Stoops Overstepping His Duties, the Law

Last week on the AM1370’s afternoon talk show County Council President Mark Stoops provided listeners with additional proof of his intentions to carryout his unethical, not mention unlawful, activity on the Council. He outlined an agenda that included setting County Policy, something that is totally out of the purview of the Council’s responsibilities, by controlling the County Commissioners budget, in effect controlling them. Nowhere in the Indiana Code (IC 36-2-3) as it pertains to the County Government structure does it indicate that the County Council acts as an executive branch of local government to set policy. It clearly defines the role and responsibilities of the Council and limits them as the fiscal body of the County. The description of the duties of the County Council on Monroe County’s web site indicate “Appropriates all funds for county use, adopts county budget, fixes county tax rate, and has exclusive power to borrow money for the county”. Stoops has shown a tendency toward this type of improper activity recently at a Council work session where he suggested that he would like to push the Commissioner’s for increased standards for road construction in subdivisions and tying it to the increased vehicle tax. At that point the County attorney told Stoops and the rest of the Council they legally couldn’t dictate policy to the Commissioners. Obviously the title and power has gone to his head, as he evidently believes he is above the law as he has once again proven.

During the last election several of the Democrat County Council candidates took on issues that were well beyond the responsibility of the Council’s legal role in government. This early warning signal should have been notice enough of their intention to push an agenda that was beyond the limits of the elected office. Now with a full compliment of like-minded extremists on the Council, Stoops is leading the charge into shutting down the County’s economic growth engine by stopping all development. Stoops obviously has a real bad case of Commissioner’s envy, bad enough that he is willing to break the law by admitting he is going to force his hand to set policy. It is beyond comprehension why the Commissioners would tolerate this type of nonsense, they should be showing true leadership by letting Mr. Stoops, as well as all the citizens they serve, who is really in control by denouncing this illegal activity. It is interesting that a newspaper like the Herald Times that savors reporting uncivil or unethical behavior would tolerate this type of blatant irresponsibility from an elected official. In Indiana our government structure is clearly outlined to protect its residents from this type of power hungry extremist, everyone should demand that these laws be followed both in content and in spirit.