{"id":9860,"date":"2024-06-11T17:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T21:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/?p=9860"},"modified":"2024-08-07T22:31:05","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T02:31:05","slug":"institutional-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/11\/institutional-barriers\/","title":{"rendered":"Institutional Barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The mayor’s vacation being paid for by EDIT funds<\/span><\/a>, skipping bargaining agreements with the city employee\u2019s union<\/a><\/span>, and stalling public document requests<\/a><\/span>. It\u2019s a tease of what\u2019s in store for the rest of Ridenour\u2019s second term, the first two of these stories have made the rounds just in the last week. It’s infuriating, and isn\u2019t limited just to the embarrassment on the community, the likelihood of driving people and business away from Muncie, the lawsuits that could arise, but also the stalling being done by absolute chuds. Republicans in town are hereby back to the ways of a spoils system, and are barely attached to their upper class supporters who have enough funds not to stoop to becoming the total epitome of hucksters.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, they fit into an upper middle-class, oddly lumpenbourgeoisie, group with zero self-control or temperance. They somehow have it both ways: they look like RINO cucks compared to anyone wearing MAGA on their arm, yet they’re just as likely to fall down a whirlpool of copium psychosis. None of us would be surprised if Ridenour had some sort of a gambling addiction, so it’s not like him or anyone in his circle is good at keeping up appearances. They are erratic, but they have enough institutional awareness to know what they can get away with.<\/span><\/p>\n

The current MRC is a Republican majority board that’s repeatedly testing the waters on how much they can screw their two Democratic appointees. Jeff Howe’s contract as the new director is essentially to babysit the two men, the commission’s majority did everything they could to avoid disclosing said contract, they voted against adding details to minutes out of spite, and they haven’t even updated the <\/span>MRC page<\/span> <\/a>to include Bishop or Dale. If you want some entertainment, watch the <\/span>last MRC meeting<\/a><\/span> (at the 1:26:50 mark) and you’ll see Jeff Howe ready to throw fists at Dale, the father of yours truly.<\/span><\/p>\n

This administration’s prerogative is to place institutional barriers ahead of elected officials, and appointees, that they are at odds with. In their estimation, they can get away with it. And when it comes to departments and commissions that they couldn\u2019t take control over, those are the ones which have been given limited influence over the years. Which is astonishing, because one would think the Human Rights Commission would have just as much of a say as the Redevelopment. And for the sake of transparency and accountability, the Historic Preservation and Rehabilitation Committee should take on various roles at City Hall, whether that would involve archiving documents or ensuring that each department is making information accessible.<\/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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We’ll get back to this. But before that, let’s acknowledge that our place in Muncie politics shouldn’t only be to make their world humiliating. They’ve hit themselves with that plenty of times, and we should keep reminding the people who voted for Ridenour of that, but holding our ground in actual decision making is more important. <\/span>Speaking generally here on progressive politics, I’ve been sick and tired for a while now of yard signs with lists. “In this household we believe…” and so on. I’m sure it’s beating a dead horse, but there’s still this big notion that we can fight just by merely having an opinion.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>The situation is that of “<\/span>hyper politics<\/span><\/a>,” because while we know we have enthusiastic support we still can’t make concrete demands with what we’re working with. Concrete demands cannot be made if we don’t have the institutional power, and no I’m not just talking about the mayor’s seat but the fundamental inner workings of City Hall. As a result, we’re all revved up with nowhere to go. And the institutional power in question will go beyond just one administration. We should find anyone in urban planning or city government to jump in on this, and we should passionately focus on the spots neglected.<\/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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Yes, this is the Post-Democrat in the flesh. To explain this somewhat,\u00a0<\/span>when I threw in the part about maybe appropriating funds to HR, I wasn’t necessarily suggesting hiring more people, least of of all some egghead\u00a0<\/span>shills<\/span>. And secondly, when I talked about historic preservation being a motivation for transparency, it’s not really just about that. It’s also pointing out that if you think what we’re saying is partisan, here’s just one example going past that.\u00a0<\/span>Michele Owen has\u00a0<\/span>fawned over<\/a>\u00a0how transparent their\u00a0<\/span><\/span>administration is<\/span>, yet their genuine justification for avoiding to fill public records requests is that the people using the service are using it to be partisan and are out to get the mayor. First of all, that reason is covered under Indiana\u2019s Open Door Laws and APRA, and it should be that way just as it is at many other institutions. If you worked at a library and dealt with research questions from a user, or holds or ILL (Interlibrary Loan) requests, your job is to refrain from any judgement. You truly don\u2019t know the purpose of what they\u2019re doing unless you are the patron. And yet to the Ridenour administration, it\u2019s completely justified to intervene if they see it as a threat.<\/span><\/p>

And, from how I know the locals who deal with historic preservation, they are by and large not happy with Dan’s dreams of wet splashpads, dry city life, and the fact that he’s probably never given a shit about town history outside of Yorktown. My hope is that for anyone who cares about Muncie’s rich history, you’ll see that Ridenour is a threat to that, and not only for this issue. His administration will throw those priorities out the window just for vacant luxury apartments.<\/span><\/p>

Plenty of people are now talking about this issue, and we have a council that can act on this<\/span>. On top of making sure Open Door laws are followed, I would add the importance\u00a0<\/span>of them being done in a timely manner. I say this because on some occasions, it wasn\u2019t that I was outright denied a request, but the requests would get delayed for weeks before\u00a0<\/span>I was then told that it wasn\u2019t considered specific enough. On one occasion Michele Owen was CC\u2019d onto an\u00a0<\/span>email between Marlene Mitchell and I. Owen should have been distanced from that\u00a0<\/span>request.\u00a0<\/span>Lastly, there are plenty of other reasons for these requests and that includes historic research on Muncie. I would call for efficiency, not in the sense of \u201cprofessionalizing\u201d local government with elitists, but for the sake of prioritizing transparency. Document requests should be expected to be done constantly, and should be accessible to everyone who needs them.<\/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\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mayor’s vacation being paid for by EDIT funds, skipping bargaining agreements with the city employee\u2019s union, and stalling public document requests. It\u2019s a tease of what\u2019s in store for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-9860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9860"}],"version-history":[{"count":340,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10347,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9860\/revisions\/10347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munciepostdemocrat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}