Niki Kelly has an article on the upcoming change to Daylight Saving Time on April 2.  Bar owners will lose an hour of business. Microsoft’s Outlook has some problems in addition to the normal, and all Hoosier business systems will have to be reset. I’m still a little puzzled as to why it was supposedly such a big deal for foreign companies to adjust their systems to Indiana time that DST was essential for jobs, but it is trivial — barely worth discussing, really — for Hoosiers to adjust their systems to Eastern Daylight Time.

Gov. Daniels has been making fun of the counties struggling with the mess he made, comparing Martin and Pulaski counties to “Emiliy Litella” — the Gilda Radner character famous for misunderstanding situations, then saying “never mind.” Bill Blomquist, a political science professor from IUPUI believes the issue will affect few House races.

“Perhaps I am Pollyannaish, … but I honestly think once people have that additional hour in the evening for a summer they’re going to like it and then they are going to turn their clocks back right before Election Day and they are going to say, ‘That wasn’t such a big deal,’ ” he said.

We’ll see. What we do know is that it was a big enough deal when Indiana dabbled with DST in the past to get Hoosiers to opt out. Maybe enough has changed in the ensuing decades to make Hoosiers complacent about the change. Anectdotally, I’ve spoken with people for whom time change is utterly foreign. It will be interesting to see how they react to the Governor and his supporters arbitrarily changing a system that worked well enough for the last 30 years.

The Indy Star has a DST article in today’s paper that mostly looks at Martin County and the town of Shoals Indiana. Of more interest to me was poll information in the sidebar. Of Daniels claim that DST was necessary to improve the economy, only 16% of Hoosiers believe that the shift will have a major economic impact, and only 21% think DST is a change for the better.

The Journal & Courier has an article on the Pulaski time zone issue that does a good job of explaining the bind in which Pulaski County was put:

Frain explained the confusion arose when the Department of Transportation asked county leaders last year what time zone they wanted to observe.

Pulaski leaders asked for Central after seeing that many nearby counties would do so.

“We didn’t want to be the doughnut hole,” Frain said.

But the federal government in January ruled that Pulaski and its northern neighbor, Starke County, would go to Central time, while denying the change to Carroll, Cass, Fulton, Marshall and White counties.

Hopefully the Governor will read that explanation and realize that Pulaski County’s back and forth on the time zone is not because they’re indecisive dimwits, as he implied, but was directly caused by his half-baked approach to time zones and poor decision making when he refused to recognize that the time zone question is inextricably linked to the Daylight Saving Time question.

From Shella’s Blog:

The governor’s Line of the Day at today’s media availability came in reference to the Indiana counties that requested a move to the Central time zone and now wish to remain Eastern.  He called them “Emily Littella counties.” Emily Littella is the Gilda Radner character on Saturday Night Live known for saying, “Never mind!” I feel the explanation is necessary because it was clear in the governor’s office that not everybody got it. The younger reporters and staff members seemed baffled by the reference.

You know, that’s not a bad joke as political jokes go. But Governor Daniels is in a uniquely bad position to make it. It was his lack of leadership and ever shifting positions on time zones that got Pulaski County into this fix.

I don’t know if I ever posted the results of local time zone activity in Pulaski County. As readers may recall, Pulaski County was in the eastern time zone and petitioned to be placed in the central time zone. It was preliminarily denied along with a number of neighboring counties. Pulaski County took no further action. While the neighboring counties that were preliminarily denied were left in the eastern time zone, the USDOT (somewhat inexplicably) reversed course and put Pulaski County in the central time zone.

According to the February 8, 2006 edition of the Pulaski County Journal and Independent, a joint meeting of the Pulaski County Commissioners and Council decided to submit a new petition to be moved back into eastern and to exercise “home rule” and simply observe eastern time until the USDOT acts on their new petition and presumably do so even if the USDOT rules against them.

