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A House Divided -- A four-day series on consolidated government

Day 2: Merger didn't get a hearing

By Leo Morris of The News-Sentinel

Paul Helmke first heard about consolidated government when he was in college and served on a panel discussing UniGov, Mayor Richard Lugar's successful merger of Indianapolis and Marion County.

That began a lifelong pursuit of a vision Helmke calls "basic to everything else we do in government," a common sense view of public service that seeks both fairness and efficiency. He's had -- to say the least -- trouble getting others to buy into the vision. But he feels he's "always been right on this one" and believes he'll go on saying the same things about it. "It's the one issue I really care about."

Helmke spent the 1970s and most of the '80s listening to early consolidation enthusiasts, such as a young city planner named John Stafford, and debating the issue with progressive thinkers such as those in Fort Wayne Future. Then, in 1987, he was elected mayor and earned the chance to put his ideas into action. He began an aggressive campaign of annexation -- government consolidation an acre at a time, some say -- and in 1991, near the end of his first term, went for broke with a proposal for the General Assembly to approve a commission to study government reorganization in Allen County.

The mayor had a couple of reasons to be optimistic. For one thing, the proposal seemed quite modest, hardly radical at all. The 22-member commission would include representatives from the city, county and every town. It would hold extensive public hearings. Its recommendations would have to adhere to constitutionally mandated requirements, such as an elected sheriff. The services people were to get and what they cost would have to be spelled out exactly. And -- most important -- nothing recommended could be implemented unless there were approval by a majority of county voters in a referendum.

And there was growing support for such a move. Early discussions about combining some city and county services showed a lot of support for eliminating waste and duplication. Efforts to enact local income and economic development taxes revealed a growing concern for coming financial stresses. The state Chamber of Commerce was on board, as well as the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns. Civic leaders, through groups such as Taxpayers Research Association and in other ways, were expressing an interest in greater efficiency.

Finally, a crucial ally came on board in 1990; after a $149,000, yearlong study, the Hudson Institute, the conservative, Indianapolis-based think tank, issued a report calling the consolidation of Fort Wayne and Allen County governments the best way to deal with the area's problems. "This approach would allow the realization of the greatest efficiencies, would be the most equitable and would most easily allow for the raising of adequate revenue to meet the needs of the community and the appropriate allocation of those revenues," the report said. It was recommended that there be a combined city-county council and that the mayor replace commissioners as the single elected executive of a county- wide government.

But the support wasn't enough.

Helmke was able to get state Sen. Tom Wyss to carry the legislation ("a great act of political courage," Helmke says today), but it didn't get very far. There wasn't even a hearing, let alone a vote. Local politicians were just too concerned about protecting their turf, and they let legislators know it. County politicians worried about losing elected officials and having to take on costly urban problems. City politicians worried about decreased political influence for minorities and the ability of Democrats to get elected in countywide races.

Officials such as County Commissioners Ed Rousseau and Jack Worthman and state Sen. Richard Worman told Helmke to stop putting the cart before the horse; he should first gather a commission and get a local consensus, then go to the state legislature. It might have sounded like helpful advice, but Helmke got the real message: Forget it; never gonna happen.

"It turned out," Helmke says, "that there were only two groups of people against consolidation -- Republicans and Democrats."

So the status quo was kept.

Despite the concept's track record, Helmke thinks consolidated government would get a better hearing today than it did 20 or even 10 years ago.

* New problems such as West Nile and the threat of terrorism show the need for cooperation across all jurisdictions. When Helmke tried to get government reorganized, county officials cited the merger of city and county health departments as an example of getting burned -- the county assumed all the financial burden. But the joint health department's response to West Nile has been praised by many. To fight terrorism, the state and federal governments are all but insisting on a cooperative regional approach. Jurisdictions taking that approach will have the best shot of securing funding.

* There is a new receptiveness in the county. Three of seven council members got elected on a platform of government reform, and none of the other four is really tied to "the way things have always been" in the county. The joint city-county planning process, now in the discussion stages, shows a greater acceptance of the greater community's needs.

Linda Buskirk shares Helmke's optimism. Now the Republican candidate for mayor, she was Helmke's lead person on the consolidation project and took field trips to places such as Nashville, Tenn., and Lexington, Ky., to study successfully merged governments.

