Indiana public access office goes quiet amid turnover
The entrance to the Office of the Public Access Counselor's Government Center South suite on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Another agency, which previously occupied the now-vacant work areas within view of the door, relocated years ago. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Tippecanoe County resident Pamela Frazee just wants to know if her messages went through.
Phone calls to Indiana's Office of the Public Access Counselor (PAC) route directly to a voicemail box and aren't returned. Emails — including allegations of public access law violations that the office weighs in on — go unacknowledged. No opinions from this year are online.
Frustrated Hoosiers report the office has gone mum after a leadership shake-up.
'It's not been a good transition at all if you don't even have people who can answer the phones,' said Frazee, who sought confirmation that her time-sensitive complaints were received.
Former PAC Luke Britt, who ran the office for about 12 years under previous Govs. Mike Pence and Eric Holcomb, announced plans to resign mid-February, WFYI reported. In late March, new Gov. Mike Braun named Indianapolis attorney Jennifer Ruby as the successor. The office has one other employee, Kyra Helming, listed in the state's transparency portal.
Britt, the state's longest-serving PAC, pointed to an 'overwhelming' workload in a niche area of law.
'I don't envy what she's having to deal with right now at all,' he said. 'It's not my place to give her the benefit of the doubt. But I certainly do.'
Braun's administration, meanwhile, pinned blame on him.
'When Gov. Braun's public access counselor appointment began in March, she inherited dozens of cases from 2024 that were not finalized,' Governor's Office spokesman Griffin Reid said. 'With that backlog successfully addressed, she is focusing her efforts on the 2025 cases and the statutory responsibilities of the office. Gov. Braun is fully committed to transparency at all levels.'
The Capital Chronicle requested comment from Ruby's office May 9 and in the past week, but didn't receive a response from her. No one answered the door when reporters showed up.
The PAC provides guidance on state public records and open meeting laws. The officeholder responds to informal inquiries on the laws, issues non-binding advisory opinions and educates officials and Hoosiers on their rights and responsibilities, according to the website.
The Indiana General Assembly created the office in 1999.
For Frazee, who filed two formal complaints mid-May and hasn't heard back, the 'PAC clock is ticking.'
Formal complaints must be filed with the office within 30 days of either an agency's denial of records access or notice of an improperly held meeting. A complaint is considered filed on the date it is received, according to the office's public access law handbook. Once a complaint is accepted, the PAC notifies the alleged offending agency and gives it 20 business days to respond.
'Do I need to resend it? Did you assign it? Did you toss it?' Frazee worried.
She said a confirmation that a filing has been received — 'always' sent during Britt's tenure — would provide reassurance 'that I have submitted the PAC complaint in a timely fashion, where I don't have to worry about it being tossed.'
Keeping up with demand proved a challenge, per Britt.
The workload grew annually, 'sometimes by an exponential amount.' And 'volume-wise, it was even overwhelming for me at times, just trying to keep it all straight, be responsive,' he recalled.
He said 'constituent relations' — responding to Hoosier queries — was his top priority and became his workday.
An influx of 50-100 calls and emails were coming in daily by the time he left, Britt estimated. He described a 'benchmark' for getting messages answered within 24 business hours.
Hoosier lawmakers decline to remove public records chief restrictions
'If I had time, or I would take work home in the evenings, to actually write opinions,' he continued. Legislation that went into effect last July 'de-emphasized opinions even more, so I would try to resolve those conflicts informally as much as I could.'
House Enrolled Act 1338 limited the PAC to using only the law's 'plain text' — despite statutory ambiguities — and official court orders in writing opinions. Also, the governor can now remove a PAC at any time, instead of 'for cause.'
He still wrote opinions, though — and imposed a benchmark for them, too.
The goal was to have all of of the the previous year's opinions done before the first quarter of the next year ended. By the time he left, Britt said, he'd distributed the 2024 opinions but hadn't uploaded them online; he hadn't started on the 2025 complaints.
His longtime deputy or an administrative assistant would usually handle tasks like uploading opinions. (Only about half those written are uploaded, according to a formal complaint guide.) But both staffers left partway through 2024, as the term-limited Holcomb administration neared its end. Britt said that's when the office fell behind on uploads.
