Clark County Democratic Party Chair Tom Galligan said Barbara Hollis’ years on the Clark County Council are a testament to her commitment to the community.
Hollis, the Democratic President of the Clark County Council, died Monday at age 80. At the time of her death, she had served more than two decades on the council.
“The reason she was able to serve so long was because she did such a good job,” Galligan said. “She served her constituents well — if they had questions, she’d answer them and if they had concerns, she’d deal with them.”
Hollis was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina and moved to Jeffersonville in 1980, according to her obituary. In 1984, she started work at the Jeffersonville Clerk-Treasurer’s Office, retiring as chief deputy in 2011.
Her colleagues on the council say the job gave her valuable experience when she joined county government. The board is the fiscal body of the county. Responsibilities include approving annual budgets of county government offices and establishing salaries for county officials and employees.
They also say she worked well with colleagues and was well respected. They say she led with fairness and objectivity, and avoided partisanship.
Kevin Vissing is in his fourth term on the council, and worked with Hollis for more than 15 years. He served his first three terms as a Democrat then switched parties a few years ago because he didn’t agree with the way the national party was heading.
“She was a great one,” he said, adding that Hollis, while on the quiet side, “always knew what to say and when to say it.
“She was a friend as well as a council person. And you could call her and talk to her about anything and she would always give you a good, intelligent answer. So we’ll miss her.”
He and others also said it’s notable that Hollis was reelected so many times as council president, even when the board majority switched to Republican a little over a decade ago.
“That just goes to show how much we thought of her,” longtime Republican council member Brian Lenfert said. He said he’s served on the council since 2011, other than taking two years off.
He said when he first took office, he knew very little about local government finance, a position he said a lot of people are probably in when they start. He said he learned a lot from Hollis’ expertise.
“Barbara Hollis brought me under her wing and taught me all the complicated details, the complicated nuances of local government finance,” he said. “...She’s the one that gave me the master’s degree-level education of local government finance when I was first elected.”
Her son, Maj. Todd Hollis with the Jeffersonville Police Department, said as much as his mother was loved and respected by the community, she was even more so by her family.
“She was the matriarch,” he said. “She was the glue that bound us all together, and she had been that way for a long time.”
In July, the family threw a surprise party for Hollis’ 80th birthday. Todd Hollis said his mother was overwhelmed with the expressions of love, and that he’s grateful they were able to do that while she was healthy. A few weeks later, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“In her normal, optimistic way, she took this thing on with a great attitude and a fighting spirit and that spirit infected us all,” he said.
When she died Monday, she was surrounded by her family.
Hollis said his mother was a giver, who celebrated everyone’s achievements.
“She was a person who believed in the power of kindness, and she lived that way,” he said. “She gave respect to all and kindness and comfort to everyone she ever came across.”
He said this made her a natural public servant. He said she was both proud and humble at the same time — proud of the work that she did, and humbled to be selected to do it.
“She took it very seriously,” he said. “She never did anything half-heartedly. She would pore over the decisions that she had to make as a member of that council, and she would always make the decision she felt was in the best interest of the people that she was elected to represent.”
Galligan, the Clark County Democratic Party chair, called her contributions to the community “tremendous.”
“That’s why she served. She was selfless…she didn’t do anything for herself,” he said. “She did it for the community.”
Galligan expects to call a caucus within the next month, to select a person to serve out the remainder of Hollis’ term, which ends in 2026. That will likely be after the general election.
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