Meeting draws ire of residents, complaint filed with Indiana Public Access Counselor

The handling of Monday's Vermillion County Commissioners meeting drew the ire of local residents and resulted in a complaint filed with the Indiana Public Access Counselor. 

Because the crowd exceeded the capacity guidelines for the Commissioners Courtroom, county officials held a discussion with local emergency officials before the meeting, according to Vermillion County Commissioner RJ Dunavan. 

"We met with the fire department and they said we need to move it to the auditorium because there wasn't enough room in the Commissioners Courtroom. The Commissioners agreed, but then we encountered the problem of needing IT upgrades. You have to livestream for the public, so we kicked around using an iPhone or iPad, but there are no microphones downstairs, and you won't be able to hear. We weighed the pros and cons: the public being angry if they couldn't hear the livestream, versus the public here being angry because they couldn't get into the room. We ultimately decided it would be best to livestream in the Commissioners courtroom, which led us to our next problem: the IT not working. We started the meeting and people in the room said they couldn't hear. We called IT and couldn't resolve the issue. We then looked at the agenda and the action items, decided to complete those, and push this discussion to another date. We couldn't help that the technology went down. We are looking at upgrading the IT in the auditorium or moving the meeting to a school because we anticipate another large crowd," he said. 

The meeting was cut short during public comment when it was discovered the microphone at the podium was not working. 

The decision prompted resident Derrick Dougherty to file a complaint with the Indiana Public Access Counselor. 

Dougherty told GIANT fm WAXI and The Parke County Post that he was "not interested in speaking to the media" when reached for comment. 

He alleges that at around 6 p.m., Commissioner William Peebles told those in attendance the meeting would not be held in the auditorium but would instead take place in the Commissioners Courtroom. 

"The sole reason given for this reversal was the inability to livestream the meeting from the auditorium, as the commissioners courtroom contains built-in streaming equipment that the auditorium does not. I personally heard this announcement," Dougherty wrote in his complaint. 

Dougherty states individuals were denied entry and were forced to wait outside in the hallway, where they were unable to hear the proceedings of the meeting. 

"Following significant unrest among those unable to gain access, the commissioners tabled the data center ordinance agenda item and rescheduled it to a later date at a larger venue -- an implicit acknowledgement that the original venue was inadequate to accommodate public attendance," wrote Dougherty, who added he submitted a public records request to Vermillion County for the official state fire marshal capacity documentation for the commissioners courtroom. 

Dougherty alleged multiple violations of the Indiana Open Door Law. He stated the Board of Commissioners made a "deliberate decision" to move the meeting from a venue that could accommodate the attending public to a smaller area. In addition, he states the decision to move the meeting resulted in more than 50 members of the public being "physically denied" access. Furthermore, he said the decision to reschedule the contested agenda item to a larger venue "implicity confirms" the commissioners courtroom was not an appropriate venue. Dougherty states it is his position that moving the meeting from the larger venue to a smaller one was a violation of the Open Door Law and denied residents their "statutory right" to attend a public meeting. 

He is asking for the Indiana Public Access Counselor to issue an opinion finding the Board of Commissioners violated the Open Door Law, issue guidance clarifying the live streaming capablity does not constitute a lawful basis to limit or restrict the physical attendance of members of the public, and recommend that Vermillion County establish and publish a written policy governing meeting venue selection when anticipated attendance exceeds the capacity of the primary meeting rooms to prevent recurrence.