How is everybody doing tonight? All right, we're gonna get started. I'm gonna toss it off to our intro
man. Thanks, Bryce. I am Brent. I am the co-chair of the Bloomington Democratic Socialist of America.
And please, yeah, cheer it up for DSA. I'm gonna be talking a lot more about DSA in the next couple
minutes, but welcome. Thanks, everybody, for coming.
the first of our two part first ever candidate forum where we will be hosting tonight the Monroe County
State and Congressional candidates. And I would first like to thank first all of our other DSA members
for helping set up to organize this, for lending their expertise, sometimes their audio visual equipment,
everything that went into this. Thank you guys.
First United, of course, for hosting us here. And we have several co-sponsors to this event, including
District Nine Indiana 5051, the Monroe County Education Association, Mask Block B-Town, Monroe County
Young Dems, IU Bloomington College Dems, and IU Bloomington Young Democratic Socialists of America.
And as the old Democratic Socialists of America,
I just want to say a few words about our organization. While our co-sponsors and our candidates may
have various views, the DSA does have some consensus viewpoints if you want to know about us nationally
and locally. In a framework from our national, we believe that capitalism is the problem. Yes.
Please hold your applause, there's several of these. And that we need strong labor unions. We need a
Green New Deal to combat climate change. That healthcare is a human right and so we need single payer
Medicare for all. That housing is a human right and we need redistributive social housing and tenant
organizing. Pretend I got that word right. We believe in defending trans rights and bodily autonomy
for all humans.
And we believe in immigrants' rights and seeking to abolish ICE. And we believe in ending America's
involvement in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians. More importantly than what we say we believe is
what we do. And locally here, just over the last six months,
The Bloomington DSA in August held the Bread and Roses Bash, where we raised $6,000 for Hoosier Oil
Options and the Hoosier Abortion Fund. And it was also a lot of fun. When the Starbucks Workers Union
struck, we gave material support and stood on the picket line with the union workers here. We organized
volunteer work days at food banks and community gardens. We organized the Cut the Contract Anti-Ice and Flock
surveillance camera demonstration at City Hall, and we continue to call for local non-collaboration
with federal immigration enforcement efforts. And while we also work with existing orgs, several, but
some like Bloomington Homes for All, Jewish Voices for Peace, the Indiana Department of Corrections
Watch, Exodus Refugee Immigration, and many others to both educate ourselves and the community
and to mutually strengthen each other. Our local chapter in DSA is entirely self-supported, and our
membership has tripled over just the last year. So, about to be enough talking for me. I know nobody
came to hear me talk, so I would just like to quickly remind everyone that despite the gravity of current
events and politics, to please help us foster a respectful environment in here.
The candidates have been gracious and brave enough, honestly, to come here. So please refrain
from interrupting them during their allotted time, and please keep your feedback to submitting a question
if you haven't already done so. QR codes are going around for that, and we will try to answer everyone's
question. And I will hand it over to the person who is much better at talking than me.
So besides being a grad school student, this guy finds the time to be a very active organizer, including
in Bloomington, DSA. And this event is definitely his brainchild and could not have happened without
his leadership and organizing. So please give it up for Bryce Green. Thank you for the kind words.
And again, thank you all so much for coming.
But just real quick, if you are a DSA member, you want to raise your hand? Whoo, yes. Now we'd like
to see more and more of you as we go, of course. And if you're a member of an organization
that's co-sponsoring, raise your hand. Yes, thank you all so much. So our candidate form is
pretty straightforward. Each candidate will be given four minutes to introduce themselves to the audience.
Then for about 25 minutes, we'll be asking them questions.
Scannets will get 90 seconds to respond. And if they want to re-respond to someone, they can get 30
more seconds. We'll have cards here to help people keep the time. If you, the audience, have a question,
like Brent said, there are QR codes floating around here. Please scan a QR code. Your question will
go into the question box. And we know we won't be able to get to everyone's question today just because
we don't have infinite time, but we will try to get
as many, like a wide variety of voices as possible to get the issues that Bloomingtonians care about
heard. All right. Our first race of the day will be the county commissioner race. We'll have Trent Deckard
and David Henry.
If your microphones work, you guys can duel to the death over who's going to speak first. D comes first
in the alphabet. I just don't know which you're going to go with. Well, if you're starting,
you can go ahead. I'm talking. I'm already going. Good evening, everybody, and I want to thank the hosts
for having us tonight. My name is David Henry. I am running to be your next Monroe County Commissioner.
And I'm working for Monroe County for all of us. And I mean all. All means all.
I'm a fact-based person. I teach at Indiana University. I like my facts, and the facts don't lie to
me about the state of things in our whole community. When one out of every four of our friends and neighbors
are living in poverty, when half the kids that went to the public schools this morning were on free
and reduced lunches, we have thousands of people in our community on SNAP, and the vast majority of
our community earning less than $90,000 a year, they can't make the rent without a roommate, let alone
save up to buy a home in this community.
I think we need a county government that's focused on those things first. Housing choices in our market,
no matter where you are in your housing journey, if you are in transitional housing trying to get to
your first rental, if you're trying to get your first starter home, if you're scaling up investments
or trying to age in place, we need a county government that's saying yes more than no on those issues
as we look to our community's development over the next few years. We also need good job diversity in
our community.
I'm not talking about gig jobs. The largest growth sector and jobs in our community in the past five
years has been in service workers. And while those folks are working hard on their feet and with their
hands, those aren't necessarily the careers that make for stability in our community. And we need a
government focused very much on those things in the term to come. I would say the term to come, but
it's really the next generation here. It is very rare that we have an open seat on the county commission.
It's been about 15 years. And so it's not about the next four years. It's really about the next generation.
and whether or not we go a new direction in this community. Now you're gonna hear a lot of that talk
tonight, but I'm gonna be honest with you. None of that changes until we change the culture in our county
commission. And many of you know what that means. It's a county commission that says no more than yes,
that reveals its decisions only when you ask, that doesn't tell you what's going on until the press
calls them on it. We need to turn a corner on that in this community. I'm committed to that work and
that is what I will do when I'm your next commissioner. Thank you for having us tonight. I look forward
to the questions.
All right, then next we have Trent Deckard. Thank you very much. Can you hear me okay? All right, thank
you so much for having me. Thank you so much. It's my rookie night. My name is Trent Deckard and I am
currently a member of the Monroe County Council. I've been on that council since 2019 where I was selected
in a vacancy role and then I was elected in both 2020 and 2024.
You will hear a lot about us as candidates, and I think you'll find that David and I agree on a lot
of different issues. I want to start by telling you just a brief story. My father was born in this county
in 1947 out in Aline 2 near Lake Monroe. My mother was born in a house on Monroe Street near Cresmont,
and she also born in that house, like my father, had a doctor next to her along with her parents.
More and more folks in this community find themselves going backwards, not forward. Even though those
two birth dates were 1947 and 1951, we're moving backwards and not forwards. Just as technology has
changed, AIs come online, all these different things that have evolved in this community, we have moved
backwards in so many different ways. And so I am talking about in this campaign a community of care.
that I think we need to get back to. Somehow, if in 1947 and 1951 a doctor can get to a home for a birth,
we can do better than what we're doing now, where folks are either triaged into need or they find themselves
into more and more trouble. Now, I build upon what I want to do with this community, knowing full well
that it takes a partnership of a lot of different folks.
Too often, the county has been an answer no. The answer's been no with the city. The answer's been no
with the towns. It's been no with the folks that are already here, the townies and the folks that are
coming here. In fact, in this community of care that I'm talking about, I want to talk about affordability
for reality for so many people in this community.
The fact that is we have literally made this community into a country club of haves and haves nots.
Some people can, if you're here, congratulations, enjoy that home, enjoy that value of that home. If
you're looking to make a start like so many of the students I teach at IU, it's like a crap shoot. It
shouldn't be that way. This was once a welcoming place. It should be a welcoming place again. We've
gotta get real about health and all policies. Every decision the county makes,
It should include considerations about proximity to food services, resources, transportation, and the
county can get more involved in things like transit and other things that build upon people and assist
them. And I do think, like David, that the culture in the courthouse has to change. I've never been
a my way or the highway kind of elected official, and I learned this
four years when I worked as a congressional district director for Barron Hill, when I was co-director
of the Indiana Election Division, a bipartisan agency where you literally can't pay the light bill if
both sides don't agree. And I learned that as a chief of staff for the Indiana House Democratic Caucus
under then very progressive leader Scott Pilat. We can do better in this community, but it takes the
right people in that job with the ability to work with all of our boards and commissions, other elected
officials walking across the town to go to our city hall,
colleagues and getting things done in an effective way. I think we can get to a community of care, and
I'm not saying that folks are going to go back to having births in their homes necessarily. What I'm
saying is if people want to see a doctor, they should be able to see a doctor. The county can no longer
afford to say, that's just not our role. The county can be a convener for our federal and state officials,
those who fight bravely for us and those whose offices can be changed by elections,
to put people in there that will fight bravely for us. I think I can be a voice in that. All right.
