Hammond tables conservancy district vote

Here is the report firsthand, better than anything you will read in the Times:

What a circus the Hammond City Council meetings have become. Ringmaster Higgs tried to keep the acts in their individual rings. Tom Dabertin- (paid consultant), George (gas-pump) Van Til-who said he has "nothing to gain" from creating the conservancy district, and some high priced attorney from God-knows -where, rounded out the clown section very well. I think they climbed out of the Volkswagen Beetle with the 5 council members who initially voted to not table the vote for two weeks to gather more information. I hope Dabertin isn't billing Lake County and Hammond for his performance. Gas-pump Van Til was essentially booed off the stage when he stated that no-one was concerned about the river flooding, except him, until 2008. Most of the speakers from the community missed the point of the whole problem with creating the district except for Carlotta Blake-King who called it a "power-grab" and Jim Premeske, who told us that more taxation without a cap and growing goverenment were bad ideas. Sounds like a Reagan Republican. Larry Rapchak eloquently spoke of the need for further discussion, singling out Councilman Mark Kalwinski to change his position. In the end, Kalwinski did acquiesce and voted to table the vote on the conservancy for two weeks, which passed 5-4.

Van Til promised that if Hammond voted to create the conservancy district, he would not approach Circuit Court Judge George Paras for his approval until other towns and cities approved the matter.

R-I-I-I-G-H-T.

Several legal questions come to mind here. How can the Lake County Circuit Court Judge have jurisdiction over a conservancy district that includes Porter County? When Tom McDermott Jr lobbied the state legislature to kill Soliday's original funding plan earlier this year, did he use Hammond taxpayer-funded phones, transportation, consultants, and lawyers, and is that legal? Is the statute creating conservancy districts unconstitutional because it allows unregistered voters to vote for or against the creation of a conservancy district, it requires those voters to be property owners-what about renters, and gives potentially numerous votes to someone who owns numerous properties?

Councilman Markovich wanted to add an amendment to the proposed ordinance to not allow Van Til to go to the judge with the proposal until at least half of the communities affected voted for the idea. Councilman Markovich needs to recognize that. State law trumps Hammond ordinance, so he can ask Lawson, Reardon, and Dobis to change the Indiana statute that only requires 5 percent of the conservancy district's approval in order to go to the circuit court judge for his approval. The Hammond Republican Mayoral candidate, instead of simply pointing out that we need to be against the conservancy district-period, rambled on and on about how the council should not vote for this ordinance without more information. I think he must be on McDermott's payroll.

This proposed conservancy district appears to be nothing more than a power and money grab by Tom McDermott's people in the wake of the 1-2-3 tax caps, which have severely cramped the Lake County Democrat style of patronage.

It's also a bad idea because it does not require any expertise to be elected to the proposed conservancy district, and because McDermott's people are asking for a 9 member board, when the statute calls for a board of 3-9 people with an odd number of members. Why not 3 or 5 people?

And why should the 3 Lake County commissioners have the power to appoint the board members for the first several years?

And why should people who own property that is not effected by flooding, have any voice in whose elected to the board?

The creation of this Conservancy District will not take any property off of the flood pain maps, only FEMA can do that!

And, by the way, this is a state waterway that I believe should be funded, administered, and maintained by the state because it includes multiple counties, and, is directly impacted by the actions of Illinois.

So, keep your mitts off of Hammond's Casino revenue, keep your patronage and government largesse out of here, keep your political cronies out of the flood-control business, and stop wasting the Hammond City Council's time.