One in Charge at County Level

One of the 27 recommendations of the Kernan-Shepard panel (officially the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform) is to have a single elected official in charge at the county level.

John Krauss, director of the Indiana University Center for Urban Policy and the Environment and a former deputy mayor of Indianapolis, led the staff support for the commission. He was recently quoted in a Governing magazine article: "There should be one person that’s accountable. You don’t have three CEOs that run McDonald’s or Microsoft."

Tampa, which has seen its attempts at unification with Hillsborough County fall short three times, is aiming for the elected "mayor" to run the county option. Voters will have their say in November.

Former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan gives his take on redundancy at the county level and other local government reform topics in Indiana. 

Leave a Reply