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Sunday, January 10, 2016
David Hampton Must Choose Between Being A Deputy Mayor And A Reverend
Mayor Joe Hogsett faced a major ethical dilemma during his first week on the job and failed that test miserably. Hogsett chose Rev. David Hampton to serve as Deputy Mayor of Neighborhood Engagement, a position more or less filled by Olgen Williams under former Mayor Greg Ballard, Parishioners of the Light of the World Church were less than happy about losing Rev. Hampton as their senior pastor to Hogsett's new administration. So Mayor Hogsett apparently gave Rev. Hampton permission to continue serving as his church's senior pastor while drawing a full-time salary as a deputy mayor in his administration.
Can a servant have two masters? Would anyone tolerate the mayor appointing someone to serve in any other full-time position in his administration while maintaining their other full-time job? The talking heads on Fox 59 News' InFocus briefly touched on the matter this morning, including the Star's Tim Swarens, and agreed it probably wasn't a good idea. Yet I don't recall any news stories by Fox 59 News, The Star or any other media source in Indiana questioning the efficacy of this arrangement. Pretty typical, eh?
Advance Indiana, Ogden On Politics & Had Enough Indy are doing the work; of the newsless / content deficient medi-ain't. Statists embrace conflict as a currency of coercion; the template of the big flaw.
ReplyDeleteInappropriate and shameful decision. Thank you for reporting this Gary.
ReplyDeleteIndianapolis doesn't need a deputy Mayor of Neighborhood Engagement. It didn't get anything for the money from Olgen, and its going to be a failed experiment again. A waste of our tax dollars. And a bit of an insult. After all, these deputy mayors don't really represent any neighborhoods except the black neighborhoods. I say save the money. Eliminate the position, and hire another cop. What do you get when you bring a dozen of these concerned pastors together to try and solve the Indianapolis violence problem? Nothing. Nothing at all.
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ReplyDeleteAbsolutely the wrong decision. But there are different rules for old white rich left liberal Democrat males like Lying Joe Hogsett and anyone else.
This decision to allow a person to enjoy two paychecks via two full time jobs is bad on so many levels. Where are the "separation of church and state" liberal Democrats? What will happen to Marion County residents should there occur the type of God-forbid calamity when Hampton's congregation AND the City need his services AT THE SAME TIME? Who does Hampton choose to be important first priority and whom will Hampton toss to the side and consider "second banana"???
No, a person cannot serve two masters and with this decision, Lying Joe Hogsett shows us what he is REALLY made of and what he is REALLY all about. And it's just not much worthy of the office he holds.
This reminds a lot of the deal with the Daniels administration had with Michael Latham to be chaplain at FSSA!
ReplyDeleteTo their credit, the Indianapolis Recorder has been covering this and even questioned Hampton on it.
ReplyDeleteIs the good Rev afforded a city car as Mr. Williams was? Can you imagine if he had to do a time card for the city? How does this not smack of ghost employment? Instead of doing one job well, chances are he'll be doing two jobs poorly.
ReplyDeleteWell, Tiny Tim has his hands full selling sodomy and you can't expect him to multi-task. If the Rev can read it might be worth it if he'd read the 1965 Moynihan Report in full. We have noticed the failure of the Republicans to deal with social issues AND their social costs. Let's see how the Democrats do with the social costs Their full throated conflation of civil rights with sodomy celebration does not promise much and is pretty much an insult to Christians though you can find "reverends" on any number of programs to increase social costs..
ReplyDeleteWe all know that statistics can be bandied about by liars. I've never heard of the Moynihan being characterized as a pack of lies...for all I know NO Negro has ever read it or understood it. Surely there are local social science sorts who can let us know how Indianapolis compares with national statistics like 72% of Black Children are born to unmarried mothers. Higher or lower in Indianapolis? 90% of Blacks who go on to college need remediation. Higher or lower for Indiana and Indianapolis? When the Federal Government has devised programs that weaken Black families how are local governments to cope?
