EVANSVILLE —If Vanderburgh County voters decide to merge city and county governments, operations of the county’s two law enforcement agencies — the sheriff’s office and the city police department — will be unaffected.
That was the decision local officials charged with crafting a Evansville-Vanderburgh County unified government proposal reached Wednesday evening after months of debate about what to do with the two agencies.
Members of the Evansville City Council and the Vanderburgh County Commissioners had already eliminated an immediate merger of the two agencies and implemented language specifying that they can’t be combined until at least after the 2024 election. That would be after years of unified government if voters were to approve the consolidation on November 2012 ballot.
But one of the last obstacles was setting jurisdictional lines for the law enforcement agencies if they were under the control one a single government.
Sheriff Eric Williams and Police Chief Brad Hill failed to come to a consensus.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Councilmen Curt John, Dan McGinn and Dan Adams all advocated that police service be included to residents of what would be become the urban services district. The initial boundaries of such a district would mirror city limits if voters approve unified government.
John pointed out that the two departments already have some agreements in place to assist each other, a practice he said could still go on.
“My position would be that it remain as it is today,” he said. “That the districts stay the same and the spirit of cooperation continues.”
Though none of the other officials spoke against the idea, Commissioner Marsha Abell raised concern that the potential combined government might risk overfunding the sheriff’s budget and not have enough money for police if large areas were absorbed into the urban services district.
Adams said he believes that is unlikely.
“We’ve already gone through two major annexations. I don’t see anything hanging out there. I can’t predict what the mayors would do over the next 10 years, but I’d be surprised if there’s much change.
With that issue finally resolved, officials appear ready to put the proposal on the ballot.
Commissioners President Lloyd Winnecke briefly discussed officially adjourning the meeting, which would trigger a 30-day countdown for the two bodies to approve separate but identical resolutions.
“I’m assuming that based on all our straw polls that we have taken to date that everyone, with the notable exceptions, are on board with the changes that we’ve made,” he said.
Instead, the committee chose to recess until Sept. 6. At that time it is likely that board will meet for the sole purpose of adjournment, giving them until early October to approve the plan officially.