{"id":37894,"date":"2026-07-08T11:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T15:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/?p=37894"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:38:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T15:38:55","slug":"fire-station-5-decision-postponed-council-votes-to-limit-who-can-serve-on-city-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/08\/fire-station-5-decision-postponed-council-votes-to-limit-who-can-serve-on-city-boards\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire Station 5 Decision Postponed; Council Votes To Limit Who Can Serve on City Boards"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Fire Station 5 Decision Postponed; Council Votes To Limit Who Can Serve on City Boards\n\n<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/h2><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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7.8.2026 \/ News \/ Daisy Dale<\/a><\/u><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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MUNCIE, Ind. \u2014<\/span> Muncie City Council <\/span>decided to postpone decisions on the $11.5 million replacement of Fire Station 5, 600 N. Tillotson Ave, and leave three agenda items tabled and sent to the Public Services Committee for discussion. Jammed with a long agenda and an absent council-member, Brandon Garrett, they also voted to introduce a measure restricting department heads from serving on boards and commissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dennis Otten, bond counsel for the Fire Station 5 project, told council it was fine for resolutions <\/span>10-26<\/span><\/a> <\/span>and <\/span>11-26<\/span><\/a> to both go to committee, though was pressed on how the city would finance the replacement. <\/span>“We want to know as a council how we’re going to pay for it,” Councilor Ro Selvey told Otten. <\/span>Councilor Nora Powell also expressed frustration that members of the mayor’s administration failed to <\/span>appear at the last Public Services Committee meeting, held June 26, where questions on financing couldn’t be addressed.<\/span>

<\/span>It was at council’s June meeting that <\/span>Ord. 9-26<\/span><\/a> also had to be put into committee, and was not taken off the table Monday night. All three <\/span><\/span>agenda items put Muncie into a Build Operate Transfer agreement for the project and add additional appropriations.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Councilor Harold Mason sponsored an ordinance preventing department heads from serving on board and commissions. <\/span>Ordinance 14-26<\/span><\/a><\/span>, aiming to allow boards and commissions to be independent of the executive administration, will have any appointees to board or commissions be reviewed by \u201cCommon Council, the City Clerk, the City Attorney, the appointing authority, or any other appropriate City official.” Councilor <\/span>Sara Gullion motioned to amend <\/span>the ordinance to also include administrative staff appointed by the mayor, which had a vote of 5-3 <\/span>with Jerry Dishman, Jeff Green, and Ro Selvey voting against. Dale Basham was the only Republican vote in favor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Community Development Director Gretchen Cheesman was appointed to the Human Rights Commission in late 2024 by Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour. <\/span>At council\u2019s April meeting, former HRC commissioner Wayne Scaife called Gretchen Cheesman\u2019s appointment to the commission a conflict of interest and asked council to look into his concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scaife approached council again last night and was upset that the ordinance didn’t include all city employees and elected officials. He also said that Cheesman was a continued issue for the HRC. <\/span>Ro Selvey argued that the decision would take out a lot of “expertise” from boards and commissions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dale Basham added that adoption of the ordinance wouldn’t happen until next month and there could be more changes added. <\/span>Gullion also motioned to remove Section 8. C. that explicitly stated the ordinance would not prohibit city employees, which failed after a 4-4 vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

The final vote for introducing the ordinance was 5-3, with Jerry Dishman, Jeff Green, and Ro Selvey voting against.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vote also comes after Human Rights Executive Director Shekela Bester was suspended with pay by the commission, which led to more people questioning Cheesman\u2019s role with the HRC.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Daisy Dale is the editor and publisher of The Muncie Post-Democrat, a commissioner for the Muncie Human Rights Commission, and a board member of Muncie Queer Alliance.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Fire Station 5 Decision Postponed; Council Votes To Limit Who Can Serve on City Boards 7.8.2026 \/ News \/ Daisy Dale MUNCIE, Ind. \u2014 Muncie City Council decided to postpone decisions on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37894"}],"version-history":[{"count":68,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37962,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37894\/revisions\/37962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}