An Editorial by John Estridge
Tuesday night, February 9, Brookville Town Council President Curtis Ward read and received a unanimous vote to issue a Request for Proposals/Qualifications for a town hall.
It is on a fast track with the bids from prospective companies to do the entire project from design to funding and looking at possible building sites or inspecting empty buildings to remodel to be opened on March 3. Construction is to begin this summer.
And it may be a very good thing to have a new town hall. On the Facebook post where I advertised my article on my blog concerning BTC’s actions on the request, Ward responded to posters saying remodeling an empty building would be nice and saying he heard there is a pending offer on the former Elsie Dreyer Nursing Home.
Again, that may be a wonderful thing. My problem and I think a lot of other people’s problem with this is the Feb. 9 meeting is the first any taxpayers heard of it, and it seems the project is a fait accompli. There has not been one word of discussion about it by town council members in an open meeting, which is required by law, unless each member has an ESP ability and they send mental waves to each other all the time.
After Ward read the request, there was not one word of discussion. I believe if I were on town council and hearing for the first time there was going to be a new town hall, and it should be under construction in less than six months, I would be brimming over with questions. That means, I presume, those people on council knew all about the project.
I looked back at my notices for executive sessions. There was one on a January 26 for an executive session for The purchase or lease of real property by the governing body up to the time a contract or option to purchase or lease is executed by the parties. It is from Indiana Code 5-14-1.5-6.1(b)(2)(D).
Indiana codes on executive sessions are literal for a reason. There are few gray areas where open meetings and executive sessions are involved. In an executive session, the public cannot sit in and hear what is going on. And I agree with the use of executive sessions for the reasons spelled out in Indiana Code.
But the Indiana Code for the purchase and lease of real property… that does not include elected officials talking about a multi-million dollar project to build a new town hall.
If they brewed up this project in an executive session, and I really don’t believe any of the town council members do possess ESP, they broke Indiana law. More importantly, they broke a trust with the taxpayers. We are the people who elected them, pay their salaries and it is our hard-earned money that is going to pay for that town hall.
It may be that they believe the average taxpayer is too slow and stupid to see the big picture. Brooke Leffingwell wanted to cut out public participation because it became “a circus.” Her friends laughed at it in their discussions after meetings she attended. I don’t believe she was accusing present and past town council members on being the clowns.
When Leffingwell made her motion to not allow public participation, there was no discussion about it either. Again, I felt strongly that night, as did other reporters covering that meeting, the matter was well discussed behind closed doors, through emails, messenger or group texts prior to the open meeting
I have the feeling with these council members, more than any other representatives from any other government entities I have ever dealt with in my more than 30 years in the business, they are terribly, terribly condescending to the taxpayers. They are the elite, the knowledgeable, the mental giants and maybe even — at least to themselves — they have an aura of omnipresence, and we need to get out of their way.
They know what is best for us, and they are going to do what is best for us, according to them. How did we even get by before?
https://www.riversidecandleandco.com/
Thank you John!
I told Curtis Ward what I thought of him when he became the newest leader of the Town Board. Wake up people and get involved.