WEBVTT

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- All right. Welcome to the public forum for candidates for county clerk. I'm your moderator,

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- Alana Stonebreaker, from Indiana University Libraries Bloomington and former county council member in

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- Tippecano. This is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Bloomington Monroe County. We are pleased

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- to have co-sponsors of IU Pace, Political and Civic Engagement,

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- Kappa Tau Omega, Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Monroe County Branch NAACP, the Monroe County NOW, and

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- the South Central Indiana Citizens' Climate Lobby. And let's just give our sponsors and co-sponsors

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- a round of applause. Yeah, very important to have forums and so happy that we're able to have this.

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- And also wanted to thank Katz

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- who is up in the top bleachers recording our event. So after this event, you should be able to access

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- the recording. I will take a moment to review the ground rules which each of the candidates have accepted.

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- Candidates respond in turn to questions posed by me, the moderator, rotating which candidate will answer

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- first. Responses are limited to 90 seconds unless I specify a different time.

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- Audience members are invited to submit questions on the cards provided. And I believe that we want to

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- raise the hands of the cards. So there's your card first, so raise your hand if you're interested in

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- a card in terms of it. Just to give you an idea, as moderator I have about six questions and then we

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- switch over to questions from the audience. Please raise your hand if you need a card or can direct

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- one from the stage.

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- Each candidate will then be asked to make a closing statement of one minute. The candidates have agreed

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- to a civil discourse. I'd like to introduce our three candidates on the stage. There's Tanner Branham,

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- Joe Davis, and Tree Martin Lewis. Tree Martin Lewis, excuse me. Lucas. Lucas, Lucas, oh my goodness.

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- I get extra points already.

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- That was the first question, no I'm just kidding. So Lucas, so I'm going to start the first, oh so we're

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- gonna start with opening statements and we will go in order starting with Tanner. Great. Hi everyone,

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- so I just wanna start off by thanking the League of Women Voters for hosting this event and thank you

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- to Alana for moderating.

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- My name is Tanner Branham and I'm running to be your next county clerk. I am experienced and eager to

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- take on this role. I have been a lifelong resident of southern Indiana, lifelong Hoosier. I got my first

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- look at what public service looks like through my father who was a, he was a public office holder so

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- I spent my childhood going out knocking doors with him and getting involved with politics.

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- And then I went off to college and that led to me to seek a degree in political science and legal studies.

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- In my 20s, I spent a couple years interning and working at the prosecutor's office and the public defender's

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- office in Lawrence County. After that, I substitute taught middle school and high school for a couple

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- years while also managing the bookstore, Inkling's bookstore down in Lawrence County.

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- For the past seven years I've been an employee at IU. I started out as a tech professional working in

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- web services support for IU, so maintaining the IU's web presence. That gave me a lot of skills

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- in technology. After that I went to the Office of Enrollment Management where I was an executive assistant.

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- And I am now currently, I've left IU and I am the chief deputy of the county clerk's office.

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- I've been a dedicated Democrat my entire life and I'm very excited to ensure that we have the best elections

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- possible and protect our vote. Thank you Good evening, my name is Joe Davis and I wish to be your Monroe

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- County clerk to make better of Bloomington and Monroe County to serve the people it is time to

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- for service, a political service. Just let's get it done. I want to thank all of you, the League of

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- Women Voters, those in attendance, the administration and staff who set up for this event tonight, and

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- all of you at home who are watching on Facebook Live or watching later on CATS TV, the proceedings of

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- tonight's forum.

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- elections need to be trusted, accurate, and accessible for all. The other roles of the clerk, administration

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- of the courts, producing and managing records, and serving the people are the other areas that we need

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- to have the best we can have. And I thank you for listening to

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- all of our candidacy statements and please join me in electing myself, Monroe County Clerk. Thank you.

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- Good evening. I'd like to thank the League of Women Voters for putting this on tonight. My name is Tree

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- Martin Lucas and I'm running for Monroe County Clerk. I'm not asking you to take

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- Oh fudge. Can you hear me now? Very good. I'm not asking you to take a chance on me. I've done this

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- work. I've served as both the election supervisor and chief deputy and at times I've done both jobs

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- simultaneously. I know this office inside and out and at times

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- I've carried the responsibility that would be beyond my years. The clerk's office isn't political. It's

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- personal. Let me say that again. The clerk's office is not political. It's personal. It's about people.

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- Every person who walks through those doors deserves respect, kindness, and professionalism. I believe strongly

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- in voting and voter participation. Why? Because every voice matters. I've built strong relationships

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- across our courts and our counties. And I know how to lead a team and get the job done. Experience matters.

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- I'm ready on day one. I appreciate your support.

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- All right, this first question, and we're gonna rotate who goes first, so this first question will be

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- Joe. The County Clerk's webpage lists several functions. How do you anticipate allocating your time

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- and effort among court case filings and status reports, traffic violations, child support, protective

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- orders, record requests, and marriage licenses and elections? And there are 90 seconds for each question.

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- I'm sorry, could you repeat that question? Oh yes, I'm happy to repeat, hang on. The county clerk's

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- webpage lists several functions. How do you anticipate allocating your effort among court case filings

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- and status reports, traffic violations, child support, protection orders, records requests,

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- marriage licenses, and, one of the important ones for us, elections?

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- I have the full faith and confidence of the existing staff in the voter registration office, in the

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- general clerks area where people file, be it to the courts or for a marriage certificate or a death

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- certificate is filed. Or if a person needs to address something, a civil matter or even a defense, a

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- criminal defense matter,

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- The clerk is the gatekeeper to the accurate filings of all of these documents and acknowledgments. The

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- clerk's office already is staffed with people who are doing a great job, but together we will improve

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- that job and we will provide even more clarity in what one must do in order to achieve their action

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- goal. This is what I will do

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- and my direct experience over the course of my life through being a practicing jurist, making many,

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- many legal filings over the past three to four years full-time, my past experience as a contractor when

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- I've had to seek redress through a property loan, lien, or getting married and eventually divorced.

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- through the clerk's office. Please, together we will improve and build upon the best system that we

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- can do as a community. Thank you. Tre, same question. When you look at the website, it is daunting.

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- We do so much in the department. Not only do we have all the legal aspects, but throw on top of that

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- elections.

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- How the office runs now is very efficient. The employees are wonderful. We also have technology that

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- helps us. We have technology such as Odyssey e-filing. It takes your, the person can file it home in

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- their pajamas. If they're pro se, they don't need an attorney, they can file themselves. And then that

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- filing goes to different areas of the department. If you're in small claims, you handle all the small

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- claims issues.

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- If you're in the divorce, you handle those. Protective orders, we've got that department too. The office

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- runs smoothly because we have good people. My goal is to communicate with my people, but also listen

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- to the people that come into the office. They're not in familiar territory, we are. And the main goal

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- I have is to listen, and I mean truly listen,

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- Sometimes you're so busy trying to figure out the answer that you don't listen. If I don't know the

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- answer, I'll find it. My goal is simple, to treat everyone with respect, dignity, and professionalism.

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- Tanner, same question. So yeah, the clerk's office has a lot of different responsibilities and I feel

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- like I would handle those equally.

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- Going back to the exact question, see, I would use my time equally among the various responsibilities

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- within the office. I have a lot of great experience working at IU, doing project management and working

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- with a variety of different departments to handle different issues. And that's the kind of experience

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- I want to bring into the clerk's office. Awesome, thank you. All right, our next starting question is Tree.

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- Do you support or oppose having vote centers in Monroe County? And what would you do to promote your

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- position? Vote centers, I love them. For the simple reason, on provisional day, we have to cast out

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- so many votes because people went to the wrong precinct. Can you vote? Absolutely you can vote. You

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- can vote anywhere you show up. Will your vote count? No, it won't.

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- the board will not accept your vote, and it's thrown out. If we had vote centers, all of those votes

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- would matter. Everyone would still have that voice. I totally support vote centers. Now, to

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- get it accomplished, we would have to get another party to agree with us. How do we get them to agree

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- with us? Well, we don't shove things down people's throat. We listen.

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- Oh, there's that word again, listen. Listen to what they have against vote centers and see if we can

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- change it. Sometimes it may just be the location of the vote center. We have to meet everybody's needs,

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- can we? I don't know, but we can make compromises, but we won't even know about these compromises unless

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- we have those honest conversations with both sides' listenings, both sides' giving, and both sides'

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- Compromising. Vote centers are a great thing. Location is a great thing. The cost on the county, it

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- will be better for that too, because we don't have to buy all those ballots. All those ballots that

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- we shred after the election. So it's cost saving too in the long term. Do I have the money in equipment?

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- Yes, we do. Tanner, same question.

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- Yes, I am an extremely strong supporter of vote centers. When we had the vote center referendum last

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- year, I left public comment to the elections board in support of vote centers. I've been a strong advocate

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- for vote centers in the county. As for bringing them to the county, it's all about collaboration and

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- compromise, as Tree just said. Unfortunately, we live in a Republican-dominated state. We do have an

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- elections board that has

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- a Republican member, and we need to work with them in order to bring vote centers to the county. Joe,

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- same question. I agree with my colleagues. I think that vote centers are a way of the future, but it

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- comes down to a question of convenience versus efficiency. If they're vote centers, that probably means

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- that it's going to be necessary to close some of the existing precincts

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- Some of those are very disparate from the center of Blooming or the center of Monroe County.

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- So those folks, those very rural locations, they will need to be able to have other convenient means

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- of getting registered to vote or voting on the ballot. That means an increased outreach with mail-in

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- voting. That means trying to enable the most

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- opportunity for early voting so that people can early vote when they come into Bloomington.

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- So vote centers, yes, but we have to consider that with vote centers, probably they'll be closing the

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- closing of many of our more rural precincts. And that is hard on the elderly. It's hard on the student

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- who might be going to Ivy Tech

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- who lives out almost at the reaches of one of our neighboring counties. So let's continue to have this

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- discussion, make sure that it's transparent, and bring the most logical way for us to have everyone

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- be able to access the ballot equally with equity. Thank you very much.

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- Next question, I think we're starting next with Tanner. Okay, so this position is a department head

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- who manages a staff of people. What experiences do you bring to that part of the role and what is your

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- approach and philosophy to managing people? Yeah, so I've been very lucky throughout my career to have

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- a lot of really great managers and I hope to just bring their spirit to the office.

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- I also have a bit of experience managing people myself. I've been a campaign manager here locally, so

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- I've had a lot of experience managing volunteers for multiple campaigns. I also, as I mentioned earlier,

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- I worked briefly as a manager of a small bookstore, which is a great experience, you know. So I have

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- a lot of experience managing people there. And then during my time at IU, in the Office of Enrollment

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- Management, I was not exactly a manager,

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- I was an executive assistant for someone who was a manager and I worked very closely with them with

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- managing their multiple groups and departments. So yeah, I bring a lot of good management experience

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- and I just wanna bring a spirit of collaboration and understanding to the office to work with my colleagues.

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- Thank you, Joe, same question. Growing up,

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- I have had to manage farm operations. In my longest career as a natural builder, a designer and builder,

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- I needed to manage my crews and bring on new crews often seasonally. And the thing that I have learned

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- over all these years is that people have their own strength and confidence in their abilities and if

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- one fosters

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- independence and gives them some leeway such that they can be the captain to make decisions appropriate

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- to them but verified by myself, then I can guarantee a very successful team, a collaborative team where

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- everyone looks to push the team in general towards success. I see no reason

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- to believe that that's not already in existence in our Monroe County clerk operations. I believe though,

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- however, that there is always opportunity for improvement. And that means from the newest clerk who

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- was just hired on and in training to the most experienced other staff members, everyone should be feel

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- free to make

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- contact with the boss and My door will always be open because that's what is necessary for the best

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- of Service to the people. Thank you sure you same question Supervising of people does it come naturally?

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- I think it does when I was chief deputy I supervised about 40 people in the office and

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- as election supervisor during the election cycle, that number would rise from 250 to 300. Did I have

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- a personal relationship with the 300? No, I did not. But they knew what they could expect from me. I

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- had their backs. When that phone rang, I answered it. When they had a problem, I sought a solution.

