See the Tribune on county council meeting, and some editorial comments
Look at bottom couple paragraphs, where Rita votes against Bucko for Redevelopment and Whitten takes a shot at all "regionalism" ... the battle lines are being drawn. Anything "regional" is going to be fought, any restructuring or efficiency will be fought, Harper even demasculated the redevelopment commission by making it only advisory and not allowing any TIF. These guys want Porter County to slide back to the 19th Century because frankly they are scared of the future. They saw what their own party did to Lake County, and since they don't trust themselves they are staunchly defending status quo.
The real question going forward is will conservatives be able to crawl out of their own lethargy and worn out slogans and see job creation, growth, opportunity, redevelopment, efficiency, and reorganization as their winning ideas ... or will we retreat to small minded malaise and be forced further into a "they really don't matter" corner. The entire business community is restructuring, will conservatives become the unwitting accomplices of liberals and no-growthers and let government miss this opportunity?
Notice the word conservative, because there are some conservative elected Democrats who aren't anti-growth, anti-job, anti-efficiency. There are also a lot of Republicans wasting their time on tired slogans and campaigns. If you want jobs, then work on job creation which should include the entire county not just the mills. If you want government to cost less and deliver better services, then be brave and re-organize, take a political risk before it's too late and we become Lake County.
Mike Bucko has taken some risks and for some reason is getting shot by his own party far too often. If the jobs of Treasurer, Auditor, and Assessor are combined (and they should be) then Mike is probably the guy that will hold that new Chief Financial Officer job first. What's wrong with Rita, who is she parading for?
