St. Joseph County Council’s Dan Schaetzle says he sees public service less as politics and more as problem-solving. In a sit-down interview with Redress South Bend, the District C councilman spoke about county priorities in Granger, his work as a Penn High School teacher, and why he says he wants to continue serving St. Joseph County.
Q: In a few words, who is Dan Schaetzle, and what drives you personally and professionally?
A: I want to be known as a Christian man. I want to be known as a loving, caring father and husband. Those are two really driving forces in my life.
I also want to be known as someone who cares about his community, and I think my work reflects that. I’m a teacher at Penn High School. I tell my students from the beginning of the year that my job is not just to teach U.S. history, but also to help them become the amazing human beings they’re intended to be. I really approach the job that way.
I’m also a small business owner, and that gives me an opportunity to contribute to the community in another way. I hate to call myself a politician because I don’t think of myself as one, but I am someone who wants to use government to improve the quality of life in my community.
Q: What initially inspired you to run for public office, and how has that motivation stayed with you over the years?
A: It was pretty simple. The road I lived on was in terrible shape. It had not been redone in 25 years, and I had been pressing my elected representatives, who were Republicans, to get it fixed. It wasn’t happening.
Then Zach Potts came to me and said, “Dan, Mr. Pfeil is not going to run again for his seat as county councilman for District C. Would you be interested?” I thought this was a way I could get my road fixed, win this district, and then lobby from a position with a little more power. Mr. Pfeil changed his mind and decided to run again, so I had to primary him for the seat.
Q: You’ve faced both challenges and successes in your current term. What motivated you to pursue re-election in 2026?
A: When I ran for election in 2022, I knocked on 6,000 doors, 3,000 for the primary and 3,000 for the general, and many of those doors more than once. I kept a list of what people wanted us to get done, a top 10 list.
We have accomplished most of those things. However, we still have some left to accomplish, and I would like to win again so I can complete what my constituents asked me to do.
Q: What were some of the top issues people wanted addressed?
A: Three or four things really jumped out. One was the leaf pickup program. There were a lot of complaints about that, and we got that straightened out. We took the president of the company that handles our leaf pickup aside and said, “Look, you’re going to have to do better.” He showed us some ways they could improve, they implemented those changes, and people are happier now with the leaf pickup program.
Another was snow plowing. We’re building a new half-county highway garage in central Granger, in an industrial area, and that central location will allow us to do a better job of getting to all the subdivisions in Granger. So we’re addressing that.
Another issue was economic development. People want to see their kids stay here or come back after college. We’ve addressed that by approving projects through rezoning, including projects like Microsoft, GM, Samsung, and Amazon, to try to bring tax dollars and jobs into the community.
And of course, Anderson Road Park was something people really wanted to see built.
Q: Why was the Anderson Road Park project so important to you and your community?
A: The county parks department has owned 115 acres on Anderson Road for 25 years, and no council had been willing to fund building the park.
Every councilman before me in District C was unable to get the funding. People wanted to have a county park in Granger, and I saw it as a challenge to do something my predecessors had been unable to do, which was secure the funding for the park.
I also think it mattered to residents because they did not want to have to drive so far to get to a county park. They knew the land was already bought and wanted to see the county come through.
Q: As a high school teacher and sponsor of the school’s Republican Club, how do you try to inspire and engage young Hoosiers in civic and political life?
A: The way we do it is by discussing national and international events. We bring in elected officials to talk about their jobs. Before the end of the last school year, we had Tony Hazen and Lou Ann Hazen come in and talk about being a Mishawaka city councilwoman and a county commissioner. Sometimes we also go to events. They have been to our Lincoln Day dinner in the last several years. We do those things to help get them politically interested.
I think it’s hard to inspire kids today to get politically interested because they see adults as being rather inept politically. We fight with each other and don’t get things done, and that is not lost on teenagers. Most teenagers want nothing to do with politics because adults are showing a very bad example.
Q: You mentioned your time abroad earlier. Can you talk about that and how it shaped your perspective?
A: I was able to get a scholarship after finishing undergraduate school to study at the Free University in Berlin, which was called the Free University because it was in West Berlin as opposed to Communist East Berlin. I studied there right after the Berlin Wall came down, so it was a very interesting period.
I spent some time in Germany, and then I was a teacher for seven years in South Korea. That’s where I met my wife, and we married there. It was a very interesting period for me because I got to travel all over Asia. Korean culture is amazing. People are incredibly friendly. They love Americans because we were so important in helping preserve their freedom from the Communist North, and I was treated extremely well there.
Q: How did those experiences affect the way you think about the United States and its government?
A: There are a lot of different forms of democracy in the world. What we have that is different from most of them is such a high level of personal freedom.
In Germany, they have democracy, but when you’re in middle school you’re tracked toward a career. To me, that is an elimination of freedom because you do not have the freedom to move outside that track. In South Korea, they also have democracy, but they have a national health care system that is extremely expensive for employers. That eliminates the opportunity for many people to start businesses because they cannot afford the cost. There are different things in other democracies that curtail individual freedom, and I think we, for the most part, do not allow those things to happen in this country.
Q: Looking back on your time in office so far, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: I think getting the funding for the Anderson Road Park would be right at the top. My fellow Republicans fought me for two and a half years, really out of personal spite. Because of dislike for me personally, they decided they were not going to allow anything to happen in my district, and they basically told me that, and told other people that. So I had to work some political capital with the Democrats and was able to secure the funding by working with them, with our economic development adviser, and with the commissioners. That is one of my proudest accomplishments.
I think getting the highway facility into an industrial area is another one of my better accomplishments because we first proposed putting it by the park, and there was a public outcry against that. I listened to the public, and we did not put the garage next to the park. We found a better-suited place for it. I think that shows I listen to my constituents.
Q: What advice would you give to someone considering a career in public service?
A: You better have a thick skin, because the people you may expect will be your allies sometimes will not be. That is when you have to have the thickest skin. When the shots are coming from what you think is your own team, those are the hard ones to take.
Q: What do you hope your legacy will be as a public servant?
A: I was taught by my family that we leave a place better than when we got there. I want my legacy to be that Granger and St. Joe County are better places to live, and that the quality of life is higher because Dan Schaetzle got some things done.
Q: As of today, is Dan a Republican?
A: Dan is a Republican, and Dan has been a Republican for some 40-some years.
Q: And as far as Republican principles and beliefs?
A: Absolutely. I believe in efficient government. I believe in balanced budgets. I think government should be as small as we can keep it and still provide the basic things government should provide.
I’m pro-life. I’m pro-Second Amendment. I think I check off all the boxes.
Q: Is there anything you’d like to share with your constituents that we haven’t covered today?
A: Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, if you’re pleased with the progress we’ve made over the last two and a half years here in Granger, I encourage you to get out and vote because it’s going to be a contentious election, and we need people to get out and vote.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster founded Redress South Bend and reports on local government and public records in South Bend and St. Joseph County. He is 31 years old and is majoring in finance. He is a Cleveland sports fan and a longtime season ticket holder of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
