Sunday, December 20, 2015

Brainard's Month-Long Trip To India, Germany Paid For By State Department

A source familiar with corruption in Carmel city government has insisted that the Justice Department ordered the local FBI office and U.S. Attorney's Office not to pursue corruption leads in Mayor James Brainard's city administration. When I asked why, the person claimed it was because Brainard had agreed to serve as a leading Republican who would take up the cause of promoting Agenda 21 objectives premised on faulty, discredited science regarding global warming. Mayor Brainard recently took a month-long trip to India and Germany paid entirely by the State Department to promote building sustainable cities. From our local Langley-run newspaper:
Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard has spent the past month speaking to community leaders in India and Germany about ways to build sustainable cities while combating climate change.
He was among several local leaders throughout the country who attended the trip as a lead-in to the conference on climate change in Paris, which wrapped up Dec. 11. The U.S. Department of State paid for the trip.
Essentially, Brainard said, he told the story of Carmel.
Since 1996 Brainard has led an effort to create a new downtown in the suburb. While Brainard has championed the redevelopment of the city's urban core as a way to bolster economic development while creating a sense of community, he also believes that creating walkable, dense communities will allow residents to give up or lessen their reliance on cars.
India and Germany are "dealing with a lot of the same growth and infrastructure issues that we are," Brainard said, "and how to finance those issues. I told our story and how we handled it."
Brainard said India was eye-opening. The smog was so thick in cities that he felt as if he was chain-smoking cigarettes.
But he said many local mayors there were interested in Carmel's story.
"Planning departments in India are a new thing," he said. "As a result, they have tremendous traffic congestion. Everyone wants a car, and traditionally most Indians have not had a car. We're trying to help them think about the cost and how to build a grid and some very basic infrastructure."
Brainard, a Republican, recognizes that some in his political party have not embraced the science behind climate change. In all, 97 percent of climate scientists say human activity likely is worsening climate change, according to multiple studies cited by NASA.
But since 2013 Brainard has been one of 26 local government leaders who is on a task force on climate change created by President Barack Obama in 2013.
I'm wondering what Brainard told folks in India and Germany about what he's done since he's been in office to lessen Carmel's dependence on automobiles. All the street and highway improvements, particularly those made to Keystone and U.S. 31, have made travel by cars in his city much easier. All of the crony development occurring in downtown Carmel with TIF money has included the construction of publicly-subsidized parking garages to encourage people to drive their cars. Carmel operates no public transportation system of its own. His own city attorney, Doug Haney, was recently called out for billing taxpayers $1.15 to drive less than a half mile in his car from City Hall to a meeting at the Center for Performing Arts less than a half mile away. He obviously doesn't preach reducing carbon emissions to his own city employees. Here's what one India newspaper reported Carmel told local officials there about Carmel's efforts:
During his tenure in the past 20 years, the population of Carmel City witnessed a three-fold increase, according to the Mayor. He said that the effective measures taken by them for cutting down carbon emission, extending tree cover, management of generated waste and parking could be implemented in Thiruvananthapuram also.
Earlier, an average American drove two-hours a day, emitting high amounts of carbon and escalating the fuel. Taking note of this, the civic body decided to set up Traditional Neighbourhood Development (TND) units which had concrete plans and design principles to promote energy conservation while also creating walking and biking communities. A department of community services was setup to encourage Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. The city became the first in the US to set up the first municipal biopasteur system, he said.
He pointed out that green cover rose from 40 acres to 800 acres. As part of the tree plantation programme, more than 42,000 trees were planted in the city. Hybrid vehicles that run on battery and gasoline operated engines are being used. To produce electricity, wind power is tapped.
"Solid waste management there is undertaken by private players. The city is divided into five parts and door-to-door carting of waste takes place. Everyday from Monday to Friday, waste is cleared from a particular division is cleared and taken to a landfilling site where the garbage is recycled. Like the utility bills, waste management is also a paid service and each household is charged $8.95 cents per month.
In his reply speech, Mayor V K Prasanth said the city corporation will check the feasibility of carrying out similar projects in the city with the help of the respective committees. Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar, M A Baby MLA, Andie De Arment of US Consulate and municipal chairpersons were also present.
Mayor with officials| Kaviyoor Santhosh
Mayor Brainard meeting with local Indian officials (Kaviyoor Santouch/Photo)
In another India news report, Brainard was quoted about the use of public-private partnerships. "It’s important to have public-private-partnership mode but it should be done in a transparent way by taking people into confidence," Brainard said. "It is also important to choose civil engineers who suits larger public good." Hah! Brainard hires civil engineers based on how much they contribute to his campaign committee. Who does he think he's fooling?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...