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- People are not disposable. If they have a bad day, we all have bad days, don't we?

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- And we don't do our jobs as wonderfully as we did the day before. And that's understandable.

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- If it's a habit, it's one thing. If it's standard procedure, it's another. Corrective training is the

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- answer. Not firing someone. When someone walks out that door, you've invested time in them, you've invested

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- money in them, there goes knowledge. Institutional,

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- Knowledge. You can't replace institutional knowledge. So if you have a problem with an employee, you

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- speak to that employee. You make a plan for corrective training. You communicate. You might find out

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- that the person hates their job and would rather do protective orders. Then that's where you should

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- move them. Everyone has a personality. Everyone has a life. Work is only part of that life. There has

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- to be a balance between work and home.

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- And I think Joe is next. And the question that we have is one submitted from the audience that I wanted

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- to put in here, which is, do you see it as the clerk's role to increase voter registration and voter

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- turnout? And if so, how would you do this? Do you need me to repeat it? Yeah, Joe. Could you please

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- repeat it? Yeah. Do you see it as the clerk's role to increase voter registration and voter turnout?

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- And if so, how would you do this? Yes.

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- It is the clerk's role to provide accessibility. However, the clerk has to operate within the bounds

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- of statutory and rule of law when it comes to the election rules in the state of Indiana.

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- Now, some of these things are constantly changing. That means that the clerk needs to be abreast of

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- what lawsuits are happening and where they might be going because when they take effect, one must be

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- able to turn on a dime. Democracy requires the maximum accessibility to every voter. That is where the

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- power is that

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- can unlock that individual and turn them from a victim who thinks that they have no control over their

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- life to the point where they are powerful. And maybe it starts with only one vote, but that could be

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- the launch pad for them to do other things. And all of a sudden, if we become a community of powerful

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- people, then we can change our community for the better

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- much more easily because especially when this happens, partisan politics all fall away because it's

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- who you, is your neighbor, your friend, and your family member that is important. Thank you very much.

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- All right, Trudy, next question. Same question. This question matters a lot to me, and I've put some

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- research in it, so I'm gonna tell you what I feel.

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- I believe the clerk's office plays a critical role in making voting accessible while always remaining

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- nonpartisan. There's that word again, nonpartisan. And if we're serious about strengthening voter engagement,

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- we have to focus on four things. Clear information, accessibility, smart technology, and real community

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- outreach. First, engagement starts with understanding.

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- Voters deserve clear, consistent information about registration deadlines, early voting, and where to

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- vote. And we have to do a better job of reaching younger people, meeting them in schools and on the

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- digital platforms they use every day. Second, accessibility matters. Voting location and hours must

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- be convenient, well publicized, and supported by real people

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- who can answer questions and help voters when they need it. Third, technology should make things easier,

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- not harder. I will continue improving online tools so voters can quickly check their registrations,

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- understand their options, and feel confident walking into the process. And finally, true engagement.

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- What does that mean? It means showing up, partnering with schools,

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- local offices and community organizations. Thanks. Tanner, same question. Yeah. Yes. Getting people

00:24:56.137 --> 00:25:02.998
- registered to vote and to participate in our electoral process is something I'm deeply passionate about.

00:25:02.998 --> 00:25:09.663
- I am currently the chair of the Monroe County Young Democrats. And in that role, I've been tabling at

00:25:09.663 --> 00:25:15.806
- every possible event we can to get young people engaged with politics and registered to vote.

00:25:15.970 --> 00:25:22.868
- So I'm very passionate about that. And in the office, I hope to do a lot more voter outreach, especially

00:25:22.868 --> 00:25:29.438
- using modern tools, modern technology. Social media, obviously, that's where people are, and that's

00:25:29.438 --> 00:25:35.614
- how you have to reach them these days if you want to get people involved. So yeah, thank you.

00:25:35.614 --> 00:25:43.038
- Thank you all. My next question is going to be for Tree. And the question kind of relates to that same question.

00:25:43.362 --> 00:25:51.230
- How will you approach ethics, transparency, and conflicts of interest so people can trust the decisions

00:25:51.230 --> 00:25:58.872
- that you make? Let me know if you need me to repeat that. Ethics. That's a big word in itself with a

00:25:58.872 --> 00:26:06.513
- lot of meaning. I think I'm a very ethical person, and I hope that my life that I've lived has shown

00:26:06.513 --> 00:26:11.582
- of my ethics. When I go into the office, I view it as nonpartisan.

00:26:12.386 --> 00:26:19.990
- There's that word again. Meaning everybody can walk in and we help everybody regardless of their party

00:26:19.990 --> 00:26:27.373
- affiliation. Conflict of interest. At this time there is no conflict of interest with me. I believe

00:26:27.373 --> 00:26:34.978
- that the office is nonpartisan. People are people wherever they go. If you walk in that door I'm gonna

00:26:34.978 --> 00:26:40.958
- help you. Try to meet your need. Answer your questions. Listen to your concerns.

00:26:41.442 --> 00:26:48.766
- and provide help if I need to. There's a big difference between giving legal advice and trying to steer

00:26:48.766 --> 00:26:55.879
- people in the right direction. The clerk's office cannot give legal advice, but we can steer them in

00:26:55.879 --> 00:27:02.921
- the right directions. I can give them the number to Middle Way House. I can give them the number to

00:27:02.921 --> 00:27:08.414
- the shelter, the Shalom Center. I can suggest the rise. So ethics, integrity,

00:27:09.282 --> 00:27:16.894
- Conflict of interest, I'm good with those. Thank you. All right, so we loop over to Tanner, and I'm

00:27:16.894 --> 00:27:24.963
- gonna repeat the question again in terms of it. How will you approach ethics, transparency, and conflicts

00:27:24.963 --> 00:27:32.651
- of interest so people can trust the decisions you make? Well, I of course wanna bring a non-partisan

00:27:32.651 --> 00:27:36.990
- attitude to the office. I wanna work bipartisan with our

00:27:37.186 --> 00:27:43.669
- you know, Republicans, I want them to feel welcome in the office. I want to treat my personal political

00:27:43.669 --> 00:27:50.214
- views as separate, right? Tanner, the political activist, the campaign manager is different from Tanner,

00:27:50.214 --> 00:27:56.448
- the clerk's employee, the clerk, potential future clerk. So yeah, that's how I want to approach the

00:27:56.448 --> 00:28:00.126
- office and ensure that there is no ethical concerns there.

00:28:00.802 --> 00:28:11.690
- Transparency, I want the office to be as transparent as possible. I want our data to be accessible online,

00:28:11.690 --> 00:28:22.171
- easy for people to find whenever they need it. Thank you. Joe, same question. When it comes to gaining

00:28:22.171 --> 00:28:30.718
- the trust of the public, it is based on the ethics of the office, the office staff,

00:28:31.682 --> 00:28:40.496
- the ability for the office to be transparent in how they conduct their role according to the law, and

00:28:40.496 --> 00:28:49.136
- should there ever be any sort of problem or issue that it's quickly revealed and there are measures

00:28:49.136 --> 00:28:57.950
- taken to correct that oversight or whatever the issue might be. That's how one gains trust, the trust

00:28:57.950 --> 00:29:00.542
- of their peers. So obviously,

00:29:00.706 --> 00:29:08.884
- We know that the office is all about service. There is no partisanship at all that should be found there,

00:29:08.884 --> 00:29:16.599
- even though some of the staff have to be Republican or they have to be Democrat in order to be able

00:29:16.599 --> 00:29:24.391
- to check each other in the voter registration office where people visit the people who come in to be

00:29:24.391 --> 00:29:29.406
- candidates or register to vote. There can be always improvements

00:29:29.538 --> 00:29:37.404
- and tools that can be created to help individuals better understand what their options are. And these

00:29:37.404 --> 00:29:45.732
- self-help tools can help that individual decide for themselves. It doesn't mean that the clerk is providing

00:29:45.732 --> 00:29:53.521
- legal advice. Providing the many options that are available so people can serve themselves is always

00:29:53.521 --> 00:29:58.302
- the way that we should be heading toward a better, efficient,

00:29:58.498 --> 00:30:06.853
- system for us all. Thank you. All right. My next question is for Tanner in terms of it. And it is, what

00:30:06.853 --> 00:30:14.887
- is your top priority to support women, LGBTQ plus folks, and marginalized genders in Monroe County?

00:30:14.887 --> 00:30:23.082
- Great. So for protecting LGBTQ folks, continuing to be an advocate for LGBTQ rights, and particularly

00:30:23.082 --> 00:30:27.902
- same sex marriage, and respectively, clerk's office, right?

00:30:28.322 --> 00:30:35.817
- Of course, a lot of that is dependent on state law, state and federal law, but remaining to be compliant

00:30:35.817 --> 00:30:43.098
- with those and continuing to support same-sex marriage is top priority. Supporting women, I have been

00:30:43.098 --> 00:30:50.450
- very lucky to have so many amazing women that I've worked with throughout my career and in the office.

00:30:50.450 --> 00:30:57.374
- There are so many amazing women who work there and I want to continue to support those employees

00:30:57.730 --> 00:31:05.178
- in the office. Also doing a lot more voter outreach to those communities. So as I had said previously,

00:31:05.178 --> 00:31:12.771
- in my personal capacity camp tabled at different events throughout the county and just encouraging voter

00:31:12.771 --> 00:31:20.002
- registration among those groups to support them. Thank you. I'm just going to pause and say, if you

00:31:20.002 --> 00:31:26.366
- have any questions, we're nearly to the end of our questions. So put your hand up high.

00:31:26.530 --> 00:31:35.448
- Ralph or someone else can come and get them if you have them in terms of it. So Joe, same question.

00:31:35.448 --> 00:31:44.366
- And would you mind repeating that again? Oh yeah. What is your top priority to support women, LGBTQ

00:31:44.366 --> 00:31:53.997
- plus folks and marginalized genders in Monroe County? My top priority to support women, the LGBTQ community

00:31:53.997 --> 00:31:55.870
- and other minorities

00:31:56.002 --> 00:32:03.791
- Be they trans or even they just be black and brown people who are very vulnerable these days in our

00:32:03.791 --> 00:32:11.814
- community. One of those ways to support them is to keep the clerk's office and the courts and the jail

00:32:11.814 --> 00:32:20.382
- downtown where they belong. They have been here for over 100 years ever since the inception of Monroe County.

00:32:21.058 --> 00:32:29.006
- It needs to stay here. This is where the population center is. This is where people's, the groups that

00:32:29.006 --> 00:32:36.954
- serve the communities who need the most assistance are located. Moving the jail and the courts and the

00:32:36.954 --> 00:32:44.979
- clerk's office out to the North Park area makes no sense whatsoever. Providing more free legal, Indiana

00:32:44.979 --> 00:32:47.294
- free legal help kiosks around

00:32:47.938 --> 00:32:57.464
- the city of Bloomington besides just the public library and the Charlotte T. Zitlow Justice Center would

00:32:57.464 --> 00:33:06.899
- help. We need to have some of these in other towns and also in the courthouse itself and city hall here

00:33:06.899 --> 00:33:16.606
- in Bloomington. People can help themselves. They just need to be able to see some tools that can show them

00:33:16.770 --> 00:33:26.282
- The way forward, that is well how I will help the women, the LGBT community and those minorities that

00:33:26.282 --> 00:33:35.700
- need the best support here in town. Thank you. Same question. My top priority for women is basically

00:33:35.700 --> 00:33:45.118
- keep marching forward. We've gained ground, but there's more to do. As for the LGBTQ plus community,

00:33:45.762 --> 00:33:53.150
- My advice is if you need someone to stand with you, I will. If you want to get married, I do those marriages.

00:33:53.150 --> 00:33:59.865
- Why? Because everybody has a life. Everybody needs to be a part of our society. We can't branch off

00:33:59.865 --> 00:34:06.581
- into different sections of the world. We have to work together. We have to be a part of the team. I

00:34:06.581 --> 00:34:13.566
- don't like how we always find differences in each other. I would rather we find what we have in common.

00:34:13.986 --> 00:34:21.911
- Common ground so we can discuss things and we can work on things together. Collaboration, that's wonderful.

