Pork program rewards politicians' churches, associates
LAKE COUNTY Council spent $406,000 since 1999
BY H. GREGORY MEYER
hgmeyer@nwitimes.com
219.933.4158
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Sunday, January 2, 2005 2:09 AM CST
To the parish where he was baptized, confirmed as a Catholic and married, former Lake County Councilman Joel Markovich gave freely this year.
For the now-defunct Hammond nonprofit where he's board secretary, Council President Will Smith Jr. helped raise $5,000.
Who's paying for their generosity? County taxpayers.
For about a decade, the seven members of the County Council have had $60,000 to spend each year on charities. Of that sum, each councilman or councilwoman controls $6,000 he or she may donate to causes that strike his or her fancy.
The council's "matching fund" -- named because charities are supposed to raise equal amounts elsewhere to qualify -- has helped put jerseys on little leaguers and bulletproof vests on cops.
But it's also been put to more questionable uses, county records show. And rare is the charity that meets application criteria or reporting requirements under county law.
Like St. Stanislaus, the Catholic church in East Chicago where Markovich has worshipped since youth. In August 2004, he handed half his annual allotment, $3,000, to his church the same week he pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and resigned.
The money landed in the church's general account, said pastor Monsignor John Siekierski, "to pay our bills."
Markovich said that in past years he's shared the funds with other churches, Catholic and Protestant. But, "Your heart is in your church, and you try to do your best to help out," he said.
Some council members have spent the money on tickets and space in ad books for charity functions -- assisting a good cause, but also buying exposure.
Smith, D-Gary, in recent years has used both county funds and his campaign war chest to buy ads from the same charities, council and campaign finance records show.
A councilwoman who acknowledged buying several such ads with her matching-fund balance defended the practice.
"I never looked at it in that vein, that I'm promoting myself," said Elsie Franklin, D-Gary. "They asked me if I would purchase an ad to help defray their costs for putting on their banquets or whatever it is that they're doing. That's what I did."
Yet Franklin and Smith both used tax proceeds to buy $50, half-page ads in a July 2004 conference booklet of the Indiana Township Association -- a lobbying group for a different level of government, not a charity.
Taken singly the council's grants are small, but since 1999 they add up to $406,000, records show.
A similar account controlled by the three-member Lake County Board of Commissioners has spent $246,000 on commissioner's pet causes since 1999. Labeled the "handicapped children" account for its originally intended beneficiaries, it's now spent on enterprises as diverse as a Vietnam Veterans memorial and a Greek Orthodox Church.
One councilman calls the whole thing "problematic."
"I'm not a huge fan of that account," said Tom O'Donnell, D-Dyer.
"If I want to donate things, I'd rather use my own money, and I do. The problem is the things that it can be used for sometimes."
O'Donnell shared a total of $1,000 this year with the Schererville Police Department, for bulletproof vests.
An "absolutely outrageous" example, O'Donnell said, was the full council's $5,000 grant in January to House of Job Inc., a shuttered nonprofit HIV testing and social service agency in Hammond on whose board Smith sits.
Tax dollars benefit select churches
Also troubling O'Donnell and others is council members' tendency to spend taxpayer money on churches. "Believe me, I love my church and I participate in my church, but I don't believe government should be funding my church," O'Donnell said.
He's joined on that issue by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, whose executive director, Fran Quigley, said he has "serious constitutional concerns about taxpayer money being diverted to particular religious institutions."
Besides Markovich, his council replacement, Christine Cid, D-East Chicago, and Franklin and Smith have given to churches this year.
Smith gave $500 to Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Gary for youth to attend the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education in Memphis, records show.
Franklin gave $200 to the Victory Life Christian Center in Gary to assist "a program that will allow 1,000 underprivileged boys in the city of Gary to obtain custom haircuts for the Christmas season," the center's literature says.
In March, she gave $1,000 -- $900 plus a $100 ad -- for Holy Bethel Missionary Baptist Church's 41st anniversary celebration, to which Smith also contributed. Franklin gave again to Holy Bethel in June, $100 for an event honoring the Rev. Solomon Dye on his 18th anniversary as pastor.
Dye said the all the county money "was used for scouting. We have a Boy and Girl Scout troop here. Nothing was used for the church itself."
Franklin gave a total of $420 to an after-school program and summer camp housed at her congregation, Clark Road Missionary Baptist Church in Gary. She defended the gifts, saying churches and faith-based organizations fill a void left by underfunded government agencies.
Smith said that in his district, churches are important social institutions.
"I don't believe the notion of separation of church and government means that I'm supposed to just not help those that are attempting to help my constituency," Smith said.
Ray Szarmach, the County Council's attorney, said it's no problem for council members to give to their own churches or to buy advertising with their names on it.
"As long as it meets the criteria of a charitable organization or an organization doing public service, I think that would meet the requirement of the ordinance," he said.
The ordinance requires organizations to supply extensive information about their operations, including documents showing tax-exempt status and proof that other donors plan to match the county's funds.
But files at the council's office show that in many cases, spotty applications were no hindrance in getting funds. Often applicants won grants with no more than a fund-raising letter.
Councilman Larry Blanchard, R-Crown Point, who this year has approved $3,300 in matching funds for 15 different groups, said many grantees that receive funds annually don't have to submit repeat paperwork each year.
Asked if the matching funds ordinance needs reform, Blanchard said no.
"Each individual council member would have to decide on that," he said.
Login
FAQ
Search
