Dan Carden

CROWN POINT — A five-year tug-of-war to determine who controls Lake County's purchasing power officially is over.

The Lake County Council voted 6-0 Tuesday to rescind its October 2020 ordinance asserting the council's power to oversee purchasing, despite ceding it for decades to the Lake County Board of Commissioners.

The initial ordinance , championed by former Councilman Christian Jorgensen, R-St. John, triggered an unprecedented lawsuit between the council — the county's legislative and fiscal body — and the commissioners — the county's executive and contracting authority — that the council won at both the trial and appellate levels based on a novel interpretation of a 1981 state statute.

In 2023, however, the Indiana General Assembly and Gov. Eric Holcomb intervene

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