00:34:21.911 --> 00:34:29.249
- If the county opens back up and there would be jobs again, because you know we're in a freeze right

00:34:29.249 --> 00:34:36.661
- now, I would hire anyone that applied. If they could do the job and they show up for work, we've got

00:34:36.661 --> 00:34:40.990
- a good start. Thank you. So this next question is for Joe.

00:34:41.410 --> 00:34:48.584
- Under current laws, ballots cast during early voting cannot be scanned until election day. Do you think

00:34:48.584 --> 00:34:55.552
- earlier scanning should be allowed, and what concerns or benefits might this introduce? And for this

00:34:55.552 --> 00:35:02.451
- one, I'm just going to give people a minute, because I think it's a little bit more straightforward

00:35:02.451 --> 00:35:09.694
- of a question. So, okay, go ahead. Oh, yeah, I can totally, I guess it's not a straightforward question.

00:35:10.114 --> 00:35:19.376
- Under current laws, ballots cast during early voting cannot be scanned until election day. Do you think

00:35:19.376 --> 00:35:28.995
- earlier scanning should be allowed, and what concerns or benefits might this introduce? So earlier scanning

00:35:28.995 --> 00:35:37.901
- of early voting ballots and mail-in ballots. My position on the scanning of early voting ballots is

00:35:37.901 --> 00:35:39.326
- no way, no how,

00:35:39.810 --> 00:35:50.876
- scan them on election day. There are too many risks. If there was scanning before that time, it puts

00:35:50.876 --> 00:36:02.599
- the anonymous secret ballot component at risk. People are supposed to be able to cast their ballot without

00:36:02.599 --> 00:36:08.734
- anyone else knowing who they have cast their, you know,

00:36:08.994 --> 00:36:19.108
- office holder ballot choices. It's important that everybody feel confident that their vote is accurate,

00:36:19.108 --> 00:36:28.929
- but yet it must remain secret. Otherwise, we stand a chance of losing the public's trust. Just think

00:36:28.929 --> 00:36:38.654
- how often we get information that our data has been compromised. We must protect this at all costs.

00:36:38.946 --> 00:36:45.558
- Thank you. So Tre, same question. And I'm just going to read it. Under current laws, ballots cast during

00:36:45.558 --> 00:36:51.854
- early voting cannot be scanned until election day. Do you think earlier scanning should be allowed?

00:36:51.854 --> 00:36:58.277
- And what benefit and concerns might this introduce? OK. I'm almost squirming to answer this question.

00:36:58.277 --> 00:37:04.700
- I've worked early voting. I do believe we should scan early. There is no way to connect the ballot to

00:37:04.700 --> 00:37:08.478
- the voter. They walk up to the scanner, and they put it in.

00:37:08.770 --> 00:37:15.642
- Boom, it's gone. There's 100 other ballots there. I don't know which one is yours. It's a great thing.

00:37:15.642 --> 00:37:22.380
- On election day, all we have to do is pull that V drive, and that's what it's called, a V drive, put

00:37:22.380 --> 00:37:29.184
- it into tally, and then the ballot is totaled. It's not totaled when it is put into the scanner. That

00:37:29.184 --> 00:37:35.856
- doesn't take place until we put it into a system called tally. Oh, the dead voter law. How could we

00:37:35.856 --> 00:37:36.990
- get around that?

00:37:37.090 --> 00:37:45.867
- Your vote doesn't count if you vote early and you die on the way home. Your vote only counts on election

00:37:45.867 --> 00:37:54.226
- day. So what do we do about that? Oh, we can go in and do a, what's the word? A trunfication of the

00:37:54.226 --> 00:38:02.334
- number. I don't know how you voted, but I can find your ballot and I don't know, I can't see it,

00:38:02.594 --> 00:38:10.187
- but I could actually take that ballot out of the V drive. So that vote is not counted. Dead voter laws.

00:38:10.187 --> 00:38:17.634
- You have to live in the state of Indiana to vote. And if you're dead, you're not living. I can't take

00:38:17.634 --> 00:38:25.081
- credit for that. Someone told me that and it was like, oh, it's that light bulb moment. I understood.

00:38:25.081 --> 00:38:29.534
- So am I in favor of early voting scanning? Absolutely, I am.

00:38:30.690 --> 00:38:37.304
- All right, let's move on to Tanner now. I would request it, yeah. So yeah, I would say that I would

00:38:37.304 --> 00:38:44.050
- support it, yes, as well. It is an issue that I want to do more research on, just on kind of the pros

00:38:44.050 --> 00:38:50.796
- and cons. Obviously, the big pro is that we get the election results faster, which who can argue with

00:38:50.796 --> 00:38:57.476
- that, right? We get to count votes faster. So yeah, I think overall, I would support it. Awesome. So

00:38:57.476 --> 00:39:00.254
- a question from the audience, and I think

00:39:00.770 --> 00:39:08.987
- Who are we at? Oh, we're at Tree. So why did you feel the need to run for county clerk? And is there

00:39:08.987 --> 00:39:17.204
- a specific opportunity or problem that we need to address that motivated you? My decision to run for

00:39:17.204 --> 00:39:25.421
- the clerk comes from something simple but powerful. I have a deep commitment to public service and a

00:39:25.421 --> 00:39:30.302
- belief that experience accuracy and integrity truly matter.

00:39:31.202 --> 00:39:38.474
- Public service is not new to me. It's who I am. It's been the center of my career and my connection

00:39:38.474 --> 00:39:45.964
- to the community. I'm running for clerk because this office matters. It's essential to making sure our

00:39:45.964 --> 00:39:53.453
- courts run efficiently, transparently, and correctly every single day. I've spent years working inside

00:39:53.453 --> 00:39:59.998
- the systems that make Monroe County move. 12 years at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office,

00:40:00.610 --> 00:40:07.809
- in the administration side and eight years in the clerk's office as the election supervisor and the

00:40:07.809 --> 00:40:15.152
- chief deputy. I've done the work. I've seen firsthand how critical organization is, communication and

00:40:15.152 --> 00:40:22.351
- attention to detail. We have to earn and keep the public trust. What I would change or make better,

00:40:22.351 --> 00:40:28.830
- communications within our department and the courts. That relationship is hand and glove.

00:40:29.666 --> 00:40:36.408
- When we look good, they look good. When they look good, we look good. If we get along, we talk, we know

00:40:36.408 --> 00:40:43.020
- what's going on, we can do a better job for our community. And that's what it's all about, making our

00:40:43.020 --> 00:40:49.633
- community a better place. Thank you. So same question to Tanner. Why did you feel the need to run and

00:40:49.633 --> 00:40:54.430
- is there a specific opportunity or problem that we need to address? Yeah.

00:40:54.530 --> 00:41:00.426
- I decided, well, as I started out saying earlier, I've just kind of always been involved with public

00:41:00.426 --> 00:41:06.381
- service, right? I saw public service firsthand through my dad, and that kind of just always felt like

00:41:06.381 --> 00:41:12.394
- a natural path to me to seek public service. I've been a dedicated member of our Democratic Party, and

00:41:12.394 --> 00:41:18.465
- I've always been a little back and forth on whether I wanted to run for office myself, but back in last

00:41:18.465 --> 00:41:24.478
- summer, Nicole, our current clerk, is of course term-limited, and we needed somebody to run for clerk,

00:41:24.706 --> 00:41:29.158
- I was asking around the party and there was just nobody else who really seemed like they were gonna

00:41:29.158 --> 00:41:33.833
- step up. And so I thought, you know, I have a background that fits this role. I've been passionate about

00:41:33.833 --> 00:41:38.197
- public service. I think it's finally time that maybe I give it a shot and try running for office.

00:41:38.197 --> 00:41:42.694
- And so, you know, as I said earlier, I also, you know, I've been very passionate about like bringing

00:41:42.694 --> 00:41:47.280
- vote centers to the county and that's something I really wanna get done in the office. So yeah, that's

00:41:47.280 --> 00:41:51.599
- why I'm running, hopefully to serve my community and hopefully bring vote centers to the county.

00:41:51.599 --> 00:41:52.222
- So thank you.

00:41:53.986 --> 00:42:02.584
- Joe, same question, why did you feel the need to run and is there a specific opportunity or problem

00:42:02.584 --> 00:42:11.182
- we need to address? Friends, the reason that I am running for Monroe County Clerk is because of the

00:42:11.182 --> 00:42:20.210
- core values that I was taught growing up on the farm in our small rural community. All the farm families

00:42:20.210 --> 00:42:21.758
- we hung out with,

00:42:21.922 --> 00:42:30.015
- just believed in serving each other. And so it comes naturally. My mom was a trustee for our township

00:42:30.015 --> 00:42:38.347
- for over 40 years. This is just what people do when they care about each other. Why Monroe County Clerk?

00:42:38.347 --> 00:42:46.758
- Well, honestly, when I first registered for office as a candidate, I registered for Monroe County Council

00:42:46.758 --> 00:42:47.710
- District 2.

00:42:48.098 --> 00:42:56.136
- But then I saw that clerk was also too a position that was going to be open. And I thought about it

00:42:56.136 --> 00:43:04.173
- and I realized I truly have a depth of experience of interacting with the clerk's office as a user,

00:43:04.173 --> 00:43:12.292
- as a client, as a community member. And I have seen ways in which the interaction between the courts

00:43:12.292 --> 00:43:17.918
- and the clerk's office can be improved. I personally have experienced

00:43:18.082 --> 00:43:27.264
- degradation of evidence because of mistakes that have happened between that relationship. And now I

00:43:27.264 --> 00:43:36.538
- have to dig myself out of a matter before the appellate court which was unnecessary. But that is why

00:43:36.538 --> 00:43:44.894
- I know that I will be able to provide better tools to the existing system and I thank you.

00:43:45.410 --> 00:43:52.212
- All right, this is gonna be my final question before closing statement. And since we've been talking

00:43:52.212 --> 00:43:59.082
- about coordination with the courts, it's about the courts. So what do you believe is the, what do you

00:43:59.082 --> 00:44:06.018
- believe, sorry, how do you believe it's important to work in coordination with other offices? And what

00:44:06.018 --> 00:44:12.955
- do you do to help facilitate the relationship with those offices, i.e. the courts? And then the second

00:44:12.955 --> 00:44:14.302
- part about this is,

00:44:14.434 --> 00:44:21.028
- which I think is related, but if it's not, I'm very sorry. How would you handle petitions for orders

00:44:21.028 --> 00:44:27.558
- of protection, meaning domestic violence in terms of it? And I'm gonna start with, I think we start

00:44:27.558 --> 00:44:34.283
- with Tanner. So hey, so I've been, I have a lot of experience collaborating with different departments

00:44:34.283 --> 00:44:41.008
- at IU. That's kind of the energy that I wanna bring to the office, right? I wanna collaborate with the

00:44:41.008 --> 00:44:41.726
- different,

00:44:41.922 --> 00:44:49.061
- courts, all of their offices and ensure that everybody feels heard, that we're not like, you know, taking

00:44:49.061 --> 00:44:55.324
- a stern stance and saying my way or the highway to all these other people, right? We want to

00:44:55.324 --> 00:45:02.126
- work collaboratively. We're all on the same team. We're all trying to just, you know, accomplish our

00:45:02.126 --> 00:45:03.742
- given responsibilities.

00:45:04.194 --> 00:45:09.782
- Can you repeat that second part? The second? All right, so good working relationship with those offices

00:45:09.782 --> 00:45:15.370
- is the first part. And then the third part is, how would you handle petitions for orders of protection?

00:45:15.370 --> 00:45:20.743
- How would I handle petitions for orders of protection? I'm going to say that that's an issue I need

00:45:20.743 --> 00:45:26.277
- to look more into. Again, I would just kind of bring that collaborative energy and work with my fellow

00:45:26.277 --> 00:45:29.662
- colleagues to accomplish those. Thank you. Joe, same question.

