Relations between the Mayor’s office and City Council have taken a bitter turn.
Mayor Winnecke is taking legal action on the Residency Ordinance, which the council passed in December. The Mayor vetoed the measure, and City Council overruled the Mayor on a majority vote.
Mayor Winnecke filed a petition to the Vanderburgh Superior Court on January 28th to rule on the legality of the ordinance, which requires members of city boards and commissions to live within the city limits.
In court records obtained by WNIN, the filing says the rule violates state statute and usurps the Mayor, thereby usurping the state legislature.
In response to the Mayor's court filing, members of City Council leadership released a bold statement Monday criticizing the Mayor’s action and leadership.
Council President Dan Adams, D-At-Large, Vice President John Friend, D-5th Ward, and Finance Chairman Conor O’Daniel, D-At-Large, released a statement Monday morning saying that they’re “disappointed” in Mayor Lloyd Winnecke’s response to the Residency Ordinance.
"Moreover, the Residency Ordinance is law and is currently in effect...the Mayor has chosen to ignore the ordinance," the statement reads.
Winnecke says the points raised in the Councilmembers' press release are “blatantly wrong,” and that the administration has removed 40 board members residing outside the city so far.
"I'm very concerned that it has so many out and out misstatetements of fact...they've tried to politicize this issue more than it has already been made," Winnecke said.
Dan Adams says the Mayor has been difficult to cooperate with and that the move to take legal action is a waste of taxpayer resources.
“Whenever we get criticized by the administration, it's always, we're doing something political,” Adams said. "And yet when we have some structural forthright criticism, somehow there must be an ulterior motive. There isn't."
But City Attorney Ted Ziemer says the City is simply trying to uphold a state statute, which says that cities cannot pass ordinances that contradict state law.
The City Council meets February 9th.
