OmniSource Cover Up Underway?

I warned you a couple of weeks ago about how conflicts of interest in the OmniSource scrap metal theft investigation threatened the administration of justice in Indianapolis. I've now learned that a $6.5 million civil RICO lawsuit which attorney Greg Garrison had prepared to file on behalf of the public was quashed at the last minute by local prosecutors. Hey, if you want to live somewhere where crimes are prosecuted, move to Chicago. The politicians up there may all be on the take, but at least there's an honest federal prosecutor who will eventually catch up with them and deliver justice. If public corruption is your gig, Indianapolis is the place to ply your trade.

Revolt At The State House Rally

Several hundred faithful took time out of the work day to participate in today's Revolt At The Statehouse Rally, some driving as far as Hammond and Evansville. A big thanks to Paul Ogden and Melyssa Donaghy for the great work they did today. A special thanks to City-County Councilor Ed Coleman (L) for coming out today. I think he was the only elected official willing to show his face at the event. I gave the CIB and its owners, the Simons and the Irsays, hell for seeking a multi-million dollar state bailout so the taxpayers can shell out more money to operate their sports palaces. A new item I picked up from a sympathetic lawmaker today is a plan being circulated among the legislative leadership to impose a statewide increase in the liquor tax to finance the CIB bailout and other assorted items. That should go over well with bar owners. In Marion County, they already collect a 9% food and beverage tax to help pay for the CIB.

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Here's an AP report on today's rally. WIBC has a story here. There's a WTHR story here. WISH-TV's Jim Shella weighed in with a critical report, which comes as no surprise. Shella likes buddying it up with all the insider State House types and looks upon outsiders with derision. Incidentally, Jim, it wasn't a Libertarian only event as you try to portray it. There were plenty of Republicans and Democrats there as well. I'm sure he was miffed that blogger Ruth Holladay blew the lid off the fact that WISH-TV employees were among the more than 60 corporate clients entertained by the Pacers at an exclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico recently. Don't expect any follow up reporting from Shella and his State House reporter buddies. They wouldn't want you to learn the extent that they're in the tank with the Simons in pushing this bailout deal through the legislature. Media organizations profit off the Pacers and the Colts. The word I'm hearing is that the Pacers front office is blaming the leaked story on the Pacers' Cancun trip for Indy's elites on a disgruntled worker at the Indianapolis Star, one of the Pacers' corporate partners which took part in the Cancun trip.

This news is not sitting well with some of the Star's rank and file employees from what I'm hearing. Workers there have already been forced to take a one-week unpaid furlough during the first quarter. The Star's parent company recently announced that employees at the newspaper will be asked to take another one-week unpaid furlough during the second quarter. Additionally, the newspaper loaned the CIB close to $3 million from the dividends it earned from the Circle Centre Mall, which is operated by the Simon family, to help pay for Conseco Fieldhouse. We recently learned from the IBJ that the CIB has asked the Star and other investors to forgive a total of $36 million owed to them. The Star has had nothing to say about the request to forgive the loan.

Bishop D'Arcy Gives Thumbs Down To Obama Commencement Address

Many Catholics were astonished by Notre Dame University's choice for this year's commencement address, President Barack Obama, in light of the hostile views he holds towards key tenets of the Catholic faith. Obama will be awarded an honorary law degree by the university as well. Bishop John D'Arcy has issued a statement expressing his disapproval through words and announcing his decision not to attend this year's graduation ceremony. Fort Wayne Observed brings us D'Arcy's statement:

Concerning President Barack Obama speaking at Notre Dame graduation, receiving honorary law degree

March 24, 2009

On Friday, March 21, Father John Jenkins, CSC, phoned to inform me that President Obama had accepted his invitation to speak to the graduating class at Notre Dame and receive an honorary degree. We spoke shortly before the announcement was made public at the White House press briefing. It was the first time that I had been informed that Notre Dame had issued this invitation. President Obama has recently reaffirmed, and has now placed in public policy, his long-stated unwillingness to hold human life as sacred. While claiming to separate politics from science, he has in fact separated science from ethics and has brought the American government, for the first time in history, into supporting direct destruction of innocent human life.

This will be the 25th Notre Dame graduation during my time as bishop. After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation. I wish no disrespect to our president, I pray for him and wish him well. I have always revered the Office of the Presidency. But a bishop must teach the Catholic faith “in season and out of season,” and he teaches not only by his words — but by his actions. My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life.

I have in mind also the statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops in 2004. “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” Indeed, the measure of any Catholic institution is not only what it stands for, but also what it will not stand for.

