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MUNCIE, Ind. The Muncie City Council on Monday overrode Mayor Dan Ridenour s veto of an ordinance changing some of the rules governing the Muncie Fire Merit Commission. The veto was the first mayoral veto in a decade.
The merit commission is a city-appointed board that is in charge of hiring, promotion and disciplinary action for the Muncie Fire Department.
Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour vetoed the ordinance 7-21, without any indication beforehand that he was going to do so. The move caught several city council members off guard.
The most recent previous veto by a sitting mayor in Muncie was by former Mayor Sharron McShurley, who vetoed an ordinance in 2010 related to the Muncie Animal Shelter.
It is true that Chapter 14 of Indiana Code Title 19, a long-since defunct yet only followed by the City of Muncie piece of Indiana law, states that “A person shall be ineligible to serve as a civilian member of the merit commission if he or she holds any other public office or appointment.” If the matter stopped and started with this stipulation as our mayor has chosen to squarely base his veto the story would be done and finished and I would readily acquiesce. However, the mayor has not presented the majority of facts involved in the proactive ordinance which City Council passed and which he’s vetoed.