Republicans are poised to make county commissioners the final authority on local emergency health orders, after a flare of tempers at a final committee hearing.
House and Senate negotiators are fixing some ambiguous language, but the substance of the final bill isn’t expected to change. It allows businesses to appeal to the commissioners if the health department writes them up for a violation of an emergency order. And it keeps a provision added by the House, requiring the commissioners to approve any emergency health order stricter than what’s been imposed statewide.
South Bend Democrat David Niezgodski joined Republicans in voting for the original appeal-rights bill in the Senate, but the votes on the proposal have otherwise followed party lines. Republicans say the bill gives residents’ elected representatives a say in decisions by unelected health officers. Democrats predict the change will politicize what should be a nonpartisan decision. Bloomington Representative Matt Pierce argues the appeal process could stretch as long as six weeks, while the coronavirus can spread rapidly through a community in a third of that time.
Despite the differing views, a 25-minute hearing to discuss the final version was uneventful until the very end, when Pierce began to ask to make a final point. Charlestown Senator Chris Garten (R), the committee’s chairman and author of the original bill, didn’t acknowledge him and announced the hearing’s end, slamming down the gavel when Pierce protested what he called a “jam job.”
In Marion County, appeals and health order reviews would go to the City-County Council because of Indy’s consolidated city-county government. Indiana’s three city health departments — Fishers, Gary and East Chicago — would answer not to the commissioners but their city councils.
Governor Holcomb has already vetoed a bill expanding review of his emergency authority. He’s said he has concerns about other proposals limiting the ability to respond to health emergencies, but hasn’t specified which ones, and has stopped short of threatening more vetoes, saying he’ll need to review the final language.
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No one electe4d any of the local “health officers.” As long as they stay neutral and non-partisan they were just fine. But over the last year they have become overly political and ignored a growing scientific database that shows their orders to be unproductive and tyrannical. Elkhart County Commissioners passed a fine ordnance over the masquerade. They then recently rescinded the ordinance. No one reported on how many fines were issued under the ordinance. I contacted my Commissioner and found that ZERO fines were issued during the ordinance’s life span. It seems that health officers and governors enjoy a little too much their new found dictatorial powers. what is a citizen to do if we have dictators in office. There must be a way for The People to stop them. This bill seems like a good way to do that.