HAMMOND â Lake Superior Judge John Sedia holds in his hands the future of Lake County government operations.
In coming days, Sedia will decide whether to renew his April 16 decision giving the Lake County Council control over purchasing and data processing, or to revise his prior ruling as requested by the Board of Commissioners that currently manages both departments.
Sedia heard arguments Thursday by two attorneys intimately involved in Lake County government for decades: John Dull, for the commissioners; and Ray Szarmach, for the council.
Dull passionately, but politely, made the case Sedia got it wrong three months ago when the judge concluded a 1981 Indiana law assigns authority over purchasing and data processing to the Lake County Council, regardless of whether the council has chosen to exercise that authority in the years since.
CROWN POINT â The seven-member Lake County Council is entitled to control the county s purchasing and data processing departments, not the three-member Board of County Commissioners that has managed both those departments for decades.
That s the ruling issued Friday by Lake Superior Judge John Sedia in the unprecedented lawsuit concerning the rightful separation of powers between the county s legislative branch (council) and its executive (commissioners).
In his 10-page order, Sedia said a 1981 Indiana law expressly assigns authority over purchasing and data processing to the Lake County Council, regardless of whether the council has chosen to exercise that authority in the years since.
âIâll see you in heaven.â
It was the last thing Al Braccolino, 90, of Crown Point, told one of his daughters as paramedics loaded him into an ambulance Nov. 16. COVID-19 forced him into the final fight of his life.
Ten days later, the chair Al usually occupied at the Thanksgiving table would sit empty. The husband to his wife of 70 years, father of three and grandfather of six died on the holiday.
Alâs daughter, Sandra Noe, was herself suffering from COVID-19, which she contracted while caring for her sick parents, when the virus forced Alâs hospitalization.
Noe, 66, is no stranger to helping elderly shut-ins weather isolation.