Thank you both. We will be moving on to our first question of the night. It's from Bloomington DSA.
It's for both of you. What does democratic socialism mean to you?
And what are concrete reasons that someone who is a democratic socialist should volunteer to knock doors
for you or even vote for you? Who do you want to go first? Well, you did your introduction first, so
you can go first. Awesome. What does democrat socialism mean to me? To me, it means in this community,
folks that care and they step up.
for a night like this, the weather's nice outside, but you clearly care about your community because
you're here, and you're here in strong numbers, is folks that look out for food insecurity, for poverty
in the community, that look out for all the things that folks should be thinking about when they have
a heart. And one of the things I truly believe in my community care approach is that when friends and
neighbors unite around doing things together,
Magic happens, right? It's not an elected official waving their wand. It's an elected official saying,
let's get in this room. Let's take our egos out. We've got a lot of egos in this community. Some folks
know, if you watch public meetings, let's get our egos gone. Let's look towards solutions. And to me,
the folks in this room are looking to do the grassroots, to roll up their sleeves.
And I work with all individuals, and I have for a long time. I've got folks that they say, you know,
I'm not sure what I am. I want to support you. I want to help. I've got others that say, I know what
I am. I know what you are. We're a little different, and I want to help you. And so I think that that's
kind of how I look at this, and I appreciate this leadership being the first forum of our season even.
Thank you. Same question to you. Thank you.
I won't go on to recite what you already gave us, Bryce. By the way, happy birthday. I don't want that
to eat into my time, but I just wanted to say I got some word on that. Thank you. It is eating into
your time. Yeah, that's fair. Because I don't even need that much time to answer this question. Look,
the honest answer is our DSA community and those that are in the socialist part of the Democratic Party,
give a damn.
And you have done so in this community and demonstrated that as your words said at the beginning of
this meeting. When I was chairman of the Monroe County Democrats, what I was proud about most is seeing
how our community mobilized when we brought people that were left of center to Bloomington. You don't
fill Dunn Meadow with moderates from Indianapolis. You fill it when Bernie Sanders comes to town. And
we know those votes are here, and we know those values are here in this community. And my best candidates
over the year when I was chairman ran on those issues and won. But it is a community that says, it's
not good enough.
It's a community that says we expect more in Monroe County government, one of the reasons why I'm running.
That it's not good enough to sit in public meetings and have a half answer. That when our community
is on the ropes and trying to figure out how to be constitutional in our jail, that we actually hear
the people in this room that have filled our audience and say it's not good enough to build a building,
but a system that respects the value of folks. You've been on the front line of that, and those are
values that we need to keep us honest in the movement in our community. I thank you for that. All right,
thank you.
And I'd like to remind the audience that you can scan that QR code. You can flag down some of our members
if you guys want to submit your own questions. But our next question comes from the Monroe County Education
Association. For both of you, if you win the election, would you describe or would you please describe
your subsequent relationship to our community's labor unions, including ISTA locals?
What specific actions would you take to support their efforts? Well, I've worked with our ISTA friends
for a really long time. When I was out knocking doors to return the Democrat majority to the Indiana
House of Representatives, it was ISTA that was on the front lines. They made that happen. That was back
in 2006. But specifically in this community, I think what we will immediately have to do, I have a meeting
with the superintendent here in just a couple weeks, probably David has as well.
The county has to be more involved in supporting our public education. Indianapolis has given up on
public education. Indianapolis has waved a flag. And what they've said with current funding to local
government, including education, is they've said, we really think that you're all just kind of dithering
and not doing anything, so we're just going to cut your funds and your schools, and we're not going
to look back at it. Now, they've done some pausing, but the inevitable is coming.
The county can't again just say, well, you know, MCCSE, RBVCSE, we're really not in the role of funding
public education or making sure that we're taking care of things important like teacher salaries and
other key things that our students need in our classrooms.
The county will have to jump in and say, how can we partner? How can we do economies of scale? How can
we help you make sure that a bus gets where a bus needs to go? How can we feed empty stomachs that can't
focus on a chalkboard, whiteboard, or a screen? Friends, this is our state. This is our community. We
will all have to do this, or it won't end up well. And I don't mean to be dramatic, but these are our
children, too. Same question. David Henry. Sure. Thank you.
Let's talk about 2026. I appreciate Trent's work in 2006. During the last election cycle, we had a good
opportunity to put a teacher in the governor's mansion with Jennifer McCormick. I was proud of our work
in the party to try to do that. I was proud of our work to support candidates like Thomas Horrocks when
he ran for the 62nd and, of course, Amy Oliver now running for the 62nd that have the support of local
educators.
take that message to Indianapolis that we need a significant change in attitude when it comes to supporting
public education. I'm a K through 12 educated in public schools in northern Ohio. Those are golden years
and memories for me.
But I want to talk a little bit about what county government can do. It's a little more than just what
Trent described. It's the fact that our job in county government is to figure out how to get more housing
in our community and more jobs in our community to make sure that people can contribute to that quality
of life. We don't have the tax base. Our middle 18 through 55-year-old demographic is winnowing out.
They can't find opportunities here, and they can't afford to live here. A county government that's finding
housing choices in our market where those folks are living in Monroe County instead of commuting here
from other counties is half the battle.
15,000 people a day commute into Monroe County that could be citizens here, that have their kids in
schools here as our enrollment declines here. So we have to get to work on that in a hurry in the next
four years to get more Monroe County residents to share the burden and the quality of life. That's exactly
in the wheelhouse, it's what county commissioners do. And that's what I'll commit to as your
next commissioner. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Bloomington Homes for All. According
to, and this will go to
David and then Trent. According to the city's affordable housing page, rents up to $1,740 a month are
considered affordable. That makes the political use of the term affordable housing effectively meaningless.
What actions would you take to ensure that new construction in Monroe County not only starts out meaningfully
affordable but also stays meaningfully affordable for years to come?
It's a great question because that number is not affordable. When I moved back from Washington DC in
2013, I was shocked to find that the rents were about the same here as they were in Northern Virginia,
which is one of the most affluent counties in America. We have a serious challenge here. And we know
folks are splitting the rent by pulling on roommates to try to make that number. It is not sustainable
for our community.
County government has been sitting it out for 20 years. We have a comprehensive plan in the county that's
supposed to dictate how we grow and we've agreed to it was passed in 2012 and shoved in a drawer and
forgotten about we have a county development ordinance that has so many
steps in it that makes it impossible for our partners in public and private sector to develop in the
county, including just outside city limits. This is going to take some serious work to undo the damage
that has caused housing prices to rise in our community and priced people out in our community. The
county has a role in it, and the biggest way to go at it, and the most important way, is this. For too
long in the leadership in the co-workhouse and the county commission, it's always been county versus city.
or it's been town versus gown. It's been country or urban versus rural. It's or, it's and. And we have
to have a change in mindset to really put this to work. We're part, county is partners. Monroe County
has the city of Bloomington in it. It's not an adversary in how we're developing housing in our community.
But the bottom line on that is I do believe our predecessors who have run for office
have abused that word housing affordability a little too much and we need attainability too much. We
just need to get it in the arms reach of many people in this community and the way to do that is to
partner up and stop treating it as an adversarial process moving forward. Thank you. Same question to
you Trent. Thank you very much. This one's near and dear to me because the reality is the county currently
doesn't even have a housing department. We're sitting there with no housing department. That means there
is literally literally
no requirement on what an apartment would look like, rental look like, et cetera. It could be, as I
learned one time when I was going door to door in a different county, that we get out there and we would
find in looking at a home or an apartment that there's a dirt floor. Now I don't think that that is
happening, but the county wouldn't know. And so we have to begin to take the steps to leave this notion
that county is just, we're off doing these things, and city is city, as kind of David just said.
but county actually can do things like an apartment should look like this. Someone should be guaranteed
that at the minimum it has this and these sort of standards for it. That begins with the commissioners
creating a housing department, figuring out how that gets funded, how that is a supportive network to
renters so they know here is what I can expect out there.
So we've got to begin to take that step. The other thing that we've got to do is we have got to turn
from that culture of, I don't know, bureaucracy, or let's worry about these three semicolons and inordinates,
and we've got to make meaningful action that actually moves lives and welcomes people here. And I think
that we can get that done, but it takes, again, a culture shift. 30 seconds.
I appreciate the comment, and let's go a little farther. I sit on the plan commission now, and the devil
is in the details and the colon and the commas in the county development ordinance. It requires a curiosity
to get under the hood of what we've built in the county and what we're not building in the county. And
I agree that while we do not have that housing department in the county, it's also about finite resource.
We're a community that is getting gouged by the state house and tax revenue.
We are going to be doing a lot more with less in the community. And it's really important that if those
are our priorities, we have to find a way to fund that. And one of the ways to fund that is to make
sure we're not overburdening this community by building a quarter billion dollar jail and putting that
money to work and trying to answer some of those hard questions in the years to come. Thank you. Our
next question comes from Mask Block. This is also to David and then Trent.