The following quote appeared at the end of the story. It’s unattributed, so I presume it’s from Scott Allen, the author of the story:

Now that Pulaski County knows for certain what time its clocks will read this summer, we can only hope that the U.S. Department of Transportation changes its mind in support of what the citizens have overwhelmingly spoken in favor. If not, the county will have its home rule, and will remain on Eastern Time, for the benefit of our people.

The story mentions not a word about whether the county has the authority to make such a decision by virtue of “home rule” or otherwise. Indiana’s home rule statute certainly provides no such authority. Time zones are pretty clearly within the sound discretion of the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation.

That’s the background. Marty Lucas of bigeastern was kind enough to point me to a March 22, 2006 blurb on the WKVI website. It says:

Because of the confusing time situation in Pulaski County, this spring’s primary election may be conducted on “central” time.

County Clerk Janet Kennedy told WKVI Thursday she has been informed that if Pulaski County has not been “officially” moved to the Eastern Time Zone be primary election….it must be held on Central Time.

So, if the county adheres to Home Rule Eastern Time, polls will be open there from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Is that Eastern Standard Time, Eastern Daylight Time, or Central Daylight Time?

Not that voters are likely to forget, but the state legislators who created this mess can’t welcome a reminder that has a direct impact on the process of voting. Mary Kay Budak had her votes in the right place, consistently voting “no” to Daylight saving Time, but Eric Gutwein voted against it once before casting 4 votes in favor of DST. (On the other hand, checking the Secretary of State’s primary list, Rep. Gutwein doesn’t appear to have either a primary or general election challenger. So much for accountability at the polls.)

WSBT is reporting that Pulaski will continue with its plans to go renegade and observe Eastern Time despite placement by the USDOT in Central time. I’m paraphrasing of course. The WSBT story is short, so I’ll post it below:

Pulaski County says it will continue with its plans to make Eastern
Time the official time in the county. The federal government says it is
reviewing the county’s request to be put on Eastern time, not Central.

But
it says the county’s plans would be a violation of federal law. The
county says the intent wasn’t to defy the federal government, but to
make things easier for citizens.

County leaders do say federal
offices, such as the post office, will have to run on Central Time in April and the May Primary Election in the county will be run on Central
Time.

Hey, if Governor Daniels can break the law by opposing St. Joseph County’s petition to be on Central Time when the State was required to support such a petition, I guess Pulaski County can follow his scofflaw example.

The Indiana Business Journal has a story on the problems Indiana businesses are having with switching their computers so they all are prepared for Indiana observing Daylight Saving Time.

Appointment calendars in some of these popular applications are programmed to automatically reschedule appointments set prior to April 2 for an hour later after the time changes. So for example, a 9 a.m. appointment you schedule this month for April 18 will show up on the Outlook calendar as 10 a.m. when the big day rolls around.

Business deals dashed. Careers ruined. Expect a run on job applications at Wal-Mart.

“There’s going to be a lot of companies hurting on April 2,” said Marc Cornejo, the top tech at Indianapolis logistics firm Langham. “… It took five years to fix Y2K and for a lot of companies this is almost as bad.”

And unlike the furor over possible computer glitches at the turn of the century, relatively few companies are aware of the computer issues that will surface only a few weeks from now.

It’s not as if this was unforseen, however. As one universally beloved blogger said on April 12, 2005:

[A] Star Editorial approving DST says that DST is an “important push” for Indiana’s economy. (Though I haven’t yet heard an explanation of why these big businesses can keep track of time in Japan –which doesn’t follow DST– but not Indiana. Also I haven’t heard why out of state businesses simply can’t relocate here because of the burden of changing their business systems whereas thousands of Hoosier businesses can change their business systems in 2 months, no problem. As I’ve said before, it’s primarily a sign of disrespect from those in other states — they simply don’t care enough to remember Indiana’s time and a sign of low self-esteem on the part of proponents in that they see Hoosier uniqueness as badges of inferiority rather than simply as differences or sources of pride.)

