Floyd County doomed to ruin as sole possessor of the ATM password is deposed.

Yesterday's Floyd County election results tell us that perennial county council kingpin Ted Heavrin was rejected by Democratic voters.

Again.

The first time was in 2006, when Heavrin was defeated in the primary by Tom Pickett for the party's nod to contest the county council 1st district seat. Pickett won in the fall.

Bobbing back to the surface in 2008, Heavrin filed for the primary election as an at-large candidate (numbered seats and at-large seats alternate years on the ballot) and scraped through to the general election with a third place finish, just barely ahead of Brad Striegel.

The top vote-getter in the 2008 Democratic at-large primary race was was Randy Stumler. However, later that summer, Stumler departed for a teaching position overseas, and so prior to the general election, a Democratic party caucus over-ruled the wishes of its own primary voters and re-affirmed the good-old-boy network by appointing Heavrin to Stumler's seat. Striegel was placed on the general election ballot, and both he and Heavrin won (along with Carol Shope), with Striegel's vote total being the highest, and Heavrin's second highest.

Yesterday, for the second time in six years, Democratic voters de-selected Heavrin, and maybe this time the party's elders will pay due attention to the results. Seemingly since time immemorial, both Heavrin and the now-retired Larry McCallister have been reminding us that after them, the deluge; only they would be capable of fathoming the mysteries of the county budget process, and of heroically shouldering the responsibilities of that burden.

Heavrin went so far (see below) as to assure voters that he would quit his law enforcement job of 36 years before relinquishing his executive role on the council.  I imagine we can expect to see him run again, but in the interim, the county council surely could use some fresh, contemporary air -- by subtraction, if not necessarily by addition. Democratic voters have opened the window. Let's hope that no opportunity for mischief is presented for the party's fossilized leadership cadre to slam the window shut.

Again.

New conflict-of-interest bill affects local office holders; Ted Heavrin said he wants to continue to serve the public, by Maureen Hayden (CNHI)

INDIANAPOLIS — Floyd County Council President Ted Heavrin said he would retire as Floyd County Sheriff’s Department chief before stepping down from elected office if a new state law ultimately forbids him from continuing in both capacities.

Last week, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a bill into law that bars government workers from serving in an elected office that sets budgets, laws or policies that could benefit that employee. That same legislation prohibits many — but not all — local officeholders from directly overseeing their relatives.

Heavrin can still seek re-election in November and serve out the four-year term if he wins, as the law doesn’t go into effect until 2013. With more than 36 years on the job, Heavrin is the longest-standing officer in the history of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department, but he said his duty to residents as an elected official is equally important.

“The county council now reviews all county budgets, including the city’s,” Heavrin said. “You have to know what’s going on.”

And state officials really don’t know what’s going on in local communities, he continued. Heavrin said he disagrees with taking the decision on who serves at the municipal and county levels out of the hands of local residents.

“It should be up to the voters,” he said.

Daniels called the legislation a “good government” bill that was long overdue.