MUNCIE, Ind. — The annual budget for the City of Muncie has been contentious since Mayor Dan Ridenour addressed cuts made by Indiana Senate Bill 1 in late August. While yesterday evening was expected to be the night for council to adopt the budget, council has instead scheduled a special session on October 16th at 7pm to vote on the three ordinances.

While the October meeting had a packed agenda and moments of shock, by the end it was underwhelming. There was expected to be a council appointment made for the Human Rights Commission, as its previous President SteVen Knipp was forced to resign after statements made about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, council-member Ro Selvey stated that the appointment would instead be made a mayoral appointment instead of a council one, despite Knipp being a council appointment.

Council-member Brandon Garrett was not able to attend the meeting in-person and instead called in for the first half of the meeting. While able to vote on other ordinances, he could not vote on the three ordinances pertaining to the budget for legal reasons. For the second half of the meeting, Garrett was offline. After making the decision to delay the three ordinances relating to the budget, alarms went off in the room when Kristopher Bilbrey, local government commentator, accused council of violating Indiana’s Open Door Laws by convening before the meeting. Members could be heard just minutes before it was called to order discussing whether to delay the vote and for what date to set a special session.