09/28/2026
At Wednesday night’s community meeting on NIPSCO and utility reform, State Representative Ragen Hatcher spoke about the impact of the recent power failure on Gary. She explained that the Gary Sanitary District went without power for four days even though backup power systems existed, because the switching mechanism was outdated and failed.
That raises a legitimate accountability question. Hatcher is not merely an employee of GSD; the City of Gary currently identifies her as the Executive Director of the Gary Sanitary District. If backup power is essential to operating critical sanitation infrastructure, the public can reasonably ask what inspection, testing, maintenance, and emergency procedures existed before the storm and why the backup system could not be activated.
But Hatcher also attended that meeting wearing another important public title: Indiana State Representative for House District 3. The Indiana General Assembly confirms that she currently holds that office.
That distinction matters because residents were not simply discussing NIPSCO—they were calling for changes in Indiana utility law. A state representative has direct access to the legislative process. Hatcher herself has authored legislation in the Indiana House; for example, the General Assembly records her as the author of HB 1535 in 2019, which was introduced and referred to committee.
Yet, based on what I personally heard Wednesday night, I did not hear Representative Hatcher say that she would:
draft or introduce legislation addressing the utility laws being criticized;
support the specific legislative changes being demanded by residents; or
use her position in the General Assembly to advocate for those changes through the legislative and committee process.
Instead, her remarks largely presented GSD—and, by extension, herself—as another party harmed by the power failure.
That is where I believe the public discussion was incomplete. A constituent can describe the problem. A state legislator has the institutional ability to participate directly in changing the law that governs the problem.
Representative Hatcher also used part of her speaking time to publicly congratulate her sister on obtaining a new position with the City of Chicago. There is nothing inherently wrong with recognizing a family member’s accomplishment. But in a meeting specifically focused on utility failures and demands for legislative reform, I would have preferred to hear an equally clear statement about what Representative Hatcher intends to do in the Indiana General Assembly.
The question therefore should not simply be, “What happened to GSD during the outage?”
The additional question for our elected state representative is:
Will Representative Ragen Hatcher introduce, co-author, support, or actively advocate for legislation to amend or repeal the Indiana utility laws that residents are asking their legislators to change—and, if so, what specifically will she propose?
That is a fair question of legislative accountability, and it gives Representative Hatcher the opportunity to state her position and proposed actions clearly.
John Allen
