Councilman Jim Masterson to negotiate between attorneys with county council and commissioners

David Hostetler, President of the Marshall County Plan Commission was requested to appear before the County Council on Thursday morning with consideration to the 2024 budget.  Council President Jesse Bohannon said, “We’re trying to figure out what the proper way of moving forward is.  You guys have exhausted the 2024 budget on a number of items.”  He asked Mr. Hostetler what he thought was the proper way to move forward. 

Mr. Hostetler asked if the council was asking him or telling him how they will move forward and Bohannon said, they have established a process to provide additional appropriations for urgent matters by requiring him to seek authorization to advertise the meeting agenda by the president of the county council.  Hostetler said it isn’t working well because state statute requires them to address requests in a timely fashion, but Mr. Bohannon doesn’t respond in a timely fashion to County Plan Director Ty Adley’s emails, especially when he has a legal request. 

Councilman Tim Harman jumped in the conversation and Mr. Hostetler said to Tim, “You promised you weren’t going to blindside me, and I appreciate that cause I will leave. I don’t have to be here.  You can request all day long. I’ll walk out. I don’t have to be here.  I’ll provide whatever information I can provide but you will let us do our jobs because we have people we report to.  They are the public.” 

While Hostetler is in his second term on the Plan Commission being appointed by the County Commissioners he said, “It was a pleasure to do that.  I took the responsibility seriously and I still do.”  He said the council needs to provide the resources so he can do his job and if not, he will quit.

Mr. Bohannon asked Mr. Lebbin, the council’s attorney, to explain the statutes and what he is recommending for how the council can handle this issue.

Mr. Lebbin commented on Mr. Hostetler’s discussion with the County Commissioners on Monday and said he not only reports to the commissioners, and they are his boss, but Lebbin said, “That is only partially true.  The council is also your boss.”

Mr. Hostetler wasn’t aware who Mr. Lebbin was and told him, “They (the council) are not my boss so don’t even go there.  We are going by Indiana Code and if Indiana Code says this, don’t go there.” 

At that point Mr. Bohannon gaveled down on Mr. Hostetler. 

At that point Mr. Hostetler said he would leave and stood up from the front desk. 

Mr. Lebbin continued to quote Indiana Code 36-7-44-01 and Mr. Hostetler said he didn’t even know who he was and asked if he lived in Marshall County.

Mr. Lebbin asked him if he wanted to talk about Indiana Code and held up a piece of paper and at that point Mr. Bohannon gaveled down both men and Mr. Hostetler left.

Councilman Harman wanted to explain the council’s rationale and their side to the story.  He said Mr. Hostetler came to the commissioner’s meeting seeking advice, “But I think the advice he was given on Monday was atrocious because frankly there was reference to the statute and yet no citations of the statute were given.  The statute wasn’t even read as far as what the rolls and the powers of the Plan Commission are.”  Harman said the advice given was to disregard the legal authority of the county council by two of the commissioners.  He said it was bad advice and then read a portion of the statute. 

Marshall County is an advisory council and thus the county council “MAY,” not a mandate or a shall appropriate funds for the commission.  The Plan Commission shall prepare a budget and be limited in all expenditures by the fiscal body.  Harman also read from the contract the Plan Commission has with their Attorney Derek Jones. 

Harman asked what happens if the defiance continues and their attorney said the person who asked the Plan Commission Attorney to attend the meeting would be encumbering public funds without authorization and permission which is a felony.  If Mr. Jones sues the county for his fees, the county council will sue Mr. Hostetler. 

Mr. Harman alleges that in the May primary election the public spoke and voted for the candidates who are opposed to solar, and thus the public has spoken.  He went on to say, “The public is being held hostage by two commissioners who will not do the will of the public and quite frankly this is unbelievable to me.”    

Councilman Jim Masterson said, “Rather than going to radical means and talking about this why can’t the legal counsel from our board and the legal counsel for the commissioners get together and with the people this directly involves with all this conflict come up with a plan so that it doesn’t have to go to the courts because we are all adults and I think we need to extend the olive branch and go forward that way. If there’s a communication problem between what representation of one board has over the other, I think the attorneys from both bodies need to get together. They need to talk; we need to work this out.” 

Mr. Masterson was asked to be the council member to work on negotiating the situation and he agreed to with the council’s unanimous motion.  Jim said we all need to do what is best for the county.