By BRIAN A. HOWEY
INDIANAPOLIS - The newly elected Lake County Democratic chairman, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., came out in favor of the major thrust of the Kernan-Shepard reforms as Democrats in the Indiana House attempted to consolidate the bills it received from the Senate into a single bill Tuesday.
Lake County Democratic Chairman Thomas McDermott Jr., advocates the thrust of the Kernan-Shepard reforms.
McDermott, who upset Gary Mayor Rudy Clay on Saturday to become the first Lake Democratic chair from Hammond, told HPI of the Kernan-Shepard legislation Tuesday morning, “I like a lot of the synergies they are trying to create to consolidate power. I have three commissioners in Lake County and I don’t want to talk in a negative light about these county commissioners. But I look at county government and I look at city government and to me it doesn’t make sense.”
McDermott explained, “In a city, you have a mayor who appoints department heads. My police chief is an excellent cop. He does a great job because he is a cop. At the county, I see people who are running for sheriff and they’re not cops. They are politicians. That’s not just in Lake County, that’s across the state. I wonder why we don’t have an executive of the county instead of three different people with three different agendas.”
McDermott’s comments came as House Government Regulation and Reform Chairman John Bartlett, D-Indianapolis, rolled all of the Kernan-Shepard reform bills passed by the Senate into one bill and after an initial 6-6 tie on the amendment, it passed 7-5. Observers called the entire committee hearing “bizarre” and “chaotic” and Bartlett, a freshman, adjourned the committee before he was reminded that there was no vote on the bill, SB452. Bartlett called the committee back into session and attempted to get a vote through, while Republicans, led by State Rep. Phil Hinkle, called for a caucus. As the Republicans walked out, it passed by a 7-1 vote with Republican State Rep. Tim Neese voting with the Democrats. Freshman Democratic State Rep. John Barnes voted against the bill. Essentially SB452, which changed municipal and school board elections, is dead, while the other reform bills are still alive, though facing a dismal if not amateurish future in the House.
There was a moment of sanity when another freshman, State Rep. Ed DeLaney, who is sponsoring some of the House Kernan-Shepard bills, observed that at a time when people have virtually no confidence in their government, the committee’s conduct would do little to help restore faith. One observer called DeLaney’s remarks “brilliant.”
Supporters of the reforms fear that Bartlett’s intent was to kill all the reforms by combining them into one bill. It came as Democrats like former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson - who attended a Kernan-Shepard Town Hall meeting in Jasper Monday night - Democratic mayors Greg Goodnight of Kokomo and Mike Fincher of Logansport, former Gov. Joe Kernan and former Lt. Gov. Kathy Davis have advocated all or parts of the Kernan-Shepard reforms.
The two-term Hammond mayor has established a legacy for reform. He is in talks with neighboring Whiting about merging fire departments. He closed the Hammond Health Department just before winning a second term in 2007, with its functions merging with Lake County.
McDermott, a potential 2012 Democratic gubernatorial contender, said that while he “fundamentally disagrees” with Gov. Mitch Daniels on issues like leasing the Indiana Toll Road, he admires an executive who pushes reforms even when it’s not political popular. “I just believe in consolidating power,” McDermott said. “I believe there should be an executive who should appoint the sheriff and other things. I want to make it clear I have that right as an American and as an elected official. I can tell you there are a lot of people who don’t feel that way. The governor is pushing, particularly at townships, and you have to tip your hat at that. It’s not politically popular. That’s what I respect; he does what he thinks is the right thing to do. I consider myself like that.”
McDermott follows decades of old guard rule in Lake County, where the party was run by former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick (now facing a civil corruption trial), then Stephen Stiglitz, before Clay took the helm of the party in 2005. He and Clay, who heads the only Indiana city appealing before the Indiana Distressed United Board, had a nationally televised showdown late on 2008 primary election day after returns from Lake County were held up and the national spotlight glared on Lake County, which has a long legacy of corruption.
McDermott said he is forming a “Governing Board” for the party that will seek to end the corruption and inefficiencies. “I was in the audience the other day when Gov. Daniels said that and it made me cringe,” he said of Daniels’ statements in Griffith last Friday about the county’s endemic corruption. “I’ve never been accused of wrong-doing and I don’t think it’s fair for the governor to paint us with a broad brush like that. There are other officials in Lake County who are horribly offended when they hear the governor say something like that. We do have bad apples and I understand that. People who are from Lake County have been thrown in jail and I can’t help that. I’m going to do everything in my power to change that image. That’s one of my main jobs as chairman.”
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