Jan
15
Disturbing Ethical Precedent
Filed Under Christine Cid, Lake County Council, government reform | Leave a Comment
The Northwest Indiana Times calls the selection of Lake County Councilwoman Christine Cid as president a “disturbing ethical precedent” because she is a county employee and will now have inordinate power to protect jobs in her department from cutbacks at a time the Good Government Initiative suggests cutting back local government and an Indiana government reform report states that elected officials should not also be allowed to serve as government employees.
This brings us to the main reason Cid should not have been named council president: She is a county employee and, therefore, cannot help but make decisions that affect her own department.
That is a major ethical no-no, and the rest of the council didn’t prevent it.
Cid is a supervisor in the county clerk’s office, overseeing operations in the East Chicago branch. It is difficult to imagine her being able to recommend eliminating her employees’ jobs — and possibly her own — as part of a reasonable decision to consolidate operations in Crown Point.
Dec
12
Times’ Kiesling: Blow Up System!
Filed Under good government, government reform, government waste, property tax crisis | Leave a Comment
You know there is something wrong in local government when an employee of a mainstream institution — such as a local newspaper columnist — calls for blowing up the current system and starting from new.
Writes the Northwest Indiana Times’ Mark Kiesling:
Indiana is ready for reform. If it does not reform, it can continue to expect the brain drain that now saps so much of the home-grown talent that is driven elsewhere by Indiana’s unwillingness to change due to selfish political considerations. …
I predict squealing like that of a thousand stuck pigs and righteous indignation that this removes the voter from the “public servant.” That is bull. How much farther removed from the voter can our elected officials be, the ones who fill their own cars at county gas troughs and cry like babies when they can’t get a county-owned car to drive?
Related Post: Indiana Tackles Local Government Reform
