If Hoosiers need more evidence of the archaic, inefficient and sometimes-corrupt township government system, they can find it in Tippecanoe County.
A felony trial for Wabash Township Trustee Jennifer Teising was underway there last week.
The Democrat is charged with 21 counts of theft for accepting her $35,000-plus trustee salary while not a legal resident of the township. Teising denies the charges.
Prosecutors introduced phone records showing she spent time between June 2020 and March 2021 in Florida and Anderson, Indiana. Earlier reports indicated she was living in a camper in Florida during the COVID-19 lockdown.
She showed up for court Monday wearing a Panama City hoodie and sweatpants.
A Lafayette-area state lawmaker is expected to file a bill that would allow a rogue township trustee to be removed from office. That’s a start, but much more is needed.
In 2007, the bipartisan Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, commonly known as the Kernan-Shepard Commission, recommended elimination of township government. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has long been a proponent of consolidation, but the effort has never gained traction because of a powerful lobby of township officials – more than 4,000 trustees and advisory board members across the state.
Many lawmakers are beholden to the mostly rural, mostly Republican and politically savvy township officials.
As we’ve long noted, Indiana is stuck with the status quo – and likely more township scandals – until legislators can place taxpayer interests before their own reelection prospects.
