A South Bend Common Council member is joining a blogger in calling for a public disciplinary process against Council Member Sheila Niezgodski for allegedly assaulting the blogger after a meeting earlier this year.
It all came to a head moments after the council’s May 13 meeting. As he had been doing for months, local blogger Logan Foster had just finished speaking in the public comments that are allowed at the end of the meeting. Foster was again saying that Niezgodski has a conflict of interest because her family plumbing business has contracts with the city.
Video shows Niezgodski get up from her seat and quickly walk to where Foster was standing. Council President Sharon McBride can be seen restraining Niezgodski, who said Foster was harassing her. Foster has said she raised a hand at him. The video doesn’t show that.
Council Member Oliver Davis says the public deserves to know whether Niezgodski will be disciplined. Davis said McBride held a Rules Committee meeting in executive session July 1 to discuss the incident but he wasn’t allowed to attend because McBride only allowed committee members in. Davis says all council members historically have been allowed to attend executive sessions that committees hold, regardless of whether they’re on the committee.
At Monday night’s meeting, Foster and his supporters again spoke during public comments, asking for transparency. Davis said they’re right.
"The more she ignores it, people come to our council and they fuss at us, and rightly so," Davis said. "They say, you all are not doing nothing. We have had to sit through meeting after meeting after meeting, and we'll continue to have to sit through meetings, until that's done."
McBride did not immediately respond to our interview request.
