R.I.P. Beurt SerVaas

The man some described as the father of Indianapolis' UniGov and its longest serving City-County Council president, Dr. Beurt SerVaas, passed away last night at the age of 94. While most Indianapolis residents remember his long-time public service as council president for 27 years and his highly successful business career buying and selling businesses all over the world, including Curtis Publishing, which published many magazines including "The Saturday Evening Post,"  it is his clandestine agent role with U.S. intelligence agencies where his sphere of influence was greatest felt. During World War II, SerVaas served as a naval intelligence officer in China for the Secret Intelligence Division of the Office of Strategic Services ("OSS"), the forerunner agency to the Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA").

SerVaas was a long-time associate of William Casey, one of the best known spies in U.S. history who ran the CIA during the Iran-Contra scandal that rocked the Reagan administration. Casey and SerVaas were among an executive committee of veterans of the OSS who ran the CIA from the shadows according to author Barbara Honneger. SerVaas founded International Investigators, Inc. in Indianapolis in the early 1960s, a private investigate firm that boasted of employing former agents of the CIA and FBI. According to Honneger, SerVaas played a key behind-the-scenes role in the Iran-Contra affair, which included his first son-in-law married to his daughter Joan, a French immigrant by the name of Bernard Marie. In 1992, SerVaas was called to testify before Congress about his role in helping the military build-up of Iraq prior to the first Gulf War. SerVaas testified that he believed a $40 million smelting plant built in Iraq by a company he owned was to be used for non-military purposes, not for producing artillery shells and gun cartridges as turned out to be the case.

SerVaas and his daughter, Joan, came back into the public spotlight during the corruption trial of Ponzi schemer Tim Durham, who was Joan's second husband. SerVaas and his daughter agreed to post a $1 million bond for Durham after he was indicted by federal prosecutors for defrauding small investors in Ohio's Fair Finance Company out of more than $200 million. Durham's political influence in Indianapolis and statewide GOP circles began while he was still married to Joan and helped SerVaas manage businesses that he acquired, including the Carpenter Bus Company. Durham began an independent business career based on SerVaas' successful knack for buying struggling businesses, rebuilding them and then selling them for a profit.

SerVaas, an Eagle Scout, earned degrees from Indiana University in chemistry, Spanish and history. While in his 40s, he returned to school and earned a doctor's degree in medical science. SerVaas was a 1980 Horatio Alger Award winner.  "I believe you have to develop a curiosity about the environment in which you live in order to see the opportunities most people don’t see,"SerVaas is quoted by the Horatio Alger Association as saying.

UPDATE: Gov. Mike Pence released the following statement on SerVaas' passing:

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Beurt SerVaas, whom I consider a long-time friend. With decades of service to the people of Indiana as a civic, business and philanthropic leader, as well as military service to this great nation, Dr. Beurt SerVaas devoted his life to bettering his community and the lives of all those he served. His legacy will endure for generations to come. On behalf of the state of Indiana, I offer my deepest condolences to all those he held dear as they honor the life of this beloved Hoosier leader.”

Fair Finance Trustee Reaches Settlement With SerVaas And Son

The bankruptcy trustee for Fair Finance sought to recover $285,000 in cash transfers convicted Ponzi schemer Tim Durham made to his ex-wife, Joan SerVaas, and step-son, Bernard Durham prior to the demise of his business empire following an FBI raid in November, 2009. According to a court filing with a federal bankruptcy court, Joan and Bernard have reached a settlement with the trustee to repay $100,000 and $10,000, respectively. The trustee says that Bernard provided the trustee with a personal financial statement and supporting documentation that supposedly demonstrated his inability to repay the nearly $60,000 the trustee wanted him to repay the bankruptcy estate. Joan claimed that Durham received value in exchange for the transfers, including care for SerVaas' children, only one of whom was Durham's biological son. She also claimed that some of the transfers involved assets she jointly owned with Durham.

Joan is the daughter of multi-millionaire industrialist and former City-County Council President Beurt SerVaas, a former high-ranking OSS officer during World War II and long-time rumored CIA asset with close ties to the some of the intelligence agency's most prominent past leaders. She and her father posted a $1 million bond for Tim Durham while he awaited trial. Joan is the CEO of Curtis Publishing, one of the companies owned by her father, which publishes The Saturday Evening Post and licenses artwork.

