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McBride’s Mixed Messages Highlights Elected Officials’ Disdain and Disregard for the Public and Potentially Implicates Other Democrats in City and St. Joseph County.

OPINION February 4, 2025 by  Rexworth E.F. Washington In reading the entire lawsuit filed by District 3 resident Brian S. Collier against Sharon McBride, one thing is clear: Collier is tired of politics as usual. Collier describes himself as a lifelong Democrat who filed the lawsuit after hearing repeated claims that McBride was living elsewhere after he tried to knock on his Councilperson’s (McBride’s) door to get an issue resolved and after sending letters to McBride that was never answered. Once Collier read the testimony in McBride’s lawsuit against her insurance company, it was clear to him that someone needed to speak up “and put an end to this chicanery.” 


“I was excited by the slate of candidates at the Westside Club (the Westside Democratic Club) on Dyngus Day,” Collier says. “I did not like that the party blindly supported the incumbent in the mayoral race that year, and I liked it even less that they ran a large ticket or slate of candidates together, but I understood from a financial standpoint that this made sense.” Collier claims that if any candidates knew that McBride was running and had not lived in her district, they may be complicit in committing election fraud. According to Collier, McBride residing out of district is tantamount to election fraud. If the Democratic Party knowingly sponsored and supported her and any candidates who ran with her who knew about her housing and residency situation, then there is larger scale fraud that needs serious investigation, and Collier says that he hopes that State Attorney General and other officials will launch an investigation into these matters.

“My political party (Democrats) have insisted since the first Trump administration that there is no election fraud. If they want to have the moral high ground, they need to be much more transparent and forthright in these matters and be much more responsive to the public when questions arise.” – Brian S. Collier

McBride helped to pass and author bonuses for South Bend employees who lived within the city. These $2000 bonuses are contingent upon verification of a person residing at the address in the town. These bonuses or incentives are similar to those in other parts of the state and even in other midwestern communities. That said, it would seem that McBride would have a strong understanding of residency and residency requirements, and while she is residing in the city, she is not living according to her own sworn testimony within her council district, which is a requirement for holding that office and more importantly a requirement for running for that office. 

“If McBride perjured herself in sworn testimony in a lawsuit she brought against her insurance company, she is not fit to hold office. Or, if McBride does not and did not live at the home in District 3 prior to the last election, as she testified, then she has committed election fraud. It seems pretty clear-cut that either way, the other members of the Common Council should remove her. If they won’t act, then it is incumbent upon ‘we the people’ to take action.”  - Brian S. Collier

When asked about the Democratic party claiming that there is not a residency problem for McBride, he responded, "(i)t’s not the Democratic party’s seat; the seat belongs to the residents of District 3." Collier said that the party claiming that this was all ‘okay, shows a kind disdain for process and the public.’ Notably, when Randy Kelly held the District 3 seat and moved out of the District, the party asked him to resign, and in fact, McBride was selected to have the seat for the remainder of Kelly’s term. Since McBride was appointed to the seat vacated by Kelly, she certainly is aware of this process according to Collier’s suit, which can be viewed online. 


Collier’s complaint names Shay Davis of the Mayor’s office as possibly being a conspirator in these matters, as she clearly provided an estimate for McBride to reside in Davis’s Airbnb property for part of this timeframe, meaning she understood that McBride was not living in her district, this can be found in the exhibits of McBride’s lawsuit against her own insurance company. If Davis knew that McBride was not residing at home in District 3 and had to move more permanently in with her mother, it would be necessary for Davis to inform her boss, Mayor James Mueller, who ran on a platform with McBride as well as Bianca Tirado (who with this slate of candidates unseated an incumbent), Rachel Tomas Morgan, and others. 


“This is not personal,” Collier says, “in fact, I’d be happy to see McBride run for an at-large-seat or for a seat once her residency is solidified by returning to the property she owns in the 3rd District and resides there for six consecutive months prior to an election as the rules state or even from the district where she now resides with her mother.” Collier asserts it’s not that Ms. McBride is a good or bad public servant; it’s about the party and McBride being bad actors and not being transparent or being available to answer questions. 

“In an era of extreme partisan politics, if citizens cannot get their representatives to respond to their issues and needs, then the system has failed entirely. If we cannot access or be heard by representatives in our own districts or even from our political party, then the entire American experiment is failing.” – Brian S. Collier

In an era with fewer local news sources and reporters assigned to specific local issues, Collier feels like there are not enough people paying attention to local or national matters and says that as citizens, this means ‘we must then rely on the courts to hear issues, and as patriots, citizens must ask the hard questions of their governments and hold the government accountable. Collier says, “If we can’t get this right at the local level, there is no hope for us at the national or international level, so as citizens, we must be vigilant and hold the government accountable whether it is our political party or any other political party.” 


Attorneys for the Common Council and McBride have tried to, in Collier’s words, ‘old mansplain’ that McBride is not guilty in these matters; however, Collier says that they have not responded or offered an explanation when presented with specific local and state laws. “It’s incredibly frustrating to watch our local government play defense time and time again in all matters instead of just acting transparently, but what’s more frustrating is having a bevy of attorneys in our community act as if the mere fact of them having gone to law school somehow justifies their opinions.” Collier says, "(n)obody elected any of the lawyers in these matters, and I just want public officials to do the jobs we elected them to do instead of deferring to unelected lawyers who are paid by the hour and practice billing obstructionism rather than promoting the common good.” 


Collier says, “I just want my elected officials to follow the rules and understand their jobs… if I had more wishes, I’d wish that they would be creative, proactive, transparent, and spend more time doing their jobs than trying to keep their jobs.” 


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All opinions and views in this piece are attributed to the author and are not necessarily the thoughts or opinions of Redress South Bend. 


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