Scott Tibbs
Democrats are responsible for their own policies
By Scott Tibbs, October 12, 2020
Since the 2008 election, Democrats have held a 3-0 majority on the county commissioners and a 6-1 majority on the county council. (Democrats captured the 6-1 council majority in 2006.) Therefore, every single policy from both bodies since then is 100% from the Democrats. This brings me to a comment on my letter to the editor where I again suggested moving commissioner meetings to the evenings:
Perhaps Mr. Tibbs hasn't lived here as long as I have, and is not aware that the schedule of meetings as presently held is basically the same schedule that existed when the Republicans held all the elected offices in Monroe County.
I have never once denied that Republicans and Democrats were both responsible for holding meetings at a time when working people cannot attend. Both parties have been guilty of this. In fact I explicitly said this in my November 13, 2008 letter to the editor:
County government meeting times have excluded ordinary people from participating for many years, when the council and commissioners were controlled by both Democrats and Republicans. It is time for that to change.
If you have a library card, you can read it here:
http://ow.ly/vfJI30rdyzG
But while Republicans have held daytime meetings when they were in power, every single meeting held during the daytime for the last 11 years is 100% on the Democrats. I blamed that policy on the Democrats because the Democrats have a monopoly on the county's administrative/legislative body.
In addition to my November 2008 letter, I wrote a guest editorial in August 2012 calling for evening meetings, which generated follow-up several articles in the H-T. I made meeting times an issue when I ran for Bloomington City Council in 2015 and when I ran for Perry Township Board in 2018. I have been advocating for better policy on this issue for a long time.
Have Republicans acted badly on this issue in decades past? Yes. They were wrong. But Republicans have not been in power since Democrats took a 2-1 majority on the Board of Commissioners in the 2006 election. In fact, a Republican candidate for commissioner committed to evening meetings in 2012. This is not a "both sides" issue any more and has not been for a long time. For nearly 14 years, the fact that county commissioner meetings have been at a time when working people cannot attend is on the Democrats.
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