The trashing of IDEM.

• Author: Cadou, Bettie
• Position: Indiana Department of Environmental Management

Why the mess at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management?

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is often referred to as a premature baby that never gained weight, and everyone has a theory as to why that has happened:

* The agency is underfunded, and the legislature cut not only the fat but also deep into the muscle, leaving IDEM with a $4.75 million shortfall.

* Understaffing and salary inequities for technical personnel have caused low morale and an exodus for better jobs.

* Poor management and inefficiency have made bad use of the limited resources.

* The governor is disavowing paternity by striking the environment off his second-term priority list.

* An increase of 57 federal mandates has left the agency whimpering and struggling for air.

* Costly, and mostly failed, lawsuits have further depleted the struggle for survival.

Supporters and critics alike do agree that the agency has never been properly funded since its birth in 1986. But what is in question is whether proper funding is enough--what other problems are there and what will it take to fix them?

A broad view offered by William Beranek Jr., president of the Indiana Environmental Institute Inc., includes depoliticizing the agency and training staff to become more technically sophisticated in working with federal mandates. Some of those mandates, he says, though environmentally good, don't always make technical sense.

The first agency commissioner was appointed by former Gov. Robert Orr; the current commissioner, Kathy Prosser, was appointed by Gov. Evan Bayh when he took office. All top-management employees are non-merit, which means they may be political appointees. "Other than the commissioner and maybe two or three people around her, I feel the agency should be merit employees, so it can become a strong civil-service agency with the commissioner as the referee and the majority of the decisions being non-political," Beranek says. Prosser scoffs at the idea that the seven assistant commissioners on her staff are political animals--and those who know them would tend to agree. "Most are folks who are committed to the environment and pretty much long-term in their work with government," she says. However, she adds, it is appropriate for policy makers to follow the policy of a person that citizens have elected.

The downside for merit people up to the commissioner level, she continues, is that sometimes people stay in place long beyond the time they should and...