Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Back To The Future Day
The media is abuzz with stories reminding us that October 21, 2015 was the day Michael J. Fox's character, Marty McFly, in the Hollywood movie, "Back To The Future 2," travelled to in 1989 to save his children. What predictions did the movie get right about the future? Well, as this YouTube video explains, some believe the "Back To the Future" movie trilogies actually predicted the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Coincidentally, the latest film of director Robert Zemeckis, who directed the "Back To The Future" trilogy, "The Walk," opened this month, and it depicts the 1974 high-wire act of Phillipe Petit between the two World Trade Center towers. Petit, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is dressed remarkably similar to Marty McFly's character in "Back To The Future" as he performs his high-wire act.
With No Re-Election Worries, Carmel Mayor, Council Raises Taxes, Hike Salaries
Chicago is doing it. Why shouldn't Carmel? Carmel voters faced with no realistic chance of defeating its mayor and council candidates effectively re-elected in this year's primary in the one-party city learn their taxes are going up and salaries for key officials are being hiked. A $200,000 home will be hit with an average $60 increase under a property tax increase approved by the council and mayor as part of next year's budget. Mayor Jim Brainard, the city's clerk-treasurer and council members will each receive 3% pay raises.
The council's city attorney, who walked off the job just weeks ago after learning he would have to attend a council meeting instead of getting time off from work to help his daughter move into college, is getting a whopping raise from $121,429 to $145,917. So Brainard not only allowed the insubordinate employee to come back to work after he quit in a huff, he gets a $24,000 pay raise to boot. He must have some real good dirt on the mayor. Brainard's spokesperson, Nancy Heck, will also get a big pay bump. Her salary is being increased from $105,105 to $116,619. Heck will also get to hire a new project manager to work under her who will make $71,500 a year.
UPDATE: Ditto the City of Fishers. Property tax rates are going up, and there will be across-the-board pay raises for city employees. The mayor's $125,000 a year salary will remain unchanged.
The council's city attorney, who walked off the job just weeks ago after learning he would have to attend a council meeting instead of getting time off from work to help his daughter move into college, is getting a whopping raise from $121,429 to $145,917. So Brainard not only allowed the insubordinate employee to come back to work after he quit in a huff, he gets a $24,000 pay raise to boot. He must have some real good dirt on the mayor. Brainard's spokesperson, Nancy Heck, will also get a big pay bump. Her salary is being increased from $105,105 to $116,619. Heck will also get to hire a new project manager to work under her who will make $71,500 a year.
UPDATE: Ditto the City of Fishers. Property tax rates are going up, and there will be across-the-board pay raises for city employees. The mayor's $125,000 a year salary will remain unchanged.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Evansville Council Candidate Admits Having Sex With Male Student Decades Ago
DROPS CANDIDACY FOLLOWING DISCLOSURE
A Republican at-large candidate for the Evansville City Council, Jack Schriber, admits he engaged in sexual relations with a male student decades ago when he was an English teacher at Evansville's Central High School. Schriber, now 70 and retired from his former teaching job, tells the Evansville Courier & Press the relationship with the student was consensual. The former male student told a different story to Evansville police. He says Schriber coerced him into a nonconsensual sexual relationship when he was between the ages of 15 and 17.
The victim told police he met Schriber through his activities in the music and theater departments during middle school and high school. The victim came forward with the decades' old allegations in July after he learned Schriber was running for city council. The victim told police that Schriber never threatened or forced him to have sex with him, but he felt he would suffer penalties to his academic and school activities if he didn't continue the relationship with Schriber.
Police released a letter Schriber had recently written to the victim, who is now married with children, in which he accepted responsibility for blurring the lines between teacher and student. Schriber asked his former student to accept his apology for his actions. Schriber blamed his inappropriate relationship with a student on mental health issues he had following his service in the Vietnam War and public prejudices against same-sex attractions. "[I]t was shameful, and you didn't want people to know." Schriber admitted to police he had engaged in sexual relations with students other than this one victim. Schriber said he stopped having sex with students about 20 years ago after he went into therapy to treat his mental health issues. The Courier & Press offered more details of the police investigation:
 |
| Jack Schriber |
The victim told police he met Schriber through his activities in the music and theater departments during middle school and high school. The victim came forward with the decades' old allegations in July after he learned Schriber was running for city council. The victim told police that Schriber never threatened or forced him to have sex with him, but he felt he would suffer penalties to his academic and school activities if he didn't continue the relationship with Schriber.