00:45:33.218 --> 00:45:43.083
- Collaboration is what makes work get done. Many hands make light work. I can speak to you specifically

00:45:43.083 --> 00:45:53.332
- about one instance in which I was seeking a protective order from an unhoused gentleman who was repeatedly

00:45:53.332 --> 00:46:03.006
- trespassing and vandalizing my front porch and my curiosities. Eventually, the gentleman was caught.

00:46:03.618 --> 00:46:12.157
- I filed for an order of protection with the protective order project in the clerk's office. And their

00:46:12.157 --> 00:46:21.031
- assistance was so valuable to help me get this PO filed. Unfortunately, the gentleman could not be found,

00:46:21.031 --> 00:46:29.486
- so he could not be served. And therefore, my time was running out to be able to have the court issue

00:46:29.486 --> 00:46:33.086
- this order of protection. On the 31st day,

00:46:33.474 --> 00:46:42.102
- One day after the order or the process expired, the gentleman was picked up by BPD. I immediately got

00:46:42.102 --> 00:46:51.068
- a call from the victim assistance staff member and she told me that he was shortly to be arraigned before

00:46:51.068 --> 00:46:59.527
- the judge. And so I hurriedly ran down to the clerk's office and I filed a notice with the court to

00:46:59.527 --> 00:47:00.542
- ensure that

00:47:00.770 --> 00:47:07.546
- that he would be able to be served with this PO. And it was able to happen because of the collaboration

00:47:07.546 --> 00:47:14.062
- that took place. And that is what I'm talking about. That is how justice is served. Thank you. Chi,

00:47:14.062 --> 00:47:20.708
- same question. Why do you believe it is important to work in coordination with other offices? And how

00:47:20.708 --> 00:47:27.550
- would you help facilitate a good working relationship with specifically the courts? And then the second,

00:47:27.650 --> 00:47:34.520
- The second kind of question is how would you handle petitions for orders of protection, which I'm gonna

00:47:34.520 --> 00:47:41.521
- look at my judges in the room and I think the two are connected. So working with the courts is imperative

00:47:41.521 --> 00:47:48.259
- with the clerk's office. We are handing love. If we don't function, they don't function. Think of the

00:47:48.259 --> 00:47:54.930
- clerk's office as the hub and the courts going out as the wheel. It starts with us, but it goes out.

00:47:54.930 --> 00:47:57.374
- In the spring of 2026, which is now,

00:47:57.794 --> 00:48:07.049
- The state is taking over Odyssey. It goes from Odyssey e-filing to Odyssey IN filing. This is supposed

00:48:07.049 --> 00:48:16.124
- to be easier for the pro se litigants to file and also easier for them to look it up on their iPhone

00:48:16.124 --> 00:48:25.918
- or their iPad. And I'm gonna brag on our courts. Our courts now send out text message reminders. Mind blown.

00:48:26.754 --> 00:48:33.737
- I don't know about you, but I would never make my dental appointments if it wasn't for text reminders.

00:48:33.737 --> 00:48:40.652
- They send out the text message that says when your court date is. It's a reminder. They are the pilot

00:48:40.652 --> 00:48:47.906
- county. As for protective orders, our office does a fabulous job. We have two dedicated women that listen,

00:48:47.906 --> 00:48:54.753
- understand, and help the victim through the process. Then from us, it goes to the judges. The judges

00:48:54.753 --> 00:48:55.838
- are phenomenal.

00:48:56.322 --> 00:49:02.628
- They keep everything confidential, they do the best that they can in the situation, and they give the

00:49:02.628 --> 00:49:09.119
- help that the person needs. In that respect, we are so blessed to live in Monroe County. We are a county

00:49:09.119 --> 00:49:15.487
- that cares. Thank you. All right, thank you everyone, and thank you everyone for your questions. We're

00:49:15.487 --> 00:49:20.062
- gonna now move into a closing statement, and we are gonna start with Joe.

00:49:25.858 --> 00:49:33.768
- Thank you all for coming tonight and listening to our respective messages. I believe that each of us

00:49:33.768 --> 00:49:42.305
- would do a fantastic job as a Monroe County clerk. The question is, do we want to have our systems improved?

00:49:42.305 --> 00:49:50.450
- Every one of us is going to be operating from day one getting the job done because we're just all those

00:49:50.450 --> 00:49:54.366
- type of individuals where we're going to prepare.

00:49:54.850 --> 00:50:03.681
- and we are going to hit the ground running. So the question becomes, who will bring you the

00:50:03.681 --> 00:50:13.471
- pro se individual, the individual who's not an attorney, the ability to find your power, to take your

00:50:13.471 --> 00:50:23.838
- action, to get it filed? I am the one who is going to bring that to you. And this will ensure that not only

00:50:24.130 --> 00:50:33.645
- We find the best clerk interconnection between our government, but also to our best service for all

00:50:33.645 --> 00:50:43.256
- the people. Vote Joe Davis for Monroe County Clerk. Thank you. Tree was next for closing statements.

00:50:43.256 --> 00:50:53.342
- I'm next? Yeah. We can barely hear you on this end. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'll be more in the microphone. OK.

00:50:54.050 --> 00:51:02.796
- I've done the job. I understand the responsibility and I know what it takes to keep this office running

00:51:02.796 --> 00:51:11.459
- smoothly for our courts, for our voters and our community. I'm ready to step in and lead from day one,

00:51:11.459 --> 00:51:19.953
- not with a learning curve, but with experience, steady leadership and a commitment to doing the work

00:51:19.953 --> 00:51:21.214
- the right way.

00:51:21.986 --> 00:51:30.020
- Monroe County deserves a clerk with dedication, transparency, and a clear vision for the future. And

00:51:30.020 --> 00:51:38.054
- I'm ready to deliver that every single day. This office is elected for a purpose. Not appointed, the

00:51:38.054 --> 00:51:46.168
- clerk is elected. And why is that? Because I won't have a boss to have to reckon with. My boss is the

00:51:46.168 --> 00:51:50.622
- citizens of Monroe County, and that's why it's elected.

00:51:50.754 --> 00:51:58.044
- I would be honored to earn your vote, your trust, and the opportunity to serve. Again, my name is Tree

00:51:58.044 --> 00:52:05.264
- Martin Lucas, and I'm running for clerk. All right. Thank you all so much for coming out tonight. I'm

00:52:05.264 --> 00:52:12.342
- running for clerk because I am a qualified individual. I've been passionate, a passionate supporter

00:52:12.342 --> 00:52:17.438
- of our Democratic Party, and I will be an amazing clerk for the county.

00:52:17.570 --> 00:52:22.844
- I am currently the chief deputy clerk in the office. So I am currently doing the job and I'll be able

00:52:22.844 --> 00:52:28.273
- to ensure that there'll be a smooth transition if I am to be your next clerk. I have a lot of experience

00:52:28.273 --> 00:52:33.547
- working with technology and technology is more important now than ever. And that's kind of experience

00:52:33.547 --> 00:52:38.924
- that we need in the clerk's office. So I hope that you will support me to be your next clerk and I hope

00:52:38.924 --> 00:52:42.750
- that I can win your vote for Tana Branham for clerk. Thank you very much.

00:52:44.002 --> 00:52:53.016
- All right, so first let's thank all the candidates for a lively discussion. Okay, on behalf of the forum

00:52:53.016 --> 00:53:01.773
- sponsors, remember to vote. Election day is Tuesday, May 5th. Early voting begins Tuesday, April 7th.

00:53:01.773 --> 00:53:10.529
- And for those that are sticking around, we'll next be doing our county prosecutor. And I'm just gonna

00:53:10.529 --> 00:53:13.534
- say that we're gonna start that at

00:53:13.858 --> 00:53:21.603
- 703, so we're gonna give us 10 minutes in between. So 703 is when we're gonna start that. So thank you

00:53:21.603 --> 00:53:29.123
- everybody for coming. This forum is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Monroe County and we're

00:53:29.123 --> 00:53:37.470
- also pleased to have our co-sponsors IU Pace, Kappa Tau Omega, Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha. Monroe County

00:53:37.570 --> 00:53:46.104
- Monroe County Branch NAACP, Monroe County NOW, and the South Central Indiana Citizens' Climate Lobby.

00:53:46.104 --> 00:53:55.224
- And thanks to CATS for recording the event. And let's give our sponsors and co-sponsors a round of applause.

00:53:55.224 --> 00:54:01.918
- I'm just gonna go through the ground rules, which the candidates have accepted.

00:54:02.050 --> 00:54:09.100
- Each candidate has one minute to make an opening statement. Candidates respond in turn to questions

00:54:09.100 --> 00:54:16.150
- posed by me, the moderator, rotating which candidate will answer first. Responses are limited to 90

00:54:16.150 --> 00:54:23.552
- seconds unless I specify a different time. Audience members are invited to submit questions on the cards

00:54:23.552 --> 00:54:31.518
- provided, and we have some cards over here in terms of it. We have, like I said, seven questions prepared today.

00:54:31.842 --> 00:54:40.064
- Each candidate will then be asked to make a closing statement and the candidates have agreed to a civil

00:54:40.064 --> 00:54:48.364
- discourse. So I'd like to introduce our two candidates, Benjamin T. Arianton and Erica Oliphant in terms

00:54:48.364 --> 00:54:56.507
- of it. And I just really give them a round of applause. This is hard, for sure. And so without further

00:54:56.507 --> 00:55:01.566
- ado, we're going to start with opening statements starting with

00:55:01.986 --> 00:55:10.410
- Ben. Good evening. I want to start out by commending prosecutor Erica Oliphant for breaking barriers.

00:55:10.410 --> 00:55:19.246
- Breaking barriers matters and her election as the first woman to hold the office as the elected prosecutor

00:55:19.246 --> 00:55:27.752
- is an important milestone. And it's wonderful that she's going to be a senior prosecutor having served

00:55:27.752 --> 00:55:29.982
- two terms. But if elected.

00:55:30.402 --> 00:55:39.109
- I will be your first black prosecutor in Monroe County and only the third ever black person elected

00:55:39.109 --> 00:55:48.600
- as your chief law enforcement officer for the county. For a black person to serve as a chief law enforcement

00:55:48.600 --> 00:55:58.526
- officer in a judicial district carries profound weight. Considering the darkest chapters of our nation's history,

00:55:59.522 --> 00:56:08.972
- and the long struggle for equal justice in the law. Every single time we see a Confederate flag flying

00:56:08.972 --> 00:56:18.698
- in 2026. But stepping into this role isn't just about history, it's about serving our future. Your time's

00:56:18.698 --> 00:56:25.854
- up. And I thank you for considering voting for me. Awesome. Erica. Thank you.

00:56:26.338 --> 00:56:34.167
- Thank you to our forum hosts and to our moderator, Alana Stonebreaker, today. I appreciate the time.

00:56:34.167 --> 00:56:42.228
- My name is Erica Oliphant, and I am running for re-election as your prosecuting attorney. I have proven

00:56:42.228 --> 00:56:50.910
- my dedication since my election in 2018 to community service, compassionate justice, and constitutional values.

00:56:51.202 --> 00:56:59.212
- My activities in office have earned awards, including the 2019 Haynes Turner Peacemaker Award from CGM,

00:56:59.212 --> 00:57:07.069
- the 2022 Women Excel Bloomington Award from the Chamber of Commerce, and the 2023 John L. Kraus Award

00:57:07.069 --> 00:57:11.998
- for Public Policy Innovation from IU's Public Policy Institute.

00:57:12.738 --> 00:57:19.263
- If retained in office, I will continue to partner with organizations who support those with mental health,

00:57:19.263 --> 00:57:25.789
- substance use, housing, and other critical needs, continue to expand diversion opportunities, and dedicate

00:57:25.789 --> 00:57:32.010
- most of our resources to those repeat and violent offenders who cause the most harm in our community.

00:57:32.010 --> 00:57:38.718
- Please vote for me in the Democratic primary on May 5th. Thank you both. Let's give them a round of applause.

00:57:43.266 --> 00:57:50.868
- All right, so my first question is for Erica. How should our prosecutor prioritize potential cases to

00:57:50.868 --> 00:57:58.693
- take to trial? So we tend to take cases to trial when we can't come to a plea agreement. 97 some percent

00:57:58.693 --> 00:58:06.145
- of our cases are resolved by plea agreement. But traditionally, those who go to trial are those who

00:58:06.145 --> 00:58:07.934
- have the least to lose.

