Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Ballard Illegally Transferred $6.8 Million Out Of IMPD Fund For Spite

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UPDATED: The man who ran for mayor saying "public safety is job one" has sure moved to a different place. Despite raising  income taxes this year for the supposed purpose of providing more money to hire additional police officers Ballard promised to hire when he was first elected in 2007, he vetoed a $4.7 million appropriation approved by the City-County Council to purchase 75 replacement police cars for an aging fleet, and to make repairs and capital improvements at the department's firing range and  the police academy. Council members rebuked Ballard by overriding that veto by an astonishing 28-1 vote.

Ballard was then caught transferring $6 million from the parking meter fund to pay for his sweetheart exclusive electric car sharing deal with Blue Indy, a newly-formed company owned by the French company, Bollore. Ballard was also caught illegally transferring close to $300,000 from the storm water fund to pay for his illegal, 7-year, $32 million lease agreement with Vision Fleet to lease more than 400 electric and hybrid cars. The City-County Council has gone to court to void that lease agreement, and it's now raising questions about the legality of the Blue Indy car sharing program that utilizes French-made cars not approved for use on American highways and power charging stations that are not UL-certified as required by law.

Could it get any worse? Apparently the answer is yes. Council members have just learned that Ballard illegally transferred $6.8 million from the IMPD fund, effectively wiping out funds that would have otherwise been available to pay the appropriation approved by the council in April following its vote to override the mayor's veto and jeopardizing the ability to fully-fund a new class of police recruits. City-County Council President Maggie Lewis released the following statement this evening:
Very recently I was informed that Mayor Ballard unilaterally authorized a withdraw of $6.8 million dollars out of the IMPD general fund without consultation or approval from the Council. This is not how good municipal government works. The Council recently overrode the Mayor's veto to add appropriations to fund critically needed pursuit rated vehicles and necessary upgrades to IMPD facilities. His decision means many IMPD officers will continue to operate substandard vehicles and train at outdated facilities. We have too few officers on the street to begin with and this action by the administration may put at risk the city's ability to fund this Fall's final recruit class of 2015. I call on the Mayor to immediately reverse course and follow both the letter and spirit of Indiana law by returning the money to IMPD now."
I warned folks last year that Ballard had no intention of using the money raised from the latest income tax increase for public safety as it was sold to the public. By his recent actions, Ballard has removed any doubt concerning the accuracy of my prediction. The man is convinced he's above the law and can do as he pleases without any consequences. He's Rod Blagojevich on steroids without any fear of a prosecutor holding him to account for his actions as would have long ago occurred in almost any other state in this country.

UPDATE: The City's controller is claiming the money was needed to restore the City's fiscal stability fund's balance to maintain the City's bond rating. There are other funds which could have been tapped--namely the downtown TIF fund the mayor uses as a slush fund to financially reward his big campaign contributors. There are some saying Ballard is tapping the money to pay for his pre-K initiative, which is not in any way a responsibility of municipal government to provide. Campaign contributors before public safety. That's the take-away from this action.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's just too bad that Indiana doesn't have the ability to recall politicians, but that probably wouldn't stop Herr Mayor either.

Anonymous said...

I don't think anyone has so demeaned and devalued the Office of Mayor as has Greg Ballard; the damage he's done extends to his party and its candidates. We see yet again more evidence of what Ballard is truly made of and it's not much.

Anonymous said...

And the Media is silent, move along there's no story here!
The media in this Country is out of control, filled with corruption!

Anonymous said...

"fund critically needed pursuit rated vehicles"

There is bloat on both sides. IMPD doesn't need anything this fund was used to cover. It doesn't nee new ticket-writing toys. IMPD doesn't need shooting range updates, and it should get the hell out of Eagle Creek which they stole from the shooters of Marion County.

It's hard to see IMPD claiming they need more cops when we see so many IMPD cops writing tickets and not doing real police work.

This story reeks of IMPD being upset that Ballard prefers a different form of government excess to their preferred form of government excess.

There are no "good guys" in this story.

Anonymous said...

Response from Curry and the US Attorney="the sound of crickets".

Anonymous said...

Jim Shella's new nickname should be: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:10...you must've got one too many speeding tickets to go on a rant like that. Maybe you should SLOWLY drive to the Eagle Creek Range to see what poor condition it is in. Here we have the electorate yelling for IMPD to be held accountable, yet you don't want to provide the basic resources for them to train effectively. Pick your poison...and take your anti-authority rant somewhere else.

Anonymous said...

'Anon 7:10...you must've got one too many speeding tickets to go on a rant like that."

One speeding ticket is too many. The cops should be doing real work, not writing tickets. When did they ever get the idea that they should stop performing policing and become ticket writers? Only because some Americans are just dumb and accept what they're born into does this country tolerate such a waste of resources and pilfering from the citizens.

"Here we have the electorate yelling for IMPD to be held accountable, yet you don't want to provide the basic resources for them to train effectively."

IMPD does far too much shooting, already. Take away their murdering guns, and take away their range where they pretend to be commandos.

"Maybe you should SLOWLY drive to the Eagle Creek Range to see what poor condition it is in."

Because the cops have the place to themselves for almost all the time the range is open. If the range is in crappy condition, it's because the cops aren't cleaning up their range, painting the walls, hauling out the brass and lead and performing work details on it. If this were a military range, the soldiers would be doing long work parties at regular intervals to get their range in satisfactory condition to return it to fitness for use. IMPD just shoots there and expects someone else to do maintenance.

Clear the cops entirely out of Eagle Creek, and the use by citizen shooters will provide the revenue and labor to keep the range in good shape. Or maybe just tear the place down. Does Indianapolis really need a gun range next to a dog park?

"Pick your poison...and take your anti-authority rant somewhere else. "

I'll keep my pro-America, Patriot attitude right here, and there's not a thing you can do about it.

Serve, servant. Have you met your quota of serving 25 separate citizens today?

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:10

Traffic Officers work traffic complaints; writing tickets. That is their function. Narcotics Detectives work narcotics, Rape Detectives work rapes, so on and so forth. Be happy you haven't had contact with those Detectives. Potato Peelers peel potatoes, which is probably the extent of your military service. You got nailed for a few tickets and now you're all butt hurt.

Get out of your mom's basement, Keyboard Warrior, and do something to change what you don't like.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:22 - Just when I think there's hope for Indiana somebody like you comes along and conforms. And not just conforms, but has to get high school snarky about it, too. Keyboard warrior. OK, Hoosier. Whatevs.

Anonymous said...

Where is the Prosecutor? The reports indicate a clear FELONY case of Official Misconduct!

Anonymous said...

Well Well Well, looks like one of the TV stations ran the this story, looks like they come here first to see what the real news is for the day!
I'd bet INDY Star doesn't know the existence of this site!

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:02 The officers working the ticket detail are on grant overtime being paid by the State Police. All the officers that are supposed to be out taking reports and runs are doing just that. If you are not doing 15-20 mph over the speed limit, the officers are not even looking at you. If you got a ticket, you were probably doing speeds that justifies reckless driving and should have been arrested. grow up and take some personal responsibility.

Anonymous said...

My question is, since when is violation of traffic law not a police activity. They are laws and laws need to be enforced. No enforcement? Idiots like anonymous 7:10 figure speeding is okay and who needs stop signs? School bus stop arms....psssh! Reminds me of the female drunk driver I once stopped. She was all over the road. She informed me that I should be out getting REAL criminals. I told her I was, I got her. She tested a .22% BAC, and that is a crime.