I have spoken with Professor Mary Ann Glendon, who is to receive the Laetare Medal. I have known her for many years and hold her in high esteem. We are both teachers, but in different ways. I have encouraged her to accept this award and take the opportunity such an award gives her to teach.

Even as I continue to ponder in prayer these events, which many have found shocking, so must Notre Dame. Indeed, as a Catholic University, Notre Dame must ask itself, if by this decision it has chosen prestige over truth.

Tomorrow, we celebrate as Catholics the moment when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, became a child in the womb of his most holy mother. Let us ask Our Lady to intercede for the university named in her honor, that it may recommit itself to the primacy of truth over prestige.

Hard Up Pacers Entertain Indy's Corporate Elite In Cancun

Indiana Pacers' owners Mel and Herb Simon have been publicly whining about how much their NBA franchise is losing. The Simons claim the team has lost $200 million since they've owned it, and that it has lost money 9 out of the past 10 years. The Simons are asking the CIB to pick up $15 million a year in costs to operate Conseco Fieldhouse, even though they pay no rent and get to keep all of the game and non-game event revenues, as well as advertising revenues, from the facility. Well, maybe the Pacers aren't hurting so much after all. Blogger Ruth Holladay has a very interesting account of a costly trip your Indiana Pacers team sponsored for about sixty of Indianapolis' elite recently:

"'Your Indiana Pacers' are pleading for monetary breaks from the city of Indianapolis, wanting to rewrite their contract for use of Conseco Fieldhouse. They contend it costs too much to maintain the facility.

"Why then did the Pacers just return from entertaining more than 60 people with a five-day excursion to an exclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico? The team's guests, along with their spouses, were corporate sponsors -- Indianapolis businesses that have supported the team financially over the years.

"Included were guests from Finish Line, WISH-TV, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis Star, etc. The trip serves as a thank you with the hope that the sponsorships continue.

"The group was flown to Cancun, wined and dined at le Blanc Hotel and Spa, an oceanside resort that is all inclusive -- all the food and drink one can possibly consume at one hefty price. How exclusive? Each room sported its own hot tub. And no little airline liquor bottles in those rooms. Full liters -- at no extra charge. The trip included side excursions for every one in attendance.

"And to add icing to the trip, the women were given expensive jewelry and the men fancy sport watches. Special arrangements were made to watch the two West Coast Pacer games that were played during the trip.

"Of course, some guests took advantage of the Pacers generosity. The Star was issued four invitations. John Cherba, the paper's director of display (retail) advertising, and his wife took advantage of the free trip to invite personal friends along. Wouldn't want to share the spoils with just anybody now would you?"

Very interesting. Now you get the picture of why so many of Indianapolis' elites are so quick to support more tax subsidies for the billionaire sports team owners in this town. Shouldn't someone at the Star be reporting on this trip? Or is that another conflict of interest the newspaper's editors will just overlook? My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

Ethics Schmethics

At a March 19, 2009 meeting of the Ethics Committee of the City-County Council where a new ethics code for City-County Councilors was discussed, Republican councilors on the committee, including Chairwoman Ginny Caine and Robert Lutz, incredibly are seeking a loophole for attorneys who serve on the council from disclosing clients they represent who are doing business with the city or county. Caine, Lutz and City Council counsel Bob Elrod take the untenable view that such disclosure would violate the attorney-client privilege.

Although Caine supposedly has a law degree, she isn't a practicing attorney. I don't know what Lutz' law practice involves, but at least one council member, Ryan Vaughn, works for one of the City's largest law firms, Barnes & Thornburg. It is no secret that Barnes & Thornburg represents many clients who do business with the City. The firm also represents the City and various agencies of the county. When attorneys and law firms represent entities doing business with the City and Marion County, there cannot be any claimed attorney-client privilege with respect to the fact that the attorney or his law firm has been retained by that client to represent the client before a city or county agency.

It seems to me that the Council's Republicans are exaggerating the attorney-client privilege in this context to avoid meaningful disclosure of the extent of some attorney-councilors real and potential conflicts of interest in serving on the City-County Council. The purpose of this exercise by the Ethics Committee is to determine what councilors are required to disclose on their statements of economic interest. If it is the intent of the Republican majority to shield these real and potential conflicts from a councilor's disclosure statement, then we should just dump their proposal in the garbage because that's where it belongs.