00:58:08.034 --> 00:58:14.398
- Those tend to be homicides, child molests, those very serious felonies that...

00:58:15.074 --> 00:58:21.847
- that really did a lot of harm in our community. And so you have to make sure that deputy prosecutors

00:58:21.847 --> 00:58:28.822
- have those trial skills. I have personally tried every kind of case from the lowest misdemeanor through

00:58:28.822 --> 00:58:35.528
- murder, including a couple of murders and one attempted murder as the elected prosecuting attorney.

00:58:35.528 --> 00:58:38.814
- And I can tell you it's no small feat in today's

00:58:39.138 --> 00:58:46.412
- You know, in today's world, we have about 60 hours of digital evidence in about every major felony case.

00:58:46.412 --> 00:58:53.339
- And so it's a lot to manage. And you want to make sure that we have the skills necessary to be able

00:58:53.339 --> 00:58:55.902
- to bring those over the finish line.

00:58:56.002 --> 00:59:03.432
- When we're talking about less serious offenses such as possession of drugs or nuisance crimes like criminal

00:59:03.432 --> 00:59:10.656
- trespass, it's much better to work with community partners on diversion efforts to try to connect people

00:59:10.656 --> 00:59:17.054
- with resources that they need so that they don't come back into the criminal justice system.

00:59:17.282 --> 00:59:25.314
- I have a lot of experience and education in reducing recidivism, and I like to make evidence-based decisions.

00:59:25.314 --> 00:59:32.762
- Thank you. Ben, same question. Could you repeat the question, please? Yeah. How should our prosecutor

00:59:32.762 --> 00:59:40.283
- prioritize potential cases to take to trial? Thank you. The prosecutor should prioritize violent cases

00:59:40.283 --> 00:59:43.934
- to take to trial. The answer is abundantly clear.

00:59:44.290 --> 00:59:52.567
- Violence belongs in prison and does not belong in our community. And as the proud father of a four-year-old,

00:59:52.567 --> 01:00:00.161
- child violence is particularly appalling. And make no mistake, by electing me, you will be electing

01:00:00.161 --> 01:00:08.134
- a very tough prosecutor when it comes to crime, when it comes to violence in our community. When I learn

01:00:08.134 --> 01:00:12.766
- about the prosecutor's office taking what would appear to be

01:00:12.866 --> 01:00:20.906
- a lenient stance of someone charged with having material that is harmful to children, I get very concerned.

01:00:20.906 --> 01:00:28.351
- I want the position of the state to be tough when it comes to that type of material. And so that is

01:00:28.351 --> 01:00:35.796
- why I implore you to elect a prosecutor who is going to take the violent cases to trial. We will be

01:00:35.796 --> 01:00:39.742
- actually going to jury trial and not dancing around.

01:00:41.314 --> 01:00:49.167
- We will not be delaying cases. And so that's why it's important that we prioritize violence. And that's

01:00:49.167 --> 01:00:56.869
- why it's my platform. Thank you. All right, so this next question, we are starting with Ben. What are

01:00:56.869 --> 01:01:05.024
- the potential consequences of the recent transfer of the state's adult protective services from prosecuting

01:01:05.024 --> 01:01:09.630
- attorneys to a state contract with PCG Indiana Incorporated?

01:01:12.546 --> 01:01:19.539
- There's a lot of potential harm in the fact that adult protective services housed within the Monroe

01:01:19.539 --> 01:01:26.671
- County Prosecutor's Office allows us to have our own control and our own imprint on what we determine

01:01:26.671 --> 01:01:33.944
- is going to be abuse of elderly folks and adults that need protection. So when we have a super majority

01:01:33.944 --> 01:01:41.566
- Republican state that we currently live in is very alarming and it's concerning that we're going to farm out

01:01:43.394 --> 01:01:51.670
- some of our most vulnerable community members. It's really disheartening and it's concerning to me.

01:01:51.670 --> 01:01:59.945
- However, there are only limits on what we can do. And so as your prosecutor, I'm going to stand for

01:01:59.945 --> 01:02:08.055
- what's right and to do the best that I can to serve the people in the community of Monroe County.

01:02:08.055 --> 01:02:11.614
- Thank you. Would you like me to repeat it?

01:02:11.874 --> 01:02:19.371
- I think I've got it, thank you. We did have adult protective services in 17 different prosecutor's offices

01:02:19.371 --> 01:02:26.449
- across the state of Indiana up until July of last year. Monroe County was a hub and we served Morgan

01:02:26.449 --> 01:02:33.736
- County and Owen County in addition to Morgan County. I was really heartbroken when the state of Indiana

01:02:33.736 --> 01:02:39.902
- elected to take the lowest bidder to provide this vital service to our elder community.

01:02:40.386 --> 01:02:47.989
- Essentially, they have now broken it down. We had 17 hubs that serve the state of Indiana. Now we have

01:02:47.989 --> 01:02:55.739
- five regions. I'm very concerned that doing so means that it is less personal, that there aren't people.

01:02:55.739 --> 01:03:03.194
- We had investigators that went to people's houses and laid eyes on people when there were reports of

01:03:03.194 --> 01:03:09.246
- endangered adults to make sure that they were okay, that they had supports, food,

01:03:09.506 --> 01:03:14.558
- shelter, electricity, things like that and that their emergency needs were met.

01:03:14.626 --> 01:03:20.964
- and then provided more thorough investigations. And we had, you know, as prosecutor's offices, we have

01:03:20.964 --> 01:03:27.486
- attorneys on staff by nature of our work. And so we were able to quickly file emergency protective orders

01:03:27.486 --> 01:03:33.762
- for endangered adults, and we were able to file guardianships where necessary. And in this privatized

01:03:33.762 --> 01:03:40.223
- situation, they don't have attorneys on staff. So I'm really not sure how they're handling some of those

01:03:40.223 --> 01:03:44.592
- legal matters nowadays. But I am gravely concerned that our endangered

01:03:44.592 --> 01:03:52.358
- are not being served as well as they were by prosecutors, but I hope that I'm proven to be wrong about

01:03:52.358 --> 01:04:00.049
- that. So then my next question is for Erica, and I'm gonna choose one from the audience to mix it up.

01:04:00.049 --> 01:04:07.890
- What can be done to improve protecting all victims of domestic violence cases? So the question is, what

01:04:07.890 --> 01:04:13.470
- can be done to improve protecting all victims of domestic violence cases?

01:04:14.594 --> 01:04:22.380
- Thank you. So a few years ago, actually I think it was during my first term, we were able to get additional

01:04:22.380 --> 01:04:29.734
- Victims of Crime Act funds for our victim assistance program, adding an additional victim assistance.

01:04:29.734 --> 01:04:36.943
- We now have a total of four. And the reason we did that is so that we would have more people in our

01:04:36.943 --> 01:04:42.494
- office who can meet with victims, make referrals to outside services such as

01:04:42.626 --> 01:04:50.341
- middle way house or sometimes even beacons, sometimes food pantries, sometimes protective order project

01:04:50.341 --> 01:04:58.056
- or POAP. And so we have those, somebody who can really establish a good rapport with victims, make sure

01:04:58.056 --> 01:05:04.510
- that they're informed of the rights of the process and what's going on in their cases.

01:05:04.610 --> 01:05:11.716
- We do also belong to the Domestic Violence, Monroe County Domestic Violence Coalition. We attend meetings

01:05:11.716 --> 01:05:18.622
- and collaborate with others who serve this population here in Monroe County, working to make sure that

01:05:18.622 --> 01:05:25.460
- our local advocates are well trained, that they understand how the criminal justice system works, and

01:05:25.460 --> 01:05:32.701
- that they also understand the civil remedies that are available to them to help protect them from violence.

01:05:32.701 --> 01:05:33.438
- Thank you.

01:05:38.242 --> 01:05:45.840
- I have the question. I appreciate it. Thank you. So what can be done to protect victims is to increase

01:05:45.840 --> 01:05:53.512
- victim services, make it far more robust by increasing advocating for grants to victim of crime at VOCA

01:05:53.512 --> 01:05:57.790
- to increase federal funding to assist victims. We need to

01:05:58.018 --> 01:06:04.018
- ensure that victims know that the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office is going to stand for you and not

01:06:04.018 --> 01:06:10.018
- allow the ball to get dropped. And then you're going to have a feeling that we don't protect victims.

01:06:10.018 --> 01:06:15.959
- So what that's going to take is a whole shift in the system. What we need to do is be active when it

01:06:15.959 --> 01:06:21.959
- comes to protecting victims of domestic violence. And how we do that is assigning a prosecutor that's

01:06:21.959 --> 01:06:26.430
- going to make sure that the victim is addressed, talked to, and made heard.

01:06:26.722 --> 01:06:33.916
- And we do that by ensuring that the victim has access to the needs that they need by providing them

01:06:33.916 --> 01:06:41.471
- with great resources. And we can do that by being a better prosecutor's office that works toward helping

01:06:41.471 --> 01:06:48.809
- victims and not allowing things to slip through the cracks by missing deadlines and filing deadlines.

01:06:48.809 --> 01:06:52.478
- It's super important that we work to help victims.

01:06:52.962 --> 01:07:01.144
- Because victims need to know that they're not gonna be left alone, they're not gonna be fallen behind,

01:07:01.144 --> 01:07:09.167
- and they're gonna be helped. And that's why I wanna serve as your prosecutor. Thank you. So our next

01:07:09.167 --> 01:07:16.158
- question is going to be about child support. And so the next, so this question for Ben.

01:07:16.386 --> 01:07:22.763
- How is the prosecutor's office involved in child support, and how do you see collaborations with other

01:07:22.763 --> 01:07:29.016
- agencies in this work? So the prosecutor's, and I'm sorry, is this for us or for me? That's for you.

01:07:29.016 --> 01:07:35.455
- The prosecutor's office has a 4D agency called the 4D prosecutor's office, which handles child support.

01:07:35.455 --> 01:07:41.770
- It's an entire division within the prosecutor's office, which has its own separate deputy prosecutors

01:07:41.770 --> 01:07:45.918
- that prosecute child support. It's imperative that we help parents

01:07:46.210 --> 01:07:52.666
- get child support. Child support works to make sure that children get the support that they need so

01:07:52.666 --> 01:07:59.187
- that children can thrive. Children are our future. And so we need to make sure that child support is

01:07:59.187 --> 01:08:05.708
- paid, that parents that have been awarded child support have a prosecutor's office that's willing to

01:08:05.708 --> 01:08:12.487
- ensure that child support payments are made. And so we're going to work with other agencies in the state

01:08:12.487 --> 01:08:15.070
- to make sure that child support is paid

01:08:15.170 --> 01:08:21.230
- And we will make sure that our Child Support 40 office is robust and works collaboratively with the

01:08:21.230 --> 01:08:27.774
- community to ensure that child support payments are made to the parents that need them so that the children

01:08:27.774 --> 01:08:30.622
- can get the support that they need. Thank you.

01:08:32.642 --> 01:08:39.071
- Thank you. Yep. So the child support division in my office, as I mentioned, did win the 2019 Haynes

01:08:39.071 --> 01:08:46.014
- Turner Peacemaker Award, and part of that was because of a cultural shift. Traditionally, in child support,

01:08:46.014 --> 01:08:53.278
- you know, the theory was you get the highest possible child support order, and then you really go after it hard.

01:08:53.474 --> 01:09:00.498
- But we have found over time that when the custodial parent and the non-custodial parent feel that the

01:09:00.498 --> 01:09:07.385
- order is fair, that we have greater compliance. And not only that, we have better joint partnership

01:09:07.385 --> 01:09:14.547
- in parenting those children. So we have used a lot of services from Centerstone for those parents whose

01:09:14.547 --> 01:09:16.062
- barrier to payment is

01:09:16.130 --> 01:09:22.317
- related to mental health or substance use. We've worked with Work One to help people become employed,

01:09:22.317 --> 01:09:28.869
- if that is their barrier to payment. And then we do have to very judiciously use some of our administrative

01:09:28.869 --> 01:09:34.995
- sanctions that we have. So if people are willfully failing to pay their child support as ordered, we

01:09:34.995 --> 01:09:41.304
- can use things like suspending their driver's licenses, suspending their professional licenses. Believe

01:09:41.304 --> 01:09:46.096
- it or not, we sometimes have medical doctors who make a lot of money who don't

01:09:46.096 --> 01:09:52.868
- to pay child support, and so sometimes we do have to resort to some of those significant sanctions.

