How the Starke County Election Board should schedule meetings and how board members should communicate with each other drew some disagreement during Wednesday’s meeting.
The board usually meets once a month, but Board President Marcia Bedrock scheduled two additional meetings, so board members could work on a vote center plan.
Indiana Code allows the board’s chairperson to call a meeting whenever he or she thinks it’s necessary. But Board Member Harrison Fields questioned whether Bedrock could call multiple meetings at once. “It says ‘a meeting,’” Fields said. “‘A meeting’ to me is one meeting, not two additional meetings here.”
Bedrock explained that she was simply trying to give the rest of the board advance notice, so Fields could plan his schedule and ask his proxy to attend, if necessary.
However, Fields said he didn’t want to communicate by email. “You call me on the phone,” he said. “Don’t text me. Call me on the phone, and we’ll have a conversation about these. Like I just told you, I have other things in life going on, too. I have medical problems. That’s all I’m going to say about that.”
But Bedrock didn’t think that would be very efficient. “Unless we do a conference call, I will be honest, I do not have the time to call and discuss each person’s schedule with them individually,” she said. “So doing things by email seems to me the most expedious way of getting something accomplished.”
In the end, Bedrock offered to cancel the meeting planned for November 6, wait until the end of the month, and then call the meeting once again.
Fields also voiced concern with a number of other issues, including Clerk Bernadette Welter-Manuel’s meeting agendas. He noted that one item was listed twice on an agenda last month. Fields said he didn’t think the typographical error was very appropriate, but said he “really enjoyed” this week’s agenda.
In other business Wednesday, the election board scheduled training for poll workers in next month’s North Judson town election for Tuesday, October 29 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in Starke County Annex Building No. 1.
