A key access point (1/12/03)

An idea that’s been floated before has resurfaced in the Indiana General Assembly.

Key members of the Indiana House are tossing around the idea of streamlining local government by eliminating the township trustee system. Our suggestion is they weigh the consequences carefully before getting carried away with the notion of reform.

A case can be made that local governmental units could be consolidated and made more efficient; the system has a decidedly 19th century look to it.

And in the state’s largest cities, the township trustee’s office has been one most subject to abuse, fiscal misdeeds, and cronyism.

But outside places like Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Gary, or Evansville, a case can still be made for the township trustee system.

Consider, for instance, Jay County’s Knox Township. With no real town or village for that matter as a population center, it’s completely rural. And in the absence towns and villages, the township trustee is still the public’s closest access point to government.

It’s the township trustee that negotiates things like fire protection contracts, and it’s the township trustee who acts as the rural district’s advocate with the county commissioners or the county council.

In short, it’s a job which might be unnecessary in, say, Marion County, but which still has a degree of relevance in the most sparsely populated portions of the state.

In an era when more and more people feel disconnected to government decision-making, that’s a point which shouldn’t be forgotten by the Indiana General Assembly. — J.R.

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