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Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Ind. Gov't. - Clarksville officials look at options to avoid public meeting

Interesting item in the Sept. 2nd News & Tribune, reported by David Mann. From near the end of the story, headed "Clarksville courting health care prospects at Colgate site:"

The Colgate plant, which once employed about 1,500, closed its doors at the end of 2007, after the company moved operations to Mexico and Tennessee. The building has sat empty since then, though speculation about the property has been particularly high this year, as it was purchased in January by a development group.

As all that’s taken place, the plant has remained steeped in mystery. And that was the case on Thursday night.

At one point, Redevelopment Director Rick Dickman even discussed ways in which negotiations between the town and the prospects could be kept behind closed doors, rather than during public meetings.

Dickman sought outside consulting on the subject from Ice miller, an Indianapolis legal firm. During Thursday’s meeting he read a memo he’d received from the firm. It advised that the commission could have a “gathering” — as opposed to holding an official meeting — to discuss industrial or commercial prospects, so long as they reach no conclusion or offer public financial resources. According to the memo, this could be done without any open door law notice and without any limitation on the identity or the number of people attending.

A second option would be for officials to meet in executive session for the purpose of conducting interviews and negotiation with industrial or commercial prospects. That would require notice.

The commission made no decision to exercise either option. Dickman said both options were recent additions to the Indiana open door law. The News and Tribune will seek independent verification of those changes.

The town wouldn’t have to negotiate unless the prospects wanted something, Dickman said. He declined to give specifics on what that might be but said some funding mechanisms were being sought. Wilson indicated the prospects are also working with state economic development officials, as well.

[More] A reader sends this interesting note:
That closed Colgate Plant was once the Indiana State Prison (as one member of the Indiana Constitution Convention stated, "the worse possible place to put children...thus Article 9, Sec. 2 of the Indiana Constitution creating The Indiana Boys' and Girls' Reform Schools). I remember my Grandmother telling me her parent's used to take her there after church on Sunday's for a picnic and to watch the hanging(s).

The old Indiana Prison was also mentioned in an Indiana Court of Appeals decision Ratliff v Cohen (No. 49A02-9611-CV-739), specifically citing the transcript from the Indiana Constitutional Convention in Corydon:

Mr. LOCKHART: "I have often been pained to see the youth, the mere boy, branded as a felon, under our laws, and sent for a series of years to that worst of all prisons in the United States-the Jeffersonville State prison."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 6, 2011 08:24 AM
Posted to Indiana Government