The Political Spotlight - Episodes Tagged with “City Council Leadership”

#744 | Sunday, October 04, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:00:00 -0400

In this 744th episode, Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey discusses the upcoming Muncie City Council meeting on Monday, October 5, 2026. Will this meeting remain calm, or will it continue down the path of insanity seen in the last several?

Then, Bilbrey examines the recent buzz on social media about several local political figures. Is something significant developing—or is it much ado about nothing?

Bilbrey breaks down what's being said, what may actually matter, and what to watch for as Muncie politics heats up.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 744: https://youtube.com/live/SMKgpYUESys

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Connect with The Political Spotlight team on social media:
Facebook 1: https://www.facebook.com/Bilbrey318
Facebook 2: https://www.facebook.com/PoliticalSpotlight318
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight
Twitter: https://x.com/BilbreyLIVE
Email: tpsprogram@gmail.com

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🚨🚨🚨
'The Political Spotlight'
LIVE Sunday - Thursday @ 9 p.m. (ET)
Hosted by: Kristopher H. Bilbrey
Produced by: Kate Thornburg & Brandon Rudd
https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight
https://rumble.com/c/ThePoliticalSpotlight
https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
https://www.facebook.com/Bilbrey318
https://www.facebook.com/PoliticalSpotlight318
https://www.tiktok.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight
https://x.com/BilbreyLIVE
Email: tpsprogram@gmail.com
© 2026 Mud Creek Studio.
—

#742 | Wednesday, September 30, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0400

In this 742nd episode of The Political Spotlight, Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey reviews the third and final meeting of the Muncie City Council's Finance Committee, held Wednesday, September 30, 2026.

Bilbrey highlights several revealing moments from the discussion of the proposed 2027 budget for Prairie Creek Reservoir.

He also offers more on the Delaware County Republican Party and what he views as its ongoing effort to influence Muncie City Council leadership ahead of the October 5, 2026, meeting.

Finally, the spotlight returns to Winchester, Indiana, where Bilbrey reviews public records he received from City Clerk-Treasurer Kerry Sayre and explains what they reveal about the VOA "Winchester House" disaster.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 742: https://youtube.com/live/jQJU7lEv33k

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#741 | Tuesday, September 29, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0400

Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey covers political developments in three communities across east-central Indiana in this 741st episode of The Political Spotlight.

If you live, work, or play in Muncie, Winchester, and/or Henry County, this episode is for you! If you're tired of political nonsense and want to hear how others are fighting back, this episode is for you! Or if you like it when someone calls the balls and strikes as they should be, tune in; this episode is for you!

First up, Bilbrey examines an unusual social media post from the Delaware County Republican Party promoting the upcoming Muncie City Council meeting on Monday, October 5, 2026.

It's not just a meeting reminder; it reads more like a "call to action"! Bilbrey views the post as the latest sign of what he believes has been a yearlong effort by the local Republican Party to influence—and potentially take control of—the Muncie City Council's leadership.

From there, Bilbrey turns to emails he received from Muncie City Councilors Nora Powell (D-District 2) and Sara Gullion (D-District 4) regarding the two recent Finance Committee meetings on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, and Thursday, September 24, 2026.

He also reminds citizens that the committee has one final budget meeting on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, before the full council takes up the proposed 2027 budget at its Monday, October 5, 2026, meeting.

Then, once again, the spotlight shifts east to Winchester, Indiana, as Bilbrey shares the response to a public-records request he sent to Clerk-Treasurer Kerry Sayre seeking answers about who controls the city's official Facebook page—and, more specifically, who was responsible for a controversial post last week that left citizens up in arms.

Bilbrey shares what he learned and explains why, in his view, the response confirms what he has long known about Mayor Bob McCoy.

Finally, Bilbrey wraps up the program in Henry County by sharing a list of questions he sent to Democratic sheriff candidate David Bockover, as The Political Spotlight continues preparing for the upcoming 2026 general election season.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 741: https://youtube.com/live/IA1VfHdl8Pg

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#738 | Wednesday, September 23, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0400

Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey is nearing his breaking point...

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 738: https://youtube.com/live/6nrU7B7sc8I

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#737 | Tuesday, September 22, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0400

In this 737th episode of The Political Spotlight, Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey takes a close look at several local-government meetings across East Central Indiana — and there is plenty to discuss!

Bilbrey begins with the first Muncie City Council Finance Committee meeting, held earlier this evening, Tuesday, September 22, 2026, as councilors began reviewing the proposed 2027 city budget.

Before delving into the meeting itself, a few questions need answering.