Police released a letter Schriber had recently written to the victim, who is now married with children, in which he accepted responsibility for blurring the lines between teacher and student. Schriber asked his former student to accept his apology for his actions. Schriber blamed his inappropriate relationship with a student on mental health issues he had following his service in the Vietnam War and public prejudices against same-sex attractions. "[I]t was shameful, and you didn't want people to know." Schriber admitted to police he had engaged in sexual relations with students other than this one victim. Schriber said he stopped having sex with students about 20 years ago after he went into therapy to treat his mental health issues. The Courier & Press offered more details of the police investigation:
"Schriber began to tell me that he had a lot of students over at his home at that time because times were different," Turpin reported. "I asked why he thought this happened and Schriber told me that he thought this had occurred due to a lot of confusion he had. I asked what the confusion was about, and he said he had gone into training to be a Green Beret and was shot during the Vietnam War. I asked where it was and he said a bullet grazed his leg. He said he didn't know if he had killed people over there because so much had been blocked out.
"Schriber said that he also was confused because at that time there was no support for the (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community like there is now."
In his report, Turpin said Schriber compared it to being a pregnant teenager at the time, and that Schriber said, "...it was shameful and you didn't want people to know."
"I asked Schriber how long this had gone on with students and he said it stopped years ago," Turpin wrote. "I asked what made it stop and he said about 20 years ago he began working at the Evansville Children's Psychiatric Center. Schriber said that he realized he had a problem and that he went into five years of intense therapy."
When Turpin asked Schriber what the therapy was for, Turpin said Schriber replied it was for things he suppressed from Vietnam, having an autistic grandson, and for his sexuality, according to the police report.The Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office closed the file on the investigation of Schriber after it determined the statute of limitations had run on his past crimes. "What they sent to us, we determined it exceeded the statute of limitations," Hermann said. He noted that the statute of limitations is five years. Schriber, who retired from the school in 1970, is currently employed as an adjunct professor of communications at the University of Southern Indiana. Schriber announced hours after news reports aired today that he was abandoning his campaign for an at-large seat on the Evansville City Council. Due to the late date of his withdrawal, Republicans are not able to replace him with another candidate on the ballot for an election where early voting has already commenced.
Fort Wayne Chamber Delivers Middle Finger To Harper's Anti-Crony Capitalism Views
It sure as hell isn't your father's chamber of commerce. The Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, which used to reliably support Republican candidates for local office in Allen County, is giving thumbs down to several good Republican candidates for municipal office this year, including mayoral candidate Mitch Harper. The Fort Wayne chamber endorsed Harper's Democratic opponent, incumbent Mayor Tom Henry, and withheld its support for several other Republican council candidates who share Harper's outspoken opposition to crony capitalism and the local income tax increased pushed through the council this past term by Mayor Tom Henry with the chamber's support.
The News-Sentinel's Kevin Leininger, an excellent newspaper political columnist of the type we're sorely missing here in Indianapolis, notes in a column today the shift in the Fort Wayne Chamber's views.
The Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce is supporting Joe Hogsett for mayor, who also enjoys the endorsement of every major union hall in town. When labor unions unanimously support a candidate backed by the chamber of commerce, something has become a tad eschew. Like the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, the Indy Chemaber withheld support of Republican council candidates like Christine Scales who have been stronger watch dogs for the taxpayers and opposed tax increases backed by the chamber. Unless you rely on a government contract or government subsidies for your business, there is no reason any other business owner would want to throw money away on an organization that is so hostile to the interests of the vast majority of business owners and taxpayers as the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.
The News-Sentinel's Kevin Leininger, an excellent newspaper political columnist of the type we're sorely missing here in Indianapolis, notes in a column today the shift in the Fort Wayne Chamber's views.
. . . Remember when chambers of commerce were considered house organs of the GOP? The endorsements by the Greater Fort Wayne Business PAC, which is "supported" by Greater Fort Wayne Inc. but a separate entity, indicate those times have changed. Not only did the PAC not support Harper, who is City Council's appointment to the GFW Board, it also pointedly did not endorse several other Republican candidates who share his view that, when it comes to economic development, government "shouldn't pick winners and losers."
That sentiment is shared by 1st District Council candidate Paul Ensley and 4th District candidate Jason Arp, neither of whom was endorsed in favor of Mike Conley and Rusty York, respectively. Third District Republican Russ Jehl, who like Harper was skeptical of council's decision to increase the local income tax a couple of years ago, also was not endorsed. Neither was his opponent, Michelle Merritt.
