By Sam Elliott
Zionsville’s Tim Haak has been a member of town council for eight years and has served as that entity’s president and vice president during his time there, but beginning in January there will be a new role to add to his résumé.
Haak was sworn in Jan. 4 as Zionsville’s first elected mayor in the town’s history. His predecessor, Jeff Papa, took on the job in an interim capacity June 2 — the same day a Court of Appeals panel ruled Zionsville could merge with Perry Township and thus restructure its government — and has helped with the town’s transitional phase the past six months while establishing the role.
“Tim is going to be an excellent mayor, and I think he’s going to really get a lot accomplished in his four-year term,” Papa said. “He’s got everything up and running and a good quality council to work with and a good place to start from. He’s going to do great things.”
In his day job, Haak is a director of mid-cap strategy for the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
“I’ve had 15 years of banking experience and business development and finance,” he said. “Those skills will transfer over pretty easily to the role of mayor, and we’ve got the right town staff on board. They’re the experts at what they do, so I’m relying on them to help push us all forward.”
Haak said his profession has him well prepared for helping Zionsville reach its goal of an 80-20 percentage breakdown of residential and commercial tax revenue by 2020. An exact update on those numbers won’t be available until the spring, but Haak estimates the town has gotten its residential percentage below 90 percent — down from above 95 percent when the goal was implemented.
“My biggest goal is to continue our economic growth,” Haak said. “We’re making a lot of progress, but we’ve got to finish it out. We’re getting a lot of interest in Creekside Corporate Park and Ripberger Corporate Park, and now is the right time for those parks to be online, and I want to find the right tenants there that will fit Zionsville. That will be my first focus.”
Outside of Zionsville’s two successful reorganizations — with Union and Eagle Townships in 2010 and Perry Township this year — during his tenure, Haak said the other highlight of his time on the town council was extending South Main Street with development including Bub’s Burgers plus corporate offices for FedEx and Hat World relocating to the town.
“Once we got FedEx and Hat World progressing, the phone’s started ringing fairly regularly, and you’ll see some more announcements in the near future with some very nice companies coming to town,” he said.
Haak was president of the Zionsville Town Council in 2012 after serving as vice president the previous year — experience he’s sure will come in handy in his new role.
“It makes you appreciate how much the workload is,” Haak said. “Being council president can easily be a full-time job, so that really convinced us that the mayor role was needed. For a town like Zionsville — with a $23 million budget and 25,000 people and 115 employees — not having a mayor is like a major corporation without a CEO. That’s what the mayor is.
“It’s going to be different,” he added. “Zionsville’s obviously never had a mayor before, so we’re working through that transition right now, and I think everybody’s excited.”
Meet Mayor Haak
Favorite pastime: Fishing with my kids
Favorite local restaurant: Salty Cowboy and Cobblestone Grill
Favorite color: Blue
Age: 47
Birthplace: Carbondale, Ill.
Favorite vacation location: Camp Brosius located on Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Family: Wife, Leah, and sons, Charlie and Sam
Place of work: Town of Zionsville
Place of worship: Zionsville Presbyterian Church
Car he drives: Jeep
Most DVRd TV show: Modern Family
Motto to live by: “‘Do unto others…’ You can’t go wrong with the Golden Rule.”
Early morning riser or night owl?: Night owl