How do you view indoor air quality as a public health issue, and would you support funding for HEPA
filtration and ventilation upgrades in county facilities in coordination with Monroe County schools
to prevent the spread of airborne viruses? That's a good question.
county as a whole, we should just talk about county buildings in general. Over the past 20 years, our
county commission has neglected some of our county buildings, not least of which is the Justice Center,
where we have poor air quality in that building as we speak due to a continuing mold growth. I mean,
we've got to get our own house in order first. And that is not just providing the resource to take care
of our buildings before they fall into irreparable repair, but changing the filters every once in a
while. And I know I've got some folks in the courthouse that are here with us that know that story.
When it comes to the health of our community, there are foundational things. We have aspirational things
we can try for, but the foundational thing of being able to have a home that is not covered in black
mold, to have a home that is able to filter correctly to have a job or you can afford to maintain that
care is really important. And we do know that once you get out of city limits,
As Trent mentioned, we don't have that program in the county to check rental properties in the county.
We have neighborhoods in the four corners of the county where the conditions that people are living
in are shocking. And it's only our deputies that are stopping by every once in a while on their sheriff
runs to see how people are doing as they're aging in place and their record conditions. This might be
a place where
An incentive from a health department that is functioning could deliver that for our community. But
I'm sure we'll get to our health department and some of the challenges there this evening. But until
we get to that point, we have a lot of mountains to climb with that. But I, as a former public health
employee in this county, am very keen on the idea of just the fundamentals. And that makes sense to
me. Thank you. Thank you. Same question.
Well, absolutely. I support any resource that makes indoor air quality, outdoor air quality, and even
remediation of land possible. And wherever we look for a partnership to do that and get that done, I
think that's absolutely huge. One of the best things about being in a county position is you get to
learn the expertise of a community as it starts to move you towards resources, towards things that maybe
you're not thinking about the busy day of kind of putting out fires and trying to plan for the future.
but helps you do that, so I wanna work on that. The other thing I wanna say is one of the things I notice
a lot is when we have discussions on our county buildings, we start talking about how the justice and
correctional center costs ballooned up and how that got out of trouble. The reality is, as every county
employee in this room knows, that the justice building has massive issues. That project ballooned up
because we can't just say I'm building a constitutional jail
and begin to disregard or not look out for our workers. As the son of a court reporter who retired from
the county and worked in that building and who saw it, right, we want our employees to work in good
conditions as well. So I think sometimes when we talk about that ballooning up, we kind of make very
disreputable what people actually go through in a day-to-day job. The county should be about modeling
how we treat our employees the way we would want to be treated ourself
We should set that standard for our citizens as well, and not kind of hold that back. Thank you both.
In a related question, Monroe County residents have overwhelmingly voiced opposition to the construction
of a new jail. How do you feel about that issue, and would you oppose the construction of a new jail
as county commissioner? Yes.
Having toured our jail numerous times and toured that jail with Ken Falk of the ACLU, one of the things
that has been repeatedly brought out is despite the efforts of our sheriff, despite the efforts of the
jail commander, not everything that they're doing can get that facility to constitutional care compliance.
And I'm still an elected official while we have a constitution that believes in one. I took an oath
to it, both state and federal,
And we've got to maintain, again, how you treat people, how you take care of them. It models for the
least of these and those among the least of these type situation. But beyond that, how do I feel about
that facility? That's got to be the order of the day to make sure that folks are in a constitutional
care facility. I know that we have had a lot of great discussions about what size looks like and how
that manifests. But making sure that folks that are in there now
have as much right to constitutional care as anyone else, that is our priority. And I'll continue to
listen to the public as we navigate our way through the difficulties on that. It is a hard subject,
where it goes, how it goes, what that looks like. But ultimately, someone in there tonight needs to
have constitutional care. That was the guarantee that was given to them by being in this country. And
that still has to mean something to people that are in office and have the ability to do something about it.
Thank you. David. Yeah. Thank you. Let's start with what constitutional care means in the lawsuit. It
means having the space because it's overcrowded or has the potential to be overcrowded and also the
space for recreation and education in the program. That's in the building. That's what we've been under
litigation for for more
I have a third of, I think 16 years of transplant in office or about a third of that. I'm fairly new
to counsel, but I was obviously a citizen before that and a party chairman before that watching this
conversation happen on the outside as a stakeholder. I have long believed that the answer to the criminal
justice system problem in our community is a system and not a building. And we should be working most
certainly to make sure we're not filling the jail, whatever it may be.
at the end. And that means investing the amount of money that has been proposed for that in things like
prevention and restorative justice and diversion and our Democratic Party's values of being toward a
program that moves us away from punitive bond, which is practiced, of course, in Indiana. That's something
I said as party chairman in 2023 to the
stakeholder engagement groups, the CJRC and others, and when the decisions were made by the county council
at the time and the county commissioners went behind closed doors and came back with a plan that represented
none of those values to our community, and in some ways still don't. This is still the battlefront for
our community. Yes, we can do constitutional care, but if we have to build a new facility, we should
be very much working hard not to fill that new facility. That's a position I've been consistent on.
I do not believe we should max out the county's credit card for the next 20 years and taxing everyone
in this room $5,000
ahead just to build that facility in the years to come. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate
the answer David, but one thing I want to say is since 2019 I've been on a study commission attempting
to figure out our next steps. We were stopped by a pandemic during that. We've been stopped by state
law, state bonding changes, but yet we persevered. Even two nights ago we persevered on that issue.
The other thing I just want to say is
Sometimes when I hear folks like David in elected office talking about our judicial system and how judges
do their job and prosecutors do their job and probation officers do their job under Indiana law, which
is given to us by the legislature, it sounds like we're doing the sentencing. We're doing those things,
releasing people. And ultimately, our job is to collaborate with them in that system to try to make
change, but it's not a commissioner that is going to
make that. They're doing that work, doing that diversion that you described so eloquently. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Bloomington DSA. Would you commit as commissioner to prevent ICE from using
county resources or removing county resources that could be used to aid ICE like flock cameras and other
mass surveillance tools? Absolutely.
I want to say this. I'm a member of the Bloomington Faculty Council. I was elected by my non-tenure
track lecturer colleagues. And one of the proudest things that I have done is to vote with the Bloomington
Faculty Council against ICE doing recruitment on campus, Homeland Security doing recruitment on campus.
And we took a firm stand on that. It was a proud vote. I don't want ICE doing anything here at all.
And I don't want ICE.
coming in here, friends, I read a lot of history books, right? We read this. I'm a collector of comic
books. I read a lot of comic books about this. They still make them. This is a fight between good and
evil. And occasionally, an elected official like me has to stand at the door and use nine generations
of being a Monroe Countian to stand for those who cannot stand for themselves. What surprised me in
all of this that more elected officials aren't jumping out saying, I, too, disagree.
with ICE doing things in this community. And if that means flock cameras not being used until our nation
gets back to regular order of people being decent, kind, following and honoring a constitution, then
that means we stand in the door. I'd love to have a lot of you standing in that door with me. I think
we can do it. And there should be a resolution from every local body saying just this. Thank you.
I'll speak to my expertise. I think we just had a question about whether or not county commissioners
should have expertise. It's no secret that I founded the Homeland Security Program at IU. I've worked
around that topic since September 11th. And I've seen the best of people that have been trying to protect
our country and the absolute worst. I left federal contracting over it this past year. And we made sure
when we started that program on campus that it was the only one in the country that makes sure that
if a kid's going to take homeland here, they have to take ethics.
They should know what they're getting into. And I'm proud of the 2,000 students that have taken my course
that have not gone to work for ICE. I've also never contracted with ICE as a choice, but I do know what
we're facing. The question about flawed cameras is important. We've got to get under the hood of this
for real. So it's one thing to talk about it, so let's fix it right now. Our county government contracts
on six cameras. There are more cameras in the county, but there are six that were signed in by Commissioner
Thomas and the previous sheriff.
And I've talked with experts at CISA. There's absolutely no way we can guarantee that that data is not
used in the cloud in ways that you all do not want. And I'm happy to walk with Trent to the Commissioner
Thomas tomorrow and cut up the contract on it. It's that simple.
But when it comes to the future of this community, we already know what this is going to look like.
Senate Bill 76 is up in the Senate right now. It's going to the governor's desk. We're the only county
in Indiana that has stood up against the cooperation with ICE. And that's going to be put to the test
in a matter of weeks. So it's not a hypothetical situation.
And I'll just end with this. I mean, this is the truth. And Trent already used the line elsewhere. But
I did take an oath of the Constitution. It has a Fourth Amendment in it. And I'm not going to violate
the due process of anybody. And we're going to have to have that argument. So it's time for County Legal
to get ready for good trouble. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from
folks from Help Ourselves Mutual Aid. Help Ourselves recently mounted a protest to prevent the mass
eviction of an encampment
of unhoused people, though a task force that was put together to address these issues has not yet convened.
How will you prioritize caring for our unhoused neighbors and what specific critiques do you have of
existing county council policy or county commission policy? Thank you. It's an important question. I
thought the first thing I needed to do on county council was to see with my own eyes what we were about
to do to the unhoused in our community.