01:09:52.868 --> 01:09:59.775
- But overall, I think it's going very well. Anyone can come to the prosecutor's office who has a child

01:09:59.775 --> 01:10:06.615
- and needs to establish paternity or establish a child support order, but we are required to do it in

01:10:06.615 --> 01:10:09.662
- TANF cases where people are getting welfare.

01:10:11.682 --> 01:10:19.343
- And just a reminder that if you have any cards in the audience that you can raise your hand and we'll

01:10:19.343 --> 01:10:27.080
- come around and pick them up if anyone has any cards for that. All right, so this next question is for

01:10:27.080 --> 01:10:35.192
- Erica. How would you approach ethics, transparency, and conflicts of interest so people trust the decisions

01:10:35.192 --> 01:10:39.774
- that you make? Yeah, so as the chief law enforcement officer

01:10:39.906 --> 01:10:47.899
- for the county and also as someone who manages essentially a large law firm with 18 deputy prosecutors.

01:10:47.899 --> 01:10:51.358
- It's imperative that our attorneys and staff

01:10:51.586 --> 01:10:59.423
- operate at the highest ethical standard. So I do make sure that my attorneys receive proper ethics training,

01:10:59.423 --> 01:11:06.612
- and it's been made very clear to them that unethical behavior is not going to be tolerated. When we

01:11:06.612 --> 01:11:14.305
- have conflicts of interest, whether it be somebody on our staff has allegedly been a victim of an offense,

01:11:14.305 --> 01:11:16.606
- or a law enforcement officer is

01:11:16.962 --> 01:11:23.645
- you know, alleged to have committed a crime. We look at those very closely to make sure we don't have

01:11:23.645 --> 01:11:30.197
- a conflict of interest if we handle the case. When we do, we do file for a special prosecutor as is

01:11:30.197 --> 01:11:36.748
- provided by Indiana code, but we try not to go to that well very often because there's very limited

01:11:36.748 --> 01:11:43.628
- resources for senior and special prosecution in the state of Indiana. And so we try to be very judicious

01:11:43.628 --> 01:11:44.414
- with those.

01:11:44.514 --> 01:11:51.224
- those requests. As for transparency, I am working on releasing a data dashboard. We expect that it will

01:11:51.224 --> 01:11:58.062
- be live in June, but the point of this data dashboard are we public facing and it will provide statistics

01:11:58.062 --> 01:12:04.578
- in terms of what cases we receive from what agencies, how many are filed, how many are declined, how

01:12:04.578 --> 01:12:11.094
- long it takes to dispose of them, and what the demographic information is on those cases. My time is

01:12:11.094 --> 01:12:12.062
- up. Thank you.

01:12:14.658 --> 01:12:21.006
- Same question, how would you approach ethics, transparency, and conflicts of interest? I would approach

01:12:21.006 --> 01:12:27.110
- those topics with great care and concern. When we consider ethics, it is absolutely imperative that

01:12:27.110 --> 01:12:33.276
- the prosecuting attorney's office is considered ethical, and all of the deputy prosecuting attorneys

01:12:33.276 --> 01:12:39.746
- are ethical in the way that they prosecute, in the way that they handle themselves. It's super important.

01:12:39.746 --> 01:12:41.150
- Conflicts of interest.

01:12:43.426 --> 01:12:51.099
- As an attorney, conflict of interest is super important to make sure that we don't have inherent conflicts

01:12:51.099 --> 01:12:58.486
- of interest. And so as your prosecutor, I will make sure that we don't have conflicts of interest. And

01:12:58.486 --> 01:13:05.657
- if we do, we will use a special prosecutor when necessary. But we're not just gonna farm out a case

01:13:05.657 --> 01:13:12.542
- to a special prosecutor just because it's a hairy topic or something. There needs to be a truly

01:13:12.898 --> 01:13:19.829
- legitimate conflict of interest. And so if something were to occur at Lake Monroe, I'm not just going

01:13:19.829 --> 01:13:26.624
- to punt the ball and ask for a special prosecutor. No, that's a waste of resources. You're electing

01:13:26.624 --> 01:13:33.418
- me to make difficult decisions, and I'm willing to make those difficult decisions as your chief law

01:13:33.418 --> 01:13:39.262
- enforcement officer. My office will not be punting when the situation gets difficult.

01:13:41.026 --> 01:13:48.240
- And so therefore, we will do the right thing. We will be ethical. We will address conflict of interest.

01:13:48.240 --> 01:13:55.176
- And when it comes to transparency, obviously there will be matters when it comes to law enforcement

01:13:55.176 --> 01:14:02.251
- that we're not able to share with the community. But everything that my office is capable of sharing,

01:14:02.251 --> 01:14:09.325
- you better believe the door will always be open. And I will answer any questions when it comes to how

01:14:09.325 --> 01:14:10.782
- the office operates.

01:14:11.266 --> 01:14:18.070
- and how we prosecute. Thank you. I'm going to take this moment to allow candidates to respond to the

01:14:18.070 --> 01:14:24.873
- statements that the others have made until this point in terms of it. So we'll start with Erica. Did

01:14:24.873 --> 01:14:31.812
- you want to respond? Yeah. You know, one thing I want to respond to is just now Mr. Arrington referred

01:14:31.812 --> 01:14:38.750
- to a situation with a big high profile case in 2020 that took place out at Lake Monroe. And I did not.

01:14:39.490 --> 01:14:47.131
- petition for a special prosecutor in that case. In fact, I did file criminal charges and sign them.

01:14:47.131 --> 01:14:55.384
- However, the defense attorneys did file a seven-page petition for a special prosecutor, and that ultimately

01:14:55.384 --> 01:15:03.179
- is how that got disposed. It did go to a special prosecutor. I think another thing that Mr. Arrington

01:15:03.179 --> 01:15:08.222
- seems to imply is that we are not supporting victims, that we are

01:15:08.418 --> 01:15:16.996
- I think falling short in our prosecutions. And though I will admit that we sometimes do have cases that

01:15:16.996 --> 01:15:25.245
- fall apart, we do sometimes have bad outcomes. Overall, we do serve our constituents very well. And

01:15:25.245 --> 01:15:29.534
- we get convictions when we need to get convictions.

01:15:29.762 --> 01:15:36.709
- And we have excellent trial attorneys in our office who do a great job of making sure that we're proving

01:15:36.709 --> 01:15:43.457
- homicides. We just recently had a case where someone was convicted of several counts, including child

01:15:43.457 --> 01:15:50.139
- molest. And those are some of the hardest cases that there are to prove. When it comes to deadlines,

01:15:50.139 --> 01:15:56.953
- we share responsibility with the courts. We're not the only party in a case. It's the courts, it's the

01:15:56.953 --> 01:15:59.070
- defense attorneys, and it's us.

01:16:00.034 --> 01:16:08.170
- My time is up. All right, any response as well from Ben? Yes, absolutely. I'm so glad that Erica wanted

01:16:08.170 --> 01:16:15.993
- to bring up these things. And I failed to mention the sexual assault response team, SART team, that

01:16:15.993 --> 01:16:23.895
- was not mentioned at all, that my prosecutor's office will certainly be robust again. You know, when

01:16:23.895 --> 01:16:24.990
- we talk about

01:16:25.218 --> 01:16:32.560
- cases falling through the cracks and things of that nature. What I'm particularly talking about is when

01:16:32.560 --> 01:16:40.114
- criminal rule 4C runs in a speedy trial and a case is dismissed with prejudice, which then double jeopardy

01:16:40.114 --> 01:16:47.244
- attaches and the persons being prosecuted can never face prosecution. And then the victims can never

01:16:47.244 --> 01:16:53.598
- have their day in court. I believe Erica referred to as a tragic result. It's disgusting.

01:16:54.370 --> 01:17:00.794
- and should never have occurred and will not occur under my administration. I have already spoken with

01:17:00.794 --> 01:17:07.155
- a seasoned trial attorney, felony trial attorney prosecutor who will be my chief deputy. We're going

01:17:07.155 --> 01:17:13.453
- to bring talent to the prosecutor's office. It's going to be phenomenal. It's going to be wonderful

01:17:13.453 --> 01:17:19.877
- and it's going to be great for our community. We're going to turn things around. We're going to right

01:17:19.877 --> 01:17:24.286
- the ship and the prosecutor's office is going to have a positive view

01:17:24.418 --> 01:17:30.433
- from the community, not a negative one. We're gonna be better. We're gonna change things. I have a meeting

01:17:30.433 --> 01:17:36.054
- with Ryan Mears, and I'm looking forward to it, and I'm gonna look to him as a mentor. So thank you

01:17:36.054 --> 01:17:42.069
- so much. Ben, so this next question is, which leads really well from the last one, which is, this position

01:17:42.069 --> 01:17:47.803
- is the department head who manages the staff of people. What experiences do you bring to that part of

01:17:47.803 --> 01:17:52.862
- the role, and what is your approach and philosophy to managing people? Thank you so much.

01:17:53.058 --> 01:18:00.505
- Yes, I piggybacked on my meeting with prosecutor Ryan Mears, who is the Marion County prosecuting attorney.

01:18:00.505 --> 01:18:07.401
- One hundred and eighty eight deputy prosecuting attorneys in the county of Marion, who we are going

01:18:07.401 --> 01:18:14.365
- to be partnering with as far as stopping the prosecution of simple possession of cannabis marijuana.

01:18:14.365 --> 01:18:21.054
- Ryan Mears stopped prosecuting marijuana in 2019, had the courage to do what's right. I just met

01:18:21.154 --> 01:18:27.856
- an IU student suffering from chemotherapy, very young. And she shared with me that cannabis was helping

01:18:27.856 --> 01:18:34.300
- restore her appetite. And so it's just, I have to tell you. So as far as managing an office, I will

01:18:34.300 --> 01:18:40.164
- be looking at Ryan to be a mentor to me, because I'm certainly new in so far as being your

01:18:40.164 --> 01:18:46.738
- elected prosecutor, but I have experience. And if that experience is being a manager at Pizza Hut, as

01:18:46.738 --> 01:18:48.542
- well as other various jobs,

01:18:48.898 --> 01:18:55.566
- That is what I have as far as significant experience in life. I've been a truck driver, over the road

01:18:55.566 --> 01:19:02.299
- 18-wheeler. I've had various jobs. I've been an administrative law judge presiding over cases for four

01:19:02.299 --> 01:19:08.902
- years. So I bring a wealth of experience, and I implore you to look at my resume. I have had nothing

01:19:08.902 --> 01:19:15.439
- but service my entire career, and that's why I'm here to serve you. And I thank you so much. Erica,

01:19:15.439 --> 01:19:17.662
- I'm going to repeat the question.

01:19:17.826 --> 01:19:24.640
- This position is department head who manages the staff of people. What experiences do you bring to that

01:19:24.640 --> 01:19:31.257
- role and what is your approach and philosophy to managing people? Thank you. So I have been managing

01:19:31.257 --> 01:19:38.202
- the office for over seven years now. We have a total staff of about 50 people. 18 are deputy prosecutors.

01:19:38.202 --> 01:19:45.409
- The rest of them are support staff such as investigators, case managers, legal secretaries, victim assistants

01:19:45.409 --> 01:19:46.654
- and investigators.

01:19:46.978 --> 01:19:54.505
- I might have said investigator twice. I like to lead from the front. So I always tell my staff I will

01:19:54.505 --> 01:20:01.957
- never tell them to do something I'm not willing to do myself. I go to court. I cover for people when

01:20:01.957 --> 01:20:09.632
- they're sick or on vacation. I can try a case. I try to make sure that my people are well trained, that

01:20:09.632 --> 01:20:15.166
- they feel like they have the support that they need in terms of resources.

