When I heard about the new joint purchasing agreement in Evansville on Tuesday, my immediate reaction was a groan.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against this arrangement between the Evansville school district, the city and Vanderburgh County.

I'm just ashamed for Northwest Indiana that Evansville is so far ahead of us in terms of government reform.

Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel was eloquent in the news release announcing the cooperative purchasing organization.

"The city is always investigating more effective and more efficient ways to save taxpayer dollars," Weinzapfel said. "By combining purchasing departments with the EVSC (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp.), we have a tremendous opportunity to leverage our needs to negotiate lower costs, We are saving money by governing better and smarter."

The people in Evansville believe this countywide agreement is the first of its kind -- at least, on such a large scale -- anywhere in Indiana.

There are joint purchasing agreements in Northwest Indiana, and the officials participating in them should be commended. That's a step in the right direction. But Evansville took a leap, not just a step.

Jim Harris, the Evansville school district's director of operations, explained how this joint purchasing agreement came about.

"It all kind of happened by accident," Harris explained. "I opened my big mouth."

Don't let his modesty fool you. He realized the city bought many of the same products as the school district, and in large quantity, but the city didn't have its own warehouse. The school district does.

So Harris offered to let the city share the school district's warehouse space, and one thing led to another. Soon the school officials and Weinzapfel's administration realized they could get better unit prices on commodities if they combined their purchases -- though not their funds -- in seeking bids.

A simple gesture of decency and subsequent brainstorming is saving the taxpayers in Evansville millions of dollars a year.

Compare that to Lake County, where the largest property tax payers funded the expensive Good Government Initiative study that aimed to bring down the cost of government. Yet even the consultants in the privately funded efficiency study couldn't get the public officials to agree to a full-scale joint purchasing agreement like Evansville. Progress is being made, but it's slow.

My guess is that Evansville officials are more nimble because there are fewer units of government there. Lake County has so many municipalities and school districts that trying to get them together for something as simple as a countywide joint purchasing cooperative is a monumental task.

Do you wish Northwest Indiana could join Evansville as a model of government reform? Then it's your duty as a citizen to make that clear to the powers that be. Make your expectations clear, and hold them accountable. And support the "One Region, One Vision" effort to kick-start this brainstorming.

We don't want Evansville to put us to leave us in the dust, do we?