Fall Creek Township Board questions referendum

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The Fall Creek Township Advisory Board passed a resolution at a meeting last week to formally request the Hamilton County Election Board to hold a public hearing concerning November’s town-versus-city referendum questions.

The question:  Shall the town of Fishers and Fall Creek Township reorganize as a single political subdivision?

Doug Allman, township advisory board member, drafted a resolution that he said requests the election board to hold the hearing to resolve two issues.

First, the voting blocks are being called into question. It was not clear to the board members how votes will be tallied in the upcoming referendum. The two major options are that Fall Creek will be counted as a single entity or as two units – unincorporated and incorporated residents.

The second issue at hand for the Fall Creek Township Advisory Board is if the question could be rescinded altogether.

Allman said that in July 2011, he and then-board-member Renee Cox, now a town council member, rescinded the question from the ballot. Considering the question remains on the ballot, the board is trying to find if their rescission is valid and if the township certified the question.

Jeanette Kassebaum, the township’s legal counsel, explained that the certification process for this issue is defined through the Government Modernization Act of 2006. The process is set in motion when a plan of reorganization is filed with the recorder’s office. Questions are then sent to the election board and the staff then puts them on a ballot.

She said if the township board does not agree with how the election board decides the issue, voters and taxpayers can levy their own petitions.

“There are challenges available in the law,” she said. “Not all is lost.”

The actual language of the resolution claims that Fall Creek Township does not believe the “Plan of Reorganization” is eligible per Resolution 2011-01 filed last July. It also asked the election board to act within two business days and set the hearing as soon as possible.

Several residents, members of the City YES! political action committee and town councilor Renee Cox were in attendance.

Fall Creek Advisory Board members Allman, Ed Offerman and board president Dan Rieke were present for the vote, in which Rieke abstained.


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