The South Bend Tribune says that it agrees with the Elkart and St. Joseph County Boards of Commissioners that it shouldn’t be their decision to decide where the time zone line between Eastern and Central should be.

Basically, the governor and legislature created the mess. They should clean it up.

Let the General Assembly figure it out. The General Assembly, under pressure from Gov. Mitch Daniels, created the need to choose a time zone — seemingly without fully understanding the process.

. . .

Legislators should evaluate input from their districts and advise Daniels as to the choice they believe will best serve Hoosiers. Then Daniels should present his recommendation to [U.S. Sec’y of Transportation] Mineta.

An article from earlier in the week describes a meeting on the issue held by the St. Joseph County Commissioners, as well as South Bend and Mishawaka officials.

Sentiments expressed at the Thursday session indicated a general preference for moving to Central time, although Commissioner Steve Ross, D-District 2, said his cynicism leads him to believe that the decision to stay with Eastern time already has been made.

. . .

Rea, an advocate of Central time, expressed his belief that St. Joseph County might get seven or eight counties to follow its lead and request a move to the Central zone, but wondered whether the rest of the state would opt for Eastern time and whether it is more important for South Bend to be in tune with Chicago or Indianapolis.

Late last month, the South Bend Common Council voted unanimously in favor of a resolution declaring support for Central time.

There is a belief that a switch by St. Joseph County would cause Elkart, Marshall, and Kosciusko Counties to follow it into the Central time zone. September 15 appears to be the deadline St. Joseph County has set for itself to make a decision one way or the other.

Writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Niki Kelly has an article entitled Legislators complain to unruffled BMV chief. A legislative study committee met and questioned BMV commissioner Silverman over branch closings. Apparently the questioning was tame with the harshest statement being Rep. Charlie Brown (D-Gary) introducing himself as “mad as hell.” Mainly the legislators appear to be grumpy about being outmaneuvered by Silverman who waited until the legislature adjourned to announce the closings. The article describes Silverman as “calm and unflustered.” I thought this was a nice move by Silverman:

Silverman also showed side-by-side, real-time video from two different branches in the state. One was packed to capacity and the other – which is on the proposed closure list – saw less than a dozen customers in three hours.

“The goal for us is consistency. We don’t think it’s fair for branches like the one on the right to exist,” Silverman said. “We want everyone to experience 20-minute transaction times.”

The Indy Star also has an article on the hearing.

According to this article in the South Bend Tribune, there appears to be a major chasm between the St. Joseph County Commissioners and the County Assessor:

The rift between the County Commissioners and the county assessor has widened from crack to chasm.

County Assessor David Wesolowski, stung by comments made by Commissioner Steve Ross, including an insinuation that Wesolowski should resign, has hired a private attorney.

The attorney, Lyn Leone, sent a letter to the commissioners informing them that, henceforth, any meetings with Wesolowski will require an advance written agenda, with a copy to be sent to her “as a courtesy.”

According to the letter, Wesolowski needs an advance agenda because “he wants to be in a position to properly prepare for each such meeting.”

. . .

The roots of the conflict are buried deeply in property tax assessment changes that led to many area residents receiving major increases in late 2003.

Those tax bills generated some 8,000 appeals that immediately clogged, and are still clogging, the mechanism of local government.

Thousands of residents who won appeals are still waiting for their refunds and will likely wait a good deal longer.

Ross said he found it “most disturbing” that Wesolowski failed to attend a meeting with township assessors “to iron out issues” regarding the assessment process.

“That’s the problem with Dave,” Ross said, adding that “when things get tough,” Wesolowski tends to withdraw rather than resolve the issues.

Commissioner Cindy Bodle, D-District 3, expressed surprise that Wesolowski feels he needs an attorney, but said she was also surprised and disappointed with the way “a commissioner” contacted Wesolowski while he was on vacation and demanded that he come in for a meeting.

“A commissioner” was, of course, a reference to Ross, but Bodle was too polite to say it until she was pressed to say who she meant.

. . .

When county officials start talking to each other through attorneys, that’s a problem. For one thing, when you’re communicating through a third-party or even in writing, it’s easier to ignore civility and get taken up in your own sense of righteousness. When you’re forced to sit down and talk face to face with someone, you’re more likely to behave civilly; not let the rhetoric get out of hand, and approach problems in a spirit of compromise. (Take it from me, I certainly deliver critiques here in a manner I would be entirely unlikely to do if I were talking to the subject of the critique in person. I’ve also experienced an escalation of rhetoric in an exchange of letters which was rapidly diffused when I simply picked up a phone and called the other person to discuss the matter.)