When the Republican-controlled council adopted a weakened ethics ordinance last year, it decided a separate ethics ordinance should govern the disclosure requirements of councilors. The Ethics Committee has been dragging its feet on adopting a disclosure requirement for councilors for the past year. Because of its belated action, the Ethics Committee plans to delay the requirement that councilors file economic interest statements in May, along with other city-county employees and officials, for at least 60 days while they figure out how weak of an ethics ordinance they are going to pass. Watching this committee in action is very trying on a person of conscience. These people just don't get it.

Revolt At The State House Rally

For Immediate Release Contact: Paul K. Ogden
March 23, 2009
(317) 531-6127 (cell)
(317) 631-0172 (work)
http://www.revoltatthestatehouse.com/

MEDIA ADVISORY--Citizen Leaders Pay Call to Legislators; Demand Reforms--Indianapolis – Attorney Paul K. Ogden, 47, today announced finalized plans regarding the taxpayer rally dubbed the “Revolt at the Statehouse” to be held on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the North Atrium.

The focus of the “Revolt” is the anger the average citizen has with government at all levels which has been captured by big money interests and does not listen to ordinary citizens.Ogden cited the populist uprising in the country, which is noted on the cover of Newsweek that hits the newsstands today, as one of the reasons for the rally.

“You are seeing a populist rage sweeping the country like you have not seen in decades. People are angry as they see their hard-earned money being taken to give out to failing companies, like AIG and others. In Indianapolis, leadership of both the Republican and Democratic Parties is deeply involved in a corporate welfare culture that silences even the most well-meaning party members who dare speak out for the interests of the taxpayers.”

Gary Welsh, author of the blog “Advance Indiana,” has tirelessly reported about the proposed Pacer bailout, the overly generous Colts-Lucas Oil Stadium deal as well as other issues related to the Capital Improvement Board and other local issues. Welsh notes, “The CIB is filled with members who have serious conflicts of interest, not the least of which is the President of the Board, who represents the Simons who own the Pacers. The individuals on the CIB clearly do not have the best interests of the people of Indianapolis in mind when they decide they need to give another $15 million of our tax money to billionaire sports owners.”

Melyssa Donaghy, who runs the blog "Hoosiers for Fair Taxation," noted that people are fed up with the back door deals and lack of transparency in how government operates. “The Revolt will include a call for ethics reform, including more transparency. People need to know what is going on in their government,” Donaghy said. “The conflicts of interest many of these politicians have need to be exposed and ended. We should not have our elected officials using their positions to make themselves and their friends richer at the expense of taxpayers.”

The speakers will include Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians. Titles of some of the speeches include:

“Increasing Debt: Mortgaging Our Children’s Future,”

“The Colts, Pacers and the Capital Improvement Board,”

“Run over by the Speedway Redevelopment Commission,”

“Lobbying and Ethics Reform,”

“Transparency and Accountability in Government,”

“Pay to Play Politics, Indiana Style,” and

“Fun and Games in Evansville.”

A speaker list is included below.

"Increasing Debt: Mortgaging our Children’s Future"– Lisa Kelly, former Libertarian Candidate for Governor"The Colts, Pacers and the Capital Improvement Board"– Gary Welsh, Attorney at Law and Publisher of Advance Indiana blog“Government Grants & Public Corruption”– Rev. Solomon, Author and Community Activist"Run Over By the Speedway Redevelopment Commission"- JoEllen Dotlich, SPEED"Pay to Play Politics, Indiana Style"– Mark Small, Attorney at Law and Author"Transparency and Accountability in Government"– Diana Vice, Lafayette-area Housewife and political activist; Publisher of Welcome to My Tea Party blog"Lobbying and Ethics Reform"– Julia Vaughn, Policy Director of Common Cause/IndianaTopic TBA--Jim Premeske, Team Hammond Taxpayers"Fun and Games in Evansville"– Frankie Neidhammer, President Vanderburgh County Taxpayers Association"How to Get Involved & Make a Difference"– Melyssa Donaghy, political activist and publisher of Hoosiers for Fair Taxation blog"A Call to Action"– Paul Ogden, Attorney at Law, and publisher of Ogden on Politics blog.

Those Damning MAC Statistics

If Mayor Greg Ballard thought he was getting too much heat at his public meeting at Bethel Park over his administration's decision to close five public pools for repairs, he's going to be feeling a lot more after an analysis of the Mayor's Action Center's response time in today's Star shows a large disparity in the time to respond to complaints from affluent areas versus complaints in lower-income areas. Here's what some of those statistics show:

Overall, residents in the poorest neighborhoods had to wait about 14 days longer to have a complaint resolved than residents in the wealthiest areas. The percentage of complaints that took 90 days or more to settle was three times higher in the poorest areas.

