Porter County Auditor Jim Kopp will run for re-election in 2010.

Kopp, a Democrat, told the Chesterton Tribune today that he is seeking re-election to add to “the grand list of things we’ve accomplished in the last three years.”

Kopp conceded that his office has been dinged a lot in public and by officials for the significant delay in the issuance of property-tax bills in the last two years. “I think that somebody in the county has to get the blame and because we’re at the tail end of things we’ve pretty much gotten all the blame,” he said.

But in fact there’s plenty of blame to go around, Kopp said, beginning with the “IT Department, the (Porter County) Council, and the (Porter County) Commissioners.”

“There’s more emotion and worrying about their own political behinds than what’s best for the county, as far as I’m concerned,” Kopp said. In any case, “government is not really set up to be efficient. A lot of it is checks and balances. And then people in government tend to say ‘We’ve always done it that and that’s the way we’re going to keep doing it.’”

At the same time, Kopp said, his office was forced to correct early in his tenure a number of problems created by the previous auditor, “violations,” for example, “of state and federal laws with the payroll system.” Audits by the State Board of Accounts threw a particular wrench into the system, he said. “I’d only been in office nine months when they did the first audit of my term in 2007. You’re always a year to 18 months behind when the State Board raises issues, so you’re constantly behind the eight ball to get up to where you need to be. That’s the way it is. There’s nothing you can do about it. That’s the system. You’re always behind.”

“I don’t think we necessarily helped ourselves when we threw out the old computer system,” Kopp added. “The new one is great but I think we probably could have been there with the old one sooner.”

“There’s been a tremendous amount of work done,” though, Kopp said of his office. “I’m going to run very hard and I expect to be re-elected.”

Newspapers will soon be receiving an editorial letter highlighting his accomplishments in office, Kopp noted.

Challenging Kopp in the Democratic primary will be Chesterton Tribune reporter Vicki Urbanik, who announced her candidacy in the fall.