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No, I was not a single-issue candidate

By Scott Tibbs, November 13, 2015

I have been falsely accused of being a single-issue candidate during my run for city council, focused only on the city's annual handout to Planned Parenthood. It is true that I made a lot of noise about corporate welfare to Planned Parenthood, and I did spend more time on that issue than I thought I would when I filed my paperwork to run for city council. However, I was far from a single issue candidate.

Following are some of the issues I addressed during the campaign:

• A basic principle of open government -- making government meeting times open to the public.

• False fire alarms at Indiana University.

• Traffic flow, traffic safety and West Third.

• Basic principles on planning, zoning and land use.

• Tibbs calls for more transparency on civil asset forfeiture (Herald-Times coverage.)

• Plastic bags: Persuasion is better than force.

• Police militarization in Bloomington, Indiana? (Herald-Times coverage.)

• The City Council was right to support needle exchange (Herald-Times coverage.)

• Considering government's impact on local business (Herald-Times coverage.)

• West Third speed bumps representative of poor planning (Herald-Times coverage.)

• City government's imperialistic historic preservation efforts (Herald-Times coverage.)

• City government should not charge voters for parking .

• Just say "no" to the broadband boondoggle.

• The west side needs more attention (Herald-Times coverage.)

• Meeting times are an obstacle to transparency (Herald-Times coverage.)

• Bloomington's next mayor must commit to full transparency.

I have been following city government for twenty years, attending city council meetings as far back as 1996. I have spent many hours in city council meetings, and spent many more reading about and studying city issues - and I have a paper trail to prove it. Saying I am only a single-issue candidate is not just ignorant, especially when someone who also closely follows local politics is saying that. It is dishonest.

I do not apologize for the time I spent and the statements I have made strenously objecting to the city council's annual handout to the local abortion mill. That needed to be done and I am glad I was one of the ones who has done it - even when i was the only person attending a meeting to say "no" to the corporate welfare. But dismissing me as a single issue candidate after all of the other things I have addressed is nothing more than a lie.

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