The Journal Gazette, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne IN

News that a city manager was earning nearly $800,000 a year in the small working-class city of Bell, Calif., reverberated far beyond the Los Angeles suburb. How could it be that part-time city council members were earning $96,000 a year while $9-an-hour employees were losing their jobs? How could the city’s police chief earn $457,000 a year?

Because no one was watching.

The pay scandal was exposed by the Los Angeles Times and is now the subject of an investigation by the California attorney general. Residents now are holding public protests, filing public records requests and crowding city council meetings, but fewer than 400 of the city’s 40,000 residents bothered to vote in the special election that allowed Bell to convert to a “charter city” and precipitated the escalating salaries.

The scandal probably has some Hoosiers wondering about the compensation packages their own public officials are pocketing. They can rest assured that none is anywhere close to what the California officials were earning.

But that doesn’t mean the opportunity for abuse doesn’t exist. When critics of township government consolidation argue that government works best when it is closest to the people, they overlook glaring examples of inefficiency and duplication at the level “closest” to the people. Township government is where Hoosiers are most likely to find blatant examples of nepotism and unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. Indiana’s 92 counties are home to 1,006 units of township government, spending more than $400 million a year to distribute emergency assistance.

“But more than half the state’s townships provide relief to 20 households or less during the course of the year and spend far more in overhead and administrative costs than what actually reaches a disadvantaged family,” according to MySmartGov.org, an organization of business, economic development and labor representatives working to enact recommendations offered by the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform.

Legislation to eliminate township boards failed in the last session of the General Assembly.

Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber and chairman of MySmartGov.org, said advisory board members in one central Indiana township collected “full-blown, first-dollar health insurance coverage.” Board members’ duties? Attend five meetings a year. In another case, a township trustee paid her husband to act as a deputy, according to Brinegar. When questioned about the arrangement by the State Board of Accounts, the man admitted he wasn’t aware of it.

“They sort of fly under the radar screen,” he said. “(Township government) benefits very few people, yet every property owner pays into those funds. There’s very little accountability.”

Some observers have criticized the California city’s residents for failing to pay attention, but how many Hoosiers can name their township trustee or an advisory board member? How many township-level races draw more than a single candidate?

The experience in Bell serves as a reminder that a two-party system does serve the public when the party out of power is vibrant enough to at least observe and criticize those in power. It also is a reminder of the importance of a robust press that monitors the pay of public officials.

The case is a good reminder that democracy works best when citizens are vigilant and informed.