He ran the agency solo for nearly a year. Then he resigned.
'I was worried when I left that there would be a lot of loose ends,' Britt said. 'There was a lot of work in progress. There always was. No matter when I left, I knew … I couldn't even begin to wrap everything up with a bow. I did what I could and tried to leave behind as many breadcrumbs as I could, but there was just too much.'
He estimated leaving behind 11 pending complaints and recalled Ruby mentioning the backlog had grown to about 40.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Indiana's property tax reform delivers relief while preserving local growth
Indiana's 2024 elections sent a message to leaders that Hoosiers across the state were concerned about getting squeezed out of their homes by skyrocketing property taxes. The angst I heard talking to members of our community came, of course, with an acknowledgement that rising taxes were a result of increased home values, but a lack of transparency around home assessments and some frustration with a seemingly endless chain of school referenda made it clear that many Hoosiers were demanding relief. Heading into the 2025 legislative session, it surprised no one that this issue was front and center for lawmakers. After months of negotiations and input from residents, the Indiana General Assembly delivered one of the most significant changes to local taxation we have seen in nearly two decades. No one got exactly what they wanted — it would take you three minutes on social media to know that — but the result is a bill that provides immediate relief to nearly every Hoosier and, when fully implemented, allows homeowners to deduct two-thirds of their assessed value to lower their property tax bill while reining in $54 billion in local government debt. We transformed some tax deductions into tax credits, a change that will result in lower actual tax bills for thousands of taxpayers; moved school referendums to even-year general election ballots to ensure better participation; and lowered the amount of local income taxes governments can collect by $1.9 billion. In short, while changes to tax policy can be complicated, Senate Enrolled Act 1 not only gives Hoosier homeowners tax relief today, but also moves Indiana to a fairer, simpler and more balanced local tax system in the near future. One of my goals as a state legislator is to ensure the voices of growing communities are represented in these debates. It was important that we find a balance between needed relief and the resources upon which communities like mine have come to rely, resources that represent critical investments in quality of life, amenities, infrastructure and key services. Hicks: Braun cut taxes for businesses, but most Hoosiers will pay more Carmel and Westfield, the cities I represent at the Statehouse, have enjoyed forward-thinking, fiscally responsible leadership for years. The results are demonstrative. Carmel, for example, was ranked No. 2 on the list of the Best Places to Live in 2025 by Livability & U.S. News, and both communities are consistently ranked among the best in the country. Indiana, moreover, is now ranked 7th nationally for net in-migration, with the high-earning, talented individuals Indiana needs flocking to cities in Hamilton County. That's not an accident. The strategies that Carmel and Westfield have implemented should be celebrated and enhanced by the policies coming from the Statehouse. That balance was not easy to strike and local governments and schools will, no doubt, be faced with difficult decisions in the future. But SEA 1 represents much-needed reform to a convoluted property tax system that disincentivizes these hard decisions today at taxpayers' expense. Even with these changes, schools in my district will receive more money from property taxes over the next three years, and the new state budget increases tuition support for students. I am proud of the work we did this session on this issue, and I am equally grateful for the perspectives, insights, and counsel shared by our incredible local leaders who helped legislators avoid harmful unintended consequences. As with any bill this complex, property tax reform will remain a topic of discussion in the General Assembly, and we will be making tweaks to the law moving forward. But SEA 1 is a strong step forward to helping homeowners while improving accountability in local government spending. State Rep. Danny Lopez, R-Carmel, represents House District 39, which includes a portion of Hamilton County. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana property tax reform delivers relief for homeowners | Opinion
Indianapolis Star
an hour ago
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana's property tax reform delivers relief while preserving local growth
