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		From Our Founder by Robert J. Wichlinski  You may have heard the news that the Mayor of Gary Indiana threw in the towel.  It was headline news and the story was given column inches ordinarily reserved for acts of congress, Presidential visits, landfill developers, folks who commit unspeakable crimes, new airlines arriving or departing from Gary/Chicago airport, and of course, Donald Trump.  The newspaper coverage was fantastic.  What made it especially amusing to me was that both The Times and the Post-Tribune used the exact same headline to describe the departure… “REIGN OVER” (That don’t happen that often friends. Neither headline editor could resist demonstrating how clever they were by drawing the relationship between his rule as Mayor and his last name… which is another word used for a monarch… get it?). It appears to me that the only time we really pay attention to our elected officials is when our newspapers decide we should.  Think about that one for a minute.  Here in da Region we have faced some pretty outrageous abuses of political power and public trust.  In some cases elected office was transformed into a business proposition and it did not seem to really bother folks all that much… UNTIL… our cash cows called heavy industry started to thin their operations, trim their ranks, and scrutinize the amount of tax dollars they were making available to the local elected officials who were supposed to be keeping the masses content.  That’s when the masks came off.  The taxpayers were forced to foot the tax bill... the REAL tax bill, not the one subsidized all those years by the big factories that were driving the local economy while spewing “lord knows what” into our air, water & soil.  And that’s when the masses found out how expensive the empires called local government had become.  And that’s when the taxpayers started to ask the same questions that the big factory owners were asking…questions like, “what exactly am I paying for? and what should I reasonably expect? and should my tax dollars be paying for this? and do we even need that product/service or has it been forced upon us by an elected official whose cousin is in the “everyone needs one a these” business and decided to spend some of MY tax money on it?”  So the newspapers covered the story of heavy industry’s “rightsizing” and the bankruptcies.  And they covered the initial shock when the REAL tax bills arrived in our mailboxes.  And they covered the indictments of the local elected officials whose shenanigans were uncovered when people started asking about where all their tax money went.  And they covered the story about how decision-makers in Indianapolis were selling us out and how they’re responsible for our lot in life.  And I have no doubt whatsoever that the newspapers will cover the upcoming political campaigns for elected office… at least the juicy ones.  To be certain, the newspapers are there at planting and harvest watching the reaping and the sowing.  But it’s what happens in between that truly affects us and sometimes I just don’t think the people and the papers get it. Let me give you an example.  There’s this mild-mannered guy named Mike Griffin.  Mike serves as the Clerk-Treasurer of a place called Highland Indiana.  My sense is that many folks in Highland regard Mike as their Mayor because he pretty much is.  Mike is caring, patient, ethical, honest, and busts his butt to make absolutely certain that every tax dollar is invested wisely.  Moreover, his painstaking attention to detail and his mastery of fund accounting is the stuff that legends are made of.  The man takes pride in his work! Now Mike has served for many, many moons… so it’s very safe to say that he has established and sustained a level of excellence that should be held up as an example for every blessed local elected official in NW Indiana to emulate… and I don’t need a 400 page study to convince me that this is headline material.   But here’s the dig.  I am guessing that many people living in da region reading this right now have never heard of him (unless you receive a Highland edition of your newspaper).  In fact, I’d bet you’ve heard more about the new position of Highland Town Manager than about the guy that I would argue has been managing the Town of Highland for many years quite nicely thank you very much.  Mike is not one to sing his own praises, and while he has done a lot of planting and harvesting over the years, his greatest work is done during the growing season…the time in between. You see, “in between” is not just where most of us live… it’s also when most elected officials are either investing in your community or playing Santa Claus with your tax dollars…  and when our newspapers (and all of us) should be really paying attention… because right now when we hear all about it, it’s too late to really do anything. Mike is among a host of dedicated, caring elected officials who we need to read more about and celebrate.  When we learn about more about the Mikes, our expectations will rise, as will our standards.  And when we go to the polls we will start searching for the Mikes and electing them.  And they will provide law-abiding, dedicated service.  And while we might not exactly understand the responsibilities of their specific elected office, there’s no doubt that our Mikes are serving us well.  And that my friends is the recipe for improving local government.  And that’s how we restore the public’s trust in local government. And that’s when we rediscover that politician also is defined by Webster as “a person actively engaged in the art or science of government” as opposed to Webster’s other definition “a person primarily interested in political offices from selfish or other narrow usually short-run interests.” As always, I can be reached via e-mail at b@219.com
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