Post Budget Approval.

Jan 19, 2020 Council Meeting – 249K request for the Music Center
Jan 19 2021 Council Meeting Agenda

Jan 19, 2020. Council Meeting – Agenda Item – CVC/Music Center Mgmt Group Oversight
2021_01_19 County Council Mtg – Clark – Outline

Dec 18, 2020.  County gets nearly $500K for COVID-related expenses  y Suzannah Couch

Dec 2, 2020.  County council rescinds budgets, re-approves after error found

Oct 20, 2020, County Council Meeting.   No surprises. The state allows counties to accept an increase in taxes as a result of a calculation referred to as the Growth Quotient. This year it is around $130K  and was approved by the Council. The increase will be shared by property owners.

• County employees received a 3% cost of living increase.
• The budget accommodates an increase associated with ambulance service and employees’ health insurance costs.
• Facebook Post – BCM
  • Commentary: This is the third year I sat through the budget process. With the exception of the consultants and attorneys that work within the system, I do not think there is a citizen in the county – if not Indiana (including our county elected officials) that could explain the financial report, taxes, property assessment, appraisal, and budget processes. Note that by law, We the People are responsible for the performance of the system and lack the knowledge to provide the needed oversight. You can delegate accountability to an elected official but not responsibility. A solution could include a Go Fund Me campaign to developed a needed citizen guide.

Nov 10, 2020. County budget approved; slight tax increase included By Suzannah Couch

• County’s Financial Plan

Sep 22, 2020.  Council moves $500,000 to pay health insurance for rest of year By Suzannah Couch

Unlike the Schools, the county has an expensive and high-risk plan that routinely exceeds budget projections. In 2019, it was $650,000 over and in 2018 $700,000.

• County and Brown County Schools – Health Insurance – For the Record

Sep 1, 2020. BCD. County adjusts budget requests for 2021; forecast revenue drops around 5 percent By Suzannah Couch

Aug 21, 2020. Brown County Matters – Notes from the hearings.

o. Music Center – County Meetings. I may have been the only citizen that attended all three sessions. No waiting in line and a wide range of seating choices.  Suzannah Couch from the Democrat also attended all the sessions – looking forward to reading about her perspective.

Originally posted Aug 2020. Updated Aug 16, 2022.

For the 2020 election,  the Democrat candidates for Commissioner and Council developed their platform (positions). Republican candidates did not. As of Aug 8, 2022, no platforms developed for the 2022 elections.

Aug 10, 2022. League supports creation of Human Rights Commission submitted by LWVBC Board of Directors (submitted by Cathy Rountree.

• • Background Information: Proposed: Nashville Human Rights Commission – For the Record

 Aug 3, 2022. League urges legislators to support reproductive health, League of Women Voters Brown County Board of Directors (Submitted by Shari Frank, president)

• • Banning reproductive rights strips people of their bodily autonomy, their constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law and the right to privacy. Women and pregnant people will no longer be equal in our democracy if decisions about their reproductive health are put under the control of the state.

Mar 9, 2021.  Letter: ‘Distasteful’ and ‘abusive’ GOP posts need to stop By Maddison Miller

• • Local GOP post on Facebook. Summary from an article posted on the Brown County Republican Facebook page and response by Mark Bowman – Party Chairman.

Mar 9, 2021. Letter: House bill would help expand voting access, Judith East, board member, League of Women Voters of Brown County …. H.R.1, the “For the People Act.” The updates in this bill are designed to enable as many Americans as possible to participate in our democratic system of government. They eliminate barriers to registering to vote and getting to the polls, among other fair practices.

• • Indiana AG: ROKITA SAYS HR1 IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL; PLANS TO SUE IF SIGNED BY PRESIDENT 
  • Mar 16, 2021. BCD. Letter: House bill is ‘direct political attack on our voting rights’ by JD Ray

  • Mar 16, 2021 , BCD. Letter: Election bill provisions call processes into question by Don Stewart.

  • Mar 23, 2021. Letter: Voting rights legislation needed by Denny Kubal, Brown County
  • Mar 30, 20231. Letter: Ask senators to pass the For the People Act, H.R.1/S.1 by Shari Frank, president, League of Women Voters Brown County

  • Jun 6, 2021. Joe Manchin: Why I’m voting against the For the People Act

    • • American democracy is something special, it is bigger than one party, or the tweet-filled partisan attack politics of the moment. It is my sincere hope that all of us, especially those who are privileged to serve, remember our responsibility to do more to unite this country before it is too late.
      • Joe Manchin is a Democrat representing West Virginia in the U.S. Senate. He is a former West Virginia governor and secretary of state.

Nov 24, 2020.  BCD. Letter: 2020 was the most secure election ever by Shari Frank, Brown County  League of Women Voters

Sep 23, 2020.  BCD. ELECTION: County council at large Q-and-A By Staff Reports

• We believe in the dignity of and civil and human rights of all people. We call for the end to racism in all forms. We call for a review of all county laws, directives and initiatives of all kinds by any agency or segment of county government to determine if any such laws, directives or initiatives have or could result in racism or inequality in any form. We call for the expeditious remediation of any such instances so found.
  • The statement: “We call for the end to racism in all forms.”  By what method?  