Bernard is the biological son of SerVaas' first husband, Bernard Marie, a French immigrant who has been described as an "off-the-books" French intelligence asset. Marie, a former owner and publisher of Indiana Business Magazine, is the CEO of Penta Corporation, a business marketing and sales company that provides services to U.S. export concerns in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Marie has also been associated with a private construction firm with significant interests in Saudi Arabia. His biological son, Bernard Durham, also rumored to be an intelligence asset, was working as an obscure investigator in Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller's office at the time the FBI raided his step-father's offices. He quietly left the office shortly thereafter. Zoeller returned $11,000 in campaign contributions to the bankruptcy trustee for Fair Finance that he received from Tim Durham.

The Politics Behind Indianapolis' At-Large Council Seats

Marion County Democrats are going apoplectic over an amendment Rep. Phil Hinkle (R-Indianapolis) is offering to a local government reform bill, SB 526 that, among other things, would eliminate the four at-large council seats on the 29-member Indianapolis City-County Council. In 1969 during the debate over the UniGov legislation, the strongest opposition to electing at-large councilors came from Marion County Democrats. Politics was the motivation behind the at-large councilors then and politics is the motivation behind the elimination of the at-large councilors today.

The most authoritative historical document concerning the adoption of UniGov in 1969 is a college thesis written by none other than our current governor, Mitch Daniels. Daniels authored "The Politics of Metropolitinization: City-County Consolidation in Indianapolis, Indiana" as a senior at Princeton University in 1971. Yes, unlike Barack Obama, there is actually a paper trail for our distinguished governor from his college days, both the good and the bad. In his words, "The intent of this thesis is to dissect and examine this drive for metropolitan government, nicknamed 'UniGov' by the Indianapolis press, so that the basis of its surprising victory may become evident."

In his 132-page thesis, Daniels provides us as close of a ringside seat to the events culminating in the enactment of UniGov 42 years ago as the heart of any political junky could desire. From the 1968 backroom meetings with then-Mayor Richard Lugar and a handful of insiders where the ideas were first formulated, the so-called "Sylvan Drive" meetings as Daniels dubbed them for the home of insurance executive John Burkhart where the secret meetings were held, to the legislation's ultimate passage in 1969 by an overwhelmingly Republican-controlled legislature and approval by Gov. Edgar Whitcomb, Daniels provides an impeccable play-by-play analysis of legislation that totally changed the face of Indianapolis politics. Despite his young age, Daniels had unrivaled access to all of the key players who provided him the candid view any veteran journalist could have hoped to attain in covering any major event.

Daniels' thesis provides us political insight into the rationale behind the at-large council seats. "An issue which stirred great debate during the entire compromise period revolved around the at-large City-County Council seats suggested by the UniGov authors," Daniels wrote. The original plan called for a 30-seat council comprised of 25 single-member district seats and five at-large seats. Daniels noted by "current electoral trends would have given an advantage to the GOP, with their edge in organization and registration." Beurt SerVaas, who would become the first and longest serving President of the City-County Council, authored the plan for at-large councilors. "My original feeling was that perhaps the county should be divided into 10 districts with one councilman elected from each district and five at large . . . The ones at large would probably give the council to the same party that elected the Mayor," SerVaas explained during the task force meetings which presented the first drafts of the legislation. Sen. George Rubin, another task force member, suggested a 30-member council. Eventually, the task force adopted a 20-5 scheme. The number of at-large councilors was later reduced by one to create a 29-member council.

"Attacks against the at-large provision came almost exclusively from the Democratic leadership," Daniels observed. Marion Co. Democratic Chairman James Beatty labeled the plan "another means of locking up local government for the Republican Party." "The defenders counter-attacked along two lines," Daniels wrote. "The basic argument presented for public consumption held that 'This way at least some of the council representatives would be free of local special interest prejudices.'" "A second rationale, used sparingly and with receptive audiences asserted that it was desirable that a mayor have a few of his own people on the council." Daniels concluded, "The UniGov proponents weathered much criticism of their at-large plan, apparently believing it to be important enough to contest." Daniels' research revealed that no other person fought harder for the at-large council seats than SerVaas. Although Republicans wavered and hinted the final plan would drop the at-large seats during a critical stage of the legislative process, SerVaas ultimated prevailed.