» The biggest difference in average resolution times -- 42 days -- involved trash complaints. In the poorest areas, it took an average of 48 days; in the wealthiest areas, just six days. The percentage that took 90 days or more to settle was nearly 20 times higher in the poorest neighborhoods.

» Residents in the lowest-income neighborhoods had to wait about 18 days longer for chuckhole repairs. The percentage of complaints that took 90 days or more to settle was almost two times higher in the poorest areas.

The difference in response times -- most pronounced for trash and chuckhole complaints, which are handled by the Department of Public Works -- caught city officials off guard.

Amos Brown will have a field day with these statistics.

Ballard In Hot Water Over Pool Closings

Someone in the Ballard administration had a bright idea to close five public pools for the entire summer season this year for much-needed repairs. Ballard got blasted by residents in the Bethel Park area who are irate about the decision. WTHR's Mary Milz has a good story about what transpired. Crazy Larry (the guy who wears a paper bag on his head as a hat) brought Mayor Ballard to his feet when he accused the Mayor of being a racist. The Mayor shot back that the pools were being closed because the problem had been ignored for ten years and he's finally doing what needs to be done. Deputy Mayor Olgen Williams is caught on tape in a heated exchange with another resident in attendance at the meeting, which makes Williams look bad, not that looking bad is a hard thing for Williams to do.

Mayor Ballard is right about the problem with the pools being ignored for too long. Mayor Peterson allowed the parks to deteriorate during his eight years as mayor, choosing instead to spend the money awarding tax give-aways to his wealthy contributors, like the $20 million for the Conrad Hilton and the $25 million for Simon's corporate headquarters, to name a couple. Where the Ballard administration is dead wrong is its determination that five pools must be closed for the entire summer to make the needed repairs. I know enough about construction work to know that there are at least six months out of the year when repairs can be made to these pools other than the relatively short, 90-day period they are open during the summer. The administration is being disingenuous with the public about the need to close all of these pools at the same time for repairs. The repairs, which are estimated to cost $4 million, are being done in this fashion to save money, pure and simple. The closing of these pools, primarily in middle and lower-income neighborhoods, means the loss of summer jobs for the City's youth. Milz' reports notes that IPS is closing schools in some of these same neigbhorhoods.

The administration's decision to close the pools has nothing to do with race as suggested by Crazy Larry. It is, however, a reflection of this administration's priorities. You know that Conseco Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium would never be shut down during the season for repairs. While the Mayor is squeezing the park's budget, he is asking the legislature for additional taxing authority and funding to pay for the operating costs of Lucas Oil Stadium and Conseco Fieldhouse so the billionaire sports team owners don't have to absorb a dime of those expenses. Ballard already announced he is hiking fees to use the city's pools. As it always seems to be the case in this town, the common folks get the short end of the stick.

IBJ Says Pacer Bailout No Slam Dunk

An editorial in today's IBJ offers a skeptical view of the Pacers' claim that the franchise is losing money and can remain in Indianapolis only if the CIB agrees to pick up $15 million in annual operating/maintenance expenses. The editorial reads, in part:

The Indiana Pacers franchise needs $15 million a year beginning in 2010—presumably from the public—to fund the operation of Conseco Fieldhouse. The franchise says it can’t afford to operate the venue, where it claims to have lost money every year but one since moving in 10 years ago.

That’s madness. We have a hard time understanding how the franchise could be such a money loser. The Pacers pay essentially no rent on the publicly owned fieldhouse but benefit from the more than 200 ticketed events held there every year—everything from basketball games to rock concerts.

We appreciate that the team hasn’t issued any ultimatums in this latest round of troubles, but it’s frustrating that taxpayers are once again being asked to subsidize a private enterprise that’s already getting a pretty good deal in the form of free use of a state-of-the-art entertainment venue.

You would think after reading that passage of the editorial that it would conclude there should be no bailout for the Pacers, but that's not the case. Instead, the editorial turns into a venture into Simon family estate planning. The editorial asks who will be in charge of the Pacers once Mel and Herb Simon are no longer around. It then goes on to suggest that the Simons give the City a cut of the selling price if the Pacers team is sold in the future. It reads:

And because Indianapolis has so much invested, why wouldn’t the Pacers give the city a cut of the upside? The Simons bought the team for $11 million back in 1983. A year ago, Forbes magazine valued it at more than $300 million. If the city is truly a partner, it should be rewarded if sometime down the road the franchise changes hands.

