Indianapolis City-County Council Blocks Criminal Justice Center Vote

A Republican-led effort to resurrect Mayor Greg Ballard's plan to build a new criminal justice center through a public-private agreement at tonight's meeting of the Indianapolis City-County Council failed on a 13-16 vote. Councilor Robert Lutz (R) offered a motion to add the ill-fated proposal to tonight's council agenda so a down-sized version of the project touted last week as a compromise could be acted upon it.

All Democrats and one Republican, Christine Scales, voted against Lutz' motion, while the rest of the Republican council members voted for it, although even some of them had voiced reservations about the plan. Taxpayers could still be out close to $15 million the Ballard administration blew on no-bid professional services agreements and participation fees to losing bidders to pursue the P3 agreement.

For a proposal that supposedly had been studies at length over the course of many years, the administration could not have stumbled more badly in presenting a coherent, sustainable proposal. The administration repeatedly made the laughable claim the nearly $1.75 billion project could be undertaken without the need to resort to tax increases. An independent study conducted on behalf of the council indicated the likelihood of a shortfall reaching into the tens of millions of dollars in the first seven years alone.