The council: five seats, four wards and the town at large

WARD ORDINANCE DECEMBER 1982 · RESTATED BY ORDINANCE 2002-08, SEPTEMBER 3, 2002 · THE PRESIDENCY ANCHORED 2015–2019 BY THE STATE AUDIT

Walkerton's council is a five-member body, and its shape is written in the town code. Section 11.01 of the Walkerton Town Code fixes five members, elected — as Indiana Code 36-5-2-5 permits — both by ward and at large by the voters of the whole town. Wards 1 through 4 are residency wards, their boundaries laid out in the code in metes and bounds; Ward 5 is not a district on the map at all but the whole town itself, the at-large member's constituency, and the 2002 restatement of the section (Ordinance 2002-08, passed September 3, 2002, restating an ordinance first passed in December 1982) drops Ward 5's boundary text for exactly that reason. The presidency, the town's executive office, is anchored in the State's paper at both ends of the last decade. The State Board of Accounts' audit of the town for January 1, 2016 – December 31, 2018 prints a Schedule of Officials naming Karol S. Jackson as Council President for a term of January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2019, and the Board's 2015 supplemental compliance report carries her presidency from January 1, 2015 — Jackson presided from the start of 2015 through the end of 2019, and she sits in 2026 as a member, in the current-seats entry below. The presidency between her term's end and 2026 was not dug out of the sources reached and rides as GAP-WKGOV-7, settled by the town's minutes and the State Board of Accounts' later schedules. The council's longest-serving current member reached the body a generation earlier: Gene Reese has sat on the council since January 1990, a tenure the 2026 election entry takes up whole, because it ended there.

Sources:

1. Walkerton Town Code, § 11.01 (American Legal Publishing code library, crawled November 9, 2026): five members; IC 36-5-2-5 election by ward and at large; Wards 1–4 in metes and bounds; Ward 5 as the whole town; the December 1982 origin and Ordinance 2002-08 (September 3, 2002).
2. Indiana State Board of Accounts, audit report, Town of Walkerton, January 1, 2016 – December 31, 2018 (WebReports B54184), Schedule of Officials: Karol S. Jackson, Council President, 01-01-16 to 12-31-19.
3. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Supplemental Compliance Report, Town of Walkerton (2015) (WebReports B48074): Jackson's presidency from 01-01-15.
4. Redress South Bend, candidate profile of Gene Reese (April 30, 2026): council service since January 1990.