(Via TDW.) An editorial from the Evansville entitled Politics & Perceptions says that eyebrows are being raised by Representative Troy Woodruff’s wife’s new job working for the Indiana Dept. of Transportation. You’ll recall Representative Woodruff as the fellow who said he would “never” vote for Daylight Saving Time. Until, of course, he did. He was the deciding vote that finally through us into the time mess we’re in today. There was another dust up in July when Governor Daniels used the State of Indiana’s RV for a fundraiser benefitting Representative Woodruff.

Woodruff’s wife, Melissa, has been hired by the Indiana Department of Transportation to a new position of human resources manager in its Vincennes district office. The opening was not advertised in the state’s job bank or local newspapers, though notification is not required by state law, Whitson reported Thursday.

Melissa Woodruff may be the best qualified person available to INDOT for the $43,000-a-year job. Her hiring may have nothing to do with her husband or his time vote. But already, Indiana Democratic Party Executive Director Mike Edmondson has said the hiring raised concerns. It should. It’s that perception thing again.

The original article by Jennifer Whitson is here.

Jim Burdsall provided me with this map (pdf) of the “natural” time zones — presuming 24 one hour time zones, 15 degrees per zone. Under these basica geometric guidelines, the natural Eastern/Central border at 82.5 degrees west longitude runs just east of Columbus, Ohio — rougly through Mansfield, Ohio. Indianapolis is 589 miles from the meridian for the Eastern Time Zone at 75 degrees west longitude. By contrast, it is 200 miles from the meridian for the Central Time Zone at 90 degrees west longitude.

Someone by the name of Steven Hartman submitted >an excellent comment to the USDOT Docket. He compiles news reports on Candidate Daniels’ support for Central Time. Bravo, Mr. Hartman!

WRTV6: Daniels Wants Most Of Indiana On Central Time Move Would Benefit Businesses
INDIANAPOLIS — Mitch Daniels said Monday he wants to move most of Indiana to the Central time zone and have it observe daylight-saving time statewide. Daniels’ statement was part of a series of economic development initiatives he announced. He said the time change would put Indiana within two hours of everyone in the continental United States and make it easier for companies inside and outside the state to do business.

WTHR13: Daniels wants to move most of state to central time zone
Kevin Rader/Political Reporter. Indianapolis- Mitch Daniels introduced his plan to help Indiana reach its economic potential.
. . .
Daniels favors adopting Daylight Saving Time and putting most of the state in the Central Time Zone. “With Central Time you are only one hour off your customer in Boston and two hours off your customer in L.A. It’s a way to take advantage of our central location.”

WISH-TV 8: Daniels Wants to Move Most of State to Central Time Zone

Daniels sees DST as an economic development issue. It was just one of several planks in an economic development plan released by Daniels Monday. Mitch Daniels is trying to address just those kinds of problems with his proposal that Indiana adopt central time and central daylight time. Daniels says it makes more sense to be aligned with Chicago than New York City and thinks jobs would come here as a result.

Daniels: Central time zone
By Deanna Wrenn, The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Moving most of Indiana to daylight-saving time in the Central time zone and providing more tax breaks for growing businesses will jump-start Indiana’s economy, Mitch Daniels said.

Indiana’s current economic development policy is allowing jobs to disappear and has not helped new companies flourish, he said. Moving as much of the state as possible to Central time and daylight-saving time would reduce confusion both within Indiana and for out-of-state companies wanting to do business here, Daniels argues. Switching to Central time would mean the least amount of change for the most residents, he said.

The Tribune Star: Terre Haute: Daniels restores Indiana to daylight-saving time
By Stephanie Salter
Tribune-Star
During the campaign season, both he and his opponent, Joe Kernan, preferred the Central time zone, with Daniels mentioning a two-hour difference between both coasts as a positive.

Of course, that was then. Now Governor Daniels is intent on rewriting history.

Daniels said moving Indiana to daylight-saving time “was the only (position) I advocated in the campaign and in the legislature. Choice of time zones, I think, is the definitively local issue.”

Asked if he hadn’t advocated Central time in his campaign, Daniels said: “Pardon me, but I did not.”

