State: Town didn’t violate Open Door Law
The Nashville Town Council didn’t violate the law when it had a private meeting to discuss its legal situation regarding Brown County Water Utility and Firecracker Hill, the Indiana Public Access Counselor has decided.
The Open Door Law allows governing bodies of public agencies the right to discuss only a few specific matters behind closed doors.
Resident Tricia Bock filed a formal complaint with the state in July alleging that a violation occurred on May 15, when the council had an executive session to discuss “strategy with respect to threatened litigation.” Her complaint said that no litigation was actually threatened “specifically in writing,” which is what the law requires.
Brown County Water Utility had sent a letter to the town through its attorney, saying the utility believed it had right to serve the Firecracker Hill development with water. That land is on the edge of the town’s corporate boundary, and the town is in the process of annexing it. The Big Woods Brewing family of companies is building a large new tourist attraction on the hill and is expected to triple its water use. It’s already the town’s biggest water customer.
Town Attorney James T. Roberts’ response was that the town considered that letter from BCWU’s attorney to be a threat of litigation. BCWU later filed a lawsuit against the town in federal court on June 20.
Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt agreed with Roberts. However, Britt wrote that he takes exception to one part of the town’s response, which declares “litigation” to include “any administrative proceeding.” The Open Door Law uses the wording “any administrative law proceeding,” and “a great distinction is implicated,” Britt wrote.
“Under the town’s definition, any application for licensure or permit, request for assistance, grant application, or submission for approval to any governmental entity would be considered litigation. This is not so. While a petition for approval before the IURC is an administrative function, it is not an administrative law proceeding. An administrative law proceeding is an appeal of a state agency action … or other non-judicial adversarial proceeding. While this does not affect the ultimate conclusion in this case, it bears mentioning.”
Town making new plans to handle ordinance violations
Locals and visitors to Nashville who are ticketed for violating town ordinances may have to follow a new procedure starting this fall.
The Nashville Town Council, the town attorney and the Nashville Police have been talking about forming a “town court” since last year.
The town wouldn’t actually have its own courtroom or judge. It would enter into an agreement with Brown Circuit Court to hear the cases of people contesting their tickets, if they choose to do so.
However, deferral would also be an option, said Town Attorney James T. Roberts. A deferral program allows a person who gets a ticket to pay a fee and admit they committed a violation instead of going to court.
The council passed an ordinance Aug. 17 to set a deferral program procedure. It lists 13 ordinances that are eligible: littering in public or private places, from vehicles or from truckloads; obstructing or driving on a sidewalk; skateboarding or rollerblading on a street or sidewalk; discharging a firearm or spring gun; violating curfew; not having a dog license; not properly confining an animal; having a nuisance animal or an animal causing a disturbance; or baiting animals.
Moving violations, which include speeding and failure to stop, would be filed in Brown Circuit Court by the town attorney.
A ticketed person would be allowed to apply for the pretrial diversion program, if that person had not committed another ticketed offense within the past year. That option gives offenders a “discount” on their fines, Roberts said.
The diversion program carries an $80 fee, and it requires the person to not commit another violation of a town ordinance for the next six months. If that agreement isn’t followed, the ticket would be prosecuted and more fees would be added.
The penalty for the 13 civil violations above is listed at $143. That could be paid to the “violations clerk” at Town Hall. The penalty for moving violations would be $175.
The idea of creating a town court grew out discussions about so little ticket money actually staying in this community to support local law enforcement. The town court option allows ticket-writing to not be a “revenue loss,” as town council President “Buzz” King put it.
If a person elects to do the diversion program, all of the fee goes to the town’s general fund instead of getting divided out to go to the state and other agencies, he said.
Town council member Arthur Omberg, who’s a former police officer, voted against the deferral/diversion program ordinance, which passed 4-1. He said he’s not against giving people the option to avoid incurring points on their license, but he worries about ticket-writing becoming a revenue stream years down the road, and about Nashville becoming a speed trap.
Roberts said he hopes the new process can start by October.
Downtown streets to close, parking blocked for events
The Nashville Town Council has approved street closures for the following events in September:
- The We Care Gang’s 13th annual Abe Martin County Picnic and NASHCAR Outhouse Races. Three parking spaces will be blocked on the west side of West Main at Jefferson Street Thursday night, Sept. 14. All parking spaces on Main between Bittersweet Lane and Van Buren Street and on Jefferson between Molly’s Lane and Old Hickory Lane will be blocked off Friday night, Sept. 15. Alleys and roads entering that area will be blocked off Saturday morning, Sept. 16. The event will last until about 5 p.m. Saturday.
- The Salvation Army’s street carnival, on the same day as the We Care Gang’s event. South Jefferson Street will blocked in front of the Salvation Army from Pittman House Lane to Washington Street Saturday morning, Sept. 16. The event will run from 1 to 4 p.m.
- Big Woods Brewing Co.’s Quafftoberfest with live music and drinks in Molly’s Lane, Saturday, Sept. 30. The event runs from 1:30 to 9 p.m.
