Ted Franklin

The mayor of an Indiana city recently declared a state of emergency, but his decision had nothing to do with severe weather or civil unrest.

Ted Franklin, the mayor of Logansport, a city of about 18,000 in northern Indiana, said he and a group of city employees and construction workers were volunteering recently at the city’s Tower Park Pool. Work began last winter to rehabilitate the pool.

Workers were using city-owned dump trucks and other equipment to load and haul dirt from the pool to a site formerly occupied by Tipton School, which needs soil after the building’s recent demolition.

Dave Kitchell, a Democrat who is running against Franklin, the Republican incumbent, in the city’s mayor election this November, said he received a tip that Franklin had been operating a dump truck at the pool without a valid commercial driver’s license. He reported the matter to the Indiana State Police.

Franklin made the emergency declaration in order to keep working at the pool, an act which he said allowed him to continue operating the dump truck despite not being properly licensed.

“It became necessary after the complaint was filed,” Franklin said.

Franklin confirmed in an interview with the Logansport (Indiana) Pharos-Tribune that he had let his commercial driver’s license expire.

Larry Hood, a master motor carrier inspector with the Indiana State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, was informed of the complaint Sunday from the ISP’s Peru Post. He said his jurisdiction does not extend to municipal vehicles but he contacted Franklin to inform him of the complaint.

Hood lost the Republican mayoral nomination to Franklin in the May primary election, then publicly endorsed Kitchell and filed paperwork to run for city council as a Democrat.

In an interview, Hood pointed to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which address “Relief from regulations” when emergencies are declared. The regulations’ entry for “emergency” includes a list of weather events and disasters.

“My understanding is … to drive a city dump truck, you have to have a CDL,” Hood said. “…[T]he only things that exempt you from that is if there is a snow emergency or something like that.”

Franklin said he informed Logansport Police Chief Mike Clark and local dispatchers of the declaration Sunday. It lasted from 1:34 to 6 p.m. They had been working since 9 a.m., Franklin said, adding they hauled at least 150 single-axle truckloads of dirt from the pool.

Randy Head, Logansport city attorney, said Franklin’s actions were within the parameters of state law.

“If there’s any doubt as to the power of a city, the policy of the Indiana Code is to resolve that dispute in favor of the city,” Head said. “…I think if a mayor wants to volunteer his time to help further a city project, I think the code allows that.”

Law enforcement felt similarly, Head continued.

“It’s up to the police to say there’s a violation going on there and to write a ticket if there was one,” he said. “They took a look at it and said there’s nothing worth investigating here.”

Franklin called Kitchell’s actions “sad” and that they were efforts to undermine a major project of his administration months before the election.

“It’s nothing more than cheap politics from a desperate individual,” Franklin said. “…I’m guilty as charged, working on a Sunday for free.”

Kitchell said Franklin’s actions showed he feels he’s “above the law.”

“I don’t have a problem with anybody volunteering on a project obviously — a pool project or anything else — but I’m concerned with the fact that if you’re not a commercial driver’s license holder and you’re driving a truck that you don’t normally drive in a residential area where there’s a lot of kids out on a Sunday afternoon playing,” Kitchell said.

The Logansport (Indiana) Pharos-Tribune contributed to this story.