GOP State Rep Mike Marron says House Bill 4830 that he is proposing would create an inspector general for every county in the state to improve local government ethics and improve protection for whistle blowers. Marron says, sure, last week’s controversy about how the new state inspector general was chosen is a factor; but this, Marron says, is something he’s been thinking about since he was Vermilion County Board Chairman, and then even more since he was elected to the General Assembly.
AUDIO: The first and foremost in my mind since I’ve been sitting on the legislative Ethics Commission; I see a lot of things in state governorment that raises a lot of eyebrows, a lot of questions. So that’s kind of led to a culmination of my thinking on this, and thinking, “What can we do to reinstall trust in government, not only on a state level but on a local level?”
Requiring this in every county could lead to an unfunded mandate situation without help from the state, and Marron says exploring ways this could be funded is one of many issues to be looked at as the bill is considered. Another possibility would be whether rural counties could share an inspector general.
AUDIO: This doesn’t have to be a large cost to counties. This could be somebody that works in the judicial system, somebody that has this kind of investigative background that may be interested in doing this as a public service. But those are issues that are going to get worked through as we start the legislative process. And I’m looking foward to taking the input of the players; the county elected officials around the state.
One of those “county officials around the state” would be current Vermilion County Board Chairman Larry Baughn. He says some of the local initiatives he wants to get started for better county oversight can be brought before the County Board now, and won’t have to wait to see what kind of traction Marron’s bill receives in Springfield.
AUDIO: I think the county initiative can start now. And that would give Mike (Marron) a little more information moving forward maybe with the bill on what counties are doing already to see this get started. But we plan to work with the auditor and the treasurer, and the County Board Finance and Personnel Committee and get something to the board pretty quick.
Also present at Tuesday morning’s press conference at the Vermilion County Treasurer’s Office were Vermilion County Treasurer Darren Duncan, and Vermilion County Auditor Erika Briggs.
