The Center Township trustee is pushing to move the township's small claims court from the downtown Indianapolis City-County Building to the Julia M. Carson Government Center in what is being promoted as a cost-saving measure.According to Olson's story, the township pays the county $16,701.00 to lease the space in the City-County building and it's scheduled to increase next year by 5%. Akers says he can build out the space in the Julia Carson Government building owned by the township, which was formerly occupied by 300 East, for $459,000. Olson says the township reported a cash surplus of $8.5 million at the end of last year. It only makes sense if the township is going to own that big office building that it should house its small claims court there rather than rent basement space in the City-County Building.
Trustee Eugene Akers’ plan, which could be approved at a Wednesday township board meeting, is not without controversy, however. The court’s judge, Michelle Smith Scott, is adamantly opposed to the move.
“If the trustee for Center [Township] is able to do this and is allowed to interfere with the court over the objection of the judge,” she said, “I don’t think it sets a good precedent.”
The court is the city’s oldest of nine township small claims courts and is the only one located in the City-County Building, where it’s been housed since the 28-story building opened in 1962.
Scott said the court needs to be in the building because it has the highest volume of cases among Marion County courts—14,000 in 2010. The building’s security is critical, she said, given the large number of litigants coming into her courtroom . . .
As to the demise of 300 East, Olson had this comment from one of the principal owners of the business, Bill Mays:
Local businessman Bill Mays was part of a group that invested $500,000 to launch the restaurant in 2006. Mays said he and local attorney Lacy Johnson could have continued to underwrite restaurant losses, but others couldn’t.
Mays said he continued to financially support the restaurant to give African-Americans and others in the area a place to meet and conduct business.
“The neighborhood was very slow to warm to it,” he said, “and that’s too bad, because it’s their loss.”
Mays said he backs Akers’ plan to move the small claims court into the space, citing an abundance of free parking near the building.
8 comments:
300 East closing will mean less gunfire. Does anyone know if The Point is picking up the gunfire from 300 East?
“The neighborhood was very slow to warm to it,” he said, “and that’s too bad, because it’s their loss.”
It can not be much of a loss, it sounds like the neighborhood did not have much use for it, imo.
Too bad a very nice gentleman lost a park named after him so they could put that thing in there in the first place.
That very nice gentleman got another park named after him up the street from that location.
Can we move the bar to the old small claims location?
Is it right gentlemen. What are your saying in this post.
I've never understood why a businessman like Bill Mays has invested money in so many different bars/clubs around town that have all turned into gathering places for people who are into drugs, guns and prostitutes.
The only opinion that matters is Judge Scott's. That's a workhorse courtroom. I'm always amazed to see the woman process a couple of hundred people through eviction court in orderly and efficient manner. She's the nicest of the Judges. And she'll listen patiently to every litigant. She operates under extremely tight space limitations. Litigants that overfill the courtroom's seating capacity are often herded into a small, enclosed hallway. Everyone enters and exits this Court right through the staff's workspace. Judge Scott does deserve a better courtroom. But she shouldn't be pressured into a bad move by the center township trustee, a position I think ought to be retired entirely. The city county building has issues. And the basement level where Judge Scott works has huge issues. But the decision to move should be made on her terms, and her security and our security should be assured. Politics should play no part in trumping the sound advice of this Judge. I don't care a whit about the business interests of the township trustee and his buildings, which ought to be sold and the money returned to taxpayers or contributed to poor relief or bus services. If Akers thinks he's going to yank Scott around on this he's going to get some pushback and he better gird his loins.
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