MUNCIE, IN — Muncie City Council has adopted an ordinance, proposed by council member Nora Powell, that revises the method used to place items on the council agenda.
In October, a resolution mistakenly appeared on the agenda after it had been withdrawn by sponsor Dale Basham.
It was removed after Basham said he had not asked for its return to the agenda. Mayor Dan Ridenour’s administration said the addition of the resolution to the October agenda had been the result of a misunderstanding.
Since October, critics of the Republican mayor’s administration had repeatedly discussed that situation at the council’s meetings.
On Monday, March 2, the measure offered by Powell, a Democrat, was adopted by the council in a 9-0 vote. It aims to prevent similar mistakes going forward.
The council both introduced the measure and then suspended rules to vote on it at the same meeting.
Also at Monday’s meeting, the council’s president, Jeff Green, announced those attending council meetings will again be allowed to make comments at the end of a meeting.
Green’s announcement in January that public comments would be taken only at the beginning of meetings — and reducing the maximum length of such comments from three to two minutes — had drawn criticism.
The council president at the March 2 meeting also restored the three-minute limit. His actions drew applause from the audience.
Republicans gained a majority on the council in 2025 when two Democratic members, Jerry Dishman and Brandon Garrett, announced they were becoming Republicans.
At Monday’s meeting, one speaker suggested the change in party affiliation had caused the same sort of confusion created in 1969 by ABC-TV, when actor Dick Sargent replaced Dick York in the role of Darren Stephens on “Bewitched.”
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Muncie City Council adopts measure prompted by agenda controversy
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
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