Monroe County GOP gives greenlight to county chair to fill ballot vacancies

William Ellis at GOP meeting on June 28, 2022.

Taylor Bryant at GOP meeting on June 28, 2022.

At a meeting of Republican Party precinct chairs held at Ellettsville town hall on Tuesday evening, they gave county party chair Taylor Bryant the authority to fill vacancies on the Nov. 8 election ballot.

Bryant would have until noon on July 3 fill ballot vacancies.

Before the vote, county vice chair William Ellis said Bryant’s authority is just for cases where no GOP candidate filed for the May 3 primary election, and does not extend to filling a vacancy for an office due to resignation or death.

As of Tuesday, the GOP does not have on-the-ballot candidates for several Monroe County races, like prosecutor, clerk, assessor, and two judgeships. That’s due in part to the fact that Monroe County voters favor Democratic Party candidates. In the 2020 presidential race, Democrat Joe Biden won over Republican Donald Trump by a 28-point margin.

Responding to a B Square question after Tuesday’s meeting, Bryant said for township trustee and township board positions she’s heard some interest expressed from potential candidates. About county-level positions, Bryant said, “We’ve had some conversations—I don’t know if we’re going to get anybody for those.” Continue reading “Monroe County GOP gives greenlight to county chair to fill ballot vacancies” →

Court of appeals: Bloomington mayor’s pick for plan commission valid, not GOP county chair’s

In a ruling issued Friday morning, Indiana’s court of appeals reversed the decision of a lower court that found Andrew Guenther had been rightfully appointed to Bloomington’s plan commission seat in spring 2020 by then-chair of the Monroe County GOP William Ellis.

From left: Andrew Guenther, Nick Kappas, Chris Cockerham

The court of appeals found on a 3-0 vote that the lower court’s ruling was “clearly erroneous.”

[Opinion: Guenther v. Hamilton]

According to the ruling, Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s appointment of Chris Cockerham to the contested seat was valid. Cockerham has been serving on Bloomington’s plan commission since his May 2020 appointment by Hamilton.

Reached by The B Square shortly after the ruling was released, Guenther indicated that he was not yet sure if an appeal to Indiana’s Supreme Court would be attempted.

The three-member panel on the court of appeals reduced the various questions of law that were in front of it to just one: For boards and commissions that have a partisan balancing requirement under Indiana state law, is it possible for an appointee to have no affiliation at all with any party?

Guenther and Ellis said no. The city of Bloomington and Hamilton said yes.

The court of appeals agreed with Bloomington and Hamilton.

Friday’s ruling says that the disputed statue should not be interpreted to mean that an appointee to a partisan-balance board or commission, like a plan commission, must have some partisan affiliation or other.

The central question about the lack of party affiliation did not involve either Guenther or Cockerham. It was undisputed that the seat in question could not be filled by a Democrat, because three of the five plan commission seats appointed by the mayor were already filled with Democrats. Continue reading “Court of appeals: Bloomington mayor’s pick for plan commission valid, not GOP county chair’s” →

Outgoing Monroe County GOP chair on election of youngest party leader in Hoosier state: “Taylor is…going to drive this past the finish line.”

Taylor Bryant, newly elected Monroe County GOP chair.

William Ellis, now Monroe County GOP vice chair, and Taylor Bryant, newly elected chair.

Taylor Bryant, newly elected Monroe County GOP chair.

Dec. 18, 2021 GOP caucus at Ellettsville town hall.

At Ellettsville’s town hall on Saturday morning, about 60 people gathered to elect Taylor Bryant as the new chair of Monroe County’s Republican Party.

She had declared her candidacy earlier in the week in a Facebook post.

Saturday’s voice vote by the party’s precinct committeemen and committeewomen was not controversial. It’s not a dramatic change in party leadership. Her election just elevated Bryant from party vice chair to chair.

And Bryant’s first appointment, to fill her vacant vice chair spot, was a familiar face—William Ellis, who up to now has served as party chair. Saturday’s news could be fairly described as a simple swap in the roles of Ellis and Bryant.

What has some area Republicans thinking Bryant’s chairship could attract the attention of media statewide, or even on the national level, is the fact that the eighteen-year-old is now the youngest county chair for the Republican Party in the state of Indiana, possibly the country. Continue reading “Outgoing Monroe County GOP chair on election of youngest party leader in Hoosier state: “Taylor is…going to drive this past the finish line.”” →

Stay granted: GOP pick for Bloomington plan commission won’t be seated pending appeal

Andrew Guenther will not be serving as a Bloomington plan commissioner—at least not for the next several months—even though a mid-November order from special judge Erik Allen installed him in a plan commission seat effective immediately.