In the previous post, I mentioned the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette’s reporting of public comment before the Allen County Commissioners concerning time zone preference. Paul O’Malley was quoted in his support for the Central Time Zone. I thought Paul’s subsequent comment to the blog was more astute than anything I or the Journal Gazette have said lately, so I’m going to repost it here on the front page:

Nice to see that you picked up my comment. While speakers supporting Eastern Time outnumbered those supporting Central Time, it might be noted that the ETZ backers were packing the speaking list by importing people from Ohio and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. The only “outsider” speaking for Central Time was David R. Kinney from Hoosiers for Central Time. Also, downtown Fort Wayne was being subjected to a violent thunderstorm before and during the meeting. While the Chamber of Commerce got its people there, the turnout expected from the general population was much lower than expected. The Commissioners attributed this to the weather.

Regarding attitudes toward the time zone issue in Fort Wayne I will allow myself a few comments. Fort Wayne business can look at the map and realize that putting Indiana on Central Time would make Allen County a time zone border county. They see this as an inconvenience. They hope that the time zone boundary will remain tucked away on the other side of the State. Because of this Fort Wayne is not a leader in this area and cannot be expected to be. However our Chamber has in effect stated that Fort Wayne should follow whatever Indianapolis does.

If one time zone is to come to pass in this State, the issue will be decided elsewhere than Fort Wayne. I see South Bend and Indianapolis (for obvious reasons) as critical. The State’s problem of being a time zone border state comes into clearest focus in South Bend. The time line currently runs between St. Joseph and LaPorte counties, both of which are heavily populated and which economically are closely linked. LaPorte County though has strong links west to Chicago and Porter county and is highly unlikely to want to shift to the Eastern Zone. South Bend’s political leadership realizes that it is in South Bend’s interest to push the time zone boundary out of its market area. If South Bend’s leadership is successful, and carries itself and the “Michiana” counties into Central time, the time line will move to between Fort Wayne and Warsaw. Only then will complications of divided state begin to become apparent to Fort Wayne. It is then that the attitudes of Fort Wayne business may begin to shift. Even as things stand our local chamber (of commerce) did admit last night that about 20% of its membership preferred to make the shift now. More importantly though, a move by South Bend keeps the whole issue for the state as a whole very much alive.

So, with that in mind, I’ll try to do a better job of keeping tabs on the news coming out of South Bend on the time zone issue. I suspect it doesn’t hurt Central Time’s chances in South Bend that minority leader Pat Bauer would love to give Gov. Daniels a black eye by turning the time zone issue into even more of a brouhaha than it already is.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an article reporting that those citizens attending and choosing to speak at an Allen County Commissioners meeting generally preferred the eastern time zone. Not really a shock, coming as it does, from the eastern part of the state.

I did notice, however, one of Masson’s Blog’s readers and occasional commenters, Paul O’Malley, was quoted making a pretty good case for Central Time even in the eastern part of the state:

Paul O’Malley, a Fort Wayne patent attorney, said he does more business with clients in the Central time zone and on the West Coast. He said he understands that manufacturing companies want to be aligned with Detroit and the East Coast, but he added that manufacturing jobs are declining in the area. He said it would be more progressive for Indiana to join the Central time zone to be closer with Chicago and the West Coast.

“Year after year we lose manufacturing jobs,” he said. “We need to move to an intellectual base. Those sorts of things are from the West.”

The August edition of the Indiana Register is available.

Among other things:

The Water Pollution Control Board amends drinking water rules concerning radionuclides, long term 1 enhanced surface water treatment, arsenic, minor corrections to interim enhanced surface water treatment, disinfectants and disinfection byproducts, lead and copper, public notification, and analytical methods for public drinking water systems.

The Natural Resources Commission adopts a temporary rule with respect to the taking of lizards at Falls of the Ohio State Park and the adjacent federal Falls of the Ohio Wildlife Conservation Area.

Based upon the opinion of a professional biologist, the director has determined the European wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) will cause obvious and measurable damage to the ecological balance at Falls of the Ohio State Park. The ecological balance will not be maintained unless action is taken to control the population of the European wall lizard at the Falls of the Ohio State Park and at the adjacent federal Falls of the Ohio Wildlife Conservation Area. Native species of lizards and skinks are at risk of displacement by the European wall lizard, and other disruption of the ecological balance in this area is probable.

