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By VICKI URBANIK Small library systems would be gone, township government would be a thing of the past, and the three county commissioners would be replaced by a single elected county executive who would have sweeping authority over services now handled by other elected officials, under the recommendations contained in a much-anticipated state report released this morning. Titled “Streamlining Local Government: We've got to stop governing like this,” the report makes 27 specific recommendations that focuses largely on consolidation: Indiana’s currently 3,086 elected officials would be pared down to just 1,931, with their duties transferred or melded into the other offices that remain. The report, authored by the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform co-chaired by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard, focuses on paring down and consolidating county government, libraries, township government, and small school districts. Except in the area of public safety, it does not call for the consolidation of town or city services. Local Libraries Attacked The report, available online at www.indianalocalgovreform.iu.edu, is just what the Westchester Public Library and its supporters feared: The report recommends consolidating all library systems into single county systems in order to “achieve additional economies of scale within administrative and purchasing expenditures.” The library recommendation comes despite ample public support for smaller library systems. In addition to the outcry locally over the possible loss of the Westchester Public Library, the commission’s website includes plenty of comments from people opposed to library consolidation. For example, comments favoring small libraries appear on nearly every one of the commission’s 53 pages of public comments from the latter half of October. County Super Mayors Proposed The duties for overseeing the new, reorganized county library system would fall upon the new county executive, a single elected post which would replace the three county commissioners in each county. The new county executive would have a myriad of other duties as well, functioning almost like a super mayor of counties. The executive would oversee appointed, administrative positions that are now elected posts: Auditor, treasurer, recorder, assessor, surveyor, sheriff and coroner. The county clerk’s duties would be transferred to the courts, the county election board, and the new county executive. The only elected county official considered administrative that would remain an elected post would be that of the county prosecutor. The new executive would also assume all responsibilities now at the township level -- including assessment, poor relief, fire protection, and cemeteries.
The report also calls for county councils to expand, with each county given the option to establish a seven, nine or eleven member council with three at-large seats and representation from the rural, urban and suburban segments of the county. The report also calls for the creation of a countywide body to oversee all public safety services in counties, including police patrol, fire fighting, emergency medical services, crime investigation, jail maintenance and operation, and 911 dispatch. This new county entity would be chaired and administered by the new county executive. The report recommends giving only the executive and the mayors in the county voting authority on this new public safety entity. Further, the report calls for the consolidation of emergency public safety dispatch, either by county or in a multi-county region. As they unveiled their report this morning on a live webcast, Kernan and Shepard said the time to reform the way that Indiana government works is now, with both citing a sense of urgency for change. “All of this is more expensive than it needs to be, “Shepard said of the costs of having more than 3,000 elected positions. Noting what appears to be momentum in Indiana to reform how government works, Shepard said he feels that this might be a “special moment” in Indiana’s history to make lasting reforms, some of which have been discussed for years. Kernan said the reasoning behind having a single county executive handle so many duties now handled by other elected officials is to streamline government and establish a clear chain of command. “You wouldn’t run GM with three chief executives,” he said. Kernan said the report’s recommendation to eliminate the elected post of sheriff might be the one most unexpected. But he added that the post of county sheriff is the only elected law enforcement officer in the country. From the head of the FBI to the local police chief, no one who oversees law enforcement is elected, except for the sheriff, he said. Shepard said that some of the changes will be “very disruptive and painful” to carry out, especially by those who have a vested interest in keeping the status quo. But he added, “the status quo in local government is not good enough.” The report envisions a phase-in of its recommendations, with all the changes in place by 2011. With the exception of the county assessor, Indiana would have to amend its constitution in order to do away with the elected posts of auditor, sheriff and the other positions. The report recommends beginning the process to amend the constitution in the upcoming session of the Indiana General Assembly. At the same time, the report said that legislative action could be taken to establish the post of county executive and to begin to transfer the others’ duties to this position. Other recommendations in the report include: •Transfer the funding for all trial courts to the state, including public defenders and probation officers. The report says the fiscal impact on the state should be manageable, since state funds, courts costs and fees already finance much of the court expenses. •Transfer the funding of child welfare services from counties to the state. This specific recommendation is not new, having already been proposed by both Gov. Mitch Daniels and a legislative commission as part of their property tax reform proposals. During county budget hearings this year, some members of the Porter County Council strongly opposed the practice of having the county fund state-administered programs for victims of child abuse and neglect. •Reorganize school districts so that no system serves fewer than 2,000 students. In Porter County, this recommendation would affect the systems in Union, Boone and Porter townships. •Require that school corporation bonds are approved by the fiscal body of the municipal or county government with the greatest proportion of assessed value in the school district.
•Conduct all school elections in November in even years. Similarly, move all municipal elections to even-year election cycles. The report notes that moving these elections would save money and could prompt greater voter participation. •Require the budgets and bonds of the county library system to be approved by the fiscal body of the municipal or county government with the greatest proportion of assessed value. •Prohibit employees of a local government unit from serving as elected officials within the same local government unit.
•Direct the state to monitor and assist counties in implementing the changes.
Posted 12/12/2007.
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