Jim Brainard is every bit as corrupt- if not more so- as Indy's own Emperor Mayor Gregory Ballard.

Both are for sale to the highest bidder.

Long time Carmel property owners know deep in their DNA that Jim Brainard is a crook. The Carmel City Council, every bit as useless as Indy's City County Council, is icing on a cake of corruption. Carmel Councilors allowed Brainard to financially manipulate the town formerly known as Bethlehem.

John Accetturo is vindicated.

Anonymous said...

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=19813

Nothing new here..............

Pete Boggs said...

It's more like the anti-American statist department; of failed fascist design & corruption. Think of the idiot who steps in to show another idiot how to do a stupid thing, saying "No- you do it like this." Statists persist that they're the chosen ones to do a stupid thing (fascism) the "right way."

The half-pregnant illogic of public / private partnerships is a classic example of statist stupidity. Recall your favorite oaf of a cartoon character, shifting into dumb-deed mode with words to the effect "Let me show you how it's done." Statism / fascism is a magnet for the self absorbed narcissist; from whom the sovereign must protect themselves through vigilance; ignoring pretty faces & inflated resumes, in favor of Constitutional clarity & measurable substance.

Anonymous said...

Environmentalist my a** !! You only have to look at the woods that was destroyed north of the Meijer store, or the woods off of Smokey Row Road. Both taken out in the name of Agenda 21 construction. If you want to reduce warming in Car-Mel stop replacing trees with blacktop and concrete. Last I knew, there were no green chlorophyll pigments in blacktop or concrete. While I am no expert on photosynthesis, I certainly realsize how much heat is genertated by blacktop driveways and concrete buildings.

I wonder who tracks the numbers of trees destroyed and compares those numbers to trees planted? It certainly is no one in the Brainard TIF corruption camp.

Exactly what is the price of alleged progress? That is, if you think a progressive liberal, disguising himself in financially conservative clothing, is progress. Just how many Agenda 21 people can you pack in the phone booth called Car-mel? AND, if you think the traffic jams in this City were created by accident, think again. It is part of Brainard's "vision" to force public transportation upon the citizens of Carmel, taking away your freedom of choice. Just leave everything to the Government and all will be well. OH, almost forgot, here come the 'Bobble Heads."

Anonymous said...

Please, dear God, stop using the word statist, over and over again, like a bad groundhog day movie, please, dear God, stop using the word statist.

Anonymous said...

Ayn Rand coined it in 1957 and used it about 300 times in her Atlas novel. doesn't really stand for much today. Only elderly types quote Rand for current economic and political theory.

Pete Boggs said...

Anon 2:52: No- that's exactly the wrong idea! It's precisely the problem; the bad movie being one of its destructive prevalence & obscurity. God us the very free will which statism seeks to subvert- wake up!

Anonymous said...

Brainard and 6 of 7 Republican councilors passed an lgbt nondiscrimination law in a deeply conservative county with a unanimous republican council because they understood that Carmel needed to be open for business; open to all. And in this regard he is a visionary. Just like Mitch Daniels was for the State, Brainard has been a brilliant leader. And temporary funding issues will blow to the wind; there's plenty of money in Carmel to foot the bills. All these tightwads who move up there because they want to preserve their housing wealth; they just don't want to pay any taxes. Stupid complainers. You don't get to have it both ways. I don't see these little jewish whiners getting invited to international conferences. I'm not dissing jews, but lets be honest. There's Brainard, and then there are his "detractors." All jewish residents of Carmel who want him to stop spending money. You can't make this up.

Anonymous said...

5:26 PM aren't you running late to your weekly meeting of the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany?

Pete Boggs said...

Correction to the 5:09 post: God gave us the very free will which statism seeks to subvert- wake up!