Who knew what, and when did they know it? Who was informed about the meeting, how were they informed, and who might have been left out of the loop?

Bilbrey offers insight into what he believes is ongoing "game play" by the Ridenour Administration and inept Council leadership.

Then there is the meeting itself.

What should have been an opportunity for serious discussion of Muncie's financial future became, in Bilbrey's view, an absolute MOCKERY of the budget process!

From there, Bilbrey turns to the Delaware County Commissioners' meeting on Monday morning, September 21, 2026, where he shares his thoughts on the county's "letter of intent" for nuclear energy, specifically small modular reactors (SMRs).

Finally, the spotlight returns to Winchester, Indiana, where Monday evening's Winchester City Council meeting addressed the former Volunteers of America (VOA) Winchester House facility at 313 South Meridian Street.

Bilbrey shares his thoughts on the latest development and what he has done since the last show.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 737: https://youtube.com/live/l6QcTa2dIfo

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#734 | Wednesday, September 16, 2026 - (PART 2) | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0400

This is Episode 734, Part 2, the conclusion, of The Political Spotlight's two-part look at the completely "OFF THE RAILS" Muncie City Council meeting.

In this episode, Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey will conclude his detailed commentary and analysis of everything that happened—including the highs and lows, the winners and losers, the status of major issues, and what comes next for Muncie. Specifically, Bilbrey will cover:

The Council's discussion, public input, and first vote on Ordinance 19-26, which would amend Ordinance 16-25, the City of Muncie's salary ordinance.
The Council's discussion, public input, and first votes on Ordinances 20-26, 21-26, and 22-26, the three proposed budget ordinances for MITS, the MSD, and the city.
The Council's discussion, public input, and vote on Resolutions 13-26 and 14-26. Resolution 13-26 asks the Council to investigate how the city and George-Jeffrey Howe handled his contract. Resolution 14-26 is a memorial resolution honoring Craig Wright, who passed away.
The Public Comments portion of the meeting.

That concludes Part 2 - Episode 734. As a reminder, in Part 1, Episode 733, which aired on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, Bilbrey covered the following topics:

The Public Hearing before the regular meeting, during which Ordinances 20-26, 21-26, and 22-26 were made public "on the record," and citizens were allowed to speak on each ordinance if they wished!
The start of the regular meeting and the housekeeping issues addressed before the Ordinances and Resolutions were discussed.
The Council's discussion, public input, and first vote on Ordinance 16-26, a zoning issue.
The Council's discussion, public input, and first vote on Ordinance 17-26, which seeks to expand the Designated Outdoor Refreshment Areas in Downtown Muncie. A nonissue the Council spent too much time on, unlike serious issues they try to push through with little time or thought.
The Council's discussion, public input, and first vote on Ordinance 18-26, the "In God We Trust" Ordinance, the meeting's first major issue. Citizens and the Council trade blows, and, of course, Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour shows up with an attitude. The Council continues to show just how backward they are on nearly everything.

Episode 733 - Part 1 LINK: https://youtube.com/live/Qnl-61qySz8 . . .

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 734: https://youtube.com/live/BBNSXba_8_w

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#733 | Tuesday, September 15, 2026 - (PART 1) | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0400

Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey reviews the completely "OFF THE RAILS" Muncie City Council meeting, including a public hearing held before the regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday, September 14, 2026.

Bilbrey analyzes the meeting's proceedings in this two-part series: Part 1 - Episode 733, aired Tuesday, September 15, 2026, and Part 2 - Episode 734, aired Wednesday, September 16, 2026.

In this 733rd episode (Part 1), Bilbrey provides a comprehensive breakdown of the important September 14, 2026, Muncie City Council meeting, beginning with the Public Hearing on the three "Budget Ordinances" 20-26 for the Muncie Indiana Transit System (MITS), 21-26 for the Muncie Sanitary District (MSD), and 22-26 for the City of Muncie. Bilbrey has been concerned that the council's current leadership would strip six of the nine councilors from the Finance Committee, returning to the old 3-person Finance Committee, which makes no sense and would be an extremely partisan move.

Bilbrey and City Councilor William McIntosh both support keeping the entire council involved in the budget process. But not everyone on the council sees it the same way.

From there, Bilbrey's review turns to the regular meeting, where he explains the document the council's attorney presents to the council and the public at the start. Bilbrey fully supports it!

Next, Bilbrey covers the discussion of Ordinances 16-26, 17-26, and 18-26.

Ordinance 16-26 is pretty simple, yet the council, being as incompetent as they are, manages to screw it up.

