For possibly as long as the next year, local elected officials will publicly thrash out hot button issues of mayoral power, law enforcement structure, taxation and representation.
Working with a 47-page proposal for the consolidation of Evansville and Vanderburgh County government crafted by a 12-member citizens committee, the City Council and the County Commissioners will try to hammer out a plan they can live with.
Their sessions likely will be contentious at times, and — with most members of the City Council seeking re-election this year and one county commissioner running for mayor — there could be some political theater.
But if the two governing bodies can agree on the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Reorganization Committee's plan or, as seems more likely, modifications to it, voters will have the final say in a referendum to be held during the 2012 election.
"We'll be talking about, 'What gives you the most heartburn and what can you live with in the (reorganization committee's) plan,'" said Commissioners President Lloyd Winnecke, a consolidation advocate and a Republican candidate for mayor.
"There's a lot of reasonable suggestions that can be incorporated into the plan," Winnecke said.
Next up is a hearing at 5:30 p.m. March 30 in Room 301 of the Civic Center.
After that, Winnecke plans to propose a series of public joint workshops at which councilmen and commissioners address the entire panorama of issues that must be agreed upon to produce a ballot question.
But if consensus eludes the elected officials and they vote no on a consolidation plan, the proposal will go back to the reorganization committee for a rewrite. If the City Council and the County Commissioners vote no again on the rewrite, it will die unless 10 percent of voters who cast a ballot in last year's secretary of state race — about 5,000 voters — sign a petition to force it to a ballot question.
For Curt John, a Democrat and a 16-year veteran of the City Council, that is not the desired outcome.
"We should try to get on the same page and at least discuss this so something gets out to the voters, so (consolidation) can be voted on up or down," said John.
Sticking point
A Monday meeting of the City Council, County Commissioners and reorganization committee offered a look ahead at likely sticking points.
At or near the top of the list: the proposal for an 11-member Common Council, eight of whom would represent districts of about 21,500 people each. Three would be elected at large.
Some of the elected officials called Monday for a larger council with smaller districts and thus fewer constituents per district.
"The magic number of 20,000 could be 15,000 for us," City Councilman H. Dan Adams said. "I don't think we should get as many (council members) as Nashville (the consolidated Nashville-Davidson County government has a 40-member Metro Council), but that's a totally different thing."
Commissioner Marsha Abell pointed to the reorganization committee's proposal for eight single-member geographic districts, six of which would mirror the wards from which City Council members are elected, with two created from areas outside the city. The two non-city districts would be divided by St. Joseph Avenue.
Abell questioned how the reorganization committee could envision one representative for Scott Township instead of two, when the township has been a growth area for years.
U.S. Census Bureau data shows Scott Township grew from 5,445 residents in 2000 to 8,528 residents in 2010 — a 57 percent increase that is Vanderburgh County's largest percentage change.
But reorganization committee members have pointed out the proposed districts are smaller than those in consolidated governments in Indianapolis, Lexington, Ky., and Louisville, Ky.
They say an 11-member council would be more manageable than 15 members and harder for a mayor to manipulate because its authority would be harder to dilute, and consensus would be easier to achieve.
"This vote is really about where do you want to redistribute power?" committee member Matt Theby said in December. "Do you want to redistribute it to the mayor or do you want to redistribute it to the Legislature? It's clear, if you want to distribute power to the Legislature, keep it as it exists now, at 11."
The districts will have to be redrawn to account for 2010 census data that wasn't available when the reorganization committee created its plan, but the body still recommends eight districts and three at-large members.
Law enforcement
Supporters and opponents of the committee's proposal to consolidate the Evansville Police Department and the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office into a single agency under the sheriff's direction disagree not only about the merits of the idea, but about how controversial it truly is.
"All I'm trying to do is take it off the burner and just leave it the way it is and let three to five years go by, and the (Common Council) look at it," he said.
But Rebecca Kasha, chairwoman of the reorganization committee, said in December that opposition has been led by vocal Fraternal Order of Police members.
"When we go to these listening sessions, then when it's just the community and not the people involved directly in law enforcement, it doesn't even come up," Kasha said.
The committee's proposal specifies the law enforcement consolidation be accomplished with no reduction in authorized levels of staffing.
But on Monday night, Adams told reorganization committee member Barbara Harris city police officers are "petrified" that community police officer positions would be eliminated in a consolidation.
The exchange that followed offers a hint of the tense moments awaiting County Commissioners and the City Council as they tackle the full range of issues.
"Not true," Harris said, assuring Adams that city law enforcement jobs would not be eliminated.
"Well, you don't know that," Adams shot back.
"That's not the plan," Harris said.
"You don't know that," Adams repeated.
"It was never the plan to take anything away from the city structure," Harris said.
"You don't know that," Adams said.