Incumbent Republican John Crawford, R-at large, was endorsed. He is known as a fiscal conservative but also served on Henry's policy committee that recommended the increase in the first place . . .Mitch Harper's reaction to the chamber's support of the tax-and-spend Democratic incumbent mayor is spot-on:
"Greater Fort Wayne) isn't a true chamber of commerce anymore. It's (made up of) those who seek to harness government . . . often for private benefit," Harper told me after he suggested to Rotarians gathered at Parkview Field that government should use its resources to create common wealth -- that is, benefits for all -- and not specific businesses. It's one thing, he said, to provide incentives such as sewer lines and roads, and quite another to provide incentives that, in effect, benefit one taxpayer at the expense of another. Harper currently represents the 4th District on council.Harper's analysis of the Fort Wayne chamber is equally as applicable to the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, which I view as the most anti-business, anti-taxpayer chamber of commerce in the United States. The chamber has supported every tax increase enacted in the past decade. It has supported every publicly-financed sports stadium and enhanced subsidies to the team's billionaire owners. It supported each of the three sales of the Indianapolis Water Company, even though each successive sale compounded the screwing of the utility's ratepayers. It has supported new regulations on businesses. It opposes ethical reforms to clean up government. And it supports an increasingly-powerful municipal executive at the expense of the legislative branch, which it believes should serve nothing more than an advisory role. What it particularly favors are large public subsidies for a select favored group of businesses at the expenses of all other businesses, even if that results in shifting the tax burden to other property taxpayers and business owners.
The Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce is supporting Joe Hogsett for mayor, who also enjoys the endorsement of every major union hall in town. When labor unions unanimously support a candidate backed by the chamber of commerce, something has become a tad eschew. Like the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, the Indy Chemaber withheld support of Republican council candidates like Christine Scales who have been stronger watch dogs for the taxpayers and opposed tax increases backed by the chamber. Unless you rely on a government contract or government subsidies for your business, there is no reason any other business owner would want to throw money away on an organization that is so hostile to the interests of the vast majority of business owners and taxpayers as the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.
Hogsett Has Another TV Ad Attacking The "Downtown Insiders"
Joe Hogsett's nearly $4 million campaign war chest was raised from the downtown insiders he's attacked in his campaign commercials as people "who cheat the system and steal your tax dollars." He started running another ad this week which begins with him sitting atop a downtown building once again attacking the downtown insiders. Unlike the prior ad, this one has not been uploaded to his campaign's YouTube account, probably because he doesn't want this blog to call attention to it like we have in the past.
In not single interview or public forum has a single news reporter bothered to ask Hogsett to discuss whom he believes those downtown insiders are who are cheating the system and stealing our tax dollars and what changes he plans to make to put an end to it. I find that very odd. Don't you?
Here's a "Souls To The Polls" ad his campaign is running on black radio in an attempt to get black voters, who have shown little interest in either candidate's campaign like most of Indianapolis' residents, to go to the polls to vote for him.
In not single interview or public forum has a single news reporter bothered to ask Hogsett to discuss whom he believes those downtown insiders are who are cheating the system and stealing our tax dollars and what changes he plans to make to put an end to it. I find that very odd. Don't you?
Here's a "Souls To The Polls" ad his campaign is running on black radio in an attempt to get black voters, who have shown little interest in either candidate's campaign like most of Indianapolis' residents, to go to the polls to vote for him.
Monday, October 19, 2015
IMPD Officer Cleared In Fatal Crash
An IMPD officer who struck and killed a pedestrian on a busy Southport Road last month will not face criminal charges. Officer Bernardo Zavalza's police cruiser struck 53-year old Ronny Bowling in a dimly-lit intersection on the night of September 24 while Bowling was walking in the middle of the street. WTHR shared this statement from Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry on today's decision:
The death of Mr. Bolwing is a tragedy, and we extend our condolences to his family and loved ones. As with any fatal crash, our office has made a thorough review of all evidence related to the incident and determined that the actions of Officer Bernardo Zavalza do not rise to the level of criminal charges as prescribed by state statutes," Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said in a statement.IMPD Chief Rick Hite is still recommending Zavalza's termination as an officer because the officer violated the department's zero tolerance policy against operating a police vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. A blood/alcohol test administered two hours and 45 minutes after the crash showed an alcohol level of .029, well below the legal limit of 0.08. Officer Zavalza was off-duty at the time of the crash.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Property Tax Assessment On Joe Hogsett's Home Cut 33%!
2013 assessment = $40,100 land + 298,000 improvements = $338,100
2014 assessment = $40,100 land + 298,000 improvements = $338,100
2015 assessment = $40,100 land + 186,600 improvements = $226,700
Hat tip to the observant Advance Indiana reader, UniGov, who picked up on Hogsett's property tax deduction.
