Public access counselor nixes Highland resident’s Open Door challenge
A special Highland Town Council meeting called to approve zoning-map changes to the 19-acre property north of Griffland Center was legal and in no way violated the Open Door Law, the state’s public access counselor has ruled.
In a letter dated Jan. 14 obtained by the Post-Tribune, Public Access Counselor Luke Britt wrote to complainant Dwayne R. DeYoung that his office “does not moderate or regulate ordinances or relationships between public officials,” and said “the Open Door Law was followed to the letter by the Town Council and Clerk-Treasurer.”
DeYoung, a Highland resident, filed a complaint to Britt in October alleging that Councilman Mark Herak, D-2nd, admitted to scheduling a public meeting “at the 11th hour” so his “political rivals and concerned members of the public” wouldn’t have a chance to respond.
Herak called the Aug. 31 special meeting after then-President Mark Schocke, R-3rd, canceled the Aug. 24 meeting because he believed he could change the verbiage in the Plan Commission’s zoning map recommendation and send it back to that body to approve before the council would take it up.
Clerk-Treasurer Michael Griffin issued a notice for the 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 31 meeting between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 27, Griffin wrote the PAC office in a response to DeYoung’s complaint.
Schocke argued that the meeting was called “only minutes” before the 48-hour deadline to advertise, the complaint said, but Britt said it was still in the
prescribed range.
“While the weekend days do not count toward the calculation of the 48-hour timeline as contemplated by (Indiana Code), the notice was nevertheless posted in
time consistent with the Open Door Law,” Britt wrote.
Additionally, DeYoung alleged that the Post-Tribune reported that Herak stated at the meeting that he called it “so neither (Schocke) nor the other councilman would have time to comment on the agenda,” according to the Town’s response to the complaint. That quote, however, came from Schocke, not Herak.
Schocke said Thursday by text that “the PAC ruling did not address the violations of Highland Municipal Code, which is where the illegalities occurred” but that Britt said he had no authority to address. Nevertheless, he’s no longer president, so he won’t pursue the matter further.
“It’s moot at this time because of the inaccurate legal descriptions which required the process to start from the beginning,” Schocke said. “Moreover, since I’m no longer president, I no longer have control of the agenda pursuant to the municipal code, so there’s not much standing for me to challenge at this point.”
“Schocke’s going to try to sugarcoat this and say it’s about ‘municipal code,’ but no, it’s not. It’s about a legal meeting,” Herak said. “(Town attorney John Reed) said it once briefly, but there’s a difference between text changes and zoning map changes. Now, you can amend a text change — north, south, east, west, OK — but you cannot amend a zoning map change, and that was what Mr. Griffin and I were trying to say.
“Instead, (Schocke) got on social media and posted that we conducted an illegal meeting, and he got all these people’s hopes up believing that what we did was wrong.”
Griffin said he was glad to be vindicated.
“I have a servant’s heart and a professional’s devotion in my public service and my ‘clerk craft,’ ” Griffin said.
“I was confident that we honored the Open Meeting Act, and it’s affirming that the Public Access Counselor agreed.
The Plan Commission at its Dec. 17 meeting approved 5-1-1 the zone change and plat approval for the senior living project for that property. The Town Council has yet to vote on it.