Noblesville Deputy Mayor’s emails reveal pattern of disrespect for opposing views
A concerned citizen recently filed a request for information for “copies of public records (electronic or print) that relate to the City of Noblesville and its interactions regarding the Indiana Transportation Museum as well as the Nickel Plate Trail proposal” under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act. This information was then given to The Reporter. Some emails point to both Noblesville Deputy Mayor Steve Cooke attempting to fill a public forum with front-row supporters of his own view and a pattern of disrespect toward citizens who do not agree with his perspectives on city projects.
The Reporter contacted Deputy Mayor Cooke, Mayor John Ditslear and the Noblesville Common Council to ask for their views on some specific emails which were provided as part of the public records request.
The following are specific email excerpts, The Reporter’s questions and Cooke’s replies.
Email: “We are getting beat up pretty badly, although I’m hoping that our public meeting on 3/23 can start to turn more people to our side.”
Reporter: I thought this was a listening session? Wasn’t it an opportunity for government, both county and city, to listen and not an opportunity to “turn” people to “our” side. Did the city listen? If so what did they hear?
Cooke: I used a poor choice of words in this e-mail from March 8 with another trail supporter, and for that, I’m sorry. As with any project, it’s important for all the facts to be presented, and our efforts to “turn more people to our side” were to present the facts that we had collected about the benefits of a trail as well as the facts about the Nickel Plate Railroad. I’m proud of the fact that Mayor Ditslear made the decision to change the format of our March 23 public meeting to include comments from citizens. For me personally it was surprising to see the level of passion for the Nickel Plate Railroad displayed at the meeting, so it was a good learning experience. And listening to the public strengthened our resolve to keep the Nickel Plate Railroad as part of the city’s vision for the northern section of the corridor running from our downtown – which we have not wavered from. But I apologize that my poor choice of words written in March did not reflect the leadership of this office.
Email: “Because this trail is far from a done deal.” . . . “We need to show our City Council how much of Noblesville supports the idea of the trail so that they are not just hearing from the vocal minority who want to preserve the train. Seriously! If Council only sees the opponents, Noblesville will miss out on our only chance to get this Monon Trail like amenity in our own city. I’ve seen this play out already in Noblesville where good ideas die because only the old timers against everything speak up.”
Reporter: Isn’t it just the opposite, the vocal minority being the trail supporters? “Old Timers against everything . . .”
Cooke: This content was written as an e-mail only to myself as a draft of a potential communication to members of my HCLA team that I revised. A full search of all my e-mails has verified this fact. I did, however, write an e-mail with different content that I sent to two HCLA team members who are trail supporters. Typically, people who are against projects are the most vocal. However, my intent was for those in favor of the trail to also have a voice.
Email: “See the attached – this is just a rough draft, written late. The section on ITM would need a serious look. I’ve never actually been to the ITM And I’d want to be somewhat careful. But on the other hand, I’ve heard it’s an eyesore. It’s funny reading comments from people who love it.”
Reporter: Forest Park is one of Noblesville’s most treasured assets. The ITM occupies a good portion of real estate in the park and the Deputy Mayor has never been there? I don’t understand how a project (Trail/Rail) spearheaded by the Deputy Mayor could be presented without firsthand knowledge of a key component. ITM isn’t hard to miss by just taking a drive through the park. If you have never been to ITM how could you find any humor in comments from people who love it?
Cooke: This email to another city employee is regarding a potential communication with a reference to the ITM that the city never used. I have driven by the ITM during my visits to Forest Park, and I’ve been briefed on the museum’s conditions. However, the city’s plan for the trail allows for the Nickel Plate Railroad to remain within the park because it is proposed outside the project scope. Like many citizens, I look forward to seeing improvements to this area when the trains begin running again.
Email: “This citizen still doesn’t get it – but at least Jill Doyle from HCLA tried. And I’ve offered to meet with her as well.”
Reporter: Can you be specific about who the citizen is, and what it is that she doesn’t “get.”
Cooke: I won’t share the citizen’s name, but I can tell you the context behind the e-mail. A woman who was angry about the trail proposal posted Facebook messages tagging other community leaders that portrayed HCLA as the group behind the trail proposal. HCLA Executive Director Jill Doyle met with her to explain the difference and about the role of my HCLA team’s project work – a study of rail and trail – as compared to my role with the city working to achieve the Mayor’s vision for this corridor.
Email: “As for Anita – I’d rather not waste time on her. She’s probably a typical anti-City person.”
