An editorial by John Estridge
Most governmental entities in the country, state and especially in the Whitewater Valley encourage active public participation.
It is because of the public, those who sit on town councils, county councils, county commissions and other elected offices, are there. And those people who are elected to the entities spend the money derived from the public’s taxes.
Brookville Town Council members unanimously eliminated that option during its first meeting of 2021. Now, the public, the taxpayers, must submit their questions in writing and/or by email to the administration building by the end of the business day on the Mondays preceding the Tuesday BTC meetings, the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month.
Unfortunately for the public, the BTC agenda is not published until the afternoon of the Tuesday meetings. Therefore, the public does not know what the topics will be. Any questions will have to be about subjects brought up at prior meetings two to four weeks prior to when they will be answered. Also, there cannot be any follow-up questions by the members of the public. It is not a good scenario for give and take between elected officials and those who elected them and who pay taxes.
The rules make the new process overly bulky and difficult for the taxpaying public, putting unneeded obstacles before taxpayers seeking information.
Many times media members ask clarification questions near the meetings’ end at all governmental meetings. With BTC, that is no longer possible which may result in incorrect or incomplete information coming out of the meetings for public consumption.
Within the Whitewater Valley, every governmental entity allows questions during the meetings. Some like the Franklin County Community School Corporation Board of Trustees, regulate when the questions can be asked during the meeting. There is a time at the meeting’s beginning for the public and for the FCCSC employees. It is also an unwritten rule the school board members usually do not answer the questions but take them under advisement. However, there have been exceptions to that rule.
Every governmental entity in Union County is very liberal with public participation. Usually, only a hand raised is enough for the president of whatever board is in session to acknowledge someone from the crowd who has a question at virtually any time during the meetings.
That is also the way Franklin County Commissioners and Franklin County Council operate their meetings.
With both Union County governmental entities and the Franklin County Commissioners and county council, those public officials try to answer the questions or tell the questioners they will get back to them with an answer. Point in fact is the recent exchange about the proposal to adopt Infrastructure Development Zones in Franklin County at the FC Commissioners’ meeting.
This zone allows utility companies to have a personal property tax exemption for infrastructure put in place within the next six years for broadband high-speed internet.
Sara Duffy and Mildred Simmermeyer, both FC residents and taxpayers, questioned the commissioners on how much potential tax revenue the commissioners will not collect if the ordinance for the zones were passed.
Commissioners did not know the answer, but promised at the meeting to contact the Franklin County Assessor to determine the amount. In that instance, the commissioners were unable to come up with a concrete figure because the Franklin County Assessor told them the personal property taxes for utilities are determined and collected at the state level. Those monies collected by the state are then disseminated to the counties, which in turn, disseminate them to townships and schools.
However, the commissioners gave it an honest effort and publicly announced the situation at their very next meeting.
I have been covering governmental entities’ meetings for more than 35 years. My first governmental meeting was Brookville Town Council back in the 1980s. Even then, BTC members allowed questions during the meetings. At that point, there were four media members covering BTC meetings. They represented the Brookville Democrat, Connersville News Examiner and WRBI. I was with the Richmond Palladium-Item at that time.
Sometimes, the council members did not like the questions we asked, but they came up with answers or, like the FC commissioners did recently, completed the research and came back with answers at a subsequent meeting.
BTC President Curtis Ward lectured those at the January 12 BTC meeting, both in person and on Zoom, concerning Indiana’s Open Door Law. It states in a public meeting, the public has a right to be present but does not have the right to make comments or ask questions. Those privileges are at the discretion of the governmental entity.
Sometime in the past I had a conversation with the Hoosier State Press Association’s venerable attorney Stephen Key concerning that very subject. Steve said the no comment clause is the letter of the law, but it is rarely enforced because it is not very smart for governmental entities to do that as it sews distrust and discord among those paying the taxes.
Potential distrust brings up the next point concerning BTC’s action on the question situation. The entire sequence seemed well choreographed. Another reporter and myself discussed that after the January 12 meeting. We believe, and I emphasize here, we cannot prove, but we strongly believe, town council members had communicated with each other about the question situation prior to the meeting.
This is illegal under the Open Door Law Ward quoted and apparently knows.
The Open Door Law’s other name is the Sunshine Law. Governmental entities should embrace the sunshine in all their respective actions. Thus, governmental entities should strive to be transparent. BTC members in their action and what it seems happened prior to the meeting are opaque. And that is not good for the town’s residents and taxpayers.