Daniels said Republicans estimated they could count on winning 13 to 14 of the 25 single-member districts and win all four of the at-large seats, along with electing a Republican mayor, giving them a safe majority. Opponents of the at-large council seats filed lawsuits seeking to overturn it but were unsuccessful. Although Daniels' thesis does not cover this topic, Marion County at the time elected its state representatives and senators at large from a multi-member district, a scheme which was eventually replaced with single-member districts like the rest of the state, significantly reducing the number of safe Republican legislative seats. When Uni-Gov was enacted, Republicans held an overwhelming 70-30 majority in the House.

SerVaas' plan worked as planned for nearly 3 decades as Republicans held what seemed to be a permanent lock on the mayor's office and the City-County Council until Bart Peterson's election as mayor in 1999. The flight of Republican-leaning voters from Marion County to the neighboring suburban counties has gradually diminished the party's strength to the point it is now at a slight disadvantage. The 2007 election marked the first time that the winning party's candidate for mayor failed to win all four at-large council seats when Republicans captured three of the four seats with the election of Greg Ballard. The blame for the failure to win all four seats can be squarely laid at the feet of the party's former chairman, Tom John, who assumed Ballard would lose the election. He focused the party's resources on just electing one of the party's four at-large councilor candidates, Kent Smith, and withheld support from the other three GOP candidates. Angel Rivera was appointed to replace Smith after he resigned from the council before the end of his term. One of the other at-large Republicans elected in 2007, Ed Coleman, bolted to the Libertarian Party. Barbara Malone is the other at-large GOP member. Joanne Sanders is the lone Democrat elected at large in 2007.

SerVaas Explains Why Family Bailed Out Durham

Tim Durham was released on a $1 million bond after his arrest last week on a 12-count indictment on wire and securities fraud for operating the now-defunct Fair Finance Co. as a Ponzi scheme. Durham's ex-wife, Joan SerVaas, and her father, former City-County Council President Beurt SerVaas, posted bond for Durham. Joan released the following statement to WISH-TV explaining why the prominent Indianapolis family bailed out the man Beurt booted from his company years ago:

First and foremost, I want to say how sorry my father and I are for those who have lost their savings, investments and jobs as a result of the failure of Fair Finance.


Tim and I have long been divorced, but as the father of our twenty- year-old son, he will always be part of our family. My father and I have not paid one million dollars for bail. We signed a surety bond for that amount as part of an agreement between Tim and the U.S. District Attorney's office.

As I understand it, the purpose of bail is to assure Tim's attendance in court. We agreed to these terms because we are confident that Tim will continue to cooperate with the federal authorities and abide by the conditions of his release from detention.

Joan SerVaas is the CEO of Curtis Publishing, which publishes the nation's oldest magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. Beurt, in addition to being the first and longest serving President of the Indianapolis City-County Council, is the CEO of SerVaas, Inc., which owns a number of companies around the world. SerVaas was a high-ranking officer in the nation's first spy agency, the OSS, and has long been rumored to have CIA ties. Among the companies SerVaas has owned in the past include International Investigators, Inc., a private investigation firm based in Indianapolis that boasts of employing former FBI and CIA agents. The firm's role in corruption within the Indianapolis Police Department under former Mayor Richard Lugar is discussed at length in Pulitzer Prize-winning former Star reporter Dick Cady's recently-released book, Deadline: Indianapolis. Cady suggest surveillance equipment purchased by IPD with federal funds wound up in the hands of private investigators of the firm who allegedly illegally wire-tapped various politicians. Some believe SerVaas was responsible for landing Indiana's Dan Quayle, at the time a relatively obscure member of the U.S. Senate, the Vice-Presidential spot on the ticket of former President George H.W. Bush, a former CIA Director whose family was instrumental in establishing the nation's intelligence apparatus.