Travis on the EDC, Like Mixing Oil and Water

The Monroe County Commissioner’s were faced with a real dilemma this past week, not affirm the County Council’s appointment to the Monroe County Economic Development Commission and break the spirit of the law or affirm it and appoint one of the most outspoken liberals in the county. When the dust settled, the vote was two to one, with Herb Kilmer in opposition. I’m sure this appointment was like taking a bitter pill, just hold your nose and swallow, as my guess is even Iris Kiesling had trouble with this one. Just because of some quirk in the Indiana Code that reads the Commissioners “shall affirm” the Councils appointment, we will be stuck with, at least temporarily, a hard line environmentalist that will take his marching orders from the local left. As always some people want to place blame however in this instance everyone should look closely before doing so. You really can’t blame Joyce Poling or Iris Kiesling for their affirmative vote based on the wording of the Indiana Code and certainly you can’t blame Herb Kilmer for opposing it, unfortunately in this instance too little was done too late, after all the Council made their appointment in January. No one person is to blame in this instance, as we all should be taking a hard look at why we got where we are at this point. For years citizens of this county have elected the kind of people that managed to keep this brand of liberal fundamentalist at bay however, with the recent trend in local politics, especially in the city, more of the radical left are being elected and appointed, all to the detriment of Monroe County.

Although this far left faction keeps claiming they only want to help, their true intentions are quite the opposite. What they really want is to control all growth in our county by infiltrating as many elected and appointed seats as possible. They claim to want a more compact form of urban development and yet they oppose virtually every project that would facilitate that concept. They claim they’re against urban sprawl and yet they continue to oppose compact rural developments because of environmental concerns. They can spin it any way they want but their game plan is obvious. Greg Travis wrote that he “agreed with Steve Howard of the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce when he defined “Economic Development” as “the betterment of the human condition.” This is of course if it fits within his narrow definition of “betterment of the human condition”. He pretends that he is supportive of economic development by suggesting that he hasn’t done anything to oppose it, I say unlike others on the Economic Development Commission, he hasn’t done anything to promote it either. For the last several years Greg Travis, County Council member Sophia Travis’s husband, has been one of the most vocal individuals in our community with his own brand of far left fanaticism and now he’s on the Monroe County Economic Development Commission, which to me is like mixing oil and water.