Scott Tibbs
blog post
May 2^nd, 2005

Back to Archived blog posts.

• MCC takes Chris Gaal to task over a statement Gaal released on Social Security. While the post is well-written, I don't agree with MCC's conclusions. Gaal can certainly comment on what he believes is good or bad policy at the national level; being a City Councilor shouldn't prohibit that.
  
  I do think that some City Councilors spend too much time on state, national and international issues at the beginning of the meeting during "reports from council members". Members of the public should not have to sit through 45 or 90 minutes of a lecture on "peak oil", Interstate 69, or rutabaga subsidies in the Sudan before the City Council gets to the agenda items people are there to address. The City Council should either place a five minute limit on these comments or move them to the end of the meeting. City Council members should deal with agenda items before personal speeches.



• MCC is right in noting that State Representative Peggy Welch has alienated many Left-leaning Democrats with her votes on homosexual marriage. However, MCC is wrong when he says her district is "heavily influenced by the far left majority." District 60 is a solidly Republican district, though it became slightly less so after the boundaries were redrawn. Welch manages to get significant numbers of Republican votes in that district, and is probably the only Democrat who could win that seat.



• MCC raises an interesting question regarding the meetings of female elected officials put together by Regina Moore and Sue West. What happens when Iris Kiesling and Joyce Poling are both at one of those meetings? Having two of three County Commissioners constitutes a quorum. Poling and Kiesling will need to avoid discussing the business of the County Commissioners, as that would run afoul of Indiana's Open Door Law. I'm surprised (well, not really) that the Herald-Times has not asked that question.