Commissioner Madeira and I headed out to Thompson property to take a look at that as guests of the on-house
that were there to see what was really going on. And to have people in the NatU Hill room in the county
courthouse describe the space as a cesspool, with my own eyes I can tell you that was not the case.
These are people that were trying to survive the winter. And we almost unhoused them with no plan whatsoever
before Christmas. Now this issue makes me a little upset because to this day, I still don't know what
the plan was for before December with the people that lived there.
And many people in this room gathered in the Natu Hill and confronted our county commissioners to say,
what are you doing, please stop. And as you just said, the promise of a task force, which yes, has not
met and it is now going into March and we're a month away from having this conversation like Groundhog
Day all over again. I'm appalled by this. We have service providers in our community that are on frontline
work. They know what the conditions are in the camps and how to work with them. But this is where we
put our ethics to the test.
And I would like to see us work with our service providers more closely to listen to what frontline
staff are telling us and to make sure that we are doing no harm as a county. That is the, when I talk
about culture change in the courthouse, this is exactly what I'm talking about. And it's what I will
do when I'm your next commissioner. Thank you. Thank you. Second question? Thank you. You know, you
can't have a community of care if you don't see the dignity of all people in the community. And so I
think it truly begins with seeing people
beyond here's a demographic swath or a description, but seeing them, listening to them, talking with
them. And so when this issue developed, kind of to my surprise and to my shock, although I knew that
we have various folks in different encampments, when this developed and the eviction began, I joined
the chorus of individuals that said, let's not do this. Let's not do this. We're in the dead of winter.
This is inhumane in every way that inhumanity exists.
And I think it starts with seeing people there in their role, talking to them. I sat down at Blooming
Foods, Councilor Kate Wilts and I sat down at Blooming Foods with some advocates and some individuals
affected. And we did this novel thing in government called listening. And we listened to their experience,
to their life, to their thoughts, to the strategies they thought the county could go.
go and develop and do and be humane. And one of the big things I would just point out is if the county
doesn't have a housing policy that lets them do rental inspection, why would we think that we would
be experts on relocating people, period? So we've got to do top to bottom, taking the county to the
sophistication of seeing the dignity of life at all times. Sometimes when I say that, folks will say,
well, the county's just rural, you know? They're not really built for that. And that's a bunch of crap.
The reality is people living in the county may not have been able to get in the city, or maybe they
didn't think about it. It's our job to think about those things, treat people with dignity, and see
all lives as they matter, as they function, as they have need. And that's what I'll do in the community
of care, friends. May I have a rebuttal? 30 seconds. Thank you. I appreciate Trent's concept of the
community of care. I just think we already have it. And the question was from Homer.
When I see people in Seminary Square feeding our unhoused neighbors, that's a community of care. When
I see activists in this room on the county square protesting Washington and Indianapolis, we already
have a community of care. We have a community of care when our neighbors help each other out during
a tornado or snowstorm to take ourselves out. County government's job isn't to be another nonprofit.
It's to set the standard in our community and meet it every day. And it's one thing to join the chorus.
It's another thing to get in the front line of leadership and get involved in these issues up front.
Thank you. All right. Thank you. Our next question is from an MCPL worker in the audience. Public libraries
are increasingly serving as daytime spaces for people experiencing homelessness mental health crises
or housing instability. County level funding decisions and state policies like SB4 can affect how library
budgets are reviewed or constrained.
How do you see the county's role in ensuring public libraries have the resources they need to serve
the community, especially as demand for social service-related support continues to grow? This is addressed
to... Who went first last time? I'm sorry. It's Trent. Well, one thing I want to say, just really, really
quickly, David, the system we have currently is not working given this question, given what's happening.
The county's got to step up.
County has to look at the dignity of life beyond what they see downtown. And then when, well, we're
out in rural now, we don't think about those things. We've got to step up. And stepping up means listening
to our neighbors in our library communities. If we don't step up, places like the library continue to
have to put themselves out doing things maybe beyond the capacity that they can fund or can even speculate
as the library becomes a treatment community.
And one of the things that I did in my service on council is supported that south side library coming
in, much like when I was a kid, I benefited from the library over in Ellesville. The libraries where
I literally finished my master's thesis in the silent reading room, maybe a few people here have been
in there too. But the libraries serve as the original co-work space, the original place where you can
get your resources. It's natural that people are turning to that.
Because the county, again, has no housing department. We don't have organized matter. What we have is
legislative fiat. Where elected officials say, oh, here's a problem. Let's do this. Let's do that. The
community of care I'm talking about means getting people to the table, including the libraries, to say,
let's figure this out together. Let's get our business community in here. Let's get our residents in
here. Let's get all individuals affected, rather than telling them, here's what you'll do. Here's how
this will go. I think that's how it works.
Thank you. The library challenge is a new challenge for us in the wake of SB4. And I appreciate that
we're getting into some details here about what it means to listen to the community. I just want to
know where that listening was in 2023 when the Monroe County Democratic Party and the NAACP and others
went to the courthouse to say do something differently with the jail and we ended up with the plan that
only Governor Braun disrupted and prevented us from putting a quarter billion dollar facility on the
north part of town.
Okay, but we can talk about the jail or the library a little differently for a minute. Our job in the
county is to not consume every last tax dollar for programs like the very large justice center to make
sure that we have the tax base to continue to support our libraries. And what I mean by that is this,
there's only so much pie to go around. And the more percentage that we take out of it to fund
county projects that maybe the majority of the community doesn't want to see, that means there's fewer
resources for folks like our library. So we do need to listen to them in those moments because that
is going to be a
cornerstone for how we really rebuild our civil society after the fascism that we've been dancing around
to talking about this evening. And for me as a young kid as well, growing up in rural Pennsylvania and
Appalachia, the library was my window into the world. Without that, I'd probably still be a 10th generation
Russ Moreland County resident and not very literate. But we need that as a cornerstone as a foundation
point in our society. We just can't
pick the pockets of our libraries by rating that tax base for projects the county should be putting
aside and listening to the whole community on how to move forward. All right, thank you very much. Our
next question comes from Homes for All. My neighbors and I lived in a county-owned affordable housing
unit at Second and College. One of my neighbors is expecting a second child. Another is a retiree living
on fixed income.
All of us just received notices that we will be expelled from our apartments in July. What is your position
on the county destroying affordable housing. Well I think affordability begins with looking at every
single thing that was just described in that question. So let me break this apart here. It looks it's
looking at where people live where will they go if they're not in the place they're in. Do we even have
maps for that. Again we need a housing department.
We're overdue. We have a health department. That should be part of it. It means that looking for folks
that are expecting children that we actually think about something that is massive in cost in this community,
and that's childcare. Childcare has become this frenetic pace that people literally fight over, like
it's a summer camp placement or something else that's special. It's almost like a lottery.
And it's awful, the burden that we've placed on families. The county should be in that discussion saying,
where can that kid go? Can it be afforded?
And then for retirees, what are we looking out for senior care in our community? Our laws on senior
care, on how senior care is reported, on violence, on assaults on them. Where that is managed has changed
in Indiana. We don't know where that ultimately, how that is going to map out. And so I want to keep
people in homes, but I want to try something novel. I want to make it so that when you come here for a home,
for childcare, to have quality of life, that it's not this lottery ticket that says I got in the country
club, no one else does. That can change, and I think that we can do it by being a little bit different
thinking on all this. David? Well, let me try to address your actual question there for the people that
are directly waiting on their fate as to whether or not they're gonna have housing due to the county's
choices. When I talk about changing the culture
We have unelected people in our legal department that have basically come to a very conservative conclusion
that we can't be in the rental business as a county government. You want to talk about a different approach.
You would be saying, is this a test case for what
a housing authority could look like in Monroe County, but instead we've been chasing people
out of county-owned properties that we've acquired over the past year. We received a 400-acre gift to
add yet another nature preserve to the county, which has its value, but we evicted people who were living
on a farm before we are now evicting people that are living near the construction of the convention
center. This is a wrong approach. I want to thank people in the community, and it's the business community
that have actually stepped up on this, to help find housing for those
apartment dwellers that are in the area just south of the new convention center. Without them, some
of those folks wouldn't be transitioning, but it shouldn't be the responsibility of our private sector
to clean up a mess made by our board of commissioners. So moving forward on that, a lot of great ideas
that we heard from Trent there, but we've got the test case right in front of us, and that's human beings
right now trying to figure out by July if they're gonna have a roof or they're going to be seeing that
$1,700 a month rent bill that you just talked about. We gotta do better with that, and we have facility
already in the county to manage
like the office to manage that, and it could be treated as a public health issue. It could be treated
in a variety of ways. But this is one of those get it figured out and lean in and get it done issues.
And to those folks that are experiencing that, it's not my apology to give, but I'll do it for our county
government. We should be doing better. Thank you very much. And unfortunately, we don't have time to
get to all the audience questions, and this will be our last one for this race. And in knowing that, and in
Also, in knowing that we didn't budget for a closing statement, we'll be a little bit more flexible
on the time. But to wrap it up, could you summarize your thoughts on solutions to the housing crisis,
and especially in the context of Indiana state law, things like rent controls, subsidized housing, loosening
zoning laws, or any other concrete solutions to this issue?
