Voters in six Howard County townships will have the opportunity in November to determine if the townships should consolidate.
Several of the township boards failed to act within 30 days to approve or reject a consolidation plan.
That plan was adopted on Feb. 23, and the township boards were required by state law to act by March 23.
“If a legislative body does not adopt a resolution ... within the one-month period, the failure to adopt a resolution is considered to be an approval of the final plan of reorganization,” language in state law reads.
Howard County Clerk Kim Wilson said she will include the referendum vote on the consolidation on the Nov. 6 ballot.
A group of township officials have been meeting for more than a year to develop a plan to reduce the number of townships in the county from 11 to five by Jan. 1, 2015.
The plan was to consolidate the townships along the school boundaries.
Center and Taylor townships will remain stand alone based on the school districts. Howard, Clay and Ervin townships would consolidate based on the Northwestern school boundaries; Liberty, Jackson and Union townships would merge along the Eastern school boundaries.
The intent was to reduce the number of elected officials from 11 trustees and 33 board members to five trustees and 15 board members. There would have been one township board member elected from each township in the new alignment.
The Clay and Howard township boards have voted to place the consolidation issue on the November ballot for approval.
But the Ervin board voted against consolidation and the Union Township board has not acted.
By statute if the board rejected the consolidation plan, it was required to notify the public of the action to allow time for 10 percent of the property owners in the township to sign a petition in favor of a referendum vote.
Center Township Trustee Jean Lushin said if the townships rejected the resolution for consolidation it was required to notify the clerk’s office to allow property owners to start a petition drive.
“As far as I’m concerned the six townships should be on the ballot,” he said. “Put it on the ballot and let the voters decide.
“They didn’t act in a timely fashion,” Lushin said, “it was supposed to be acted on within 30 days.”
Lushin was chairman of the township group that worked on the consolidation plan. He said there will be no consolidation in the Western school district because Honey Creek and Monroe townships didn’t participate.
Jocena Schafer, Howard Township Trustee, said the board was in favor of consolidation.
Schafer said she wouldn’t run for the new trustee’s position if the townships consolidated.
In the Eastern school district, Liberty Township has requested a referendum vote.
Trustee Linda Grove said it was a unanimous vote by the board following a public hearing on consolidation.
“I favor the consolidation,” she said. “It will be a good change, I don’t see any issues. It will save money.”
Grove said she intends to run for the trustee position if the three townships merge.
Union Township Trustee Steve Carpenter said the township board may consider the consolidation issue next week, well past the March 23 deadline.
“There are a lot of pros and cons,” he said.
Carpenter said he won’t run for trustee if the townships consolidate believing it’s too much for one person.
“There will need to be a bigger office and the hiring of more staff,” he said.
If voters approve of any of the consolidations in the November election, the first election of a merged township board and one trustee would take place in November 2014. The new government entity would begin existence on Jan. 1, 2015.
Last year during a meeting with the Kokomo Tribune, Gov. Mitch Daniels called the Howard County effort an interesting idea and one being talked about elsewhere in the state.
The governor has been a vocal supporter of local government reform and reducing the number of townships in Indiana.
Daniels said he has no problem with the approach of consolidating along the school boundaries.
"If Howard County took the lead and it's seen as a successful step forward, then it would be imitated elsewhere," Daniels said.