{"id":9697,"date":"2024-05-28T17:34:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T21:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/?p=9697"},"modified":"2024-08-07T22:31:52","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T02:31:52","slug":"ridenour-administration-holding-luxury-retreat-outside-city-limits-and-retreating-from-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/28\/ridenour-administration-holding-luxury-retreat-outside-city-limits-and-retreating-from-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Ridenour Administration Holding Luxury Retreat Outside City Limits, and Retreating From Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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An invitation was sent to all Muncie city council members, department heads, and the administration stating, \u201cTwo days of strategy, coordination and fellowship. Stay in the historic Potawatomi Inn on Lake James. Bring your families! There are tons of activities at the park and locally for their entertainment. Your hotel room and food costs will be covered by the city, so you will only need to cover the cost of food for your family.\u201d \u201cTentative Agenda Items: Let us know what you want for your district, get to know the city departments, Long Term Plan inclusion, budgeting 2025 and beyond, and Station 5 and Station 3.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\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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Various concerns have been brought up by council members and community members alike, first of which is the potential violation of Indiana\u2019s Open Door Policy. Council member Nora Powell brought this concern to the mayor via email stating, \u201c\u2026if more than four councilors attend, it\u2019s my concern that discussing strategic plans or current projects could violate Indiana Open Door Laws.\u201d Mayor Ridenour responded with the following explanation, \u201cThis will be a public meeting. That is how other cities have done this. It was presented as a successful best practice method at the Mayor\u2019s Institute by AIM. We will post the event at city hall and at the site. AIM legal concurred that it was proper.\u201d<\/span><\/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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This author and the Post-Democrat as a whole questions exactly how public can this meeting be if requests for communications surrounding this retreat are not being filled by the administration nor the majority of city council. I am currently working with Indiana\u2019s Public Access Councilor for more information.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Council Members Sara Gullion and Nora Powell expressed concern to the mayor about the retreat being held out of town and where its funding would be paid from. Mayor Ridenour explains, \u201cIt has been found that sites just out of town work best. Those sites benefit discussion levels and therefore results for our residents.\u00a0 This is an opportunity for council members to bring goals and hopes for their districts to the administration and department heads.\u201d \u201cThis is being paid by EDIT.\u201d The current cost of this retreat is $3,873.65, $3,231.65 for 25 rooms and $642.00 for conference rooms. This does not include expenses for food and beverage, mileage, or any other possible incidentals. Retreats like these are normally run by an impartial, professional retreat facilitation companies. Facilitators are trained to assist in trust building, evaluating goals, identifying and addressing problems, and creating plans to bring back to the organization. Administration facilitating their own retreat, guiding the discussion, without an impartial facilitator brings forward important ethical concerns. Especially when the entire fiscal body has been invited to take part in activities involving \u201cbudgeting 2025 and beyond,\u201d \u201cLong Term Plan inclusion,\u201d and Fire \u201cStation 5 and Station 3.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Nora Powell provided the following emails to the Post-Democrat:<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\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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An invitation was sent to all Muncie city council members, department heads, and the administration stating, \u201cTwo days of strategy, coordination and fellowship. Stay in the historic Potawatomi Inn on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","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-9697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9697","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9697"}],"version-history":[{"count":84,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9791,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9697\/revisions\/9791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}