INDIANAPOLIS | Two Northwest Indiana lawmakers want to give voters the power to eject disappointing politicians.
State Reps. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, and Dan Stevenson, D-Highland, each is offering legislation to have Indiana join the more than two-dozen states that allow some form of voter recall.
Both lawmakers insist they're not targeting any particular official. But Brown said Gary residents tell him they want a chance to oust Mayor Rudy Clay, who has clashed with city employee unions while attempting to close a 2009 budget deficit pegged as a high as $36 million.
"People are up in arms about what's happening in the city of Gary, and obviously there's a lot of discussion out there about recalling the mayor," Brown said. "I'm only allowing the citizenry a vehicle. It's nothing personal. There are no permanent enemies in politics."
Brown has been at odds with the mayor before. Clay, the Lake County Democratic chairman, gave a longtime Republican permission to switch parties last year for a short-lived primary run against Brown.
"We already have a recall system. It's every four years," Clay said, referencing the mayoral election schedule. "The people in Gary, Ind., know we inherited a real financial monster when I became mayor. Most of the people I talk to say I'm doing a good job."
Clay, who was appointed in 2006 and won a full term last year, said he took a 20 percent pay cut earlier this year to help close a year-end deficit estimated at $8 million. He proposed a similar pay cut for all city employees.
The city also laid off 13 firefighters Monday after their union refused to forgo a $750 annual employee uniform stipend. And Gary plans to go before a state appeals panel to request relief from new property tax caps that threaten to cut the city's general fund budget in half.
Brown's recall proposal was not written to include legislators, the governor or other state officials, but he said he is willing to expand the measure. Stevenson drafted his legislation to include all state and local officials.
"If it's good enough for one office, it's good enough for all of them, including my own office," Stevenson said. "I don't think it's something that should be taken lightly. I don't think it's something you do because you don't agree with a legitimate decision of an officeholder."
