>newground
A class in session at the LGA
The mission: To create a training center known as the Local Government Academy (LGA) that would help politicians do their jobs more effectively—and ethically.
The reason: A 2000 study, Transforming the Economy of Northwest Indiana, which made pointed comments about the near-universal mistrust of public officials in northwest Indiana.
“It’s one thing to become a politician, to go out and campaign, and be elected. Then one day you’re elected—and you don’t have the slightest idea what’s expected of you,” says Ed Charbonneau, the center’s director.
“The perception of northwest Indiana is not good,” he says. And this affects economic development and the ability to get things done. “How many companies don’t want to locate here?”
The LGA is a collaborative effort between six colleges and universities: IU Northwest, Valparaiso University, Calumet College, Ivy Tech State College, Purdue Calumet, and Purdue North Central.
Help has also come from the NiSource Foundation and the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation, which together have added $40,000 to the academy’s operating budget.
Since it opened less than a year ago, the center has done everything from sponsoring a dinner for new mayors to hosting an ethics symposium that encourages city councils to look at ethical issues.
The center seems well on its way to improving the performance of local government in Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties.
Porter County Sheriff Dave Reynolds, a member of the LGA’s board of directors, said the academy has already had great success helping towns and cities revisit or create ethics ordinances.
“Ask any politician or elected official, ‘Do you think you should be ethical?’ Of course they’ll say 'yes', but what does that mean?” said Reynolds. “You need ground rules so you know what you can and can’t do.”
In addition to improving the work of local government, the LGA seeks to help newly elected officials understand their roles and teaches them how to run a meeting, collaborate successfully, and to network.
One day, Charbonneau hopes the LGA will extend its mission to educating the public on the political process. Right now, Charbonneau and his board are focused on making government work better through early training and support.
“It’s been very exciting to be involved in something like this,” Charbonneau said. “There’s great potential here to have a major impact on the quality of life in northwest Indiana.”
>Jennifer Piurek
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