Lake County is the poster child for local government reform, no doubt about it. Governments seem to grow like kudzu.

There are signs of hope in Northwest Indiana; however, the Indiana General Assembly isn't putting on a superhero cape.

In Porter County, the good news is the merger of the Portage and Porter County 911 dispatching services. It's a logical and long overdue step that will save the city up to $800,000 a year.

Valparaiso only recently gave up its 911 dispatching to Porter County. It's good to see Portage follow suit.

This example should be followed in Lake County and across the state. With computerized maps, there's no good reason for this duplication of services.

Hammond and Whiting, too, are offering signs of hope.

Whiting Mayor Joe Stahura, a strong supporter of Good Government Initiative reforms, is negotiating with Hammond to offer fire protection to Whiting.

Combined savings could be up to $4 million in capital costs and up to $1.5 million a year in operating costs.

Hammond and Whiting have fire stations less than two miles apart. Talks are still in the early stages, but I hope they succeed. This deal makes sense.

Unless you're one of the service providers, who cares how your government services are delivered as long as they meet or exceed your expectations?

That's the good news in Northwest Indiana.

Downstate, well, that's a different subject.

Local government reform is one of the most important jobs facing the Indiana General Assembly, but the results so far are mixed.

Indiana Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake, and Sen. Jim Buck, R-Kokomo, sided with Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, and the other three Democrats on the Senate Local Government Committee to shoot down a government streamlining bill on Wednesday.

Senate Joint Resolution 7 would have ended elections for the offices of county coroner, recorder, surveyor and treasurer. Those aren't policy-making positions, so they logically shouldn't be elected anyway.

Having those people report to a county council, county executive, board of supervisors or some such entity would make it easier to discipline those people when they don't perform their jobs well.

The Senate Local Government Committee also gutted legislation that would have abolished township government.

That's two local government reforms shot down on Wednesday.

Who would have thought Northwest Indiana would be outshining the Indiana General Assembly when it comes to government streamlining?