Thanks to Jim for the link. The South Bend Tribune has an article entitled Time fight: Where’s Daniels? It suggests some agitation on the part of leaders from St. Joseph County and surrounding counties over the lack of leadership from Governor Daniels on the time zone mess he got us into. Daniels will apparently meet with the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce. His spokesperson says the issue of time zones will probably come up.

My prediction is that Daniels will issue fuzzy statements that say 1. “It’s a local issue.” 2. “Elkhart and St. Joseph counties shouldn’t be split.” He won’t come right out and suggest one time zone or another for the area. But, the implication will be that it is up to St. Joseph County to do something about the split (i.e. choose Eastern Time.) No similar pressure will be put on Elkhart County (i.e. ask for Central Time) — remember, nothing prevents county commissioners from submitting a request to the Dept. of Transportation at any time. It may not get on the “group docket”. But, at this point, that would be a technicality. The USDOT would be quite aware of any such request from Elkhart County as it was deliberating on the pending county requests. So, if no pressure is put on Elkhart County, it’s not because the commissioners there can’t do anything; it will be because the Governor chooses not to.

The news coverage seems skewed that way as well. As if it’s up to St. Joseph County to make Elkhart happy rather than the other way around.

Just thought I’d mention that next year at this time, Tippecanoe County (and most of the rest of Indiana) will still be on Eastern Daylight Time. The sun won’t rise until 8:20 a.m. I don’t know about the rest of you, but for me, that’s about 2.5 hours after I get up.

The USDOT Notice of Proposed Rule Making officially appeared in the Federal Register on October 31, 2005 at Vol 70, No. 209 at Page 62288-62292. Thanks to Jim Bognar for the heads up. I understood Jim to suggest the Register version contained some information not in the version at the USDOT website. I glanced at the new one very, very quickly and didn’t spot the additional information.

The South Bend Tribune has a story SouthBendTribune.com: Officials reviewing other counties’ petitions. The jist of that was that Marshall County Commissioners were frustrated at the process. They felt their submission was adequate and that it made no sense to split them off from St. Joseph County. There seems to be a sense that their efforts are futile.

There was also some indication that St. Joseph County would reconsider its petition. Jim advised me that they voted 2 to 1 to leave their decision alone. I’d post some links, but duty calls.

The Evansville Courier Press has an editorial entitled Fixing Time.

As it stands, Vanderburgh, Posey, Gibson, Warrick and Spencer counties would remain in the Central zone. Pike, Knox and Perry counties would move from Eastern to Central. But Dubois, Daviess and Sullivan, not to mention nearby Martin and Lawrence counties, would remain in the Eastern zone.

There is good cause for the DOT to reconsider these latest plans and for the counties denied access to the Central zone not to give up just yet.

Just as Gov. Mitch Daniels and others have decried the possible time zone separation of St. Joseph and Elkhart counties in northern Indiana, so too is there cause to decry the separation of Dubois County from Pike and Perry counties.

But, you won’t see Gov. Daniels being consistent on this issue. He won’t lobby to keep those southern counties together as he is lobbying to keep the northern counties together.

The South Bend Tribune has a reasonably in depth article on the rift between St. Joseph and Elkhart counties. Personally, I find the logic and comments of the Elkhart County officials somewhat annoying. They seem resolutely opposed to Central Time, then they complain bitterly that having Elkhart and St. Joseph on different times will be awful.

Elkhart County officials ought to keep in mind that Elkhart is much less important to St. Joseph than St. Joseph is to Elkhart. That means Elkhart is in the weaker bargaining position on this point. So, now they have a choice to make: Eastern Time or being with St. Joseph. Don’t pretend St. Joseph is obliged to follow Elkhart. Figure out which is more important, and choose. And never forget who opened up this can of worms in the first place.

