Ballard Pushes Wishard Referendum In E-Mail To City Workers

Should Mayor Greg Ballard be using a taxpayer asset to lean on city-county workers to support the November 3 Wishard referendum? An e-mail a commenter passed on to me that Mayor Ballard sent to all government workers on Thursday sure makes it look that way. The e-mail purports to solicit city-county workers to volunteer as poll workers on election day, but it throws in what looks an awful lot like a pitch to support the passage of the referendum with an extremely misleading statement. The e-mail reads:

From: Administrator, Exchange
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 11:56 AM
To: Administrator, Exchange
Subject: Please Consider Working the Polls for the Special Election on November 3
Importance: High

City-County Employees:

In less than 30 days, Marion County voters will go to the polls to participate in a countywide referendum election to vote on whether the Health and Hospital Corporation should improve Wishard at no cost to tax payers. Voters living in Beech Grove and Franklin and Perry Township school districts will also participate in separate referenda elections concerning funding for their schools.

Poll workers are still needed for this historic special election held on November 3, 2009. Though not a scheduled holiday, I encourage City-County employees to work the polls on Election Day. Attached is a letter outlining my poll worker program, allowing you to take the day off without using benefit leave as long as you commit to working the polls and have your supervisor’s permission. To work the polls, you must be a registered voter, live in Marion County and attend training.

Please consider being part of history this November. If you have questions about becoming a poll worker, you can reach the Marion County Election Board at (317) 327-5100.

Sincerely,

Gregory A. Ballard
Mayor
City of Indianapolis

P.S. If you’re looking for a more convenient way to vote, the Clerk’s Office is now open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for early voting. You do not need a reason to vote early, but you will need to bring a valid, photo ID issued by the State of Indiana or the federal government.

I have no problem with Mayor Ballard asking city workers to help out as election workers, which he is legally allowed to do, but I have a serious problem with him using the city-county e-mail system to promote passage of the referendum. His statement that the referendum is about "whether the Health & Hospital Corporation should improve Wishard at no cost to taxpayers" is patently false. Even the news media is coming around to accept the fact that approval of the referendum will authorize HHC to levy new property taxes to ensure repayment of the more than $700 million HHC intends to issue in bonds to pay for a new county hospital. Any city-county worker reading that e-mail could only interpret it to mean that Mayor Ballard wants them not only to work the polls on election day, but he wants them to vote for the referendum. Nobody would question the fact that Mayor Ballard could not urge support for a particular candidate using the city-county's e-mail system. Similarly, he should not be able to use this taxpayer asset to promote passage of the referendum. The use of taxpayer resources to promote passage of a public question is not permitted by the law. Mayor Ballard owes all of the taxpayers of this county an apology for this misuse of taxpayer assets. Further, if Mayor Ballard actually believes the new hospital will not be funded with taxpayer dollars, then he needs to be taken to school on the government he's been elected to run. A third grader would know better than that.