The Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations is opposed to the concept of a consolidated government – an initiative that would merge local entities into one larger group — and they used a candidate forum Thursday to grill Lake County Recorder hopefuls on that issue.
Incumbent Recorder Mike Brown, a Democrat, came closest to the stance that federation Executive Director Cheryl Rivera said was the group’s position, and said the recent state-mandated county consolidation into one 911 dispatch center is an example.
“We lost the dispatchers who had a sense of familiarity with our community,” he said, during a candidate forum held at the Trinity United Church of Christ, 1276 W. 20th Ave., in Gary.
His Democratic challenger in the May 3 primary, Carolyn Jordan, said she thinks Lake County’s heavily industrial tax base would negatively impact a consolidated form of government’s implementation locally. But she would not rule out the idea completely, saying its cost-cutting benefits cannot be ignored.
“We have to be mindful of how we cut up our tax dollars,” she said. “Anything that reduces the amount of government is good.”
Two other candidates who participated in the forum – Democrat Carl Ivy Weatherspoon Jr., and Republican Gerald Swets – were less committed to the idea. Weatherspoon said he is a “free agent” on whether or not to support the idea, while Swets admitted that he wasn’t familiar with it.
The candidate forum sponsored by the federation gave recorder candidates a chance to speak out, along with some candidates running for Indiana General Assembly posts in Gary.
Another event that has yet to be scheduled will give county coroner, surveyor and commissioner candidates a chance to speak. Although a lack of an invitation on Thursday did not stop Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey from showing up at the church and introducing herself to the spectators.
On other issues, Jordan said she would want for the recorder’s office to, “do more business with local entrepreneurs” to bolster the local economy.
Brown, a Lake Station resident who has been recorder since 2013, made sure to emphasize his ties to Gary, saying his family comes from Gary, he lived there as a child and that his father was a captain in the Gary Fire Department.
He said he thinks his efforts to digitize county records to make them more publicly accessible are worthy of praise.
Weatherspoon expressed concern with what he feels is a lack of diversity amongst the people who work in the recorder’s office, saying many are white women and that some barely have high school educations. “I want to have the best people,” he said.
But Swets disagreed, saying he doesn’t get the sense that Brown has been improper in his hiring for the office during the past four years. “I don’t plan to clean house” if elected, he said.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
