HAMMOND | A Senate bill this legislative session sought annual reports of how gaming dollars are spent, but the city of Hammond mandated quarterly reporting seven years ago.

Somehow the city ordinance fell by the wayside, according to Lake County Councilman Ernie Dillion, a Hammond City Councilman in February 2000 -- the year the measure was passed by the council and signed by then-Mayor Duane Dedelow Jr.

Ordinance 8230 is now shown as not having been codified, meaning it wasn't published in the city's ordinance book.

Dillon said Tuesday he doesn't know why it wasn't.

"It was my understanding it was meant to be ongoing," Dillon said.

"We wanted an accounting of where the dollars were going, how they were spent and by which entity," he said. "I recall discussing it on the council and having reports. How long that continued I don't know."

The 2000 city ordinance shows its sponsor as then-Councilman Dave Hamm, currently the city's Fire Chief.

Unlike Dillon, Hamm said he has no recollection of such an ordinance.

Neither does 2nd District Councilman Al Salinas, who was serving his second term at the time.

Salinas said he could not remember passing the ordinance nor receiving quarterly spending reports either under the Dedelow or McDermott administrations.

City Attorney Kris Kantar said Tuesday she can only guess in 2007 what may have happened or why.

Ordinances may not make it into the ordinance book for a variety of reasons, according to Kantar. It could be an ordinance is meant to address an issue for a limited time or purpose, she said.

"Once that purpose is accomplished, it can go into the history book," she said. "8230 was classified as an appropriating ordinance. They didn't put it in the big book."

Kantar said if there was an error, it was in the way the ordinance was created in 2000.

"It was never published in the ordinance book," Kantar said. "Without it being published, no one knows it's there."

In addition to requiring expenditures to be reported to the council, the ordinance ordered the report to be made public in one or more ways, either through mailing it to households, distributing copies in public buildings, publication in the newspaper or posting on the city's Internet site.

Indiana Gaming Commission Executive Director Ernest Yelton said the commission believed the submission of an annual report was sufficient for both the commission and the public.

"We didn't want it to be overly burdensome to the recipients of these monies," he said of the state proposal.

But former Councilman Joe McCarthy said the city ordinance is right on target with its call for frequent reporting and availability to the public. In running to regain a council seat, McCarthy has proposed posting city business on the city's Web site.

"(The ordinance) was passed by the council, and it was signed into law by the mayor," McCarthy said. "In my eyes, it was codified because it was legally recognized as an ordinance. The council should have followed up on it."

McCarthy said the ordinance goes to the heart of the whole area of accountability of riverboat money.

"It needs to be reinstituted immediately," he said.