01:20:15.586 --> 01:20:22.299
- I like to make sure that they see that I'm there for them. But I also like to set expectations and make

01:20:22.299 --> 01:20:29.205
- sure that they understand that I expect professionalism and excellence in the courtroom. You know, there's

01:20:29.205 --> 01:20:36.047
- a big difference between the Marion County Prosecutor's Office and the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office.

01:20:36.047 --> 01:20:41.598
- For those 180 people that Mr. Arrington mentioned, Mr. Mears has several supervisors.

01:20:41.730 --> 01:20:49.002
- I have a supervisory committee that's just myself, my chief deputy Jeff Kerr, and my first deputy Chris

01:20:49.002 --> 01:20:56.064
- Pierce, executive director Beth Hamlin. And we have a very collaborative approach where we're always

01:20:56.064 --> 01:21:03.196
- kind of staffing matters together to make sure that we're coming to the best decision for our people.

01:21:03.196 --> 01:21:08.510
- Time is up. So my next question since it's come up is cannabis prosecution.

01:21:08.674 --> 01:21:16.886
- So what role should the prosecutor take in terms of prosecuting cannabis related cases? And Erica will

01:21:16.886 --> 01:21:25.098
- start. Oh, sorry. Cannabis prosecution. So what role should the prosecutor take or approach should the

01:21:25.098 --> 01:21:33.469
- prosecutor take in terms of cannabis prosecution writ large? And we'll start with Erica. Is that better?

01:21:33.469 --> 01:21:38.014
- Yes. Okay, thank you. I'll try and be closer. Thank you.

01:21:38.626 --> 01:21:44.995
- So when I became an attorney and then again when I was elected prosecutor in assumed office in 2019,

01:21:44.995 --> 01:21:51.427
- I took an oath to uphold the constitution of the state of Indiana, which vests the responsibility for

01:21:51.427 --> 01:21:57.922
- making passing criminal laws to the Indiana General Assembly. I have a great amount of discretion when

01:21:57.922 --> 01:22:04.480
- it comes to making decisions for charging and prosecuting individual cases based on the evidence that's

01:22:04.480 --> 01:22:06.750
- presented to me by law enforcement.

01:22:06.914 --> 01:22:14.150
- But it is illegal to make a categorical declaration that you will not prosecute a criminal law. There

01:22:14.150 --> 01:22:21.385
- was a non-compliant prosecutor statute passed in 2024 that makes that illegal. However, I think it is

01:22:21.385 --> 01:22:28.762
- better to place all of our resources, the majority of our resources, on making sure that we are focused

01:22:28.762 --> 01:22:35.998
- on those repeat and violent offenders who cause the most harm in our community. When you look at our,

01:22:36.354 --> 01:22:44.373
- Marijuana prosecutions from 2025 of those cases that were filed 38 of those cases were dismissed 21

01:22:44.373 --> 01:22:52.633
- of those cases did pretrial diversion and only two resulted in conviction All of those cases that were

01:22:52.633 --> 01:23:01.374
- dismissed or diverted Those cases are automatically expunged from people's criminal records after 60 days so

01:23:02.082 --> 01:23:10.363
- Making a public declaration does nothing but aggravate those people at the state of Indiana who make

01:23:10.363 --> 01:23:19.218
- our laws, including the governor and Todd Rakita. Thank you. Cannabis is legal in Illinois for recreational

01:23:19.218 --> 01:23:27.498
- use, in Michigan for recreational use, now in Ohio for recreational use. In Kentucky, I believe they

01:23:27.498 --> 01:23:29.630
- have medicinal marijuana.

01:23:30.210 --> 01:23:36.808
- Again, I met that patient, and this is not just the first patient that I've met that discussed the fact

01:23:36.808 --> 01:23:43.722
- that cannabis helps them. When Ryan Mears, the Marion County prosecutor, had the courage to stop prosecuting

01:23:43.722 --> 01:23:50.320
- simple possession in 2019, that is the same year that Erica took office. We know what's possible. Erica

01:23:50.320 --> 01:23:56.791
- discussed this at its illegal. 80 prosecutors across the every region of this country signed a pledge

01:23:56.791 --> 01:23:59.582
- not to prosecute doctors, women and nurses.

01:24:00.642 --> 01:24:07.873
- I will not surprise you that you'll find that the only prosecutor in Indiana to sign that pledge was

01:24:07.873 --> 01:24:15.033
- Ryan Mears. I will be prosecutor number two to sign that pledge. There is a nonprofit fair and just

01:24:15.033 --> 01:24:22.193
- prosecution that 80 prosecutors signed the pledge that specifically discusses that prosecutors have

01:24:22.193 --> 01:24:24.126
- immense discretion that we

01:24:24.770 --> 01:24:31.998
- With that discretion comes the obligation to seek justice. I assure you that it is not justice to prosecute

01:24:31.998 --> 01:24:38.691
- someone for marijuana and simple possession. 21 pretrial diversions would be some $11,500 extracted

01:24:38.691 --> 01:24:45.451
- from poor people. Who gets pulled over for marijuana odor from the vehicle? The person with the tail

01:24:45.451 --> 01:24:51.742
- light out in a broke down car or the rich kid in a Mercedes. We need to address what's right.

01:24:54.754 --> 01:25:01.419
- My next question is for Ben, which is kind of related. So we're talking about marginalized groups. So

01:25:01.419 --> 01:25:07.887
- what is your top priority to support women, LGBTQ folks and marginalized genders in Monroe County?

01:25:07.887 --> 01:25:13.833
- Thank you. And I'm fingers crossed I have applied for the Stonewall Democrats endorsement.

01:25:13.833 --> 01:25:20.498
- So we'll see. But and I said I'm going to proudly display that because LGBTQ plus needs support. They

01:25:20.498 --> 01:25:24.222
- need to know that hate does not belong in our community.

01:25:25.154 --> 01:25:30.215
- And that means that hate includes violence because violence is broad spectrum. When I explain to people,

01:25:30.215 --> 01:25:35.131
- when I go knocking on doors canvassing, which is so wonderful, meeting constituents in Monroe County,

01:25:35.131 --> 01:25:39.999
- I explained that when somebody busts out your car window, that's violence because of the cost to the

01:25:39.999 --> 01:25:45.011
- person and all that we was rifling around looking for something to steal from your car. That's violence

01:25:45.011 --> 01:25:49.879
- and we're going to prosecute it tough. Violence does not belong in our community and I'm going to be

01:25:49.879 --> 01:25:51.518
- very tough when it comes to that.

01:25:52.034 --> 01:25:59.791
- But marginalized communities, LGBTQ+, black, brown, when we have ICE coming to town, we need a prosecutor

01:25:59.791 --> 01:26:07.329
- like the Philadelphia District Attorney who says, ICE, you come to town, we're going to prosecute you.

01:26:07.329 --> 01:26:14.648
- Use your bully pulpit. And I implore our prosecutor to do that while she's still in office, because

01:26:14.648 --> 01:26:17.502
- you're going to have a new prosecutor.

01:26:17.954 --> 01:26:23.541
- Your first black prosecutor, it's going to be wonderful and I really appreciate everyone's support.

01:26:23.541 --> 01:26:29.240
- It's so exciting meeting constituents. All the yard signs you see around for Benjamin Arrington, it's

01:26:29.240 --> 01:26:34.883
- wonderful and I really appreciate it. So thank you. I'm going to repeat the question for Erica. What

01:26:34.883 --> 01:26:40.414
- is your top priority to support women, LGBTQ plus folks and marginalized genders in Monroe County?

01:26:41.794 --> 01:26:49.644
- Yep, so it has been my goal since assuming office in 2019, but even before that, for the nine years

01:26:49.644 --> 01:26:57.808
- that I was a deputy prosecutor in the office, to make sure that we live up to our constitutional values

01:26:57.808 --> 01:27:06.286
- of fairness and equality for all people. And that includes women, that includes LGBTQIA+, and that includes

01:27:06.286 --> 01:27:09.662
- all marginalized genders in our community.

01:27:09.762 --> 01:27:19.120
- I have made efforts in, like I said, in research for identifying and reducing racial and ethnic disparities.

01:27:19.120 --> 01:27:27.877
- And by working on those race disparities, unfortunately we don't have good data collection modalities

01:27:27.877 --> 01:27:36.462
- for these LGBTQ plus and other types of genders with Indiana's record keeping or ID laws and things

01:27:36.462 --> 01:27:37.406
- like that.

01:27:37.474 --> 01:27:44.718
- But I can say that we do try to approach these cases, these people as individuals, considering all of

01:27:44.718 --> 01:27:51.820
- the circumstances in their lives. I've had occasions to prosecute transgender individuals. I've had

01:27:51.820 --> 01:27:59.774
- occasion to have victims of crime who were transgender individuals. And it was my goal and my approach to treat

01:27:59.842 --> 01:28:07.997
- those people with compassion and dignity focusing on the very real experiences that they were having.

01:28:07.997 --> 01:28:16.231
- And so we will continue to have that kind of care in our office. Thank you. Thank you, Erica. The next

01:28:16.231 --> 01:28:24.226
- question is for Erica. Have you had experience with the high tech crime unit? Can you give examples

01:28:24.226 --> 01:28:29.822
- of the kind of cases where it would be or has been used to the court?

01:28:31.074 --> 01:28:38.277
- Yep, so in 2022, I applied for and received a grant from the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council to

01:28:38.277 --> 01:28:45.480
- establish and maintain the Monroe County High Tech Crime Unit. It's currently operated in partnership

01:28:45.480 --> 01:28:53.107
- with the Ellisville Police Department, and the unit is used to process digital forensic evidence, including

01:28:53.107 --> 01:29:00.734
- cell phones, laptops, sometimes things like Fitbits, DVRs, the little computers in our cars, all manner of,

01:29:01.026 --> 01:29:07.885
- digital devices. And I have had occasion to introduce this kind of evidence in a homicide case, but

01:29:07.885 --> 01:29:15.019
- I can say that the cases that we're seeing most frequently recently are those involving child sex abuse

01:29:15.019 --> 01:29:16.734
- material, unfortunately.

01:29:16.834 --> 01:29:24.647
- we are getting very good at detecting those crimes. The High Tech Crime Unit has at all times been affiliated

01:29:24.647 --> 01:29:31.964
- with law enforcement that is a member of the Indiana Crimes Against Children Task Force, but my office

01:29:31.964 --> 01:29:39.422
- became a member of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in 2025. And so through that,

01:29:39.422 --> 01:29:45.886
- we have partnerships and relationships, including training to make sure that we can really

01:29:45.986 --> 01:29:54.915
- aggressively prosecute those really horrible exploitative crimes. The high-tech crime unit recently

01:29:54.915 --> 01:30:03.933
- received an electronic sniffing dog who also doubles as a therapy dog. His name is Frank and he is a

01:30:03.933 --> 01:30:12.862
- very beautiful Labrador. Thank you. Oh yeah. Have you had experience with the high-tech crime unit?

01:30:13.250 --> 01:30:21.117
- Can you give examples of the kind of cases where it has been or would be of use to the court? So I have

01:30:21.117 --> 01:30:28.832
- not had experience with the high tech crime unit. I'm not a prosecutor and so I do not have access to

01:30:28.832 --> 01:30:36.926
- that. However, I can envision how it would be utilized in so far as in cases developing evidence regarding

01:30:37.250 --> 01:30:44.099
- child sex material could potentially, I could see that also with gathering evidence regarding other

01:30:44.099 --> 01:30:51.153
- digital forensics. However, when I hear high tech crime unit, I am certainly a little concerned though

01:30:51.153 --> 01:30:58.001
- that we do need to get the flock out of Bloomington. And so if there's any connection, which again,

01:30:58.001 --> 01:31:04.918
- I do not know the high tech crime unit, I'm not involved. And so I haven't been, you don't know what

01:31:04.918 --> 01:31:06.014
- you don't know.

