Consolidation Bill Up For Vote

(posted Mar 30)
After three and a half hours of testimony, the Senate Local Government Committee decided to delay its vote on HB 1568 until next week. An affirmative vote would have placed the bill before the full Senate of the Indiana General Assembly.

HB 1568 is the latest attempt for Mayor Bart Peterson to have full consolidation with the City of Indianapolis and the township governments by centralizing the fire departments, trustees and assessors as one unit. The bill means ending township government.

The Mayor proposes to bypass HEA 1362 because of the time consuming effort for each township to decide if they want consolidation. It also created an 18 member Fire Department Efficiency Commission to develop a plan that is to be submitted to the township boards of Perry, Decatur, Wayne, Lawrence and Franklin.

Steve Buschmann, a committee member, asked the senate committee not to pass HB 1568 because the efficiency commission has until September 21 to develop a plan under a provision in HEA 1362. HEA 1362 allows the six townships to work in a collaborative effort without consolidation to provide more efficiency with fire protection.

Wayne Township Public Relations Officer Tom Langdoc asked the senate to remove the provision that would retroactively terminate resolutions that transferred property from one government entity to another. He said this provision would have negative consequences to the educational plans to use the Wayne Township Fire Training Center for Ben Davis University High School and Ben Davis Career Center. The fine print in HB 1568 (see text at right) to nullify any transfer of property between two governmental entities after January 1, 2006 is raising a red flag with the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. This single sentence in section 24 in the 40-page bill could systematically wipe out the recent acquisition of the Wayne Township Fire Training Facility and its fire science technology curriculum. The school is planning to offer this curriculum at the training facility.

In December of 2006, Wayne Township Government and the township school board passed resolutions to transfer the Wayne Township Fire Training Facility to the school. It is something that would have to be negotiated with the City if legislation passed, so the school could continue the educational programs.
State Representative Phil Hinkle credited Langdoc with his astute reading that caught the item in question. Hinkle stated the Senate is working to remove the passage from the proposed legislation that that he was unable to accomplish in the House. The vote is scheduled April 4 according to Hinkle. He thinks some type of consolidation will become law this year because people are growing tired of the issue and would like to resolve it.

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SECTION 24. IC 36-3-1-6.1, AS AMENDED BY P.L.1-2006, 33 SECTION 560, IS AMENDED TO READ AS FOLLOWS
34 [EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2007]:

(d) If the the fire departments of the entities listed in subsection (a) are consolidated into the fire department of the consolidated city, all of the property, equipment, records, rights, and contracts of the each department consolidated into the fire department of the consolidated city are:
(1) transferred to; or
(2) assumed by;
the consolidated city on the effective date of the consolidation, including, at the option of the consolidated city, any property, equipment, records, rights, and contracts transferred or conveyed by the fire department to another political subdivision after January 1, 2006. .