Unprofessional leadership stymies growth across NWI

Oct. 6, 2005

By Maurice M. Eisenstein
Post-Tribune guest columnist

Northwest Indiana is a basket case, quoting Sartre, “with no exit.”

For more than 10 years, I have been trying to determine why this is the case. Others implicitly are trying to answer the same question, even if they do not recognize it as such.

For example, my colleague Ed Charbonneau argues that accountability is lacking as it relates to the Gary Library Board. And U.S. Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen suggests that corruption is a major problem. Both, as I have stated previously, are correct analyses.

The problem is centered on the leadership in NWI, which is unprofessional and aspires to mediocrity.Aspiring is the critical term.I always believed that with the proper incentive, change could be implemented. But I have come to believe why individuals aspiring to public leadership roles have a goal of mediocrity.

This is, to understate it, an unprofessional goal. It is unprofessional because our political leadership continually ignores or miscomprehends policy data on which to make decisions. Their achievement goals are set to a standard that anyone can achieve, i.e., they achieve what is easy or they achieve the irrelevant — things that don’t matter.There is no ulterior motive for this lack of standards. It is the only vision on the horizon.

The Regional Development Authority is an example of this condition.At its inaugural meeting, one politically astute individual with experience in public office and tremendous insight characterized the public leadership at the meeting as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

He was right, except that the leaders aboard the Titanic were heroic and insightful. They knew their ultimate heroism was required because they were going down with the ship.

I am not attacking the new members of the RDA board; I am attacking the system and people that put them in place.

The RDA is going down with the ship, which is NWI, but few in the room knew that or had the capacity to figure it out. Two of the most important groups affecting NWI were not at the RDA table during that inaugural meeting — business and someone from education representing education.

I must excuse the governor and his appointee, John Clark. They are only cooperating with what NWI unanimously sought. Remember, this is the same unprofessional leadership that asked for special assessment of Lake County’s largest industries and rewrote the personal property tax provisions. Then, they compounded that by voting against the 2 percent cap because their goal was political mediocrity, Democratic unity, not NWI economic development.

The top of the unprofessional leadership must rest with Rep. Chester Dobis and Rep. John “summer home in Munster” Aguilera for voting against the 2 percent cap, which barely passed, and starting and supporting this mediocrity called the RDA.

The RDA is solely a public works project. A $41 million request for the Gary/Chicago International Airport doesn’t make sense at a time when five major airlines are in bankruptcy and there’s a $15 billion request pending to expand O’Hare. The only reason for its existence is to keep people employed and profiting from the public trough.

The only person who I suspect understood that, except for Clark, is Ned Ruff, who seemed to be saying to himself, “I just paid $3.5 million for a seat on a horse-drawn wagon.”

I hope I’m wrong.