City Hiring: Anderson has no law against nepotism

Michigan City recently passed ordinance

By Aleasha Sandley, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer

ANDERSON — When it comes to hiring relatives, the City of Anderson has no limitations.

The City Council has not passed an ordinance dealing with the practice, and a state government ethics policy that discourages nepotism does not extend to local governments.

Few localities in Indiana have passed such ordinances. One that has, Michigan City, enacted the law after debate between the mayor and council.

Michigan City Mayor Chuck Oberlie said the policy, passed last year, forbids department heads from hiring their own relatives. Exceptions are made for the city’s police and fire departments because their hiring is overseen by merit boards.

Oberlie had vetoed the original ethics policy based on wording that he said would violate the privacy of some employees. After the council made changes to the ordinance and passed it again, Oberlie signed it.

“The City Council and our office had had conversations about transparency and trying to remove scrutinies that result because of the perception,” Oberlie said.

City residents had complained after Michigan City officials hired a city worker’s relative, according to Oberlie.

In a city of 30,000, nepotism in City Hall was not uncommon, Oberlie said. Since the ethics policy passed, the city, battling budget deficits, hasn’t hired anyone.

“There has to be a transparency in the process,” he said. “I don’t want this ordinance to be used to make sure we don’t hire the best person. To me, it’s one of those unfortunate twists of what I would think is commonsense. Our ordinance is very practical, and it lays forth what I think is the right thing.”



State lets cities decide how to handle nepotism

Indiana’s ethics policy governs the hiring of state employees. The policy stipulates that state board members, commission members or department heads may not hire any of the following relatives for the same board, commission or department: father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, husband, wife, son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, niece or nephew. The same relatives cannot be in a direct supervisory-subordinate working relationship.

“We have not really in the state of Indiana adopted a law strictly against nepotism on a local basis,” said state Sen. Tim Lanane, who also serves as the Anderson city attorney.

The General Assembly considered a nepotism policy last year for townships but did not pass the policy when the larger bill it was attached to failed.

“There were some situations where it looked like the practice was a little out of hand,” Lanane said. “It was not uncommon to hear about nepotism within a trustee’s office.”

Lanane said any decision to enact a nepotism policy in Anderson would need to be drafted and approved by the City Council.

“The issue of nepotism we’ve pretty much said leave it to the local communities to decide if they think it should be a good thing or bad or something voters can decide,” he said. “I think there are pros and cons to it. It’s a close call.”



Council members would consider ordinance

City Councilman David Eicks, a Democrat, said he would be open to considering an ordinance dealing with nepotism. Such a measure, to Eicks’ knowledge, hasn’t been considered by the full council but has been discussed among council members.

The ordinance shouldn’t be a blanket rule against hiring anyone related to a city worker, Eicks said, because in some cases that applicant might be the most qualified.

“I first and foremost believe everybody hired should live in the city of Anderson,” Eicks said. “With that said, there needs to be some checks and balances.”

He suggested that the City Council consider the hirings of relatives and approve them with more than a simple majority vote to ensure the approval is bipartisan.

“I think that’s probably the fairest way, if you have a review process for that instance outside of the administration,” he said. “You’d have to put something in there other than the mayor creating a board that would put a rubber stamp on what he’s doing.”

City Councilman Art Pepelea Jr., a Republican, said he would support an ordinance addressing nepotism.

“I would vote for one in a New York minute,” he said.

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