Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority set to challenge Porter County exit

By Keith Benman and Patrick Guinane, Times of Northwest Indiana

The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority is laying the groundwork to mount a legal and fiscal challenge to the Porter County Council's vote to exit the agency, the group concluded Thursday.

"It is our feeling ... that the action of the Porter County Council was not consistent with the law," RDA member Harley Snyder said. "And I believe we should act within the law to do everything we can to correct this situation."

Five RDA members present at a working group meeting at the Purdue Technology Center reached consensus that they will consider five challenges to the Porter County action.

Those options were outlined by RDA attorney David Hollenbeck. The proposals range from freezing funding for any RDA projects under way in Porter County to pursuing the issue in court.

Porter County Council Attorney Scott McClure on Wednesday said there is no clear answer as to whether the law allows Porter County to withdraw from the RDA. He said the issue most likely would end up in court.

Also on Thursday, state Rep. Chet Dobis said the council's 4-3 vote was another "black eye" for the region at the Statehouse. The veteran legislator laid some of the blame at the feet of the RDA, saying it may be a wake-up call for the four-year-old organization.

"It's time that the RDA got off their butts and did something visible and something meaningful," Dobis said. "That might be the message that the Porter County folks were sending. I don't know."

He said the RDA is spending too much time on "small things" such as a policies on hiring minority- and women-owned businesses and studies of bus transit.

"I get the feeling that if I was watching them, they'd look like gerbils," he said. "They get up on that wheel, and they keep going round and round and round. But they don't get anywhere."

One immediate effect of Wednesday night's Porter County Council vote was the absence of Porter County representative on the RDA board Gus Olympidis from Thursday's RDA working group meeting.

Olympidis later confirmed he was acceding to the Porter County Council's vote Wednesday night.

"My appointment was recalled," Olympidis said. "You can debate the legal question of Porter County's ability to exit the RDA. But it's probably not debatable whether appointees of the County Council and County Commission serve at the pleasure of county councilors and county commissioners."

Newly installed RDA Executive Director William Hanna said it is doubtful Porter County can withhold its $3.5 million yearly contribution to the RDA. Hanna said the County Council would have to eliminate the entire 0.25 percent portion of the county economic development income tax passed in 2005 to do that, which also would entail ending $8 million in property tax relief.

State Rep. Ed Soliday said he had talked to lawyers who said the Porter County Council's act was illegal.

"I'm just really concerned about how we can get economic recovery to happen in Northwest Indiana when people kill everything that has any hope of jobs," Soliday said.