The Indianapolis Star, Jan. 23, 2012.
Protection bill leaves bad smell
When an experienced activist attorney says she'd be inclined to advise low-income citizens not to take grievances to court if a certain bill became law, alarms ought to be ringing.
Kim Ferraro's focus of concern is Indiana House Bill 1091, under which agricultural operations, such as large confined livestock complexes, would be guaranteed payment of their legal fees if found to be victims of nuisance lawsuits.
"Nuisance" also happens to be a term often applied to confined animal feeding sites, known as CAFOs, whose smells and waste from hundreds and even thousands of close-quartered pigs, chickens and other creatures have drawn complaints and litigation from neighbors and advocates.
Ferraro, who is with the Hoosier Environmental Council and the Legal Environmental Aid Foundation, has had some success representing poor clients pro bono against CAFOs. She says she would not advise them to sue if HB 1091 became law.
"To single out one business for this sort of protection sends a disturbingly chilling signal to anyone considering a (farming practices) lawsuit," she says.
State Rep. William Friend, R-Macy, the bill's author and a large pork producer, insists legal rights would not be infringed. Yet the courts already have discretion to award legal fees to those found to have been sued frivolously. This bill would lift that discretion and force them to impose the penalties.
It also must be noted that this single business already has special protection from nuisance lawsuits under the state Right to Farm Act.
The costs, benefits and regulation of this large and controversial industry are subject to continual debate. Closing the courthouse door to opponents, even indirectly, has no place in that political process and no warrant under our tradition of free speech.
State government said as much more than a decade ago when it banned so-called SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) legal actions that have been taken by businesses such as landfills and power plants against remonstrators. Pre-empting these protests by onerous lawsuits has been found by Indiana and most other states to be unconstitutional and plain unfair. HB 1091 carries the same foul aroma.
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Palladium-Item, Richmond. Jan. 22, 2012.
Beware school choice plans
It probably escaped notice of most people, including most public school personnel, that Saturday kicked off National School Choice Week.
Actually, according to its literature, National School Choice Week is as much a calendar designation as it is a movement -- a conglomeration of groups dedicated, in their own words, to "school choice options for all children."
That is, options different than traditional public schools.
If public schools have not been paying attention, they had better. Their very survival may one day depend upon it.
Certainly, Indiana parents of school children already have been bombarded by several of those emerging options, from public charter schools to magnet schools, virtual schools, vouchers that are redeemable at private schools, home schooling and more.
If Republicans controlling the Indiana General Assembly have their way, there'll be another. Indiana's school choice movement could take its boldest step yet in the form of what is being called "parent trigger" charter schools.
What it means, essentially, is that instead of existing public schools starting up public charter schools, or waiting for this or that group to apply to get a charter school under way, the authority could rest with parents themselves, if a majority at any school agree, to turn a traditional public school into a charter.
An abridged version of this approach became part of the school reform package during last year's General Assembly session. A major difference is that it left the ultimate decision with school boards and limited it to schools that have underperformed for at least two years in a row.
By contrast, the "parent trigger" would place disgruntled parents firmly in charge of deciding on a charter conversion for their child's school where a majority of those parents feel their child's school is underperforming in meeting students' needs.
Leaders of Indiana's largest teachers' union say they will again fight the measure because two key public schools groups, teachers and school administrators, are left out of the charter decision-making.
It's very likely that in the current short session of the Indiana General Assembly, a session likely to be consumed by proposed right-to-work legislation, the "parent trigger" might not gain passage.
But it's the underlying movement that ... public school personnel ignore or underestimate at their own peril.
And contrary to the suggestion that public school administrators and teachers are left out of this "parent trigger" charter proposal, they really are not. They have always had it within their power to double down in their demands for heightened excellence and improved performance. In achieving those, they likely check the groundswell of demands coming from concerned parents and taxpayers for meaningful educational alternatives for their children and for their tax dollars.
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The Times of Northwest Indiana, Munster. Jan. 20, 2012.
Enact local government reforms
Among the unfinished business in the Kernan-Shepard report are two proposals aimed at preventing nepotism and a major conflict of interest in local government.
It might seem a no-brainer that a local government employee shouldn't serve on the governing board of that same unit of government. But this is very common in Indiana.
If that surprises you, perhaps you haven't been paying close attention to the names on the ballot.
There are so many examples in Lake and Porter counties that it would take too much space to list them all. Suffice it to say: This practice is commonplace.
It is also unethical, as it sets up a conflict of interest that compromises suitable representation on county councils, town board and city councils.
A firefighter, police officer, clerical worker or code enforcement officer serving on the governing board of that same unit of local government shouldn't make decisions that affect his or her department — or even all city employees. That's a conflict of interest.
But if the elected representative recuses himself or herself, the constituents are deprived of representation on that issue.
That's why state law must be changed to prevent this built-in conflict of interest.
Local government employees still would be able to hold elective office, just not for the same unit of local government.
Nor should any local government employee serve as a direct supervisor of a relative. Nepotism is unprofessional and bad government. No matter how the supervisor treats a relative, the question of favoritism can be raised.
Government is not meant to be a family business. Nor are the employees supposed to govern themselves.
House Bill 1005 and Senate Bill 170, which are nearly identical, are before the House and Senate. The bills address serious ethical lapses in Indiana government.
The Indiana General Assembly should enact these long-overdue reforms.
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The Herald Bulletin, Anderson. Jan. 20, 2012.
Traffic roundabouts can be safe and save money
Many of us feel we're running in circles half the time. What we don't realize is that even though we may be revisiting the same spot over and over, we're still in motion. We're not stopping and starting and stopping again.
Driving in circles has much the same effect.
Motorists move with the flow of a circle. They aren't halted by stoplights; they're constantly in motion in a get-me-there-quick world.
So to that end, trendy city and highway planners in Indiana have installed roundabouts, known also as traffic circles, that help drivers avoid those cumbersome 30-second waits at a red-yellow-green traffic signal.
Central Indiana began to take notice of roundabouts in the late 1990s when they became fashionable in Carmel in an effort led by still-Mayor Jim Brainard. As of today, more than 60 roundabouts dot Carmel streets.
Beyond fashion, roundabouts save cities thousands of dollars by eliminating stoplights and maintenance.
Additionally, data from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety indicates that roundabouts reduce injury crashes by 80 percent and all crashes by 40 percent. In general, T-bone accidents are reduced.
Recently, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced plans to install more than two dozen roundabouts on state highways in the next five years. INDOT installed its first in Valparaiso nearly four years ago and two others last year along Indiana 32 between Noblesville and Anderson. For Ind. 32, there are actually three within a few hundred yards of another: two on Ind. 32 and one south of Ind. 32 that provides a link to Pleasant Street on the eastern side of Noblesville. The speed limit is 15 mph. But those three locations could use improvements. At night, there are only 10 to 12 rather dim overhead lights noting the presence of the roundabouts. That's not enough to clearly mark the route.
Also, lane changes are confusing, notably if a driver is heading south or north onto lesser-traveled streets.
INDOT's decision to install more roundabouts is grounded in economics and leans toward safety. But INDOT must ensure these roundabouts are safer than the ones that drivers in Madison and Hamilton counties use along Ind. 32. Designs must be flexible. Depending on traffic flow, some need to be shaped like a teardrop; others must be larger circles to accommodate volume. And lighting is critical; too many drivers rush into the roundabout for the first time and slow down because they're unsure of the lanes.
Roundabouts are a great idea as long as they are designed properly to keep us in motion.