I'll keep it brief, I appreciate that. Thank you for being here this evening. I can tell we're gonna
have a spirited few 70 or 80 days here, and we should.
because this is about the future of our community. It's about where we're taking our county, and whether
or not we get there gently or in a hurry, and I'm in a hurry. We have a lot of time to make up for,
and there are a lot of people counting on our county government to catch up. When it comes to the housing
issues in our community, look, the party of home rule, the Republican party, has a completely different
idea when it comes to Monroe County, and time and again, our home rule has been taken from us. My argument
and approach is very simple. We keep testing the edge, we pass the ordinance to try to make things happen,
and we make them take us to court over it, so yeah, we can't do
rent control, but we can definitely do a lot of things in county government, planning for micro homes
in the county, planning for affordable housing in the county. I was on the Affordable Housing Commission
in this county where we declared once upon a time in 2021 that housing is a human right in Monroe County,
and we haven't done anything since to move that needle. We are well behind on that, and we have a lot
of work to do, but it's gonna take creativity, curiosity, conviction, and the courage to stand up to
the state house and even people in our own community and in our own Democratic party
to finally get stuff done. Find me at VoteDavidHenry.com. Thank you very much. So I've watched commissioner
races for a little over 20 years. When I was a kid, I saw a few of them. But lately, in the last 20
years, I've watched them. And about every four years on some of these seats, we see someone that comes
forward as a candidate that says, it's going to be my way, my change, my way, or the highway.
And I would ask you to look at the results of that over the last 20 years, where we put people in who
rule by legislative fiat, and we gotta move quick, and here we go, I figured this all out before I've
even listened to everybody. Friends, we gotta try something different. What if we had a commissioner
that actually listened to the people in that apartment and said, rather than issue a press release on
how I'm gonna fix this, let me figure out what I can do, or at that nature preserve,
What if we had someone that said, you're a developer and you're a person that likes historic neighborhoods,
let's sit down at a table and figure out what can we do? You're a person looking to rent here, we're
going to make some rental standards so that you have some idea what you're getting out there. And then
we might do a rental inspection just to keep that process honest. That we might actually figure out
what economic development looks like beyond when it comes to as conveniently at the courthouse.
Friends, it starts with listening, it starts with planning, it starts with bringing people to the table.
We've had an experiment where, again, we've looked for these legislative fiat leaders that give us their
plan. But here's the thing, to get a plan through, you have to sit at a table, persuade people, listen
to people, alter plans, and get it to move forward. Otherwise, you just keep repeating the same cycle
over a vilification on one side,
vilification on another. I do believe in a community of care. I don't think we're there now, not by
any stretch. I think we depend on our not-for-profits, like that is their job. I think they've made
it the order of the day. We've got to help them out. Check me out, trentdeckard.com. I would love to
have your help on this journey, and I just appreciate you all so much caring enough to ask questions,
to rally out here tonight, and do big things. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you both.
So this is the end of the county commissioner race portion of this evening. We're gonna recess for about
five minutes. We're a little bit behind, but we're not terrible. We'll reconvene at, let's see, 7.05,
7.04, so that we can get started close to when we started last time. All right, so we are in our second
race of the evening. Thank you all for continuing to be here and continuing to listen to this.
It's important, you know, like one of the things that we are, our big tagline of the night is fighting
fascism starts at home. So you guys are all in the front lines of that fight by being engaged. So our
second race, we have the same rules. Is there any clarification needed on the timing? I'm good with
the rules, thank you. All right, outstanding. Does this work?
It works. We're good. Thank you. All right. So if our candidates want to introduce themselves, we can
get started. I believe in ladies first. All right. Well, since assuming the Office of Prosecuting Attorney
in 2019, I've proven my commitment to community safety, compassionate justice, and constitutional values.
I am confident that Monroe County voters will recognize my experience and temperament and retain me
in office in this year's election. In my first term, I was able to get additional funding for the prosecution
of sex crimes and domestic violence and add an additional victim assistant to our office. In 2019,
My child support division was recognized with the Haynes Turner Peacemaker Award for some of our restorative
justice practices in our child support division. And that award was awarded by the Community Justice
Mediation. I collaborated with the stakeholders who were able to develop and implement the Stride Crisis
Diversion Center, which is a
where people experiencing mental health or substance use crises can be diverted away from hospitals
and jails and connected with care. In my second term, I was able to establish the Monroe County High
Tech Crime Unit in partnership with Ellisville Police Department. The unit processes forensic digital
evidence and it serves 11 counties to improve prosecution outcomes.
However, I am most proud of my work to identify and address racial and ethnic disparities that may result
from prosecutorial decision making. In 2022, I was able to secure an Arnold Ventures grant,
and in partnership with Monroe County branch NAACP, Lake County prosecuting attorney Bernard Carter,
and Indiana University,
We engaged in a three-year research project. The study was nationally groundbreaking for bringing in
a community partner to help improve local prosecution, and our NAACP partner was really invaluable to
us. For that work, I was awarded the 2023 John L. Kraus Award for Public Policy Innovation from Indiana
University. And as part of the project, we do anticipate launching a dashboard very soon. It's been
developed. We're testing the code.
But what this will do is we will collect and display our data publicly so that we can be Improve our
transparency our accountability and test our policy updates against the data The next four years will
require strong skilled leadership. We're facing state and federal attacks on home government governance both from
threats by Republican leaders and from changes in tax code and federal grant programs that limit our
resources. And I'm the only candidate who's managed an office and handled the difficult decisions required
by the job. You can rest assured that I will stand for the Constitution and do what is right, no matter
what the outside pressure is. I've demonstrated my values time and again in our community, and I will
continue to do so.
supporting and partnering with organizations and coalitions in our community who serve those with substance
use, mental health, housing, and other critical needs, expanding diversion opportunities to prevent
collateral consequences of convictions, spare jailhouse and courtroom expenses, and reduce recidivism,
focusing limited litigation resources on repeat and violent offenders who do the most harm in our community,
and engaging in work to make our system more fair and just.
I have served in the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office here for over 16 years, and I will always work
to improve. We are, after all, an office that is meant to serve our community, and I want to ensure
that our community is safe for all people. Please vote Eric Oliphant for prosecutor on or before the
Democratic primary on May 5th. All right, thank you. And then Ben Arrington.
Hello. Hello, everyone. My name is Benjamin Arrington, and I am running to serve as your next prosecuting
attorney because I believe we can take a stand for justice by taking a stand against injustice. Now
more than ever, we need to make our voices heard that enough is enough and that we as a community are
not going to tolerate criminalizing personal medical decisions. I was born in Northern California, but
grew up in central Texas.
I moved to Chicago for undergrad and finally found my home here in Bloomington, Indiana, where I attended
law school at Indiana University and fell in love with B-Town. I am now the proud father to the light
of my life, my four-year-old daughter, who was born right here in Bloomington in the torn down hospital
as one of the last babies born there. She was nearly one of the first babies born at the first hospital,
at the new hospital. When I take great joy
and raising her with my partner here in this wonderful community that I've fallen in love with. But
I want to share with you that I am in fact a high school dropout. Working, starting working at age 16
at a flea market. Turned fast food worker, turned call center worker, turned vacuum cleaner technician,
turned assistant store manager, turned 18-wheeler over-the-road truck driver,
turned pizza restaurant shift manager, turned deputy prosecuting attorney Monroe County. The honor and
privilege to serve you. And let me veer off script slightly and just say that I went to law school for
criminal law because that's what I'm passionate about. So my first job as an attorney was deputy prosecutor,
turned staff attorney with
Department of Child Services turned administrative law judge after serving at Lawrence County as a deputy
prosecutor, now serving as staff attorney and local clinic director for family and eviction law, providing
no cost legal assistance to low income family residents. I am the product of a single mother of five
children who understands poverty because I have lived in poverty and I have been unhoused more than
once in my life. My father went to prison when I was a child
And I stand before you as a person who's been through adversities, who's had struggles, made mistakes,
and is not perfect at all. Which is why I sit in a unique position to have a unique lens when making
prosecutorial decisions. If elected on day one, I will stop the discriminatory prosecution and wasteful
prosecution of simple possession of marijuana of one ounce or less. In 2019,
Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears made the decision that his administration would not prosecute one
ounce or less. Monroe County can and should be a leader for progressive policies in the state of Indiana
right alongside Marion County. The reason to support marijuana decriminalization start with compassion.
Imagine for a moment a patient undergoing chemotherapy attempting to have an appetite.
or a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. The list goes on as we are surrounded by
Illinois, Michigan, and now Ohio, all with legal marijuana, let alone recreational, medical. A survey
from Safe and Regulated Indiana states that 70% of Hoosier respondents said they support legalizing
marijuana for residents over the age of 21. 49% said they strongly support it. I will stand with women
doctors and nurses safeguarding that private medical decisions remain private. Reproductive medical
decisions do not and should not be criminalized. I will be compassionate in understanding poverty and
approach each case with the perspective of how can the Monroe County's prosecutor's office best serve
our community. I ask you to take a stand with me. I ask you for your vote. Thank you. All right.
