Normally, in our recaps of council meetings the next morning, we avoid editorializing. Op-Eds have their own place on the Post-Democrat, though we try making an exception for this routine monthly story. Last night’s city council session for October cannot be talked about without mentioning the vast number of awkward pauses and hesitation, as well as mayhem seemingly jumping in from every direction. This isn’t unlike meetings earlier in the year, though it’s now come to a turning point.

The two most contentious issues were originally going to be Ordinance 23-24 and Resolution 11-24. But the former, one dealing with the 2025 civil budget, was not up for a vote but instead only for public comment, which led to several individuals leaving the building when they realized there was nothing to pay attention to. The ordinance was briefly discussed, although the decision surrounding Resolution 11-24 was overwhelmed by tech issues, as both city attorney Dan Gibson and council-member Nora Powell were joining the meeting by phone. After ongoing connection issues and audio problems the end result finally was an amended resolution passed by 8-0 (with council-member Brandon Garrett absent and not joining through phone).

After the continual tech errors, subsequent delays, and other face palm inducing moments, people throughout the room starting laughing off the mediocrity. Admittedly it was a smug move coming from administration officials (I’m looking at you Richard Ivy) but for the most part this response was more than justified. This has also been a problem since Jerry Dishman became President in January, and has a harder time following the meeting procedures compared to their previous President Jeff Robinson.

There is blame for this going all around: most of the tech issues that IT needed to fix could have been easily solvable with two adapters and a charger. Even the internet issues could have been managed had they spent time prior to the meeting ensuring both Gibson and Powell were able to join without major issues. Both IT and the council caused this, and they are a joke for letting this all happen the way it did. And, Jerry Dishman needs to step down as President and have Nora Powell take his place. For all the grudges people have held against Powell over the years, at the very least she can keep track of which agenda item is being discussed and can finish a sentence. On top of this, with a 6-3 majority, their party has no excuse not to be mavericks who take over the meetings. With Res. 11-24, which was a continuation of the project for a new firehouse, Republican Ro Selvey tried to swiftly get it passed while Gibson was disconnected from the call. Luckily it was amended instead, but that’s just a taste of how her party tries running these meetings despite Democrats have a super majority.

Democrats in council believe that because they have that majority, they don’t need to do anything beyond that single accomplishment. In their minds they’ve already done everything they can to stop Ridenour from turning Muncie into a real estate hellscape, and yet they themselves are not being proactive in that effort. They can look back at some decisions made between 2020 and 2023, like any changes to municipal code done by the Republican-majority council, and reverse them. Or, create ordinances giving more balanced power between them and the administration. This is why Ridenour in recent meetings hasn’t taken the council seriously, and instead has been doing everything he can to go around them.