(From left) Matt Caldie, Trent Deckard, David Henry, Cheryl Munson and moderator Laura Rusk at the League of Women Voters forum for the Monroe County Council At-Large candidates.
(Community Access Television Services)
The Monroe County Council At-Large candidates met at a forum Saturday held by the League of Women Voters to discuss housing, the jail, annexation and more.
The forum, moderated by IU Maurer School of Law student Laura Rusk, went over many of the recurring financial topics the county continues to face.
There are three spots up for election for the Monroe County Council At-Large seats, with Cheryl Munson and Trent Deckard running for reelection – and Matt Caldie and David Henry also in the race. There are no Republican candidates in this contest.
When asked if prioritizing mental health resources or a new jail would be better, all candidates agreed that both are important, but that the jail is one of the highest priorities.
Deckard said we “need a jail that treats people with dignity and recognizes them for the life that they have.”
Caldie followed: “We need to get people to a place where they can have a constitutional level of care,” he said.
When asked how local income tax plays into funding the new jail, Munson said if areas 1A and 1B are annexed into the city, there will be less county tax funds available to use, but that other funds could be used as well.
Henry said if funds are not secured by the start of next year, that a group similar to the Capital Improvement Board could be created to carry on jail site discussion.
“We’re already dealing with a facility that at its inception, had 124 beds that were filled immediately, and was built in a way that we haven't been able to expand it,” he said.
Tackling access to housing
Caldie began the round of housing discussion by saying there needs to be more housing at affordable rates.
“Until we have enough units to house the people who would like to live in this community, it is going to be easy to charge too much for the scarce resources that we do have,” he said.
“That will be a major investment and help greatly,” she said. “These are not student apartments. These are residences and multifamily residences as well.”
She also said she is developing a dashboard with the Monroe County Planning Commission that would show data on residential lots.
“We need to know where the residential lots are, how many, what sort of limitations the plan commission zoning has placed on these particular tracts of land, and how many lots,” she said.
Several candidates mentioned the county planning commission’s efforts on new developments.
“We have parcels in the county through planning commission that have been identified as long as I've lived here for potential development,” Henry said.
Deckard said the council is not blocking housing developments.
“A serious look has to be given to decisions that have been made in the last few years about developments that would have helped, developments that would have enhanced,” he said, “I think sometimes that's coming from the commissioner and planning commission level.”
Arguments for or against the convention center expansion
When asked what arguments could be made against the convention center expansion, candidates brought up the cost to expand the center, the amount of land it would take up, the potential return on investment and that it wouldn’t serve the community.
However, all candidates agreed that the convention center expansion would be an asset to the county and bring in money from people in other areas traveling to events at the center.
Caldie and Munson said the convention center can double as a civic center.
Council’s take on annexation
Henry began this section by saying he’s the only candidate being annexed into the city.
“I live in a community where those that have retired… are trying to figure out how they're going to pay increases in taxes coming into city limits,” he said.
Henry, Deckard and Munson said from a county perspective, county government is losing tax revenue.
Deckard spoke to the fact that the state has made annexation a difficult issue because of the state legislature’s intervention in 2017.
“The state has pitted us against each other,” he said. “Now we will have to figure that out. And we will, but it's a mess. And it shouldn't be that way.”
State legislators stay away
All legislators agreed that the state legislature has grabbed too much power over local issues.
“There's a lot of ways in which they've exerted a little too much control over localities lately,” Caldie said.
“Give us a chance to govern ourselves in the way that we know how to do it,” Munson said.
“We've seen in our community as long as I've lived here, incursions by our state legislature and decision-making in Bloomington,” Henry said.
One statement from Deckard received applause from the audience.
“First of all, one thing you can do to help kids in my community is you can stop beating up on trans kids,” he said.
He also received applause at the end of his argument.
“The legislature needs to take care of its own business,” he said. “And that means taking care of its people. Anything not on that agenda, go home and stay home.”