Reporter: Who is Anita? Please define “anti-City person.”
Cooke: This e-mail with another employee within the city was not part of any communication regarding the Nickel Plate, but was in response to a complaint that the mayor was not personally sponsoring a Noblesville Preservation Alliance event, which led to a criticism of our city government.
Email: Attached is the updated Project Tracker spreadsheet. You’ll see that I’ve broken this into two worksheets: one for the priority projects and one for other. Let me know if you prefer it this way or on one sheet. This way, though, I can still track “other” project information that we may not want “out there” if you know what I mean. I could even create those as a separate spreadsheet altogether. I’m not quite sure how you plan to disseminate this with Council. It could be as simple as me printing out and putting hard copies in their mailbox. Just let me know.
Reporter: Please comment on your statement “information we may not want out there if you know what I mean.”
Cooke: Every city project goes through the appropriate public process for consideration and possible approval. While poorly worded, the point of this e-mail was to create a document to update our Common Council on various projects, with the distinction being made here to “other projects” that are tentative and not yet fully developed for public communication.
Email: Basically – We needed to revise where we say the Nickel Plate ends in Noblesville. The estimate before was up to SR32. But since we’re turning the Nickel Plate onto the Midland Trace Trail at Pleasant Street – that’s what we need to say where the NP ends. You’ll see what I mean when you review my edits. However, we’re not revising the budget estimate yet to account for this change. But geographically speaking, it’s less confusing to say it stops at Pleasant (for now hopefully!).
We’ll certainly be excited to pull up the tracks from 8th Street and over SR32/38 – but no need to confuse the public with this specificity.
In the FAQ, I also added paragraphs about Rail Tourism and Mass Transit. Feel free to revise accordingly or take out that question altogether. We could certainly put in talking points that could sway people away from both – but I think it’s best to remain somewhat neutral to give some cover to our partners.
Reporter: You make the comment about adding talking points that could sway people away from Mass Transit and Rail Tourism. Why would you want to “sway” people? You also state “to give some cover to our partners.” Please explain “cover” and identify “partners.” Shouldn’t city government present facts about a project without consideration of swaying people in one direction or another?
Cooke: I’m sorry that my language in this e-mail comes across as cavalier, but facts are what we’ve been presenting to the public as part of the education process on the benefits of trails as compared to rail tourism and mass transit given the city’s vision for this corridor and its objectives of the Noblesville comprehensive master plan. Regarding the mention of “remain somewhat neutral to give cover to our partners,” I was referring to not directly criticizing ITM during our trail announcement. Despite the troubled history of the ITM, which has been the city’s partner for three decades, we didn’t feel it was a good idea to criticize the organization in our announcement – hence, why we removed that section from the trail FAQ.
Reporter: Please comment on your statement “We’ll certainly be excited to pull up the tracks from 8th Street and over SR32/38 – but no need to confuse the public with this specificity.” Isn’t being specific the best way to eliminate confusion?
Cooke: The changes I proposed for the February 28 news release were to simplify the description of where the tracks would be pulled up compared to where the trail would end at Pleasant Street, which was reflected in our final news release. The initial drafts made it sound like the trail would run all the way north to SR32/38, which is not the case.
Editor’s note: Anyone wishing to see all the data resulting from the Indiana Access to Public Records request can download a copy at this address: https://readthereporter.com/PublicInfo/foia.zip.
What a bunch of BS, You can disclaim what ever you want but if things were on the up and up, You wouldn’t have had to! ( Referring to Steve Cooke for those of you who do not get it!)
Great job Jeff. I believe we all are entitled to our opinions,but we need to play fair and respect all opinions even if it doesn’t go the way we want. Mr. Cooke sounds like Nancy Pelosi with all his backtracking and should have been a bi-partisan participant and presented his side in a mature way and openly listened to those opposed. The citizens deserve a say as we ultimately have to pay for it and we are not Carmel or Fishers.
Regarding the quote below ~ I am that “woman.” For the record: I am involved with two arts-related nonprofits in Noblesville that depend upon the City’s support as part of the Cultural Arts District, but I am first and foremost a PRIVATE CITIZEN with the right to speak out about my City, which I love ~ I have never said a word about the train situation as a representative of either arts organization; I speak only for myself in regards to anything I say about the train situation.
