Soon, Hoosiers will have fewer reasons to suspect their local government’s decisions are unduly influenced by conflicts of interest.
The reforms enacted by the Indiana Legislature should strengthen the public’s trust, and are long overdue.
The bill sent by lawmakers to Gov. Mitch Daniels’ desk prohibits employees of local government units from serving as elected officials on the councils that oversee those units. The bill also forbids local government office holders from directly supervising relatives. Nepotism and glaring conflicts of interest have been perpetuated simply through resistance to change. Daniels was right on target last year when he said, “The conflict of interest when double-dipping government workers simultaneously sit on city or county councils, interrogating their own supervisors and deciding their own salaries, must end.”
The legislation falls far short of the comprehensive reform of local government recommended in 2007 by the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform headed by former Indiana Supreme Court Justice Randall Shepard and former Gov. Joe Kernan. Daniels endorsed the commission’s 27 recommendations, but the Legislature dug in its heels over attempts to more broadly streamline Indiana’s antiquated system of township and county government, which includes more than 3,000 units.
The enactment of the nepotism and conflict-of-interest components of the commission’s reform plan deserves applause, though.
As Daniels said in his 2011 State of the State address, “Some of the [commission’s recommended] changes are so obvious that our failure to make them is a daily embarrassment.”
The changes won’t happen immediately. The law is due to take effect next January, but its provisions allow public officials who assumed their duties before that date to complete their terms. It will have an impact on future elections, though. Individuals pursuing, for example, city council seats will not be able to hold that position while also working for a public entity the council governs.
In terms of nepotism, Vigo County has made progress in recent years by reducing the preferential hiring of family members in local government jobs. The conflict-of-interest portion of the new law will be noticeable here and elsewhere in the state. Terre Haute, Muncie, Indianapolis, South Bend, East Chicago and many other cities have witnessed the undesirable situations where a public employee who doubles as a city council member votes to raise his or her own pay and benefits. In many cases, those public officials rejected calls for them to, at least, abstain in such votes.
Such blatant conflicts of interest by politicians leave citizens wondering whether the officials’ primary concern is the public good or the office holders’ own self-interest. Even the appearance of conflict erodes faith that government is acting prudently and with consideration for all constituents and taxpayers.
This bill, which was awaiting the governor’s signature on Friday, should bring a refreshing change and a healthier sense of civic confidence.
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