The Indiana embrace of the new freedom of no fault divorce brought devastation to families and especially Black families the fruits of same now being expressed in social costs. What can local government do to "fix" that legislative error(other than to call upon social science to call it a massive error). "By their fruits shall ye know them" is sort of a Bible thumping truth but not contradicted by human reason. Social issues have social costs. It isn't reasonable to posit or think that Black Ministers are going to be able to deal with the various policies of the State that are detrimental not only to Black Families but as the Moynihan Report gets updated, statistically, it is clear to see that ALL families are negatively impacted by these poorly designed policies OR that the policies were designed for some other purpose than the common good. In the latter case there are a great number of Republicans who need to revisit their mirrors.
Olgen Williams was a ghost employee most of the last year. Why didn't anyone call him out on it?
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:23, What I saw on the Indianapolis Recorder's website was a video interview with Hampton discussing how he had allayed the fears of his parishioners that he could do both jobs; it did not address the ethical dilemma it posed for him as high-ranking city employee.
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:56, Nobody would go on the record about Olgen's supposed absence from his duties. I was told by several people he stopped doing his job after Ballard ordered him out of the mayor's race last year. Nobody in a position with direct knowledge would confirm or deny it. I suggested to a TV investigative reporter they use their resources to look into it, but they didn't view it as newsworthy. They were more concerned about what officials were doing out in these small towns in the hinterlands.
Indy Blacks should have long ago figured out that Bayh, Hogsett, Peterson, DeLaney, et al. are country club Democrats who want nothing to do with them other than exploit their voting bloc for electoral purposes. Joe has named a bunch of tokens to his administration who exercise no real power and most of them are sell-outs to the larger black community. Joe only put Hampton in his administration in a shallow attempt to buy respectability among the black clergy. If he had any respect for blacks, he would have done something about the prominent black minister/politician who sexually exploits young boys when he was federal prosecutor.
ReplyDeleteThis smells just like when "Sweeet Pea" Monroe Gray was collecting a full time check from the Fire Department and seen in criminal courtrooms supporting Democrats in criminal cases...
ReplyDeletePerhaps a Special Prosecutor should be immediately appointed to monitor records to see if Ghost Employment laws are being broken! You see, the Ghost Employment law requires that he perform his duties for the city and not for his other employer while on the city's timeclock.
Sounds like DOJ's Public Integrity Task Force could also assign someone full-time to this one.
12:09 has a good point. Olgen Williams was put on the payroll not to be a Deputy Mayor, he effectively was a mere token minority with an "Executive" title. He was illiterate, every word (that you could understand) was just pure ignorance...I don't even think Ballard could understand more than 10% of what Olgen Williams said any time he spoke. That postition was a make-work, do-nothing token "job."
ReplyDeleteThe city would be better served to eliminate the position and hire more police.
Is there a reason Hogsett is yet to name a single replacement to run any of the city agencies? Is he that comfortable letting Ballard hangers-on continue running those departments?
ReplyDeleteFunny how "church & state" separation only applies when a republican is involved.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if the Indiana Constitution provision about the prohibition on state monies being drawn to support religion will ever be brought up, since Hampton isn't giving up his pastoral job. If taxpayer money is supporting a pastor, even though it's for a public position, can Article 1, Section 6 be an argument against Hogsett?
ReplyDelete(Sorry, I'm doing bar prep and it came to mind).
Rather than throwing stones and racing to quick judgment, maybe more fact finding should be done. What is his arrangement with the church? Church work done during evenings and weekends while still putting in at least 40 hours with the city? If so, I do not see any ghost employment issues. No church/state issues provided he is not promoting religion as deputy mayor.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite doable to have a full time job plus a part-time one. Many are doing it and I myself have done it at various times in my life. For some it is a strong work ethic and for many others it is survival.
This being said, in my personal opinion Hogsett misfired here. Others were much more qualified for the job in a broader sense. Hogsett appeared to be pandering to only one part of our community.
This isn't a small church. Light of the World is one of the larger churches in the city.
ReplyDeleteBlight of The Whirled...
ReplyDeleteFYI... Riggs is positioning himself to run for Mayor. This relationship between Hogsett and Riggs could end up like Guiliani and Bratton.
ReplyDeleteSidebar. Keep digging into the relationships between this church and IMPD.