Anon 5:25: Wow- that's bigotry; conflating tightwads with stupid complainers & little jewish whiners. Citizens of all backgrounds want politicians in Carmel to stop abusing the public treasury; as though it's their expense account.

Anonymous said...

Poor Ballard. No cars, no Carmel. Carmel is already landlocked by virtue of having no direct stoplight-free route to Downtown Indy.

He attacks cars at his peril. Fishers, Noblesville, Whitestown and Zionsville have all already taken off. Greenwood is moving to the highway. Will Carmel become Indy's newest Glendale Mall?

For being so into mass transit, why did Ballard allow Carmel and Indy to tear out the Monon tracks and put in a bicycle trail, instead of keeping the train tracks and running commuter train service to Carmel and Westfield?

It's nice US31 is going to limited access, but US31 and Keystone highways end at 96th Street. If you're south of 96th, it's a fight getting to those roads.

Flogger said...

The Corporate Press carries the water for Corporatism. Also in attendance are the so called "Think Tanks" that regularly have their employees write glowing, fluff pieces about the success stories of the chosen Elected Officials.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:49 You completely miss the point. WIth each passing day, fewer people go south of 96th. Much of the private sector has already relocated to HamCo. More will follow. The east/west commute on 465 is more of a concern than the north/south commute into Marion. THe same is true of bicycle infrastructure. NY, Chicago, SF, Silicon Valley, Austin, Denver all the places with thriving economies are investing in it. You, on the other hand, seem to be clinging to the 1970s highway model that virtually all forward thinking places are moving away from. Let us know how it works out, okay?

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:02 Couldn't get through 1,000 plus pages, eh? That's the problem with you youngsters. You have the attention spans of hamsters.

Anonymous said...

I find it laughable when Carmel's mayor touts his alleged accomplishments in creating a high quality community, as if something he's done is the reason. Carmel and other suburban communities to Indianapolis are thriving for one main reason, and that is the failure of the Indianapolis Public Schools. Families who don't qualify for vouchers and who have school age children have to risk winning the lottery to get into the few good IPS schools, be prepared to pay tuition for a private school, or move somewhere their children can get a quality education from public schools. If IPS schools were all as good as suburban schools, places like Carmel would remain sleepy suburbs.

Anonymous said...

11:42, you don't mean "forward thinking," you mean gay, urban and liberal. Hate to call the gays out on this, but they really like urban density and downtowns, for some reason.

What you're trying to pass off as a new thing is just an affection for neo-tenement living. That mode of living was tried, despised and abandoned as soon as people's standard of living improved to allow a move to a place to spread out.

Tenement living was responsible for crime, rapid spread of diseases, poverty social conflict and other ills.

Not sure what country you're from, but in America, most people prefer the 1970's to the 1910's. People who actually lived in the tenements you feel so fondly for did everything they could to leave them and to destroy that way of life.

How's not knowing anything about History working out for you, 11:42? Answer: not too well. You look very foolish.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Blackmail may sound like a strong word, but it's accurate. The issue has not been under the control of the LGBT community for some time here in Indiana. The folks using this and other issues like a club have a different agenda, the least of which has anything to do with protecting anyone from discrimination. I repeat. They have dossiers on certain Rs they are prepared to roll out with the aid of The Star and others in the media if these key people don't do as they have been ordered to do.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised you haven't written about Bosma's plan to raise gasoline taxes and toll I-65 and I-70. Agenda 21 is behind some of that.

This plan brings together an unholy alliance of Republicans who always seek to create private profits from public assets and the radical car-hating Left that loves toll roads to restrict citizens' free movement. Toll roads are extremely popular with the Agenda 21 crowd.

When political opposites such as the Republican corporatists, represented by prayer-on-the-floor Bosma, and the wealthy wing of the Democratic Party, represented by Hillary Clinton Democrats such as Sheila Kennedy, get together to champion regressive taxation to destroy the middle and lower classes, you know you have a truly Indiana plan being hatched to transfer private money to the fatcats' pockets.

Oddly, when it comes to imposing user fees on enterprises such as professional sports, Bosma argues everyone should pay for it, so the cost of the Colts' stadium moves away from ticket prices that the wealthy pay to see their games and onto all the little people getting their daily meals. The hard left chafes at imposing user fees on public schools, saying "it's everyone's responsibility."