South Bend council's decision further delays 'egregious' backlog of meeting minutes
SOUTH BEND — The South Bend Common Council on Monday further delayed action on a severe backlog of meeting minutes from the past two years after some raised concerns about allowing the city clerk's office, which must prepare all minutes, to outsource some of its work.
City Clerk Bianca Tirado, who assumed office on Jan. 1 after ousting Dawn Jones in last year's election cycle, said her office discovered in a January audit that meeting minutes for 28 council meetings from 2022 and 2023 remain partially or completely undrafted. Minutes also weren't prepared for 58 council committee meetings in 2023. Tirado, who worked for Jones until stepping down in April 2022, said the clerk's office should finish minutes every two weeks.
Council member Troy Warner proposed a change to South Bend city ordinance that would allow the clerk to outsource the preparation of meeting minutes in order to speed up the process. But after several meeting attendees on Monday questioned why councilors would change the law for Tirado and not for her predecessor, the proposal was tabled until a March 25 meeting.
In addition to the proposal to pay an outside service for meeting minutes, the council is also asking for a new full-time position housed in the clerk's office. A proposed administrative assistant to the Common Council would earn up to $58,000 a year to schedule council meetings and events, create presentations and reports and manage the council's website, among other tasks.
Councilors tabled that idea until a March 11 meeting.
To ensure the public can monitor elected officials, Indiana's Open Door Law requires the preparation of meeting minutes, which must include a summary of discussions at meetings and a record of how all councilors voted on various issues.
At-Large council member Rachel Tomas Morgan called the backlog "egregious" and blamed the prior clerk for a dereliction of duty.
"It is important to have these questions answered so that council members can fully understand," Tomas Morgan said, "but at the same time I want to impress upon us that these are minutes that are years old and are owed to the public."
The discord stoked on Monday stems from a consulting agreement between the Common Council and Tirado that Jones felt was undermining her authority as city clerk. Council leaders said the previous clerk wasn't fulfilling her job requirements and needed help, and they criticized her for illegally outsourcing meeting minutes to her daughter, an allegation The Tribune confirmed.
Without a vote of the full council, Common Council President Sharon McBride in April 2022 authorized a contract to pay Tirado $60 an hour to "assist the clerk's office," which is the council's administrative arm, with tasks that Jones and her team reportedly weren't doing.
While council attorney Bob Palmer says McBride was within her rights as president to form such a contract, Jones and other critics said it seemed unethical to pay Tirado while she was actively campaigning against the sitting city clerk.
The Tribune reported that Tirado was paid $56,640 from April 2022 to January 2023, far exceeding the $6,000 a month allotted to her in the contract. On Monday, At-Large councilor Oliver Davis Jr. said the contract persisted for months afterward and questioned why Tirado reportedly earned more than $118,000.
"If there's a party to be added on, I believe that should be a decision by the full council and not just a situation where the president can give the OK," Davis said.
Tirado ultimately won the May Democratic primary election over Jones.
Multiple commenters opposed more spending by the clerk's office, which was allotted $594,000 in the 2024 budget. About $278,000 is devoted to wages, according to a budget breakdown. Tirado earns about $80,000.
The clerk said her office is working to pare down the backlog of meeting minutes and could do so without outside help, but it would be inefficient and time-intensive.
"It would be too much of a burden for the clerk's office to look back and prepare minutes — and they were not here to know the context — while at the same time trying to move forward," McBride said.
Residents argued that the clerk's office is paying the price of its own poor decision-making and the council's poor oversight.
"Six of you sat over this (backlog of minutes), oversaw this, for four years," Drew Duncan, who ran unsuccessfully to oust McBride in the May Democratic primary, said to the council Monday. "And so now, again, the city and its council is asking its taxpayers to take their bad decisions and put it on the backs of their families and their wallets."
Correction: A prior version of this article wrongly stated that the current city clerk earns about $98,000 a year. Her salary is $80,212.
Contact South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend council faces backlog of meeting minutes
