecessary” and “highly unusual.”
“I have a tendency to want to preserve citizens’ freedoms unless doing so is not to the interests of the citizens of the community,” Butrum said.
Current county council and former Greenfield city council member said Jim Shelby said Butrum’s experience in finance and city government would make her a good fit for the office she’s seeking.
“She’s a pleasant person, very energetic and aggressive and she seems to really know her financial stuff,” Shelby said.
As a member of the county council, Butrum said, she would aim to keep taxes as low as possible by implementing smart financial strategies.
“I believe that we should always be reassessing what is, not in the pursuit of significant change at every turn, but just to make sure that something that made sense at one time still makes sense today. As a community we grow, as a society our expectations and needs change, and I do feel at all levels of government that it’s common that we add to the restrictions and the ordinances, the things that put limitations on people, and that we should be open to revisiting whether those things still make sense or whether some things merit consideration of change along the way,” she said.
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Age: 35
Party: Republican
Office sought: County council (at large)
Political experience: Three years on Greenfield City Council
Family: Husband Brandon, one stepchild, one child
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The Daily Reporter is presenting profiles of candidates whose names will appear on the primary ballot for county offices. These stories will run periodically over the coming weeks leading up to the primary election on May 5.
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