Thank you, guys.
Our first question will be the same question that we asked the last group of candidates. What does democratic
socialism mean to you and what are concrete reasons that someone who is a democratic socialist should
knock doors for you or even vote for you? Democratic socialism to me is really important because as
a democratic socialist, I believe
in fairness and as a long-term Bernie Sanders supporter and someone who believes in capping salaries,
why does someone need more than 10 million a year? And having a livable wage, not a minimum wage. I
believe that if somebody wants change, somebody wants to be progressive, somebody wants a prosecutor
that's willing to take a stand for what is right, then you would want to rally behind
a true democratic socialist, such as myself, who wants to enter politics and really make a change to
serve our community, to give back, to be a leader, and to have a voice for the people, power to the
people. Your prosecutor is your last chance to protect you from unlawful, unright laws that may be on
the books from a super powerful majority of Republicans that are in the General Assembly.
but your prosecutor if elected, I will stand for you and do what's right and have a conscience.
All right, same question to you, Erica. Thank you. You know, I think democratic socialism means making
sure that everybody has an opportunity to thrive, that we don't have to worry that our next medical
emergency or our next busted pipe or broken
down car is going to mean that we're bankrupt or unhoused. Clearly, we want to make sure that everybody
is treated equally and with dignity. And I really value the work that you all have done here locally
to stand up for the causes that mean a lot to you all and to me as well. I can say that I have
I've often done things to support the unhoused community. I have done things to develop resources for
those experiencing mental health and substance use crises. As the prosecutor, we get a lot of social
issues foisted upon us because we haven't solved them sooner through better healthcare and
better opportunities for people. I am also an unequivocally pro-choice woman.
I was at the bread and roses bash back in August. It was very hot, but it was very fun. Making these
categorical statements that we're not going to prosecute cases isn't going to have any practical change
on the way my office operates or the cases that we're actually focusing on, but it will draw attention
from state and federal Republicans who will put our community in danger.
All right, thank you. The next question comes from the audience. What role do you believe the prosecutor's
office should play in supporting successful reentry and diversion programs, particularly for people
experiencing homelessness or mental health challenges? How might your office collaborate with community
spaces like libraries in those efforts? This question is going to you, Erica, first.
All right, I'm going to take just a moment to talk about some of the things we've already done. I've
already mentioned the Crisis Diversion Center at Stride. I've also worked with Mobile Crisis Unit to
have an alternative to call instead of the police when someone is experiencing mental health or substance
use crisis. I've also got a robust diversion program in my office that's been proven to reduce the instances
of new cases within a year after the case that someone does diversion on.
I served for five years on the Monroe County Problem Solving Courts, Drug Court, Mental Health Court,
Veterans Court, and Reentry Court, making sure that we were using evidence-based practices to give people
a fresh start to have them overcome some of the issues that lead to criminal activity.
I am always open to partnerships. I've been summoned by some of the unhoused services providers to come
and try to help them make sure that their programs succeed.
Also try to work with I've worked with township trustees to try to get people representative pay ease
when they couldn't manage their Social Security funds in such a way that they were not being able to
pay their bills and keep their housing. So you know I've really I think demonstrated that I can think
outside the box and I am
open always to hearing new ideas about how we can support people in not coming into contact in the first
instance with law enforcement, but then also having a chance to avoid it after they've come into contact
with us. Thank you. Thank you. Same question to you, Ben. As a person who's been unhoused, I believe
that I'm in a unique position to be able to help by working
and sending a tone that's saying, you know, if you work for the prosecutor's office and word gets out
that my office is draconian and we haven't seen this much request for prison time since the Republican
was in office and things of that nature, that's not gonna happen with my office. My office is gonna
be working with the Monroe County Public Defender's Office.
You're gonna hear that there's a new era of cooperation and that my office is reasonable and not seeking
to punish and seeking to harm and seeking to injure our community because there's gonna be now a new
way of doing things. And one of that we're gonna do is partner with all communities to work together and
strive to be just better as a community. And one way is telling law enforcement, hands off our people.
Your new chief law enforcement officer is a person that represents the people and is going to work to
help all of you. And that's by telling law enforcement, we're not going to be charging bull crap. And
that's how it's going to be. May I respond just briefly?
Thank you. First of all, I would say that when law enforcement sends us something that is, to use Mr.
Arrington's words, bull crap, we do have about a 15% to 20% declination rate, meaning those are cases
we do not charge that are referred to us by law enforcement.
It's hard to say that my office has been more draconian than the Republicans when the jail population
has gone down since I've taken office. And I think the last time Judge Stafford may back me up on this,
the last time I looked at the DOC numbers, we are seventh in the state, lowest at sending people to
the Department of Corrections, but we are not the seventh lowest in population. Thank you.
The next question is coming from the Monroe County Educational Association. In the current session,
SB 76 would force K-12 schools to comply slash cooperate with ICE and or federal agencies should they
come for our students and families. What advice would you have for teachers and school administrators
dealing with this chilling reality? Ben, this is to you first.
What I'm witnessing with ICE is despicable. And that children are now afraid of our government is so
sad. As a father and a parent, this is near and dear to my heart. And my instructions to teachers are
stand up for your little children in your class. We are not going to be helping ICE.
And when I saw the district attorney from Philadelphia stand up and say, Ice, you come to this town,
you know what's going to happen. I would have used a bully pulpit had I been in office and said the
same thing for Monroe County. Because we need to take a stand and do what's right. And no child should
be in fear because of Ice, nor should a teacher. And I will be there to stand with them.
Question? Thank you. You know, unfortunately, as prosecuting attorney, it's unethical for me to provide
legal advice to anyone other than, you know, my deputy prosecutors who work with me. But what I would
say is there
There is a lot of good resources, there are a lot of good organizations such as Exodus and others that
are offering some advice on safety planning and what to do when you encounter ice. The unfortunate truth
is we have an overreaching enforcement of
immigration, where we're not narrowly targeted towards those who are committing criminal offenses at
all. And we have this broad recruitment of new people who are not trained, who are given unconstitutional
directives to go out there and just knock heads and cause a ruckus. And I just want to say that if I
have credible evidence that someone has broken an Indiana law, and I can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,
no badge of authority is gonna keep anybody safe from prosecution. So I would say, you know, it's incumbent
upon you to use the safety and planning resources that are available to you. Be a good documentarian.
You know, just be a good historian so that when people are overreaching and violating the law, that
we can hold them to account. Thank you very much.
The next question is from DSA. SB 285 is making its way through the Indiana State House and would effectively
criminalize homelessness by making camping on public ground a classy misdemeanor. This policy is clearly
an attack on the unhoused and seeks to use the punishment bureaucracy as a substitute for other more
evidence-based measures. How would you respond to this or similar legislation as a prosecutor? This
is going to you first, Erica.
Thank you. Well, I think it's going to be a continuation of collaborating with our services providers
to make sure that we have a solution that doesn't involve taking someone to jail. But instead, we're
working to connect somebody with services and make sure that they have some options besides sleeping
in public. I think it's an awful law. I don't think it's going to do anything to help the homelessness crisis.
You know, I, like as I had mentioned earlier, have engaged in a lot of work and support with, you know,
I'm on the capital campaign for Beacon Inc. and I have met with the heading, I'm sponsoring the 2026
Heading Home Summit. You know, there are a lot of things that I'm doing to try to bolster personally,
in my personal capacity, these organizations that are helping to serve these folks so that
Truly, jail is not the answer. We don't have the resources to fix the problem. It needs to be done with
our social network and support system. Same question. Thank you. Jail is for people that are criminally
violent. That's who my office will be locking up, only violent people who break the law and are violent.
Homelessness and being unhoused is not violence. And in fact,
How many of us are how many paychecks away from being unhoused ourself? So what is the solution? We're
not going to prosecute it. That's it. I stand and say no. In honor of Black History Month, it's worth
noting that at one point in time, I would be prosecuted for using a whites-only water fountain. And
I would hope that we'd have a prosecutor that would choose not to prosecute that law out of their conscience.
because their conscience knows what's right. And that's why I'm willing to take a stand. And you know
what my position is. Thank you. We have another question from DSA. Bloomington residents and DSA members
have overwhelmingly demanded an end to the use of flock cameras in the city and county. Will you commit
to ending the use of flock cameras owned by the county
as well as taking steps to curtail the growth of a generalized mass surveillance state which
disproportionately criminalizes immigrants, people of color, and the unhoused. This is going to you
first, Erica. Thank you. You know, I will say that flock cameras, they're license plate reader cameras
for those of you who don't know. We have six of them that are county-owned. There are more that are
Bloomington-owned that are placed mostly at major corridors throughout the county.
They are a law enforcement tool, and when they were installed, I believe that they have been used to
make sure that we are able to apprehend and prove criminal cases. I can say I have prosecuted one case
where someone was charged with attempted murder. He shot somebody in the chest. He was identified because
of a flock camera.
