After MRC Director Jeff Howe refused to provide a copy of his contract to members of the Redevelopment Commission, the contract in question has been posted online. This comes after an MRC meeting last month, where Howe not only told commission member Andrew Dale he would need to get a copy through City Hall rather than him directly, but grew defensive on the topic. Local community advocate Brad King posted Howe’s contract and several other of his own public documents requests on his own blog. The contract states that Howe is paid on a monthly basis. He previously was an appointed commissioner and president of the MRC, and his current role was held by Mayor Dan Ridenour prior to February.
Page 1 of “Professional Services Contract.”
Andrew Dale on the May 16th meeting asked Howe if his compensation was full-time or part-time and how he was compensated, which led to Howe answering “I get paid to do the job.” After a few minutes of escalation, commissioner Zane Bishop asked Howe not to overwhelm Human Resources by pushing Dale to make it a formal request, and to instead forthrightly provide a copy.
Another MRC meeting was held yesterday morning, comparatively more polite. Isaac Miller went on to say he was frustrated that the council didn’t see the commission as transparent, shortly thereafter Mr. Dale suggested Miller be more proactive in providing updates to the council.
Brad King is also advocating for a new ordinance for better transparency, with a presentation titled “Open Government” available that outlines the draft. The proposed ordinance is advocating for a transparency hub/dashboard portal, improved prior notice of public meetings, and codifying FOIA/APRA requests. King writes: “Because of the combative nature of the City of Muncie has with sharing information with all citizens, (even elected officials and members of the City’s board and commission have had to APRA request public documents) I have drafted an ordinance to mandate a duty to share public data, documents, and information.”
Pages 2-7.