EVANSVILLE— It is a pointed question — some would say a taunt — hurled by opponents of Evansville-Vanderburgh County government consolidation nearly every chance they get.
If costs savings was a goal of the reorganization plan voters will judge in a referendum Tuesday, then why was law enforcement merger left out of the plan?
"We did not combine law enforcement, and that was a huge expenditure where we could have saved about $2.3 million," the Rev. Adrian Brooks Sr., said during an Oct. 17 consolidation debate. "So, if it was to reduce costs, then we left that out there."
In 2010 Brad Hill, then chief of the Evansville Police Department, estimated more than $2.2 million in savings over a period as long as 20 years by eliminating dozens of sheriff's office jobs by attrition. Hill's department and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office would not have merged under his proposal.
Brooks had ideas of his own at the time. Then a member of the citizens committee charged with crafting a consolidation proposal, he suggested a metro police commissioner appointed by the mayor as an administrator and law enforcement chief. He also touted a proposal for the sheriff to appoint the police chief.
But other consolidation opponents who have said merging law enforcement could have led to big savings have a ready answer when asked if they would support consolidating police and sheriff's departments.
"I haven't seen a plan I would have liked," said County Treasurer Rick Davis.
Bruce Ungethiem, co-chairman of Citizens Opposed to Reorganization in Evansville, has said including law enforcement merger in the consolidation plan would have saved millions — if costs savings truly was the goal of consolidation. But when asked if he supports merging law enforcement, Ungethiem said he wasn't saying that.
In other ways, the messages on law enforcement merger haven't always been consistent.
The local Fraternal Order of Police chapter, which is actively opposing consolidation, argues that merging law enforcement agencies actually would cost millions.
FOP activists say law enforcement consolidations in other cities have shown it would cost millions of dollars to merge the two law enforcement agencies' pension plans, insurance, wage structure and equipment. Consolidation supporters counter that such a blending could save millions instead, depending on its execution.
Davis said many prominent supporters of consolidation are current and former elected officials who could have already merged law enforcement. He named Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel, Sheriff Eric Williams and County Commissioners Marsha Abell and Joe Kiefer.
Winnecke, who was elected mayor in November 2011, was president of the County Commissioners when the commissioners and the City Council decided last year to drop law enforcement merger from the reorganization plan. In its place is language prohibiting changes in the law enforcement structure until 2024.
"Based on feedback from the public, we thought it best to pull law enforcement from the plan. We thought it was better to get a incremental improvement than no improvement at all," Winnecke said during the Oct. 17 debate.
The mayor acknowledged last week that much of the opposition to law enforcement consolidation came from members and supporters of FOP Lodge 73, which protested at public meetings of the citizens committee and the elected bodies. But he said neighborhood association activists also protested out of concern that they could lose community policing programs.
Some question whether law enforcement merger is as emotional and divisive an issue as commonly believed.
In 2010, Rebecca Kasha, then chairwoman of the citizens committee charged with crafting a consolidation plan, said opposition to merging law enforcement was coming primarily from vocal FOP members.
Now a leader in Yes! for Unification's campaign for consolidation, Kasha still sees no evidence of widespread public opposition to law enforcement merger outside the police union community.
"The people who identified themselves as being against the concept of consolidation were mostly FOP," she said last week. "But not all the FOP members are against it, either."
If Winnecke and the other elected officials thought leaving law enforcement out of the reorganization plan would temper the FOP's opposition, they were wrong.
In fact, the police union itself said as much in an Aug. 8 statement announcing its opposition to consolidation.
"We believe that law enforcement was left out of this plan so that we, the FOP, would not oppose this question on the 2012 ballot," the seven-paragraph statement says.
The FOP reports it has sunk thousands of dollars into an anti-consolidation campaign that includes aerial banner advertising at the Fall Festival for seven days, signage and informational meetings attracting more than 100 members each. The police union also has allowed Citizens Opposed to Reorganization of Evansville to use its headquarters for meetings for months.
FOP leaders say the mayor and 10 of 15 Common Council members in a consolidated government — the number required to amend the reorganization plan — could jettison the 2024 provision and merge the two law enforcement agencies sooner.
Williams, who supported law enforcement merger in 2010, says its absence from the final reorganization plan is not a good enough reason to oppose the plan.
"If I had the authority to do it, I'd merge them today because there are opportunities there," the sheriff said. "But passing (consolidation) puts us on the track to get that job done too in the future. We'll take it nice and easy and make sure that we've got a plan in place to do that efficiently."