Or on April 17, 2005:

Proponents have loudly proclaimed the economic and business advantages of being on DST. But, despite the proclamations, there doesn’t seem to be a lot data supporting this proposition. For the most part from what I’ve heard, it seems like business leaders get teased by their colleagues in other states, and that has as much to do with it as the cost of revamping business systems. (After all, if this passes, thousands of Indiana businesses will have to revamp their systems, and the legislature doesn’t seem to be giving that expense, which they would be mandating, a second thought.)

The Lafayette Journal & Courier offers us a time zone exhaustion editorial:

The issues of daylight savings time and what time
zone Indiana should be in have been discussed, dissected and cross
examined. Is there really anything more to say?

If only this weariness had set in during the 30 years when opponents of the system that served us for those decades offered DST legislation year after year. Pretty convenient that it sets in the year after Daylight Saving Time squeaked through.

In any event, it is not so much about saying more about the subject. It’s about giving the citizens of Indiana a vote on the subject. Keep in mind that the DST legislation was passed on the strength of Rep. Troy Woodruff’s vote after he promised to “never” vote for Daylight Saving Time and a fragmented time zone with the majority of the state being on Eastern Daylight Time signed into law by a Governor who said on the campaign trail that he favored statewide Central Daylight Time.

Now, it’s a stretch to conclude that voters voted for candidates based on their opposition to DST or preference for Central Time, particularly, but certainly we cannot conclude that the result we have is the “will of the people” when elected representatives acted contrary to their stated positions. At least Rep. Crooks proposal, which the Journal & Courier finds so exhausting, would allow the people to have their say.

Martin County had a meeting earlier this week populated mainly by people disgruntled by the coming move from the Eastern Time Zone to the Central Time Zone. That is of some interest, but the line coming out of the Governor’s office is breathtaking (at least to a guy like me who has been following the time issue fairly closely):

Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office, besides taking the heat from local residents for what they consider forcing each county to make these decisions, has stated in the past, and reiterated this morning, that the administration will back counties regardless of which zone they choose. From the beginning the governor has said local leaders and residents should have the opportunity to decide for themselves the time zone they prefer, and that is why he didn’t try to make decisions for the entire state, according to Jane Jankowski, Daniels’ spokesperson. “The governor has said he will support county petitions unless that preference conflicts with the need to keep an economic and social region together,” Jankowski said.

Nevermind that the “economic and social region” exception was crafted ex post facto and is, in fact, against the law. The need for a time zone solution that best suits regions and not merely counties is exactly why time zone decisions needed to be tackled at a state level and why Governor Daniels’ failure to address the  issue head-on has made a hash of the entire process.

But, back to Martin County. They have a bunch of citizens who didn’t show up for any meetings last summer and fall who are upset at the decisions made at those meetings. The hearings attracted fewer than 70 residents and a slim majority preferred Central Time, so that’s what the Commissioners petitioned for.

Now that Martin wants to switch back, the council and commissioners have drafted a resolution calling for neighboring counties to revisit the issue, too.

“We almost need to be together on this thing, and it’s unfortunate that this will create so much havoc and confusion,” said Jim Truelove, a Daviess County Commissioner. “But whatever we do, we need to go together or stay the same as a region, and since Martin County has drafted this resolution for other counties,
I’m sure we’ll address it — well, I would say we’ll be forced to revisit it.”

As did the hundreds who showed up for last night’s
meeting, many blaming themselves for being too lazy to show up for the previous hearings, and assuming the commissioners would naturally opt to remain on Eastern time.

They’re right — time zones need to be coordinated at a level broader than the county level. I think the state should have one time zone, with my preference being for Central. But certainly regional coordination is better than the disjointed county-by-county approach we got when the Governor and General Assembly did only half their job, voting for Daylight Saving Time without addressing the inseparable time zone issue.

The Washington Post has an article by Peter Slevin on Indiana’s Daylight Saving Time/Time Zone struggles. I don’t have time to summarize it at the moment, so I’ll merely recommend that you check it out. I will note that it has comments for Central Time heroes Mark Catanzarite, John Gaski, and Mike Lerman. Also, there is a good map in the sidebar.