So it is a law enforcement tool, however, I understand we have a lot of concerns where we cannot control
the use of that information once it's collected, where ICE is going to be able to have access as long
as these cameras exist. So I think it's great that DSA, through their protest action, has started this
community conversation about what we should do with flock cameras. And so I would submit that I believe
that we should have
a public debate about whether it's worth having this tool or not. And if it's not, we should get rid
of it. So thank you. So any question you've been? I'm saddened to hear that she wants to have a debate
about this, because the answer is clear. We do not need a surveillance state monitoring everywhere we
go. Flock cameras need to go. Flock cameras need to go. What in the flock is going on here? This is
outrageous.
You know, we wouldn't need flock cameras if we had a cooperating community that worked with law enforcement
because they didn't feel like law enforcement was against them. So we don't need flock cameras because
we can use the community together. That's what amber alerts are for. That's what we can work together
as a community. Instead, we can
have a debate about whether or not it's a good idea to monitor everywhere you go and to keep track of
it and have AI notice to keeping track of your license plate when you come and go out of the county.
I think that makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't
want a supervisory state monitoring everything that I do. We need to work together as a community. And
if we work together as a community, we'll have a strengthened and powerful community emboldened to work together.
It doesn't matter that we live in a super majority Republican state, we can be better and we can be
leaders. That's what we need to do. All right, and this is just a reminder to the audience that if you
want to submit a question, we have a QR code that you can use to fill out a question, quit our form.
And our next question comes from the audience. We're combining a couple questions.
How would you use your position to advocate for poor and working class Monroe County residents? And
could you use your position as a prosecutor to push against abusive landlords or other businesses? Oh,
this is going to Ben. Sorry. You know, I come from a unique background, as you've heard. There's such
thing as K through JD. That's kindergarten to law school.
and then you immediately become a prosecutor, maybe. I was really poor, and I grew up struggling and
had cockroaches, and it was different. And so I believe that one way I can reach out and be a beacon
of support is I plan to go to the elementary schools. I plan to be hand-in-hand with MCCSE to show that,
hey, you can be a high school dropout and still become your elected prosecutor. You can still do things
with your life, even if you mess up.
And so that's one way is I'm going to be a leader by showing people that it's possible. And regarding
landlords, I believe that we can be enforcing laws that are unethical business practices type of laws.
We could be looking into things that say, hey, if you're going to be a capitalist trying to push people
around and take advantage of them, the prosecutor's office is watching out. You break a law, that's
going to be something that's going to get prosecuted.
I'm gonna stand for poor people, I'm gonna stand for against abusive landlords and tenants.
It's the rights. Second question. Thank you. So most landlord tenant rights are actually contained in
civil law, and most of their actions, though they may seem criminal from a perspective of just moral
indignation, they aren't necessarily criminal offenses. Certainly, if someone was
violating the criminal code, I would hold them to account. But I think we have to be careful to stay
within the confines of our constitutions and the roles that we have. So I would not be trying to prosecute
landlords if I could not prove that they violated the criminal code. That said, I just want to say one thing.
you know, really interested to hear Ben say his life story, because though I worked with Ben for a little
bit, I'd never heard it before. And it's really impressive that he's sitting here next to me today,
absolutely. But I just want to say I also was homeless for a period of time, and I also had a struggle.
I was a farm kid in Versailles, Indiana, and I came up
with a single mom who was never around and an abusive father. And, you know, I think it's... we all
have stories to tell, and I just want to say I've had abusive landlords, I've had great landlords, and
I think that one thing that we can do is make sure that we look at the resources we have in our community,
like Landlord Tenant Assistance Project and our townships, to make sure that people can stay in their
homes. Thank you very much.
Our next question is also from the audience. Do you engage with harm reduction in your work as prosecutor,
and if so, how do you do this? This is to Erica. Thank you. Yes, I do. So I have long been a financial
supporter as well as a volunteer occasionally for Indiana Recovery Alliance. I was
a deputy prosecutor of the office when they first developed their syringe services program. And I developed
the policy that said that we would not charge syringe services program participants with possession,
unlawful possession or use of syringe or possession of paraphernalia. So I have a tight knit with that
community. I obviously, as the prosecutor, I can't show up to all their events because
That's going to chill participation and the important work that they do. It's really unfortunate that
our lawmakers are choosing to try to restrict the syringe services program so that it's not evidence-based.
They're trying to say it has to be a one-to-one exchange and otherwise just kind of rein it in.
because there's this view that these syringes are causing a public health crisis, but actually these
syringes are preventing a public health crisis. These syringes are shown to reduce the instances of
hepatitis and HIV in our community, and the Indiana Recovery Alliance and other similar programs connect
people with treatment and give them a chance to avoid coming into contact with me professionally.
Thank you. Same question for you, Ben. I absolutely believe in harm reduction. And that begins with
choosing to not prosecute marijuana. OK, look, we look at who historically is going to get pulled over
and mess with by the police. OK, is it somebody in a brand new car, rich student, or is it somebody
who's driving a broke down car or a person of color?
And that makes it to where you're now gonna get introduced to the criminal justice system with a criminal
misdemeanor. Ryan Mears choosing not to prosecute the same year that Erica took office in 2019
is commendable, courage, courage. And that's what you'd be electing if you give me an opportunity to
serve you. And so I believe harm reduction starts with making a conscientious decision on what is right
You don't just say, oh, I'm bound. Oh, I have to, you know, in essence, that means that no, no, no.
You need to have a voice and stand up for what is right. And that way, at the end of the day, you can
at least say you stood up for what is right. Thank you. May I rebut that, please? 30 seconds. In 2025,
we had two convictions for possession of marijuana in my office.
I think in both of those cases, there was something else going on, like impaired driving, which would
be prosecuted in Michigan, Illinois, and yes, even in Marion County. Unfortunately, due to Mr. Mears'
public declaration, there is now a noncompliant prosecutor law that fortunately has no teeth, but is
actually trying to limit the discretion of prosecutors who were elected to
respond to the values of their communities. I'm out of time. Thank you. Thank you. And our next question
gets at this issue a little deeper. Ben, you've made your position clear about emulating Ryan Mears.
Erica, the question is, can you explain a little bit more about why you disagree or if you disagree
with what Ben is proposing? What Ben is
proposing is making a public declaration that he will not prosecute a criminal law that is on the books.
We have taken oaths to uphold the Constitution and to uphold the law. It is the Indian General Assembly's
sole discretion of the Constitution to decide what is illegal and what is legal. Once we have prosecutors
who are willing to decide what is legal and what is illegal, that can work in your favor or it can work
against you.
You know, we, as a practical matter, I just told you we had two convictions for possession of marijuana
in 2025. It is not something that is aggressively prosecuted. It is not something that we spend a lot
of resources on. However, by making a public declaration, we draw the attention of the Republican
supermajority to our local resources.
It doesn't really change. By saying this, it doesn't really change anything that's actually happening
as a practical matter. What we should be doing instead of making public declarations that put us all
in danger from state and federal intervention and home rule is make sure that we continue to focus our
resources on those violent and repeat offenders that cause the greatest harm in our community. Ben,
you have 90 seconds on this same issue. It's not exactly the same question.
Thank you. Yes. Prosecutor Mears is seeking re-election for his third term and is still in office and
everything is working out just fine. Marion County is not prosecuting one ounce or less of marijuana.
We need to be doing the same. I believe prosecutor Oliphant is being a little disingenuous when she
says two convictions. Two convictions? How many marijuana charges were filed throughout the year of
2025 is what I would like to know.
not the number of convictions. Convictions occur after someone is charged with a crime, after they've
pled guilty and they've gone through a complete conviction. Few cases actually get to that point because
you have to pay her $550 pre-trial diversion fee. That money is expensive for a lot of people who cannot
afford that. We're not gonna do cash for play. We are gonna stand up for what is right. You know, being
drawing attention of the super majority Republicans good,
Maybe we can show them what is right. Maybe we can show them what needs to occur, what is honorable,
what is honorable people do that care about their community. And so let us be a leader. Let us stand
for what is right. Thank you so much. May I read about that? About 27 cases did pretrial diversion for
possession of marijuana in 2025 and maybe
30 were just outright dismissed. I just, you know, I wanted to make sure you had those numbers since
he brought it up. Thank you. Thank you both. Our next question also comes from the audience. Losses
from robbery are $482 million. Losses from wage theft is more than 100 times that at 50 billion. These
are national figures. Are there a proportional number of cases that pass through the courts in this county?
What can your office do to empower employees to hold their thieving bosses to account? I'm sorry, this
was going to Benjamin. Well, I believe my position is pretty clear that my office, as I already stated,
you know, if I were to find out that a landlord's committing fraud or conducting any type of illegal
business practices that would meet a statute,
That would also occur where I would want workers to feel empowered to contact the prosecutor's office.
We'll create a tip line that will allow you to inform us of wage theft, inform us of unethical business
practices. Let us know how we can help you. Because you know now that you have a prosecutor
who's progressive, who stands for the people, who believes in power to the people, who believes in change.