UPDATE: I had to share Hogsett's Twitter post tonight showing off his luxury suite view of tonight's Colts-Patriots game while falsely claiming he took on the rule-breakers as federal prosecutor. Au-contraire, Joe. Name one corrupt politician you put in prison, Joe? Lincoln Plowman doesn't count. He was indicted before you became federal prosecutor. And you didn't have anything to do with the prosecution of Ponzi schemer Tim Durham because you had a conflict of interest. You let Carl Brizzi and many others walk. He has also committed to enforcing the Blue Indy and Vision Fleet contracts that Mayor Ballard illegally executed. So much for taking care of rule-breakers, Joe.
As federal prosecutor, I got to take on and defeat rule-breakers. Now it's your turn, Andrew. Go Colts! -- Joe pic.twitter.com/CW9phvHCnV
— Joe Hogsett for Indy (@HogsettForIndy) October 19, 2015
Not that it will come as a surprise, but both Hogsett and his Republican opponent have committed to supporting continued subsidies to the Pacers and the Colts. Why wouldn't he? He's pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the billionaire owners, their lobbyists and attorneys. He also plans to support public subsidies to build a new stadium for the Indy Eleven. He will deny he has already taken a position on the issue, but his campaign manager, a big Indy Eleven fan, knows otherwise. Why do you think Hogsett declined prosecution of the misuse of those federal grant dollars by the Ballard administration that benefited the Indy Eleven's owner?
Saturday, October 17, 2015
Marion County Taxpayers Surprised By Another Backdoor Tax Increase
There isn't a tax or fee Mayor Greg Ballard and our Indianapolis City-County Council haven't seen fit to raise during the past eight years, which is a bit ironic given that Ballard was swept into office in 2007 amidst an anti-tax fervor. As property tax bills began arriving in residents' mailboxes this past week, they realized they were being socked with yet another gigantic tax increase in the form of storm water fees tacked on to their property tax bill. WTHR's Mary Milz says the Marion Co. Treasurer's Office is being swamped with phone calls from angry taxpayers about the surprising tax increase.
Talk about sticker shock. More than a quarter-million homeowners in Marion County have seen a huge jump in storm water fees. According to the Marion County Treasurer's Office, the average hike is 113%. (Just under 37,000 homeowners saw rates drop, an average of 11%.)
That news has flooded the treasurer's office with more than 2,500 calls the last two days and hundreds of walk-ins.
It began after property owners got a second property tax bill this week. Storm water fees are tacked on to the spring bill, but since the new rates didn't take effect until July 1, a second bill was required.
The rate changes were approved by the City-County Council and mayor last fall to help pay for upgrades and improvements to the city's aging storm water system.
Instead of paying a flat $2.25 a month, the new rate is based on the amount of impervious surface a homeowner has.
Last month, Department of Public Works Spokesman Brian Easley told us "impervious surface is anything rain has to run off of. That includes a home, garage, driveway, sidewalk, patio, deck and pool. The more impervious space a homeowner has, the more he or she will pay.
Anthony Hoffman was one of the homeowners who saw his bill spike to $12.10 a month or "six months higher." Seeing how much more he was paying, he half-jokingly said, "wow, I should tear out my driveway."
Officials in the treasurer's office said most of the calls were from people wondering why they were getting a second bill and why their rates had gone up.
"We did advise them last spring that this would be happening, but I don't know if they just did not anticipate that. Our phones are very busy right now," said Cindy Land, stressing, "the treasurer is merely the collector, the treasurer is not who established those rates."In his last few months in office, Ballard has been busy beating the bushes talking to folks his administration has handsomely rewarded with your taxpayer dollars, reminding them they better not forget what he's done for them as he goes in search of his post-mayoral lucre. A prison cell in the Terre Haute federal penitentiary is the only appropriate spot for this man to land after the way he's raped and plundered the City of Indianapolis during his eight years in office.
Star Describes Mayoral "Debate" As Pillow Fight
The Indianapolis Star's John Tuohy had the same reaction I had to last night's only televised debate between Indianapolis' Democratic and Republican mayoral candidates, albeit more politely stated than my description of it on Facebook. It wasn't a debate at all. It was nothing more than a question-and-answer session that lasted just 30 minutes with no opportunity for rebuttal. The forum's host, Jim Shella, lobbed the predictable softball questions one would expect from one of the downtown mafia's go-to political reporters.