01:31:06.114 --> 01:31:13.402
- But I will tell you that I will be looking into it once elected and I don't want to see a partnership

01:31:13.402 --> 01:31:20.691
- with FLOC because we don't need to have a supervisory state that every time you step out of your home

01:31:20.691 --> 01:31:28.122
- that you're under supervision. Benjamin Franklin said it best, those who are willing to sacrifice their

01:31:28.122 --> 01:31:34.910
- liberty and freedom for a little security deserve neither. And so I do believe in that and so,

01:31:35.970 --> 01:31:42.594
- I want to look into and learn more about the high-tech crime unit. Thank you. Just a final reminder,

01:31:42.594 --> 01:31:49.350
- we're reaching the end of our prepared questions. So if you haven't submitted your question, make sure

01:31:49.350 --> 01:31:56.040
- to hand it over to our lovely volunteers here. So this question is next going to Ben, a question from

01:31:56.040 --> 01:31:56.958
- the audience.

01:31:57.314 --> 01:32:05.660
- How much leeway do you have before instituting the habitual offender statute? With the jail crowding,

01:32:05.660 --> 01:32:14.251
- how can you defer nonviolent offenders and impose stricter penalties? So the specific leeway that you're

01:32:14.251 --> 01:32:15.806
- in reference to is

01:32:16.354 --> 01:32:23.205
- Statutory and would need me to have a book in front of me which is impossible to do so I don't know

01:32:23.205 --> 01:32:30.398
- why But what I will tell you is that of course things will be reviewed again I'm gonna have an excellent

01:32:30.398 --> 01:32:37.385
- chief deputy prosecuting attorney who have already discussed with who's a seasoned felony prosecuting

01:32:37.385 --> 01:32:44.510
- attorney from a very red County, however, he lives here in Bloomington and so is a great person and but

01:32:44.642 --> 01:32:50.990
- we're going to be tough on crime if it's a habitual offender statute or a habitual substance offender

01:32:50.990 --> 01:32:57.463
- for a vehicle because OWI and getting people off of the road driving drunk is a passion of mine because

01:32:57.463 --> 01:33:03.811
- we don't need, again, violent people, people that are operating a vehicle under the influence, people

01:33:03.811 --> 01:33:10.221
- that want to do harm to our community. And so habitual substance offender, habitual crime, all of that

01:33:10.221 --> 01:33:13.022
- will be looked at with great detail and care

01:33:13.186 --> 01:33:19.031
- Following the statutory guidelines that are placed by the General Assembly, you know there When it comes

01:33:19.031 --> 01:33:24.653
- to sentence things in that nature that also primarily is going to go along with the judge plea deals

01:33:24.653 --> 01:33:30.387
- depended on situations But one quintessential thing is that my office will be working excellently with

01:33:30.387 --> 01:33:36.009
- a public defender We're gonna have a cooperative working relationship to help reduce jail population

01:33:36.009 --> 01:33:40.574
- only for those violent offenders that belong behind bars Thank you. My time is up

01:33:41.698 --> 01:33:49.443
- I'm going to repeat the question for Erica. How much leeway do you have before instituting the habitual

01:33:49.443 --> 01:33:56.891
- offender statute? And with the jail overcrowding, how can you defer nonviolent offenders and impose

01:33:56.891 --> 01:33:59.870
- stricter penalties? Yep. So as with any

01:34:00.066 --> 01:34:06.893
- charging decision, we have a lot of discretion in individual cases, including whether to file habitual

01:34:06.893 --> 01:34:13.654
- offender or habitual substance offender petitions for those who are eligible. Now those, you know, in

01:34:13.654 --> 01:34:20.348
- other states sometimes they're colloquially known as like three strikes laws or something like that,

01:34:20.348 --> 01:34:25.982
- but essentially a habitual offender petition is an opportunity to add an enhancement

01:34:26.114 --> 01:34:34.302
- to a felony offense when somebody has a prior, two or more prior convictions for felonies. You know,

01:34:34.302 --> 01:34:42.815
- we tend to reserve those for people who have more recent or more serious violent criminal history rather

01:34:42.815 --> 01:34:51.328
- than using that for, say, like driving status offenses like habitual traffic violator or something along

01:34:51.328 --> 01:34:52.382
- those lines.

01:34:52.610 --> 01:35:00.147
- You know, we do try to defer nonviolent offenses and not use our limited jail resources on those. As

01:35:00.147 --> 01:35:07.983
- you have probably heard, we have a crowded jail. It's overburdened. So we do try to avoid putting people

01:35:07.983 --> 01:35:15.818
- in jail who do not belong there. Make sure that we're making liberal use of our pretrial release program

01:35:15.818 --> 01:35:18.654
- and to alternatives in the community.

01:35:18.882 --> 01:35:26.551
- But when it comes to those who are habitual offenders, you know, we do reserve those for those violent

01:35:26.551 --> 01:35:33.699
- crimes and make sure that those are the people that we are trying to use prison for. Thank you.

01:35:33.699 --> 01:35:41.815
- My time is up. We had a question from the audience about jury trial and prosecutal, prosecutional experience

01:35:41.815 --> 01:35:43.006
- in terms of it.

01:35:43.266 --> 01:35:50.083
- So the question was how many jury trials have you done? How many years of prosecutor experience do you

01:35:50.083 --> 01:35:57.098
- have? And I'm gonna extend it to what is your general approach from your time as a working in prosecutors

01:35:57.098 --> 01:36:00.606
- or otherwise? And we'll start with Erica. Thank you.

01:36:00.898 --> 01:36:09.063
- So I have been a prosecutor since I took the bar exam in 2009. I started out in misdemeanors and traffic

01:36:09.063 --> 01:36:17.073
- infractions under Chris Gull back in 2009. I worked my way up. I started handling about two and a half

01:36:17.073 --> 01:36:22.206
- years in. I started handling felony drug cases for Monroe County.

01:36:22.306 --> 01:36:28.645
- At that time, I became a member of the Monroe County Drug Treatment Court Team. I also have served on

01:36:28.645 --> 01:36:35.170
- the Monroe County Veterans Court Team, the Monroe County Mental Health Court Team, and the Monroe County

01:36:35.170 --> 01:36:41.820
- Reentry Court Program. I then moved up to general felonies, so handling everything from a felony operating

01:36:41.820 --> 01:36:46.046
- while intoxicated or a theft, a burglary, robbery, to murder cases.

01:36:46.306 --> 01:36:53.999
- I have had over 20 jury trials. I actually am not exactly certain of the number. Again, I've tried everything

01:36:53.999 --> 01:37:01.063
- from a Class C misdemeanor operating while intoxicated successfully to conviction to I think my most

01:37:01.063 --> 01:37:08.336
- recent murder trial that I was lead counsel on was in 2021 where I secured a conviction in a case where

01:37:08.336 --> 01:37:11.134
- a man stabbed his girlfriend 157 times.

01:37:11.746 --> 01:37:19.287
- You know, generally I do try to have a problem solving approach in my work. I try to make sure that

01:37:19.287 --> 01:37:26.829
- we can prevent people from coming back into the criminal justice system over and over. And I do try

01:37:26.829 --> 01:37:34.822
- to make sure that we focus those trial resources, our incarceration on those repeat and violent offenders

01:37:34.822 --> 01:37:41.534
- who cause the greatest harm in our community. Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna be direct.

01:37:42.146 --> 01:37:50.565
- My jury trial experience is limited, but let's be absolutely clear about what the elected prosecutor

01:37:50.565 --> 01:37:58.901
- actually does. This is not a line attorney position. It is an executive, administrative, and policy

01:37:58.901 --> 01:38:07.486
- making role. Monroe County has an office of 18 deputy prosecutors handling a daily docket. The elected

01:38:07.486 --> 01:38:10.654
- prosecutor is the CEO of that office.

01:38:11.618 --> 01:38:18.261
- I have extensive, varied court experience. My job won't be monopolized at the council table. That's

01:38:18.261 --> 01:38:25.037
- not my job. Now, I'm going to have a very hands-on approach when I first get elected. You're going to

01:38:25.037 --> 01:38:32.012
- see me at initial hearings. You're going to see me all over because I want to make sure that my deputies

01:38:32.012 --> 01:38:38.921
- are going to be doing consistent with my policy and my approach to have a positive working relationship

01:38:38.921 --> 01:38:41.246
- with the public defender's office.

01:38:42.626 --> 01:38:49.353
- where the vast majority of the cases are processed through. My job is to bring a battle-tested chief

01:38:49.353 --> 01:38:56.147
- deputy to lead our trial teams while I focus on the structural policies that actually keep our county

01:38:56.147 --> 01:39:03.341
- safe. Right now, we have an administration that fails to maintain its own docket and lets violent predators

01:39:03.341 --> 01:39:05.406
- walk free on missed deadlines.

01:39:07.138 --> 01:39:13.781
- I will manage the policies, clear the docket of victimless crimes, and give our trial attorneys the

01:39:13.781 --> 01:39:20.556
- support they need to achieve an 80% conviction rates that we see in places like Marion County. You're

01:39:20.556 --> 01:39:27.731
- out of time. That's what executive leadership looks like. Thank you. OK. And that's the end of our prepared

01:39:27.731 --> 01:39:34.174
- questions. So now we're going to move into closing statements. So we're going to start with Ben.

01:39:42.114 --> 01:39:48.430
- I want to thank the League of Women Voters for bringing us here. This was amazing. And having the League

01:39:48.430 --> 01:39:54.445
- of Women Voters host this event is so wonderful. So thank you so much to the League of Women Voters

01:39:54.445 --> 01:40:00.520
- and to all the audience members that took time out of your busy lives to come and listen to somebody

01:40:00.520 --> 01:40:06.174
- who wants to run for office and ask for your vote. Thank you so much for coming here tonight.

01:40:07.906 --> 01:40:15.801
- Tonight you've heard two very different versions of the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office visions. You

01:40:15.801 --> 01:40:23.620
- can choose the status quo, an office that relies on unwritten rules and plays statistical shell games

01:40:23.620 --> 01:40:31.745
- with victimless crimes and tragically drops the ball on severe violent felonies because of administrative

01:40:31.745 --> 01:40:36.574
- fatigue. Or you can choose a principled transparent leadership

01:40:36.930 --> 01:40:45.653
- I have told you exactly what I plan to do. We will stop wasting taxpayer dollars and police resources

01:40:45.653 --> 01:40:54.547
- on simple possession of marijuana. We will join other prosecutors, 80 other prosecutors in every region

01:40:54.547 --> 01:41:03.099
- of this country, and pledge to protect the reproductive rights of women, doctors, and nurses not to

01:41:03.099 --> 01:41:04.638
- face prosecution.

01:41:05.762 --> 01:41:13.930
- And so thank you, please vote Arrington for prosecutor.com. Thank you. Erica. Thank you. I have the

01:41:13.930 --> 01:41:22.343
- experience, leadership skills, and temperament to effectively seek justice and ensure community safety

01:41:22.343 --> 01:41:30.430
- in Monroe County. I have far more trial experience and administrative experience than my opponent.

01:41:30.562 --> 01:41:37.650
- You may think it's not a line deputy position, but in times of staffing shortages, I handled a major

01:41:37.650 --> 01:41:44.668
- felony caseload for six months, competently, while also running the office. We are facing state and

01:41:44.668 --> 01:41:51.756
- federal attacks on home governance, including direct threats to prosecutorial discretion and changes

01:41:51.756 --> 01:41:59.265
- to tax codes and grant funding programs that limit resources. Monroe County will not be served by strident

01:41:59.265 --> 01:42:00.318
- proclamations,

01:42:00.450 --> 01:42:07.669
- What we need instead is deliberative collaboration and problem solving to improve justice in our community.

01:42:07.669 --> 01:42:14.353
- I have spent years developing and maintaining relationships in our community to meet critical needs

01:42:14.353 --> 01:42:21.170
- of justice involved individuals. I ask for your vote to retain me in office in the Democratic primary

01:42:21.170 --> 01:42:26.718
- on May 5th. Thank you. All right, so thank our candidates for a lively discussion.

01:42:32.674 --> 01:42:39.431
- On behalf of all the forum sponsors, remember to vote. Election day is Tuesday, May 5th. Early voting

01:42:39.431 --> 01:42:42.942
- begins Tuesday, April 7th. Thank you all for coming.