Indiana's 2024 elections sent a message to leaders that Hoosiers across the state were concerned about getting squeezed out of their homes by skyrocketing property taxes. The angst I heard talking to members of our community came, of course, with an acknowledgement that rising taxes were a result of increased home values, but a lack of transparency around home assessments and some frustration with a seemingly endless chain of school referenda made it clear that many Hoosiers were demanding relief. Heading into the 2025 legislative session, it surprised no one that this issue was front and center for lawmakers. After months of negotiations and input from residents, the Indiana General Assembly delivered one of the most significant changes to local taxation we have seen in nearly two decades. No one got exactly what they wanted — it would take you three minutes on social media to know that — but the result is a bill that provides immediate relief to nearly every Hoosier and, when fully implemented, allows homeowners to deduct two-thirds of their assessed value to lower their property tax bill while reining in $54 billion in local government debt. We transformed some tax deductions into tax credits, a change that will result in lower actual tax bills for thousands of taxpayers; moved school referendums to even-year general election ballots to ensure better participation; and lowered the amount of local income taxes governments can collect by $1.9 billion. In short, while changes to tax policy can be complicated, Senate Enrolled Act 1 not only gives Hoosier homeowners tax relief today, but also moves Indiana to a fairer, simpler and more balanced local tax system in the near future. One of my goals as a state legislator is to ensure the voices of growing communities are represented in these debates. It was important that we find a balance between needed relief and the resources upon which communities like mine have come to rely, resources that represent critical investments in quality of life, amenities, infrastructure and key services. Carmel and Westfield, the cities I represent at the Statehouse, have enjoyed forward-thinking, fiscally responsible leadership for years. The results are demonstrative. Carmel, for example, was ranked No. 2 on the list of the Best Places to Live in 2025 by Livability & U.S. News, and both communities are consistently ranked among the best in the country. Indiana, moreover, is now ranked 7th nationally for net in-migration, with the high-earning, talented individuals Indiana needs flocking to cities in Hamilton County. That's not an accident. The strategies that Carmel and Westfield have implemented should be celebrated and enhanced by the policies coming from the Statehouse. That balance was not easy to strike and local governments and schools will, no doubt, be faced with difficult decisions in the future. But SEA 1 represents much-needed reform to a convoluted property tax system that disincentivizes these hard decisions today at taxpayers' expense. Even with these changes, schools in my district will receive more money from property taxes over the next three years, and the new state budget increases tuition support for students. I am proud of the work we did this session on this issue, and I am equally grateful for the perspectives, insights, and counsel shared by our incredible local leaders who helped legislators avoid harmful unintended consequences. As with any bill this complex, property tax reform will remain a topic of discussion in the General Assembly, and we will be making tweaks to the law moving forward. But SEA 1 is a strong step forward to helping homeowners while improving accountability in local government spending.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
More former Indiana players allege sexual misconduct by physician
Field Level Media More than 15 former Indiana men's basketball players allege improper sexual conduct by a former team physician, and they claim that university officials — including the late coach Bobby Knight — knew of the doctor's behavior. Two former Hoosiers sued the school last fall, but the number of complainants has grown to five with another 10 expecting to also pursue litigation, according to ESPN on Tuesday. In the existing lawsuit, former players allege that Dr. Bradford Bomba, who died last month at the age of 89, regularly performed rectal exams on male athletes during physicals despite the fact that medical guidance did not recommend them for college-age men. The lawsuit argued that this amounted to sexual misconduct, and it claimed university officials were aware of this behavior, yet failed to stop it. The players said that they raised complaints, with some even requesting a different physician. However, the athletes alleged that Knight, who died in 2023, and head athletic trainer Tim Garl instructed players to continue seeing Bomba. Garl, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, was the head athletic trainer from 1981 until this year, when Indiana said it would not renew his contract. Garl's attorneys, emphasizing that the trainer did not supervise Bomba, noted that rectal exams were a normal part of a physical. During his initial deposition a year ago, Bomba refused to answer 45 questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Last month, Indiana commissioned an investigation that found Bomba's digital rectal exams were performed in a 'clinically appropriate manner,' adding that there was 'no evidence to suggest that Dr. Bomba achieved sexual gratification.' However, Michelle Simpson Tuegel — representing the group of 10 players who are preparing to file suit — said two of her clients contradict that finding. One individual said Bomba 'fondled his genitalia' during a physical. Some medical experts indicated that it was uncommon for a physician to perform a rectal exam without any concerning history or symptoms. These procedures are generally used to screen for prostate and other cancers. In the 1990s, the American Cancer Society recommended them for men who were 50 and older. An Indiana University spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation.
