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This is the WFHB Local News for Thursday, October 17th, 2024.
In today’s feature report, WFHB Environmental Correspondent Zero Roze speaks with Robyn Skuya-Boss of the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club about how energy companies in Indiana are dragging their feet when it comes to phasing out the use of fossil fuels responsible for destabilizing the Earth’s Climate. More in the bottom half of our program.
Also coming up in the next half hour, the Monroe County Commissioners denied a contract for an election results program with an outside vendor.
More coming up in your daily headlines:
Monroe County Commissioners
At the Monroe County Board of Commissioners meeting on October 9th, Monroe County Deputy Clerk, Laura Wert, relayed a message from Nicole Browne, the County Clerk, expressing that she hoped to partner with an external vendor named An Island, in order to communicate scores and results in real time on election night. As justification for this preference, Browne referred to a cybersecurity breach that affected Monroe County over the summer. The breach exposed the county to potential litigation for failing to meet their required election reporting deadlines. The clerk received guidance from state and federal cybersecurity experts to divorce any and all election data from Monroe County technology. Wert said that Browne wished to emphasize the necessity of holding safe and secure elections next month, and expressed her concern at the commissioners’ lack of interest in the issue.
Wert also indicated that An Island had offered a substantial grant to offset the setup cost of their system, as well as an 11,000 dollar discount over the course of the three year contract. Wert concluded by directing the commissioners to the proposed contract with the vendor, and reiterated Brown’s earnest interest in adopting An Island’s services.
The commissioners then invited Commissioners’ Administrator Angela Purdie to speak to the county’s analysis of the breach. Purdie said that systems were only down for a week and that no data had been lost due to the breach, but she was hesitant to draw any conclusions before the report was finalized.
Commissioner Githens took issue with the proposed contract, calling it poorly written and far too expensive, and said that An Island’s systems used technology that was twenty-five years out of date. Commissioner Githens also expressed that all of these concerns had been raised in prior discussions with the County Clerk’s office, and yet the contract before the commissioners contained no substantive improvements on these fronts.
Commissioner Githens also noted that any proposed changes to the manner in which election results are processed and reported should come from the Election Board, not the County Clerk. Wert requested clarification on whether the Election Board had ever delegated such a responsibility to the county clerk’s office, an authority that she claimed was typical for most other counties. County Attorney Molly Turner-King shared that while she couldn’t speak to the resolutions of previous election boards, the present board had never issued any such delegation.
Commissioner Githens also expressed her concern that Clerk Brown’s pursuit of the service contract with An Island had prevented her from fulfilling her obligations as the secretary of the Election Board ahead of Election Day.
Election Supervisor Kylie Farris asserted that the training manual was complete, and that the training would be identical to the sessions that were conducted prior to the primaries in March. Farris also said that all materials would be printed and distributed by last Friday.
The Commissioners then opened the matter for public comment. Vice President of Business Operations at An Island, Anjan Kashyab, asserted that his company was purely interested in providing a public service and handling elections data in a secure manner. Kashyab also rejected Commissioner Githens’ accusation that the company used outdated technology, saying that the state of Indiana used the same system as they did.
T-S-D Director Greg Crohn then commented on Monroe County’s response to the cybersecurity breach over the summer. Crohn reaffirmed that the event had no impact on any election data on the county’s servers, and that his department had followed protocol in communicating the details of the breach to county departments, including the county clerk’s office.
Crohn assured the Commissioners that his department’s report on the breach would be issued as soon as possible.
Commissioner Thomas thanked Crohn for his remarks, and concurred with his assessment that the county’s cybersecurity systems could be entrusted with election scores and results next month. The Commissioners voted 3-0 against the proposed An Island contract.
The Monroe County Board of Commissioners will meet again on Wednesday, October 23rd at 10 AM.
Bloomington Board of Public Works
The Bloomington Board of Public Works approved the Resolution Sidewalk Improvement Plan 2024 at their meeting on October 8th. Public Works Director Adam Wason gave a report on the plan, highlighting the key projects.
He shared that the sidewalk improvement plan includes removing trip hazards, installation of ADA approved ramps on newly paved streets, repairs and replacements of sidewalks around town, and funding assistance for residents needing to replace sidewalks.
According to a city statute, property owners are responsible for keeping up the sidewalks adjacent to their property. The city will offer lower income residents up to fifty percent of the costs for sidewalk repairs if they use the Sidewalk Repair Program in the plan.
Wason said that fifty percent, often isn’t enough help for residents to be able to afford the sidewalk repairs, so the city might change that next year.
The city is also working on a maintenance plan to replace the brick sidewalks on Kirkwood with concrete stamped in a brick pattern. Wason said that the stamped brick will be easier to maintain because people cannot steal individual bricks from a stamped pattern.
Wason explained that IU students tend to take bricks from the sidewalks, leaving the City to replace them.
Wason says that the City is currently replacing a half dozen to a dozen bricks every week right now, and moving to the stamped brick will eliminate this problem.
Wason also reminded residents that the city will not vacuum leaves this year. They will instead pick up bagged leaves like they have been doing for the past couple of years.
The next Bloomington Board of Public Works meeting will be October 22nd.
Feature Report:
Up next, WFHB Environmental Correspondent Zero Roze sat down with the Chapter Director of the Sierra Club to discuss ‘the Dirty Truth’, a new report card which gave Duke Energy an ‘F’ for failing to take Climate Change seriously and deciding to delay our transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. We turn now to an interview with Robyn Skuya-Boss of the Sierra Club for more.
Credits:
You’ve been listening to the WFHB Local News,
Today’s headlines were written by Janek Schaller and Noelle Herhusky-Schneider, in partnership with Cats – Community Access Television Services.
Our feature was produced by Zero Roze.
Our theme music is provided by Mark Bingham and the Social Climbers.
Engineer and Executive producer is Kade Young.