"What I saw in those places was people willing to give up their traditional territory in order to make a change. I think we're beginning to see more of that attitude here."

She says the seeds of change were planted by Helmke's efforts, "and I think people today are less afraid of change. They just need to be responsible enough to say that what we're doing isn't working."

Stafford, now with Sagamore Associates, isn't quite that certain.

"The attitude has changed in Allen County," he says. "There's no question of that. And it will change even more when the southwest annexations are finished in a few years, and 75 to 80 percent of the people will be in Fort Wayne or New Haven. And there's one thing looming over all -- the fiscal difficulties of local governments, which aren't going to get any better."

But he knows of a lot of failed merger efforts, going all the way back to the 1960s, when Bill Latz was in the General Assembly and tried to bring change.

"And some things haven't changed. One is the opposition to change in Indianapolis. I think a consolidation proposal in the Legislature would face the same fate it did 30 years ago."

One thing that's changed is the focus of people's attention. Back then, it was almost entirely on the city's problems -- the growing needs and decreasing tax base; the Hudson Institute said Fort Wayne simply had too many complex problems it couldn't handle by itself. One that area state representatives cited was the city park department's $700,000 deficit as a reason for the county to keep its distance. As an Evansville representative told the Legislature in 1992: "Rural residents fear they will be taxed to pay for urban problems and won't get as many services in return for their money. The result will be a countywide city government."

Today, Fort Wayne is relatively -- relatively -- better off than the county. Though most people acknowledge it's a situation that won't last, Fort Wayne even has a surplus. The county, on the other hand, has had one fiscal crisis after another.

Many government reorganization efforts come because of a crisis, Helmke notes. "In Lexington, sewers were falling apart. They just consolidated in Louisville and Jefferson County because they couldn't compete with Indianapolis anymore. The mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., has always resisted consolidation, but finances are so bad, he's changed his mind.

"Here, we've always come close to absolute crisis, but we've always managed to pull back and find a way out. That's good in one way. But it's bad, too, because we've applied more and more Band-Aids."

(Tomorrow: A look at what areas around the nation have done about combining services)

Wyss: Stop turf battles, and I'll get back in

Sen. Thomas Wyss knows about lost causes -- until the federal government started insisting on reducing the drunken-driving standard from .10 to .08, he had unsuccessfully proposed such legislation year after year to the Indiana General Assembly.

The chilly reception he received over that has become nearly a legend.

"But that was nothing compared to what happened when I agreed to sponsor the charter legislation for Allen County."

That proposal would have let government officials here explore -- carefully, with a lot of public input -- the possibility of merging city and county governments.

"I got the hell beat out of me by my own party.

"Officials here were going around spreading misinformation, telling rural people (for example) that it would mean the inner city was coming out to them.

"And legislators in Indianapolis said, based on the trouble I was experiencing, that they'd never bring the subject up."

His charter proposal didn't even get a hearing.

It was all about resistance to change, he says today.

"Locally, people didn't want to give up their turf. And in the Legislature, they were afraid that whatever Allen County was allowed to do could happen in their districts, too. The General Assembly is still very much a rural body."

Would he carry such legislation if asked to do so today?

"Yes, but only if citizens understand it, and if we can get the politicians to stop the turf battles to just discuss the issue."

Getting such legislation through today would still be a tough challenge -- "there is still tremendous resistance to change in the Legislature" -- but it wouldn't be impossible.

"There is a lot more interest today in things like mutual-aid agreements. But those are awfully complicated and time-consuming."

Leo Morris

Neither problems nor opportunities stop at artificial boundaries

The system of government some officials are trying to hold onto "makes no sense at all" in today's world, says government-consolidation advocate and former Fort Wayne mayor Paul Helmke.

"If you were setting up county government today, would you have three elected commissioners who have both the executive and legislative duties, and a part-time county council that's basically a finance committee?"

Local Hoosier government was defined by the state's 1851 constitution, when Indiana had the simpler problems of a rural era.

