When the Merrillville Town Council votes on the Town Court Tuesday, Rick Bella will accept whatever the result.

The Town Council President doesn’t expect the votes will change from when they initially voted May 14, he told the Post-Tribune recently. The key vote, however, will come from Council Vice President Rhonda Neal, D-1, since she abstained during that vote, setting off a nine-month-long battle between the council and Clerk-Treasurer Eric January that has them voting on it again.

At the May 14 meeting, the council voted 3-3-1 on whether to reestablish the court, with Councilwomen Shauna Haynes-Edwards, D-2, Leona Chandler, D-3, and Marge Uzelac, D-4, voting for it on first reading; and Bella, D-5, Councilman Shawn Pettit, D-6, and Councilwoman Keesha Hardaway, D-7, voting against it, the Post-Tribune previously reported. Neal abstained from voting.

If a voting member of a body refuses to vote when a majority vote is required, their abstention is considered a “No” vote, according to the Indiana Code. The only way, then, that a clerk-treasurer would be called in to vote would be if there were an even number of councilors present at the vote, but since all of them were present, the ordinance had to be passed by majority, or four votes.

January, who believed his “right to vote” was being usurped, sought opinions from attorneys with the State Board of Accounts and Accelerate Indiana Municipalities (formerly known as Indiana Association of Cities and Towns) but told them there were three votes for and three votes against only, the Post-Tribune previously reported.

Once those attorneys were made aware that Neal was present and abstained from the vote, they clarified to him and Town Manager Michael Griffin that they were given “incorrect information” and that Svetanoff is “in the best position” to decide the matter; as well, they told them they had given January “technical advice,” not any sort of official ruling as January indicated.

Joe Svetanoff, the town attorney, said Griffin offered to get the Indiana Attorney General’s office to weigh in on the matter, but January declined and instead sued the council in September.

Lake Superior Court Civil Division Judge Bruce Parent, in a judgment filed December 26, ruled that Indiana Code provides that a town clerk-treasurer “is an ex officio member (of the town council) for the purpose of casting the deciding vote to break a tie,” but that the council precluded him from doing so during a May 14 vote to reestablish the court. Using an “embarrassingly old copy of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary,” Parent wrote that a tie is defined as “an equality in number (as of votes)” or “an undecided or deadlocked contest,” according to court documents.

Because the vote was, by definition, a tie, January should’ve been allowed to vote, making the vote four in favor and three against, Parent wrote in the ruling.

The Town Council then filed a Motion to Correct on three counts: There was no true deadlock because there was an abstention vote; the Town found that the Town Court could be reestablished upon only one reading of the ordinance, which conflicts with law that says an ordinance must be adopted “only on two readings unless otherwise allowed”; and that January would’ve voted in favor of the Town Court “even though his official vote had not been cast,” the Post-Tribune previously reported. Parent at a February 27 hearing directed the council to reconsider the ordinance on first reading, keeping the votes the same and allowing January to then cast the tie-breaking vote.

January at the March 13 meeting voted to keep the court open.

When the Post-Tribune asked Neal at the March 13 meeting how she intended to vote Tuesday, she declined to answer, as did Hardaway. But Bella and Pettit remained firm that they’ll vote as they originally did.

“The elected person disregarded (that) and disrespected the Town Council’s vote, and I have a huge problem with that, along with the hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on attorney fees for this situation,” Pettit said. “When I cast a vote, people need to listen because they elected us.

“I can tell you that if it goes through, that $400,000 grant we gave the (Merrillville Community Schools)? The (Redevelopment Commission) wants $200,000 of it back for the Truancy Court.”

Bella pointed out that Merrillville Town Court Judge Eugene Velaszco, who also has a lawsuit against the town over the court closing, was caucused in after Judge Gina Jones was chosen for Lake Superior Court only to help close the town court since the vote to do so had already been cast. Since he sued to keep the court open, he’s never presented the council with a plan to keep court costs down, Bella said.

“I’ll accept the results of the vote because I want it to be done, but I’ll be absolutely watching the spending from there on out,” Bella said. “But we’ll find a great use for that about $300,000 or so if the courts are closed: cop salaries, operation costs, fixing things in town.”

Councilwomen Haynes-Edwards, Chandler-Felton and Uzelac, meanwhile, all said their votes remain, “Yes.” Haynes-Edwards said that Velazco should be allowed to complete his four-year term.

“If in that four years the court does not succeed like the town says it has not done in previous years, then you shut it down,” she said.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.