From left: Chris Cockerham and Andrew Guenther.

On Monday morning, Allen granted a request
from the city of Bloomington for a stay of his November order, pending the appeal for which the city has given notice.

That means Chris Cockerham will continue serving on the Bloomington plan commission while the appeal is battled out in court.

The order granting the stay came the morning of the same day when the plan commission next meets—Monday at 5:30 p.m.

The stay means that it will be Cockerham, not Guenther, who appears in the Zoom videoconference square for the plan commission’s Monday night meeting.

The end of 2021 will mark the half-way point in the four-year term of the disputed plan commission seat. It is conceivable that the appeal could take up much of the remaining two years in the term.

It was in mid-2020 when the lawsuit over the plan commission seat was filed by Monroe County Republican Party chair William Ellis and Andrew Guenther. Continue reading “Stay granted: GOP pick for Bloomington plan commission won’t be seated pending appeal” →

Bloomington city council to recognize GOP party chair’s choice for transit board seat, an appointment the council is supposed to make

In a press release issued in mid-November, GOP Monroe County chair William Ellis announced he had appointed Doug Horn, a Bloomington businessman and former Monroe County plan commissioner, to the five-member, partisan-balanced Bloomington Transit board.

It’s an appointment that is normally supposed to be made by the city council. The mayor makes appointments to two of the seats and the city council makes the other three.

That’s under normal circumstances, when the appointing authority fills a vacancy in a timely way.

On Tuesday night, at a meeting of the city council’s four-member transportation committee, council attorney Stephen Lucas weighed in on the announcement Ellis had made three weeks earlier.

“I don’t see a reason why William Ellis would not have the authority to make that appointment, Lucas told committee members.” Lucas continued, “The state law [Ellis] cites allows for the appointment by the county chair, when the appointing authority does not fill a vacancy. I think that’s the case here.”

For a partisan-balanced board, a party’s county chair can make an appointment for a seat of a member with an expiring term, if that member is affiliated with the same party. Ellis’s appointment replaced Alex Cartwright, who is a Republican.

The state law cited by Ellis to make Horn’s appointment allows for a board member to serve for 90 days past the expiration of a term. But Cartwright’s four-year term expired on July 31. Ellis’s appointment of Horn came after that 90-day window closed.

Lucas also said at Tuesday’s committee meeting that the other vacant seat on the BT board that the committee was looking to fill was not actually vacant.

Nancy Obermeyer’s four-year term does not actually expire until 2021, based on a recent detailed review of records done by city clerk Nicole Bolden, according to Lucas. Obermeyer is a Democrat.

Continue reading “Bloomington city council to recognize GOP party chair’s choice for transit board seat, an appointment the council is supposed to make” →

Habitat for Humanity PUD, Trinitas site plan OK’d by Bloomington plan commission, as seat remains disputed

Locator map for Habitat for Humanity’s Osage Place.

Inset for Habitat for Humanity’s Osage Place.

Bloomington’s plan commission gave approvals to two significant petitions at its Monday night meeting.

The first was a request to rezone about 12.5 acres just east of RCA Community Park, as part of a planned unit development (PUD), so that 70 single-family homes can be built there. As a rezoning, the PUD will now be considered by Bloomington’s city council.

The second petition was the final plan approval of a roughly 1,000-bedroom project proposed by Trinitas Development, for 39 acres nestled in the southeast corner of the I-69 and SR 45/46 interchange. The plan commission had previously recommended approval of the project’s rezoning. Bloomington’s city council agreed, on a unanimous vote in early March.

Monday’s meeting was Chris Cockerham’s first as plan commissioner since receiving an appointment from the city’s mayor, John Hamilton, to replace Nick Kappas, who served through the end of 2019, but was not re-appointed.

The fact that Cockerham’s seat is still disputed was evident from the message conveyed on Monday during the plan commission’s meeting by Andrew Guenther, using the chat feature of the Zoom videoconference platform, on which the meeting was conducted.

“On April 16th, 2020, in accordance with IC 36-1-8-10, Monroe County Republican Party Chairman William Ellis appointed me, Andrew Guenther, to the Bloomington Plan Commission,” Guenther wrote.

Guenther added, “Mr. Ellis and I make a final request today that Planning & Transportation, as well as the Plan Commission, deny Mr. Cockerham’s appointment and recognize myself, Andrew Guenther, as the legal and rightful appointee to the Bloomington Plan Commission.”

A lawsuit over the appointment could be filed as soon as Tuesday. Continue reading “Habitat for Humanity PUD, Trinitas site plan OK’d by Bloomington plan commission, as seat remains disputed” →