Lake officials toss election question to state

CROWN POINT | The Lake County election board won't take legal action in response to last week's decision by the Lake County Council to not fund the special transit referendum in November.

Instead of taking the issue to court, the board agreed Tuesday to prepare for the election as if it had funding and to notify state election officials of its plight.

"This isn't our fight," Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said in support of going forward with the election. As Lake County Democratic Party chairman, McDermott has two appointments on the five-member board.

McDermott's Republican counterpart, John Curley, did not attend the meeting, but Curley's two appointees also supported moving ahead despite the funding stalemate. Republican board member Patrick Gabrione later acknowledged the board will hit a financial wall at some point. "The clock is ticking," he said.

The standoff is expected to continue this morning when county election officials appear before the Lake County Board of Commissioners to ask for permission to seek contract proposals for the moving of hundreds of voting machines the election will require.

The commissioners will be voting no, their attorney, John Dull, warned the board Tuesday. The commissioners cannot approve a bid on a contract for which the County Council has not appropriated money, he said.

Dull announced immediately following the council's vote last week that the action removed the commissioners' standing to sue, passing the legal baton to the election board.

On Tuesday, election board attorney Brian Lambka said his research had turned up no legal precedent to guide the board.

Election board Chairman Thomas Philpot and St. John Republican Party Chairman Joe Hero chastised the council for not following the law ordering the referendum.

But County Council President Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, later countered that the law also precludes the council from appropriating money it doesn't have. If they do, council members risk being charged with a misdemeanor, he said.

"It's a grave situation," Blanchard said of the county's financial picture. The council currently is $1 million short of balancing this year's budget, he said.

State elections officials are not expected to comment until after receiving the local board's communication, said Leslie Barnes, Democratic co-counsel to the Indiana Elections Division.

In opposing the council's action, Philpot said he believed the fight was between the council and the Legislature, but powerful state Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, last week told The Times he would not press the council's action as a violation of the law if the referendum were delayed. Kenley could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

The law requires the question of creating a regional transit district also be put to voters in Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties. At least two counties must approve the measure.

Representatives of all four counties object to the additional cost of holding the referendum during an nonelection year, but Porter County officials are not expected to resist it. LaPorte County officials in late July announced plans to sue the state. St. Joseph County officials reportedly are considering legal action.