A township had to be of a size to be walked in a portion of one day, and it served three basic functions. It provided education, with the schoolhouse located as close to the geographic center as possible. The bell on top of the schoolhouse summoned citizens when a fire needed to be fought. And those who needed financial assistance -- what we call "poor relief" today -- stood in line to get it at the schoolhouse.

Counties were designated as arms of the state, with limited functions such as road repair, tax collection and law enforcement. They were designed for people who rode buggies and had to go to the county seat once a week or once a month to get supplies or conduct government business. Only a part-time government was needed -- and desired -- but three commissioners living in different districts would have a good grasp of roads, bridges and other needs.

Cities developed as more people lived closer together. They needed infrastructure and a police force, a full-time government. Though life was busier and more complicated, it was self-contained. There was a clear line between the urban experience and unincorporated tranquility.

"With the technology, transportation and communications of the era, it all made sense," Helmke says. "But it doesn't now with cars, TV, the Internet. We created government and drew these artificial boundaries. We set it up, and we can change it. We can do it differently -- there are a lot of models. The question is, if we were starting from scratch, how would we do it today?"

Nothing stops at those artificial boundaries today. Problems, from crime to pollution to traffic congestion, spread out into the growing urban area. After all the approved annexations come on line in the next few years, Fort Wayne will contain 75 percent of the county's population. That will leave the county handling increasingly difficult problems for fewer people with fewer resources. Almost three-quarters of the county's budget goes to the the criminal justice system, to handle a crime problem that is overwhelmingly Fort Wayne's.

And opportunities -- especially in the vital area of economic development -- also require a broader approach. The formation of the "The Alliance" -- funded by the city, county and Chamber of Commerce -- recognizes that a healthy economy is everyone's job, not something that can be worked on piecemeal in a dozen different jurisdications.

But instead of tackling the problems and opportunities in a coordinated way, the city and county still duplicate efforts: police, fire, planning, parks, streets and roads, communications. This is not only wasteful but inefficient. "We're still searching for the right-size government for the right-size problems," Helmke says.

Neighboring Views

By Kevin Kilbane of The News-Sentinel

County council members have discussed restructuring Allen County government to make it more cost-effective and efficient. Here are two residents' thoughts on some of the ideas that could be proposed.

Cooperation would help development

Name: Sal Soto

Age: 28

Occupation: Owner De-Soto Translation & Marketing

Sal Soto supports studying what services performed by local government would best be provided by a combined city-county department.

Closer cooperation between city, county and non-governmental entities definitely would help in the area of economic development, said Soto, president of the Fort Wayne Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"I'm seeing a lot of partnerships on paper, but they don't really work that much together," he said.

He has concerns about suggestions to consolidate small townships into larger geographic units. "There is a little bit of identity in those townships," he said. "By consolidating, you may lose a little personality."

Soto thinks pros and cons should be analyzed before the county reduces the number of commissioners to one from the present three. Soto declined comment on an idea to streamline county government by changing some elected county offices to departments with appointed supervisors.

He didn't feel strongly about placing the county courts, sheriff and justice system on a separate tax levy. The move would make cost increases more visible.

Soto would rather help courts reduce their caseloads. "If you can minimize the caseloads," he said, "you can take more time to deal with each case properly and carefully."

Keep three county commissioners

Name: John Hidy

Age: 41

Occupation: Security services manager, Allen County Public Library system

John Hidy favors consolidating city and county departments where it makes sense. Their emergency-communications departments, for example, provide the same service from rooms separated by windows.

Hidy, president of the Huntertown town council, said the county must be more creative in generating revenue. The county sheriff's department, for example, earns money with its community-oriented policing program. A town can contract with the department for officers to work there full-time.

He supports placing county courts, sheriff and related justice services on a separate property tax levy. People then could see more closely where money is needed and spent, he said. He wants the tax rate controlled by a commission to ensure the power is used wisely.

Hidy agrees with changing some elected county offices to departments with appointed supervisors.

"If the person is more accountable to body or commission, I think people can come in and voice their opinions more easily," he said.

Voter representation would suffer if the number of county commissioners is reduced to one from the current three, he said. For similar reasons, he disagrees with consolidating townships or their functions.

"The townships really are a mouthpiece for the people out there," Hidy said. "That is their voice to county government."