And so, absolutely, if you are aware of something that is wage theft, if you have a boss that's doing
something unethical, you'll have the opportunity to call law enforcement to have a tip line
in the prosecutor's office. And I will be there to stand for you as your prosecutor and to serve the
people of Monroe County.
Same question, Erica. Thank you. So in my nearly 17 years in prosecution, I've actually prosecuted one
wage theft case where somebody withheld a paycheck illegally from somebody. And you know, theft is theft.
It's a very broad statute. You cannot take the money or property of someone else. It's particularly
atrocious to steal someone's labor.
You know, I think that the real problem is going to be having somebody who is experiencing wage theft
report that to an investigative agency and have a criminal investigation that can be presented to my
office. We are not an investigative agency. We simply don't have the resources to do this thorough criminal
investigations. But certainly, if you needed to be pointed in the right direction, you could reach out
to our office and we could put you in touch with someone.
But, you know, theft does have a real cost for people. Sometimes having property stolen is the difference
between making rent and not making rent for a month. So they are very serious cases, and we do have
to make sure that we hold people accountable, try to get restitution when we can. All right, thank you
very much. The next question comes from DSA.
What are your views about the biggest flaws within our punishment bureaucracy in Monroe County, Indiana,
and the country at large? What specific steps will you take to address what you see as the biggest problems?
Yeah, so I think that the biggest problem we probably face is that we have a very limited set of tools.
You know, we have incarceration, we have some community corrections options, we have some probation,
but we have
a lot of different individuals with individual needs and criminogenic factors that need to be addressed.
And frankly, as I said, you know, the criminal justice system becomes sort of the last resort solution
for people who have been repeatedly failed by the safety networks such as they are.
In Monroe County, we are very fortunate to have a lot of treatment resources. We are fortunate to have
drug courts, diversion, and other opportunities. At the state level, I think there is a lot more emphasis.
You can see it in some of the new criminal laws that are being passed that there's a lot more emphasis
on using incarceration as the means to address the problems.
proven that it only increases recidivism and puts people behind socially and financially with their
family and in every real practical way that we live our lives. And I believe that varies from state
to state. I can't necessarily comment on every state's resources, but that's my time. Thank you. Same
question to you.
Our biggest flaw that I see in our criminal justice system starts at the top, and that's that we do
need change in prosecution. And I'm not just saying that because I'm running for office. I'm saying
that because status quo is just not working right now. We need to have someone that's willing to take
an active voice for standing for the people. You know, prison is appropriate for people that want to
harm other people.
You know, we do need to lock people up that want to be violent and want to bring harm to our community.
But we need to stand as a community and say that we need to stand for what's right and stand for the
people and make the right choice and a conscientious choice. And that starts with the right leadership.
And that starts with telling everyone that works below you that, look, I want to hear on the street
that the public defender
loves the prosecuting attorney's office. Now, that's a strange thing. And why? And that's because we
work together to reduce the jail population, to reduce the harm of the criminal justice system on the
average citizen. And so that's what I want to work for. And that's what I want to see. And I want to
see change in our biggest flaw. May I just briefly rebut that?
I would say that I do overall have a good relationship with the Public Defender's Office. You know,
especially the leadership in that office. There are, of course, going to be complaints about the work
that I do. We're in an adversarial system, and we very often disagree about what is the best outcome
in cases. So, of course, there's going to be times when we are not going to be friendly, necessarily.
But overall, I do work with the Public Defender's Office to try to address things with such as delays
in case processing and creative solutions to some of our bigger challenges. Thank you very much. Our
next question comes from the audience. The Trump administration has taken steps to repress and criminalize
acts of resistance to the spread of fascism.
How will you protect residents of Monroe County who exercise their right to speech and protest? This
is going to Ben first. What I see going on currently with this administration is really sickening, and
we need to take a stand again. It's my theme to take a stand. I kind of want to stand up right now,
actually, but, you know,
When I saw a sniper on the roof, because students were out protesting, I thought to myself, you know,
if I was the Monroe County prosecutor, I'd go out there and stand up there with them. Because that,
are they going to arrest me? Come on, point the sniper rifle at me. So what I'm going to take steps
to do is I'm going to be out protesting with the people.
I'm gonna be out with the people, and I'm gonna be out there showing you guys that I'm willing to stand
with you. And so, you can count on me, if you elect me, to be there with you. Thank you so much. Same
question? Well, ever since No Space for Hate, I think I have a track record of not charging people who
are peacefully protesting and standing up for their First Amendment rights.
I believe very deeply that our constitutional rights are the only thing that keep us safe from oppression
from our government and I'm going to defend them. You know, one reason that you won't find me out on
the picket lines when you all protest is because if I am there and I'm a witness and you are arrested
illegally or otherwise,
that would be grounds for a special prosecutor to be appointed. And the special prosecutor pool is typically
older, white Republicans who aren't from this community. And I just don't think that's what you all
want. I mean, maybe it is. But I have a track record of defending people's right to peacefully protest.
All right, thank you.
And this will be our final question of the evening. And so you can include your closing remarks in this
last question. But it comes from DSA. What progressive prosecutors around the country do you hope to
model? And what sort of policies do you hope to recreate in Bloomington, Indiana, and Monroe County?
This is going to Eric first. Thank you.
It's a funny question that you should ask. I've had my eye on a lot of them, but Beth Hamlin and I are
particularly fans of Larry Krasner. We have met with his data guru, Oren Gur, to try to see if we can
collaborate on some data research projects and try to find a way to adapt to this new landscape where
federal grants are drying up and a lot of the private foundations who have funded this research
and change agency in various areas of criminal justice and otherwise, those resources are spread very
thin and those grants aren't as available as they used to be. So we looked to Larry Krasner's office
to try to collaborate on how can we continue the good work that we're doing on
trying to recognize and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in our office and be more fair, make sure
that we are focusing on those crimes that do the greatest harm in our communities. I've been serving
this community. I love this community. I've been serving this community for over 16 years.
the experience, I have the temperament to do the job. I can make tough decisions in the face of extreme
pressure. And in a world where our state and federal leaders are trying to attack our home rule and
are coming for those who label themselves as progressives and who are trying to do good things in their
communities, we need somebody who has experience, who is not afraid to have
you know, the superintendent of the state police be smirching them in the press and other things. So,
you know, I am confident that the Monroe County voters are gonna end up returning me to office because
I've proven that I will work for this community. Thank you. All right, Ben, you can answer the question
and give your closing remarks. Thank you very much, and thank you for everyone who's come to listen
today. It's really important to be active in your democracy, and it's amazing to see people showing
up to listen
I mentioned Ryan Mears. I think that being a progressive prosecutor in a red state like Indiana
is commendable and Ryan Mears as seeking his third term deserves that and I hope he's re-elected. I
have reached out to him to hopefully meet with him.
I looked up to him and his years of, I looked at his resume, I couldn't believe it, like 100 jury trials
and all of this stuff, and he made the courage, the commitment to do that for Marion County, to not
prosecute marijuana one ounce or less. That's what I want to bring here. I want to bring that here.
Erica talks about, we're worried that the federal government might, or the state government might target
us more because we're taking a stand.
Minneapolis took a stand and the government left. They failed because Minnesota and Minneapolis people
stood up and said, we're not going to allow you to push us around ICE. We're not going to allow you
to tell us what to do. And what happened? The Trump administration left. They left because they took
a stand. They didn't let them bully them. And so we can do that here in Monroe County. We can stand up.
We can do what's right. I would not be the first person to be a prosecutor in a red state to stand up
for what's right and not choose to prosecute something like marijuana or reproductive rights for women
and doctors and nurses. However, you would be electing your first black Monroe County prosecutor if
you gave me a chance. I think I'd be the third ever in the state of Indiana
in the hundreds of years. There's the Lake County prosecutor that Erica talked about. He's serving now
in Lake County. But it's in the profession generally. I mean, it's like 1% black or something, 3%, something
along those lines. So if you decided to elect me, you'd be making a choice to stand up for what's right.
You'd be making an amazing choice to stand up to elect your first
a person of color to serve here as your elected prosecutor in Monroe County. And I would ask that you
vote, I ask you take a stand for what's right, have a conscience and do what's right. My office is gonna
work diligently to make sure that we stand up for victims, we stand up for everybody. And you're not
gonna hear about my office dropping the ball
and somebody gets their case dismissed because I didn't prosecute it in time or things of that nature.
If I have to prosecute myself, I'll do it, but I'm not going to allow criminal rule four to run. And,
you know, my office is going to be different. And so I just want to tell you that right away that on
day one, we are going to have a new administration if elected. And it's going to be day one every day because
We need to take a stand, and we need to do what's right as a people. Arrington for Prosecutor.com, thank
you so much. Take a stand. I ask for your vote. Thank you so much. Power to the people. And thank you
all so much for attending our candidate forum. There are some materials for the candidates on that table
back there, but other than that, I think we're done. Thank you all so much. Give yourselves a round
of applause.