MUNCIE, Ind. — The Muncie Land Bank initiated a process to remove board member Ryan Webb on Friday morning after recent social media posts, including a photo of a rainbow-colored swastika on Facebook. Webb, a mayoral appointment to the board earlier this year, threatened litigation before voting in favor of his own removal.

The decision at the June 20th meeting comes after an executive letter and previous non-actionable meeting where concerns over Webb’s continual posts on social media were raised. Webb’s posts include a joke where he claimed to be a Black transgender woman, posting a yard sign with the words “trans women are insane men,” and recently an image of a rainbow swastika on the 1st of June.

Earlier this year Mayor Dan Ridenour made a contentious decision to not reappoint Associate Urban Planning Professor John West to the board, instead appointing both Webb and himself. Ridenour months later told the board his reason for choosing Webb was to teach him how to work with people. Muncie City Council was later able to bring West back to the board, after another appointee of the Land Bank Jim Lowe was appointed to the newly created Ethics Commission.

When serving as a council member for Delaware County, Webb had been especially known for his social media statements when in 2023, he appeared on several media outlets after his joke about being Black transgender woman. After losing his primary for reelection last year by 68 votes he filed for a recount, referencing what he believed to be possible interference by a “good ol’ boys club” working against him. Republicans who were aligned with Webb believed his loss was due to cross-over votes by Democratic voters who were resentful about his reputation.

Executive Director Nate Howard told Webb and the public during the meeting that it was not a political decision and it was not the recently created code of conduct used for the decision, as Webb claimed. The board instead leaned into the statutes that allow them to remove a member. Howard told Webb: “I never thought in a million years that we’d have to do this. And I didn’t want to, my thought was this guy’s a potential asset, let’s figure out how to use him. The code of conduct was an attempt to actually, with you, do something so we can respond a bit to the complaints we’ve been getting, including you in the process, and just invite you to show a little bit of restraint. […] “The time that I have spent on this is ridiculous, and I don’t want to waste anymore time because it’s not responsible. It’s not being accountable to what I’m supposed to be doing here.”