Ordinance 17-26 is another non-issue; however, the council spends a good amount of time discussing it, and Bilbrey shares his thoughts.

To wrap up Part 1 - Episode 733, Bilbrey covers Ordinance 18-26, the "In God We Trust" Ordinance, the meeting's first major issue. Citizens and the Council trade blows, and, of course, Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour shows up with an attitude. The Council continues to show just how backward they are on nearly everything.

This concludes Part 1 - Episode 733.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

In Part 2 - Episode 734, Bilbrey will conclude his analysis and commentary on the September 14, 2026, Muncie City Council Meeting, including:

The Council's discussion, public input, and first vote on Ordinance 19-26, which would amend Ordinance 16-25, the City of Muncie's salary ordinance.
The Council's discussion, public input, and first votes on Ordinances 20-26, 21-26, and 22-26, the three proposed budget ordinances for MITS, the MSD, and the city.
The Council's discussion, public input, and vote on Resolutions 13-26 and 14-26. Resolution 13-26 asks the Council to investigate how the city and George-Jeffrey Howe handled his contract. Resolution 14-26 is a memorial resolution honoring Craig Wright, who passed away.
The Public Comments portion of the meeting.

Episode 734 - Part 2 LINK: https://youtube.com/live/BBNSXba_8_w . . .

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 733: https://youtube.com/live/Qnl-61qySz8

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#732 | Sunday, September 13, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0400

Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey looks ahead to a busy week in local politics — starting with the Muncie City Council meeting on Monday, September 14, 2026.

Bilbrey previews what to expect, shares his thoughts on several issues likely to shape the meeting, and offers a broader look at the current state of Muncie City Council leadership.

How will the council conduct itself during the meeting?

How will current leadership address the issues at hand?

What should citizens expect from the council as the budget season and the city's day-to-day operations continue?

Only time will tell!

From there, Bilbrey turns to the ongoing issues involving Delaware Township Trustee Denise Thornburg and Attorney John Brooke.

A lot is going on in Delaware Township, and Bilbrey breaks down the latest developments, the personalities involved, the broader questions about local government, legal strategy, and accountability, and how strange the situation has been.

Then the show heads south to Henry County, where Bilbrey offers commentary on the two sheriff candidates and what voters should watch for as the race unfolds.

Finally, as election season rapidly approaches, Bilbrey begins outlining how The Political Spotlight plans to cover candidates from across the region and beyond.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 732: https://youtube.com/live/gwP1CcKMZ2M

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#730 | Wednesday, September 09, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, & Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight) — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 21:00:00 -0400

In this 730th episode of The Political Spotlight, Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey turns his attention back to Muncie City government and several developments from Wednesday, September 9, 2026.

He begins with a review of this morning's Muncie Board of Works meeting. At 11 and a half minutes, the meeting was longer than usual, and there are likely a few points of interest that need to be covered, or uncovered!

Next, Bilbrey shares his thoughts on Ordinance 18-26 (the "In God We Trust" Ordinance), which the council will consider at the Monday, September 14, 2026, meeting.

From there, Bilbrey reviews Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour's community update from this afternoon — particularly the mayor's strong support for Flock license-plate reader cameras and his declaration that the City of Muncie intends to embrace the technology.

Bilbrey, of course, takes issue with that position, arguing that Ridenour approaches the surveillance question from an extremely unconservative perspective.

At a time when communities across the country, including in Indiana, are raising serious questions about privacy, government surveillance, data sharing, abuse, oversight, and constitutional liberty, Bilbrey asks why Muncie seems determined to move in the opposite direction.

The discussion then turns to the proposed 2027 Muncie budget.

For the past several years, all nine members of the Muncie City Council have participated in a series of budget meetings to work through the mayor's proposed spending plan. Will that process continue this year?

Given the current council leadership structure — and the political dynamics surrounding it — Bilbrey is not convinced the process will play out the same way.

Speaking of City Council leadership, Bilbrey shares his thoughts on what the council may look like next year. Who should hold the leadership positions, and who does Bilbrey believe will? What will those choices mean for the council's direction?

Finally, Bilbrey shares a quick update on a development related to the ongoing McKinley neighborhood situation that occurred today.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

VIDEO version of Ep 730: https://youtube.com/live/DqDETItnSVU

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Subscribe: https://bit.ly/subTPS
Become a Member: https://bit.ly/MembershipTPS
Merch: https://bit.ly/Spotlight_Merch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE
(Sunday — Thursday at 9 p.m. ET)

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight

Audio Podcast: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm
& All Other Podcast Hosting Sites

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━