With respect to Daylight Saving Time and Indiana’s Time Zones, it appears Governor Daniels needs to learn the first rule of holes: if you find you’re in one, stop digging. He began the screw up of Indiana’s time by pushing Daylight Saving Time while ignoring the inseparable issue of time zones. Then, he did a half-assed job of petitioning the USDOT to resolve the time zone issue. He offered no opinion of where the line should be, and he offered no data on what good locations and bad locations for the line would be. Then, when the USDOT punted and told county officials to make the decision, Governor Daniels chastized those officials for being upset about having the buck passed to them, saying if they didn’t want to deal with the time zone issue, “they shouldn’t have run for their jobs.” Then, he went around saying that counties who requested a change would get one with no real hassle. Then he went around saying that the county-by-county free-for-all made “common sense.” Dig, dig, dig. Today, we have the Governor’s latest shovel full.

Mary Beth Schneider, writing for the Indianapolis Star, has an article entitled Daniels echoes time zone alarm. She reports that Daniels is now injecting himself into the local discussion between Elkhart and St. Joseph County, saying the two areas shouldn’t be separated. He said such a separation is “absolutely ridiculous”.

Asked if he would oppose St. Joseph County’s request to move to Central or oppose Elkhart County’s decision to remain in Eastern time, Daniels said: “Let’s understand — and I think everybody does, although not all the reporting reflects it — nothing is final yet. This is merely a starting point.”

Nice non-answer. I think we ought to know if Governor Daniels is seriously considering advocating that the Elkhart tail wag the St. Joseph dog. Then again, Daniels’ non-answer is probably preferable to a lie, and kudos to Ms. Schneider for busting his chops over it:

Daniels said moving Indiana to daylight-saving time “was the only (position) I advocated in the campaign and in the legislature. Choice of time zones, I think, is the definitively local issue.”

Asked if he hadn’t advocated Central time in his campaign, Daniels said: “Pardon me, but I did not.”

In a meeting with The Indianapolis Star editorial board in February 2004, however, Daniels was asked about moving the state to the Central time zone.

Daniels answered: “My number one goal would be to see us all — or as many of us as possible — on the same time. Why Central time? It’s geographically more sensible.”

And in a Lake County appearance that same month, Daniels said: “For Pete’s sake, let’s get all of our state on the same time, preferably Northwest Indiana time.”

There is an article on Daniels’ Central Time Waffle in the Evansville Courier Press

When a reporter asking a follow-up question said Daniels had indeed expressed a preference for Central time during the campaign, Daniels said: “Pardon me, but I did not.”

“I said that I thought it would be a great thing one day if we could have all of the state on one time zone.”

. . .

A check of statewide newspaper clippings shows several newspapers
paraphrasing Daniels’ stand in early 2004 as being in favor of moving all of Indiana to daylight-saving time. Daniels also is paraphrased repeatedly as saying that having the state in one time zone was important and that daylight-saving tim on Central time was the best fit.

The articles also include direct quotes from Daniels explaining that view.

Rep. David Crooks, D-Washington, is a vocal backer of Central time and has butted heads with Daniels on the time issue. Crooks wants the state to hold a referendum to decide whether the majority of counties should be on Eastern or Central.

Crooks said he saw repeated media reports during the campaign that all said Daniels preferred Central time for most of Indiana.

“I can’t believe every reporter got the story wrong,” Crooks said. But he said he wasn’t surprised because Daniels has “flip-flopped” on other issues.

“What do you expect from a person who also promised Hoosiers his administration would not outsource jobs but once he got elected, he did just that,” Crooks said.

“He’s also the same candidate that told Indiana Farm Bureau he would reduce the reliance on property taxes to fund schools but after he was elected, he passed a budget that will send property taxes soaring next year,” Crooks added.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind Mr. Governor.

If the State had passed DST and come to the USDOT with a coherent time zone proposal, I’m willing to bet the USDOT would have approved it in a heartbeat. Getting all of Indiana on DST and having a more or less straight line somewhere, anywhere, in Indiana — I don’t think anything would have pleased the Dept. of Transportation more. This “local issue” rhetoric is just self-serving nonsense the Governor made up in an effort to cover up the fact that he rammed a bad bill through the General Assembly that has screwed up what had been a workable time compromise for the past 30+ years. Now that the “local issue” approach to time zones is having its natural consequence, screwing up relationships between localities, the Governor suddenly wants to have a say.

stAllio!’s way has a great recap/summary of the Daylight Saving Time debate so far. (And thanks to him for referring folks over to this blog)