House Bill 1234 which is now in the senate, seeks to enact some of the controvesial measures proposed by the Kernan-Shephard report. These recommendations are designed to streamline local government and in many cases cede much of their control over to the state. The one the bill's main functions was the elimination the three member Board of County Commissioners which would be replaced by a single elected County Executive. This plan was halted in committee today with a bipartisan amendment to put the final decision in the Board of Commissioners itself. According to the new amendment the Board has four options; they enact the legislation, put the legislation up for a referendum vote, reject legislation, or appoint a county board of supervisors.
Former St Joseph Republican County Commissioner Mark Dobson was in favor of the legislation citing that it would better streamline government. Critics of this bill -- and many of the other Kernan-Shephard recommenations -- say that this would hurt the checks and balances that are currently provided for in the commissioner system. Mitch Daniels appointed former Governor Joe Kernan and Chief Justice Randall Shephard to a commission in 2006 to find ways to streamline local governments in Indiana in order to save the state money. Many experts say that even if all of the recommendations were enacted, there would be very little monetary savings on the part of governments and would reduce acountabilty of the electorate by creating a stronger central state government.
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The current setup is one of the strangest I've ever seen. Governments typically have legislative and executive branches. The executive branch has a chief executive ie Mayor, Governor, President...not the three-headed monster our county government has. The legislative vs. executive branches provide the checks and balances.
ReplyDeleteThe current crew will all vote to retain their jobs - they've made that quite clear.
And so it goes.