Pike Township Board Members Cancel Democracy

by Abdul-Hakim Shabazz

Apparently, in Pike Township, democracy can be cancelled the same way you cancel a dinner reservation. That’s the impression residents are left with after Township Board President Claudette Peterson, along with Demetrice Hicks (District 2) and Kenya Perkins (District 5), failed to ensure the board did its most basic job — show up and work.

The board’s defenders will tell you they didn’t really “miss” the August meeting. It wasn’t their fault, they say. The meeting was cancelled — by none other than President Claudette Peterson. But here’s the catch: that meeting wasn’t a casual coffee chat or a neighborhood association mixer. It was a regularly scheduled meeting of the township board.

And if that weren’t bad enough, they also skipped tonight’s budget preview. That’s not optional either. It’s part of the legally required process to review and adopt a township budget.

You can watch the video of the meeting here.

In government, you don’t get to cancel your obligations the way you cancel a gym membership you never intended to use.

Indiana law (specifically IC 6-1.1-17 and IC 36-6-6) requires township boards to hold public hearings, review spending, and adopt a budget on a set timetable. Those deadlines don’t magically stop running because a board president decides the meeting is inconvenient. Property tax bills don’t get “cancelled,” and neither should public accountability.

A budget preview meeting gives taxpayers a chance to see where their money is going before the board signs off. When the meeting gets cancelled — or skipped altogether — transparency goes out the window with it. Pike residents deserve to know how their money is being spent on township assistance, fire contracts, and other essentials. Instead, they get silence.

This isn’t just one missed meeting or one scheduling mishap. Pike Township has a long history of dysfunction..  If township government is supposed to be the most basic, closest-to-the-people form of democracy, then Pike Township’s board has turned it into a soap opera.

And cancelling a meeting or failing to attend a budget preview isn’t just bad optics — it’s potentially nonfeasance. That’s the legal term for when public officials “refuse or neglect to perform their official duties.” Under Indiana Code 5-8-1-35, neglect of duty is grounds for removal from office. In plain English: if you don’t do your job, the court can do it for you — by showing you the door.

And here’s the kicker: Pike Township has already been sued once for failing to do its job. Taxpayers are having to foot the bill for that mess. Does Pike really need a second lawsuit because its board can’t manage to keep its own meetings?

While board members argue over whether meetings were “missed” or “cancelled,” Pike Township residents are left without a functioning budget process. No budget means uncertainty for essential services. No hearings mean no public input. And no accountability means the same old story: dysfunction at the expense of taxpayers.

Try explaining that to a family that needs township assistance to pay their utility bill, or to firefighters waiting on a contract. “Sorry, we cancelled the meeting. Try again next month.” That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Peterson, Hicks, and Perkins ran for office to represent Pike Township. That comes with obligations — like showing up to meetings, reviewing budgets, and doing the people’s business. Cancelling meetings to avoid those obligations doesn’t make the responsibility go away. It just makes the dysfunction more obvious.

At the end of the day, township government isn’t supposed to be complicated. Show up. Vote on a budget. Approve spending. Keep the lights on. That’s it.

So if Pike Township’s board members can’t manage even that, maybe the only thing that needs “cancelling” is their time in office. Because one lawsuit should have been more than enough — now it looks like the taxpayers will have to bankroll another one.

Abdul-Hakim Shabazz is the editor and publisher of Indy Politics.  He is also an attorney licensed in Illinois and Indiana.  He also resides in Pike.