Images: John Nelson, Mike Barber’s Aldermanic Facebook page
Mayor John Nelson’s nomination to the Joint Review Board changed Thursday night.
A few days ago, the Economic Development Commission (EDC) agenda had a letter from Nelson nominating Cathleen “Cathy” Richard to be the public member representation on the powerful Joint Review Board (JRB). As discussed in a previous post, the JRB is responsible for overseeing the creation of tax incremental districts (TIDs), and has members representing the various taxing bodies in a municipality, with one public member.
While nominations normally haven’t received much (if any) fanfare, recent public attention to JRBs in the region has created more focus on who serves and their actions. Enter Richard’s nomination, which created blowback from several residents and a community news website/Facebook page. The issue with Richard has been her social media remarks on various posts, including posts from this website on Facebook.
After the controversy, Nelson’s nomination of Richard was withdrawn and instead former Alderman Mike Barber was given to the JRB for consideration. Barber represented the 5th Aldermanic District between 2016 and 2025 – the same district that TID #10, Poth’s General, is being looked at for final approval of creation by the JRB.
In a letter to the JRB, Nelson states that Richard, “informed me that she will be unable to fulfill the duties of this post” – hence the nomination of Barber. Reaching out to Richard about Barber’s nomination, she replied, “I love Mike. He’s my buddy. So happy it is him.” She went on to highlight Mike’s good nature as an individual and highlighted volunteer service with the Franklin Noon Lions.
As of right now the JRB will have Barber, along with former Mayor and recent write-in candidate for Mayor, Steve Olson to consider for the public member slot. Of note is the community news website/Facebook page that targeted Richard’s remarks and questioned Nelson’s nomination of her also supported Olson’s write-in bid for Mayor and has been a heavy, frequent critic of the Nelson Administration. Additionally, Olson himself posted in the comments section of the post criticizing Richard, sharing the nomination letter from Nelson to the JRB.
If there are any other interested parties in serving as the public member, the JRB meets on May 6th at 4pm at Franklin City Hall to consider applicants and appoint the member. To put in an application, the city’s form can be found at this link.
UPDATE 5/1/26 2:08pm – A clarification to above remarks regarding former Mayor Steve Olson’s decision to post Mayor Nelson’s letter in the comments section of a social media post that was critical of Nelson’s nomination of Cathleen “Cathy” Richard: Olson posted Nelson’s letter for informational purposes.
The conclusion that the post (in which Olson posted Nelson’s letter in the comments section for informational purposes) was critical of Nelson’s nomination of Richard is based off of wording by the post itself. The post asks Mayor Nelson, “Is this the best you could find to represent Franklin?” It then highlights several comments by Richard, which then on the right-hand side states, “Unfit to represent our community”. On the lower left-hand side, the post asks, “Is this the kind of person you want making decisions and representing our community?”
When asked directly about his opinion on Richard’s nomination, Olson did provide the following response:
“I absolutely have an opinion that her behavior disqualifies her as a representative of the City of Franklin in any capacity. I am doubtful that she has the experience with economic development and tax incremental financing that I do but I have not seen her resume.”