Regarding the article, which I quote below: Deputy Mayor Steve Cooke has never offered to meet with me. I did request a meeting with him (via email to him) in April after the Noblesville “Listening Session”; he responded that he would “get back to me” after he gave my email some thought, and eventually he got back to me in May. There was no mention of a meeting in either email.
Steve Cooke was not at the meeting I had with HCLA (Hamilton County Leadership Academy) Executive Director Jill Doyle. There is a clear common denominator between the HCLA “rails-to-trails class project” that Steve Cooke’s HCLA “team” has been working on and the Rails-to-Trails initiative put forth by the City. That link is simple fact, not an “angry” citizen’s misunderstanding. At the end of my meeting with Jill Doyle, I told her that I’d accept that she/HCLA and perhaps the other members of Steve Cooke’s HCLA team had “no knowledge” of “how” their “HCLA class project” made it’s way to City Hall, and I told her that I would not hold her, HCLA, or the rest of Steve Cooke’s HCLA team responsible for the City’s efforts to rip out an historic and important part of our City’s cultural heritage. In my meeting with Jill Doyle, she made it very clear that she was meeting with me to protect the HCLA’s reputation. She made it very clear that HCLA did not want to be linked to “how” Steve Cooke’s team’s HCLA project made its way to City Hall/the Mayor’s Office. For the record, I’m not holding HCLA responsible for the City’s plan to rip out our historic hertitage railway corridor, but I do still believe the HCLA “project” (again, I refer to an HCLA team class project, and Steve Cooke is one of that team’s members) is connected to the City’s plan via one common denominator: Deputy Mayor Steve Cooke. Mr. Cooke, I don’t need you to speak for me: I believe I do very much “get it.”
From the article:
Email: “This citizen still doesn’t get it – but at least Jill Doyle from HCLA tried. And I’ve offered to meet with her as well.”
Reporter: Can you be specific about who the citizen is, and what it is that she doesn’t “get.”
Cooke: I won’t share the citizen’s name, but I can tell you the context behind the e-mail. A woman who was angry about the trail proposal posted Facebook messages tagging other community leaders that portrayed HCLA as the group behind the trail proposal. HCLA Executive Director Jill Doyle met with her to explain the difference and about the role of my HCLA team’s project work – a study of rail and trail – as compared to my role with the city working to achieve the Mayor’s vision for this corridor.
Come on Steve…really???? People want the train and the ITM. Please listen to your constituents
Great work, Please continue to investigate this matter. Whether you support the trail, the railroad, or both, the process should be conducted above board by ALL parties involved. The ITM has made numerous missteps in this process, but that has little to do with whether the rail line, the FULL rail line is preserved or not. Mr. Cooke embarrassed himself once by writing the e-mail, and the second time by the pathetic excuses he offered in the interview, and the administration should be held responsible for not being honest about their intentions. If the trail is such a slam dunk idea, why try to stonewall the opposition?
I would still like to know where the money trail is. Somebody or persons have something to gain here by building this trail and destroying the rail right of way
You know, I am originally from a town that threw away all of their old history, allowed their turn of the century court house to be torn down, allowed a festival that had been happening for 20 plus years fail, allowed their entire downtown be torn apart and old historical buildings demolished all in the name of trying to be keeping up with the new millennium. That didn’t turn out too well, the state took one of the busiest state highways and routed it around that town, and now its dying. Their new Mayor (an old school traditionalist) gets it, he is trying to do things to preserve the cities history. Noblesville could be like that town, turn away the seniors, turn away the youth and what do you have, a town that no one wants to come back to. At that point you may as well allow Westfield or Fishers to annex the whole thing.
These dealings with the Museum and saying they have been your partner for 30 + years and then do something like this to them? Wow is all I can say, it takes balls!
Please know that the town I am talking about from above is Logansport, and its however quite funny and fitting that Mayor Kitchell from Logansport gets it and reached out to ITM as Logansport being a place that they could also operate in.
Residents and tax payers of Noblesville deserve better, much better than Deputy Mayor Steve Cooke’s demeaning, disrespectful, and underhanded behavior. I am appalled at what I have read regarding the Deputy Mayor’s emails. I think Deputy Mayor Steve Cooke needs to resign his position with the City of Noblesville.
I agree that Deputy Mayor Steve Cooke should resign! I also would like to let it be known that Mayor Distler said (and I Quote) “Have you seen the train museum? It is a dump and needs to go!” My response was how about making a community day to help clean it up? I received a look of shock! I feel the Mayor is just as dishonest as the deputy mayor as he has lied to me on a few items in the past?