The Indiana Gaming Commission proposes a rule “to address current regulatory issues related to (1) the transfer of a five percent or more ownership interest in a riverboat owner license, supplier license, or operating agent contract; and (2) debt acquisition by riverboat licensees, operating agents, applicants, or affiliates thereof.”

The Family and Social Services Administration intends to adopt a rule “relating to Medicaid eligibility of an individual who resides in a nursing facility or other medical institution, or who receives services under a home and community based services waiver, and who has a spouse who does not receive Medicaid-covered institutional or home and community based services (a “community spouse”).”

The State Dept. of Health intends to adopt a rule establishing reporting of any death or serious complication of a patient by physicians who perform a surgical treatment for the treatment of morbid obesity.

The Bd. of Veterinary Medical Examiners intends to adopt a rule establishing the requirements to report substance abuse or psychiatric impairment of a veterinarian or veterinary technician to the Board.

The Dept. of Administration has a proposed rule requiring registration of lobbyists who lobby the executive branch.

The Dept. of Workforce Development has a proposed rule allowing the DWD flexibility in how unemployment benefits are paid to recipients and to allow the Department of Workforce Development to use debit cards, direct deposit, or any means the Department of Workforce Development deems to be in its best interests and in the interests of the recipient to deliver unemployment benefits.

According to the Marion Chronicle Tribune there have been complaints of the County Council’s practice of having subcommittees of the county council meeting without posting notice and without keeping minutes. A quick glance at Indiana’s Open Door Law suggests that this is not a violation if the subcommittees are made up of fewer than half of the council members.

This also seems to be the position of Council member Judy Carmichael. General Counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association disagrees:

Key said Carmichael’s interpretation, which excludes the public, is wrong.

“The public can attend the meetings and add comments or at least observe and know what the arguments are,” Key said.

He describes committees as a surrogate of the governing body; therefore, it must inform the public of its meetings and discussion of public information.

I haven’t read any of the case law, so I could well be wrong, but I don’t see anything in the statute that alludes to “surrogacy”. This would seem to be an excellent question for the Indiana Public Access Counselor. Unfortunately, she does not seem to have been consulted for the Chronicle Tribune article.

The Evansville Courier Press has an article reporting that school administrators are telling principals and teachers about the obligation imposed on them by the state government to spend class time reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and leading a moment of silence.

According to the law, students are not required to participate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance if they or their parents don’t want them to participate.

As for the moment of silence, the law states that the classroom teacher “shall ensure that all students remain seated or standing and silent and make no distracting display so that each student may, in the exercise of the student’s individual choice, meditate, pray, or engage in any other silent activity that does not interfere with, distract or impede another student in the exercise of the student’s individual choice.”

McCandless said, “We’re going to say (it’s a) moment of silence, period. (Students) can interpret that how they wish.”

The law doesn’t define how long the “moment” should last.

Government meddling, bureaucratic nonsense. Not enough math to be taught, apparently. Oh yeah, and FLAGS! Schools have to buy American flags and decorate their classrooms with them.

According to an Indy Star article entitled Workers reading between the lines, a “high-priority” staff memo went out to FSSA employees ” inviting everyone to a conference where the agenda includes “interviewing skills” and “resume preparation.””

This reminds me of Homer Simpson’s sensitive breakup letter. “Dear Baby, Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: You.” Mitch Roob must be taking diplomacy lessons from BMV Commissioner Silverman.

A very good article in the today’s Indy Star by Tammy Webber entitled Private owners may get control of park lodges. The article discusses DNR’s consideration of whether to sell the six lodges (all built before 1940), in state parks to private entities or, alternatively, to allow them to be managed by private companies.

This is part of DNR Director Kyle Hupfer, he of the youthful good looks, to streamline the agency. Indiana lodges netted $583,000 in the 2004-05 budget year, Hupfer said. State officials say they have not tried to estimate the lodges’ value on the open market.

The reason I enjoyed the article so much is that Ms. Webber went out of her way to take a look at other states’ experience with similar privatization. Ohio says that turning the operation duties over to private companies has been profitable but that it would not sell the properties outright. Alabama, on the other hand, had a bad experience. The state park supervisor there blamed shoddy contracts with no penalties for violations.

I suppose I wouldn’t mind private operations overly much with proper contracts in place. Selling the properties would just be horribly short-sighted. State parks are part of a legacy for future generations. We have a responsibility to pass along natural resources in tact to our children, grandchildren, etc. Our parents and grandparents managed to maintain and build the state parks and the state lodges. For us to leave less of a heritage to our children is for us to be less capable than our forebearers. (And, as always, it bears mentioning that privatizing doesn’t always save money.)