The Chesterton Town
Council ended its first in-person meeting in months on Monday night by
revisiting, just for a moment, the tortured resignation of former member,
Bob Allison.
President Sharon
Darnell, D-4th, read the following statement on behalf of her colleagues:
“A little over a
week ago, remarks made on Facebook by Bob Allison went viral. Those hurtful
comments were his own, unsolicited and certainly not endorsed by any of the
other members of this council. In trying to clean up those remarks, Mr.
Allison made an insincere apology and tried to cast blame elsewhere. He
initially indicated his intention to resign from the council before
appearing to change his mind. Ultimately, he made the right decision.
“As elected
officials, we are not capable of removing our fellow council members. I want
to be clear that Mr. Allison’s statements were his own. In this instance,
the four other council members did what we felt was right in denouncing his
statements and calling on Mr. Allison to resign. Statements such as those
made by Mr. Allison on social media are not productive, whether or not they
are meant as a joke. They are hurtful, derisive, and have no place in the
public discourse.
“I hope this is the
last word on the matter. This town is a great place to live, work, and
visit, but there is much for this council to do to make Chesterton a better
place. This council needs to get back to the jobs we were elected to do and
to strive to honor the positions to which we are entrusted.”
There was no
further comment by members and the meeting was then adjourned.
Earlier in the
evening, however, Chesterton resident Rodney Pol Jr. read a lengthy
statement from the floor on the issue of Allison.
Excerpts from that
statement:
“My comments
tonight are for Mr. Allison. Although he rightfully resigned, some of his
comments leave issues that must be addressed. . . .
“We understand that
you were a first-time office holder. . . , that you may not appreciate how
impactful it is to hold office or what it means to truly represent a
constituency.
“We understand that
you think you were just joking with your friend when you said to
straight-blade protestors in Hammond. . . , that you’ve likely never been
the target of racism or how that impacts a person. . . , that you think your
comments are being blown out of proportion because in your heart you don’t
believe you’re racist or would ever actually hurt a person because of their
skin. . . , that you may not pay attention to the events around race because
they may not affect you personally in Chesterton.
"We understand that
some people might be telling you not to resign because this is being ‘blown
out of proportion’ and claiming you were just practicing ‘freedom of
speech.’
“We understand that
people make mistakes. . . , that people can learn from those mistakes. . . ,
that you would like to continue to represent this community and just put
this all behind you.
“You have to
understand that in that seat, you represent all of us and the reputation of
this town at all times. . . , that you were not telling a harmless
knock-knock joke.
“You have to
understand that staying in that seat would have meant that your ‘jokes’ were
okay for an elected Chesterton official to broadcast on the most public
forum we’ve ever known. . . . It was not some secret recording from the
locker room. You have to understand that that alone begs the question: ‘If
he openly jokes about killing people against racism, how much worse are his
private jokes?’ . . .
“You have to
understand that there is a reason that the people you claim supported you in
secret did not do so publicly, because they knew it was wrong. That should
have been painfully obvious.
“You have to
understand that your actions have consequences. You have to understand that
you will need to learn from your mistakes. You have to understand that you
will do so on your time, not ours. You have to understand that by not
resigning, you would have made it clear that you do not understand any of
this.”