MUNCIE, Ind. — Muncie City Council met on Monday, April 6, with an underwhelming agenda compared to other tumultuous recent meetings. Ordinance 8-26, an ordinance “prohibiting the use of documents received from public records requests for commercial purposes,” was withdrawn before a motion to introduce it was made.

The agenda item was a point of concern for some prior to Monday night, who believed that the language of “commercial use” would affect local media from reporting information obtained through public records requests. The ordinance however, according to council’s attorney Jagen Arnold, “stops commercial entities from selling data that they’re getting.” Arnold took issue with a ten-year restriction placed on people or entities doing such activity, leading council-member Dale Basham to withdraw the ordinance. Communications Director Amber Greene was also present at the meeting and ready to speak before Basham’s decision to withdraw.

Basham’s decision was immediately followed with Resolution 5-26, which changes appointments made for the Human Rights Commission. In March of 2025, Linda Muckway was appointed to the Human Rights Commission by a unanimous vote by council, however the appointment was supposed to go to Mayor Dan Ridenour.

Months later on September 11th, then-HRC President SteVen Knipp, originally appointed by council, was forced to resign due to his comments about the Charlie Kirk assassination the day prior. Before two nominees could be announced at the next council meeting in October, councillor Ro Selvey told the audience that the appointment would go Mayor Ridenour instead of council.