This position is supported by the Brown County League of Women Voters (LoWV).

• • Resolution_For_Racial_Justice Resolution for Black People and All People of Color.  By majority vote on Saturday, Aug 1, 2020, the board of the Brown County League of Women Voters voted to support the National League of Women Voters’ Resolution for “Racial Justice for Black People and All People of Color.”   Includes the following:
    • This resolution addresses racial injustices experienced by Black People, Indigenous People, and all People of Color (BIPOC) in our country. Racism is at the core of the national upheaval following George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2021  therefore it is fitting that League of Women Voters members consider how to address racial justice while carrying out the public policies of LWV.
    • Whereas, the League acknowledges painfully that America is a nation founded on racism. We must end white privilege and the myth of white supremacy if we are to become the nation we pledge to be; 
  • Resolves #136 and #139 met the Leagues criteria for inclusion:
    • Motion #136 – We Resolve First, That the League advocates against systemic racism in the justice system and, at a minimum, for preventing excessive force and brutality by law enforcement. We also call for prompt actions by all League members to advocate within every level of government to eradicate systemic racism, and the harm that it causes;  (1) and,
    • Motion #139 – We Resolve Second, That the League help our elected officials and all Americans recognize these truths to be self-evident; that Black, Indigenous and all people of color (BIPOC)viii deserve equal protection under the law; and that we demand solutions for the terrible wrongs done, so that regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, and gender identity or sexual orientation we may truly become a nation “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” 

Far Left vs Liberals

• • But the Romano incident also highlighted another, perhaps more far-reaching, aspect of the ongoing culture wars, namely how the “woke” left seems to be devouring old school liberals. While liberals and conservatives still battle on the largest political stage, the Critics Circle fight illustrates the arcane factional struggle within the left, in which the radical faction takes on comparatively easy targets like Romano because they are accessible and vulnerable in a way that actual racists and other non-insiders are not.
  • … the cancel culture won this battle. Certainly it will be more difficult for people in the liberal press, universities, and the nonprofit world to express doubts about what has emerged as the mandatory view on racism — that it is “systemic,” that it is the abiding and chief feature of all American history and life, that we are all culpable in it, and that to deny that culpability is itself racist. 

A Conservative Perspective on Racism and Systemic Racism 

• Is America Racist – Larry Elder 
• Larry Elder Eviscerates the Myth of ‘Systemic Racism’  

• ‘Systemic Racism’ or Systemic Rubbish?  By Ilana Mercer,  August 8, 2020

  • To concretize a variable, it must be cast in empirical, measurable terms—the opaque “racism” abstraction being one variable (to use statistical nomenclature).
  • Until you have meticulously applied research methodology to statistically operationalize this inchoate thing called “racism”—systemic or other—it remains nothing but a thought crime.

The case of George Floyd

• Jason Whitlock: ‘No rational person’ can watch leaked George Floyd footage and think police were motivated by race by Andrew Mark Miller, Washington Examiner, Aug 4, 2020
• Who Killed George Floyd? by GEORGE PARRY,  The American Spectator, August 6, 2020, Minnesota’s attorney general needs to pay attention to the available evidence, which in this case is incontrovertible. 

Race and Black Lives Matter (BLM)

• • The Two Very Different Meanings Of ‘Black Lives Matter’, By David Marcus, The Federalist
    • the term has two very distinct, if not contradictory meanings in today’s America. One is a general statement of support for civil rights; the other is a loose Marxist organization with a clear radical agenda.
  • Commentary: The Various Faces of Black Lives Matter by Robert Stilson, RealClearPolitics, June 21, 2020.
    • Black Lives Matter can mean something different depending on what part of the movement is being referenced 
    • BLM began as the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2013 in wake of the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. That earliest iteration of the term was the general statement of support. But very quickly BLM became the umbrella name for a network of loosely affiliated activist groups with a very far left set of objectives. In fact one of the founders has said on video that the organization was founded by “trained Marxists.”
  • The agenda of Black Lives Matter is far different from the slogan  By Mike Gonzalez and Andrew Olivastro, New York Post, July 1, 2020
    • Many see the slogan Black Lives Matter as a plea to ­secure the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans, especially historically wronged African Americans.  
    • Tragically, when they do donate, they are likely to bankroll a number of radical organizations, founded by committed Marxists whose goals aren’t to make the American Dream a reality for everyone — but to transform America completely.

(1)  “Systemic“.  Regarding implied and direct references to “systems and systemic:”   All results (successes and problems) represent outcomes from systems.  There are methods and tools for identifying, assessing, and improving systems.  These include identifying the aim (purpose, need) of the respective system, capability assessments, operational definitions of the data being used in assessments, cause and effect diagrams, affinity and Pareto charts, histograms, the five why’s, run and process behavior charts to include trend interpretation standards, and analysis of variation – common cause (normal, expected) and special cause variation (outlier, unusual, temporary) to name a few.   The Brown County Leader Network provides support for addressing systemic issues.