An Editorial by John Estridge, the Fired Editor
Brookville Town Council President Curtis Ward and the rest of the present town council members either do not really grasp Indiana’s Open Door Law or they don’t care.
When elected officials take the oath of office they agree to uphold the Indiana Constitution. The Open Door Law is one of Indiana’s laws. The oath they take does not give them the option of picking and choosing which laws they will obey and which they will not.
At the February 9 Brookville Town Council meeting, Ward unleashed the Request for Proposals/Qualifications for a Town Hall. Nothing on the Request for Proposals/Qualifications for a Town Hall had ever been discussed in an open meeting.
No council member questioned the document or the project. It was approved in a unanimous, almost silent vote.
In answer to media questions at the February 23 BTC meeting, Ward said the “Proposals/Qualifications for a new Town Hall” came directly from an executive session.
“We needed more information on it so we thought the most efficient way to do that was through the (Proposals/Qualifications for a Town Hall).”
Another Ward comment at the Feb. 23 meeting about what came out of the executive session was whether there was a need for a new town hall.
Ward said after the proposal at the executive session, there has been discussion by council members if there is a need “for that specific project.” Again, that did not occur in a public meeting.
BTC members held an executive session on January 26. Apparently, it was about the property in question. And it is OK for a government entity to have an executive session on that subject and other subjects specifically defined by the law.
I said this in the last editorial I wrote on the subject, and it can be said again:
The executive session on January 26 was 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).
Read that closely. It does not say to talk about the need or lack of need for a town hall. It does not say to talk about the need for Proposals/Qualifications for a new Town Hall. It does not say anything about setting out a timeline for the planning, designing and building of a new town hall. Those subjects should have been presented in open meetings before Brookville’s residents, citizens and taxpayers – the people who will ultimately be paying the bills. It should not have been done in the darkness, behind closed doors, in the proverbial smoke-filled room.
Anyone who attended that meeting, who did not have the courage or the fortitude to stand up and to say to the council members in that room that what they were doing was illegal and a direct slap in the face of their constituents is as culpable as the council members. That is especially true if they too are an elected official who took the same oath.
In the last editorial, I ended the editorial with four paragraphs, which I believe means more now than it did then.
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 of 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?
Before signing off, I want to reiterate another statement from the last editorial: I am neither for nor against the proposed new town hall. As council member Eric Johnson said at the Feb. 23 meeting, I do not have enough information. It may very well be a wonderful addition to the town and its taxpayers. I am just against the illegal means to get to an end.
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