By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — In 1992, USDA restructured its Farm Service Agency (FSA) from the top down, resulting in the loss of 12 Indiana county offices, according to FSA Indiana Executive Director Kenny Culp.

Culp, who was chair of the FSA state committee, said USDA has since recognized that as “starting at the wrong end.” Fifteen years later, FSA again shuffling its county offices in 38 states, this time by soliciting and approving plans from those states.

“It’s been out there,” said Steve Brown, state executive director, of the news over the past year. “We’ve met with our employee associations, and now we’re going to announce it publicly.”

On July 2, Culp was notified by the Washington, D.C., FSA office that it had finished reviewing the Indiana state plan. For the 24 county offices to be consolidated or closed, the state FSA must have public meetings to gain farmer feedback in those areas within 30 days, to be concluded by Aug. 1. (Refer to the meeting schedule.)

At that point, Brown said state FSA officials will analyze comments received and may make changes to the restructuring plan. It was collated over several months by a statewide committee of FSA state and district directors, as well as other state officials and employees.

Specific changes

“Restructuring” means some offices will be closed and consolidated with a nearby county’s. In one instance, one new office would be created and a new director hired for Elkhart and LaGrange counties, which are now separately managed with Fulton and Noble counties, respectively – Fulton and Noble would be standalone offices again.
Most affected counties are in the southern half of the state.

Brown said before the tobacco quota buyout, there was more work for some of these offices.

Consolidation would also cut down on office rent and maintenance expenses for FSA. “Obviously, maybe, it looks like somebody’s being picked on, and they’re not,” said Culp.

The plan D.C. reviewed consists of the other three general proposals, to go into effect within three years of final approval:
•Consolidate offices for Shelby and Rush counties into one, located in Manilla. These are currently shared-management counties under the same director. Other shared-management consolidations would be Clark and Scott counties into a Scottsburg office; Clay and Vigo counties into a Terre Haute office; and Pike and Dubois counties into a location to be determined.

•Consolidate Hamilton and Tipton counties into a Tipton office. There are now two separate directors for these offices, but only one would be needed. Other consolidations that would displace a director would be Vanderburgh and Posey counties, into a Mt. Vernon office; Switzerland and Jefferson counties, into a Madison office; and Steuben and DeKalb counties, into an Ashley office.
•And finally, Morgan County’s FSA would be consolidated into the Monroe/ Owen/Brown counties’ office in Bloomington. Morgan’s current director also oversees Clay and Vigo counties.

All these changes are estimated to save $1.2-$1.5 million annually (the current administrative budget for Indiana is $28 million, according to Culp), which Brown said FSA hopes to channel into more personnel and technology training for employees.

‘Convenience rule’

“I’m going to have the same people waiting on me that I’ve had,” Brown said, of what a farmer’s chief concern may be, other than losing the business of an office and its staff in their county’s economy. “Basically, I’m driving to a new office.”

He said there is a “convenience rule” for farmers for whom change would put an office too far away, generally more than a 30-minute drive. In this case, the farmer could petition to instead work through a closer office in a contiguous county.

“We’ve got good managers, but we’re driving them, running two offices, and it’s taking a strain on them,” Brown said. He added in many cases the intention is to push two understaffed offices together into one centrally-located office.

He said there would be no reduction of jobs for staff or management, though some directors will be displaced – they will, however, have priority to be hired in a vacant office over other applicants. Culp said there are five such vacancies.

For instance, Vanderburgh County Director Dave Sturgell has heard either he or the Posey County director would move to nearby Spencer County, which needs a full-time director. The consolidation would make a longer office drive for some of his farmers; however, for some in Vanderburgh’s southern “horseshoe” area, it would actually be shorter.

“It should improve services,” he said. He estimated 10 or fewer total personnel in both offices, and said together, they should work efficiently. Fulton/Elkhart FSA Director Steve Rodenberg said, “There’s going to be some producers, I’m sure, who won’t be happy about it, especially the farmers in LaGrange (County) if the office ends up in (Middlebury).”

Rodenberg, who lives in Kosciusko County between Fulton and Elkhart, has been managing the Fulton office for 29 years. He took on Elkhart in 2000 after its director retired. “All they really had was a neighboring county whose director would go over once in a while,” he said. “The fellow who had been covering it said he didn’t want to do it full-time.”

He lives only 18 miles from the Fulton office, but 43 from the Elkhart office and is there two days a week. He believes a change would provide better services, and said Elkhart and LaGrange counties have many dairies and livestock, whereas Fulton and Noble have more row crops.

“There’s just a lot of similarities in the farming operations up there,” he said.

Brown said FSA employs 76 federal and 329 county personnel in Indiana, and estimated its 80 county offices are understaffed by 62 people.