So it begins

Don't let the accompanying photo, of County Commissioner Marla Irving and City Council President John Crawford, fool you. They were part of the joint commission-council meeting earlier tonight that discussed Indiana House Enrolled Act 1362, the enabling legislation permitting local units of government to engage in a reorganization process without prior state approval. It does not mean that the county and city are closer than ever. But the process, sought by many for more than 35 years, is finally about to begin. Tomorrow night, the City Council will hear a resolution crafted by Crawford and City Councilman Sam Talarico Jr. that will address the government-reorganization question. There won't be a vote, but the question will be opened. If council eventually passes a resolution calling for a committee to craft a consolidation proposal, then the commissioners will also have to address the question. At least we will finally know where everybody stands on reorganization; people won't be able to straddle the fence, secure in the knolwedge that the state won't let us vote on it anyway.

This is a process that will take a long time, with 2008 the earliest a measure can go before voters in a referendum. As one who has advocated a look at local-government structure for a long time, I'm glad we've finally gotten this far. But those who don't want to change shouldn't worry -- the process will require a lot of public input along the way, and there is no chance anything will happen that a healthy majority of residents don't approve. And chances are a referendum will fail -- most government-consolidation measures don't pass until the second or third try. But at least we will have begun the formal conversation and had a chance to decide locally how we want to run things locally.

I've been writing about Indiana government for more than 30 years, and one constant has been that the state has never been willing to give up as much control as communities have wanted it to. "Home rule" has been a tough sell to the General Assembly. With 1362, we finally have a healthy dose of home rule. Let's not be afraid to use it.

UPDATE: Here is Mike Sylvester's coverage of last night's meetings, referred to in his comment. "Long and painful" process indeed. I didn't stay for the 911 discussion, which offered evidence of what we can expect on the larger consolidation question.