EVANSVILLE— A drive by opponents of Evansville-Vanderburgh County government consolidation to stop the Nov. 6 referendum vote got stopped today -- for now -- by the county election board.
The election board voted 3-0 to let the referendum question go forward, to which Citizens Opposed to Reorganization in Evansville responded by vowing to go to court.
"The election board indicated where the next step is, and that is to take it to a judge, and that's what we plan to do," said Bruce Ungethiem, co-chair of CORE.
Ungethiem argued before the election board that potentially hundreds of signatures on the voter petition drive that launched the consolidation process are invalid, bringing the number of valid signatures below the required 5 percent of voters who cast ballots in the 2006 secretary of state's race. He also cited a state law requiring that the petition "state the day of the election for which the petitioners seek the placement of the question on the ballot."
But the election board agreed with pro-consolidation attorney Ted Ziemer Jr., who argued that the 1998 statute CORE is relying upon is trumped by legislation passed in March 2006 to give local government units a framework to merge -- and the later statute does not require the actions that CORE said were not properly carried out.
Ziemer pointed to a segment of the 2006 legislation's article on government modernization.
"Except as otherwise specifically provided by law, to the extent the provisions of this article are inconsistent with the provisions of any other general, special, or local law, the provisions of this article are controlling, and compliance with this article shall be treated as compliance with the conflicting law," it states.
Ziemer argued that every step described in the statute's article on "government modernization" has been carried out in the process that launched consolidation referendum, and the election board had no jurisdiction to find otherwise.
The merit of CORE's charges is irrelevant at any rate, Ziemer said, because they were not filed within 30 days of the Vanderburgh County Commissioners' and the Evansville City Council's resolutions initiating the consolidation process. That requirement is found within a separate statute setting a statute of limitations for objection to any action taken by a public body.