So essentially the IBJ concludes we should pick up the $15 million a year tab for the Pacers, even though all evidence would point to the claim that the franchise is losing money and has lost money in 9 out of the past 10 years as being completely false, as long as the CIB is offered some cut of a future sale of the Pacers. It looks like the IBJ has concluded the same thing I've already concluded. The Simons plan to sell the Pacers. They are simply trying to extract this additional subsidy for the team to bolster the team's selling price. The Simon family's crown jewel, Simon Property Group, is sinking fast from the mountain of debt it has piled up over the years. David Simon's plan to issue more stock as a ruse for raising money to pay off some of that debt went over like a fart in church with investors.

I see the IBJ's point in asking for this concession from the Simons, but if past is prologue, this would become an empty promise. The CIB already has a right of first refusal to acquire the team if it is sold, but it can't begin to afford to pay the purchase price. You know exactly what will happen. A potential purchaser will say he wants to move the Pacers to another city if he buys the team because the team isn't profitable enough here. The Simons will come to the CIB and tell them that they can guarantee the new team owner will keep the team in the city if the Pacers are let off paying the City its cut of the selling price so the Simons can reduce the purchase price from something like $350 million to $300 million. All of the negotiations with professional sports team owners end one way, and it's always to the advantage of the team owner and not the public. If the choice is between no Pacers and a Pacers team plus an additional direct subsidy of $15 million a year, it's a no brainer. Farewell, Pacers.

In a separate editorial in today's Star, the editors caution the CIB against rushing a resolution of the issue through the legislature. There are only a few weeks remaining in this session and there has still not been a single piece of legislation that has been proposed in writing so the public has an opportunity to review and be heard on the subject. That's a deliberate effort on the part of the CIB and Mayor Greg Ballard to make sure the public is shut out completely from the backroom deal they're negotiating at the State House. Nonetheless, the Star, without stating its own conflict of interest in this matter (its multi-million dollar loan to the CIB), seems to back a bailout with these conditions:

Every player -- including the Colts, Pacers, businesses, city and state governments -- will have to sacrifice something to find a sustainable model for operating Lucas Oil Stadium, Conseco Fieldhouse and other Downtown venues.

Second, the General Assembly must address the deficit before the end of April. The state took the lead in building Lucas Oil Stadium; it must not abandon the city now with operating costs pushing the CIB to the point of crisis.

Third, although it's clear that a range of options, not one overriding solution, will have to be employed to close the budget gap, the state and city must protect the region's convention business.

In other words, only the taxpayers will wind up paying for this bailout.

And then the push continues from the downtown elites. Roland Dorson and the ICVA's Don Welsh, who only recently moved to Indianapolis from Seattle, offer a guest column assuring you that the entire future of downtown rests on a taxpayer bailout of the CIB. They write:

What a shame, then, if we would somehow lower the bar, lose the momentum and sacrifice the national identity built in the past 40 years by retreating to the India-no-place of 1969.

But no less is at stake as we seek creative and collaborative solutions to the funding problems confronting the Capital Improvement Board. The issues extend far beyond Conseco Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium and their primary tenants, the Pacers and Colts. This is about sustaining the vibrancy of Downtown, maintaining and growing jobs and creating an environment that is attractive to business. The two then go on to throw out the phony ecoomic impact numbers they are always throwing around.

Let me explain this to Dorson and Welsh (who is no relation, thankfully). The massive amounts of public spending in the downtown one mile square over the past 40 years has done absolutely nothing to stem the tide of corporations that have closed or moved their corporate headquarters and taking their high-paying jobs elsewhere. In fact, it has done nothing to stem the exodus to the suburbs. Our population has remained virtually stagnant since 1970. Guys like Dorson and Welsh have a great gig going on. They convince stupid Marion County residents to continue paying tens of millions in tax dollars to the CIB year after year, and they get these great paying entertainment-related jobs that offers plenty of travel around the U.S., dining in all of the fine restaurants and overnight accommodations in five star hotels. Guys like this have been so successful that we spend more money on the CIB than we spend providing fire protection. We spend four times on the CIB than we spend on our city's parks. And we spend more on the CIB than we spend on the prosecutor's office, the public defender's office and the entire Marion County court system combined.

A final note to Welsh. Your former Seattle home lost its Sonics' NBA franchise to Oklahoma City. Think about it. Are all of the young, well-educated professionals going to stop moving to Seattle because the Sonics are no longer there and start moving to Oklahoma City instead? If you asked young, well-educated professionals across the country where they would rather live. Do you think they would pick Seattle or Indianapolis?