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Sunday, January 25, 2009
Law - "Public office ban proposed for city workers"
Brendan O'Shaughnessy of the Indianapolis Star reports today on House Bill 1373. Some quotes:
Hoping to eliminate potential conflicts of interest, a lawmaker is pushing a bill this year that would bar local government workers from running for elected office where they can vote on their own pay and other matters that benefit them.Today's Star story includes a link to a Dec. 28, 2008 story by Mary Beth Schneider headed "In Indiana, city workers can OK their own raises.""The cost in public confidence is too great to have this continue," said first-year state Rep. Ed Delaney, an Indianapolis Democrat who authored the proposal. "I think we will get better candidates if people don't think government is an insider's club."
A review by The Indianapolis Star in December found numerous examples across the state of police officers, firefighters and others who had won office and then voted to bump up their salaries -- often as part of across-the-board salary increases for government employees -- or benefited in some other way at taxpayer expense.
A police officer, a firefighter, an employee in the county assessor's office and a city human resources worker currently hold seats on the Indianapolis City-County Council.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has asked lawmakers to take action on the issue this year. Letting local government employees become, essentially, their own boss is a "very bad idea," the governor said last month.
Delaney said he repeatedly heard complaints from voters while he was campaigning that they had grown tired of a system rife with potential conflicts of interest.
BTW, although identified simply as "first-year state Rep. Ed Delaney" in the story, the new guy is not lacking in real-world experience.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 25, 2009 09:23 AM
Posted to Indiana Law