A press release from Mayor Greg Ballard's office today announces the appointment of unsuccessful congressional candidate Carlos May as "Director of Latino Affairs." The same release also announces the appointment of Jane Gehlhausen, who will serve as "Director of International and Cultural Affairs." The two new staffers for the Mayor's Office will "increase awareness of Indianapolis’ rich cultural diversity" and "raise the city’s international profile" according to the press releases. Both jobs are do-nothing, feel good, ethnic and racial pandering positions that are a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. While the mayor continues to slash the budgets of departments that provide essential city services, he continues to add new political hires in his office and pass out no-bid contracts to public relations firms to convince residents their mayor isn't really as stupid and incompetent as he appears on any given day.
Those of us who mistakenly thought Greg Ballard was going to put an end to this sort of nonsense are not the least bit surprised by this latest announcement. He appointed a convicted felon as his deputy mayor, wasted millions of dollars on useless crime prevention grants that he has passed out to a handful of African-American ministers who are friends with his convicted felon deputy mayor and their alleged "community-based groups", and has implemented a quota-driven procurement process that forces city-county government to award a fixed percentage of contracts to minority, women and veteran-owned businesses, and which has the effect of driving up the cost of purchasing and depriving more qualified, less costly contractors from doing business with the City. I thought Carlos May rejected this kind of crap when I supported him as a candidate for Congress. Obviously, I was mistaken. I guess he's given up his political career to return to a do-nothing political position for a big-time loser. How sad.
5 comments:
After blowing $18,710 out of his own pocket on his losing Congressional campaign, Carlos May needed the job!
Just not an honest job.
So what does a Director of Latino Affairs do? Why do we need this position when we have a Mexican Consulate office downtown, not to mention a number of various enthic and cultural centers throughout the area? We have numerous events like the Greek Festival, Irish Fest, and many others.
Yeah, do-nothing is about right.
Probably all they will 'do' is channel tax dollars to special interests who apply for money through these new offices.
I never was enamored of Carlos, so I am not surprised. This is not that unexpected, as Ballard is learning to pander at the feet of Goldsmith and all of his cronies.
It can be argued that the mayor has impeded, rather than enhanced, Indy's international reputation.
To cite one example: his ham-handed veto of a Sister City relationship between Eldoret, Kenya, and Indy.
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