The only point of disagreement noted between the two candidates was the controversial privatization of a new criminal justice center proposed by the current administration, which the council rejected after this blog published a series of damning reports on the deal and what it would mean to Indianapolis taxpayers. The Star and the rest of the media in this town beat up on council members for rejecting the deal because they have a problem whenever any public officials block deals intended to defraud taxpayers in order to financially reward a handful of downtown insiders they favor.
Actually, Hogsett had a glaring conflict on that deal as well. His law firm had been hired by the Ballard administration under a $750,000 contract to lobby the council to approve the criminal justice center deal, an amount that pretty much covered the salary and benefits the law firm will have paid Hogsett from the time he left the U.S. Attorney's Office last year and when he takes office as mayor on January 1. Hogsett draws his big six-figure salary free of any billing requirements like other attorneys while he campaigns virtually full-time for mayor. If he had a real opponent instead of a fall-guy opponent like Chuck Brewer, he would have been accused of accepting a bribe from the law firm. The Ballard administration abruptly cancelled the lucrative contract with his law firm after Hogsett announced his opposition to the criminal justice center deal.
Hogsett's good buddy, Evan Bayh, followed the same path during the two-year period he ran for the U.S. Senate after he left the governor's office. He received about $1 million from the Baker & Daniels law firm while he devoted all of his time running for the Senate without any billing requirements. Everyone knows why guys like Hogsett and Bayh are given high-paid jobs at law firms for no work. Their employers know they will be rewarded with no-bid contracts and favored treatment of their clients once they take office. It is bribery by any other name. In Bayh's case, his law firm lobbies Congress. Hogsett's law firm both lobbies city government and has been a reliable recipient of no-bid contracts for legal work. His firm is guaranteed to be sitting in the driver's seat when he becomes mayor.
Watching Hogsett dismiss any problems with the blatantly illegal and criminal contracts the Ballard administration entered into with Blue Indy and Vision Fleet is evidence of a man who is too bribed up to represent the public's interest, not of the tough prosecutor he falsely portrays himself as in his bid for mayor. During his time as U.S. Attorney, he covered up rather than prosecute major public corruption events occurring on his watch. Those who benefited from his failure to prosecute public corruption are lavishing campaign contributions on his mayoral campaign, which is out-raising and out-spending Brewer's campaign by a 4-1 margin.
Those disgusted by Hogsett's self-dealing ways have little choice in Brewer. The guy only moved to Indianapolis about four years ago to open up a fast food restaurant. He has no family here, and he has no prior association with the Republican Party. I've yet to be able to discern a single Republican view he holds. He's in the military reserves where he is subject to be called up for active duty service on a moment's notice that could force him to abandon the mayor's office for months at a time.
The story goes that Marion Co. GOP Chairman Kyle Walker stumbled onto Brewer while dining at his Potbelly sandwich shop on the Circle. Brewer started providing free meals to Walker and other party workers when they came into his sandwich shop. This led to Walker asking him about his interest in running for the City-County Council. There was only one problem. Brewer lived in a downtown condo far from the south side council district where Walker wanted him to run. Brewer missed on the first attempt to find an apartment address in the south side district before finding another apartment in a complex owned by the politically-connected J.C. Hart within the district. Called out by this blog for voting somewhere he didn't live, Brewer had no choice but to sell his lovely downtown condo and live in an apartment he had no desire to live.
When Walker failed to find a candidate willing to run for mayor, Brewer stepped up and ran. The guy had never even attended a single city council meeting at the time, let alone have any knowledge of our City-County government. But the decision would financially benefit Walker, whose wife, Jennifer Hallowell, is getting paid $10,000 a month by Brewer's campaign to run a lousy, uninspiring campaign, even if the Republican Party and the city's residents were denied a legitimate candidate for mayor of the state's largest city.
If you choose not vote in this year's municipal election as a form of protest, it is totally understandable. It's not like your vote is going to make any difference. The same handful of downtown insiders will continue operating their organized crime syndicate and defrauding us out of our precious tax dollars while neighborhoods across the city crumble and fall further in decline as downtown continues to thrive and prosper from the disproportionate investment of billions of our tax dollars within the mile square. Your taxes will continue to go up as you get fewer services in return. It's why so many have thrown in the towel and moved to the suburbs where taxes are lower, schools and services are better and crime is lower.
It wasn't a verbal donnybrook, like some of the Republican presidential debates, or a back-alley knife fight or a prizefight.
Instead, viewers of the first Indianapolis mayoral debate watched a political pillow fight.
Democrat Joe Hogsett and Republican Chuck Brewer scarcely laid a glove on each other in a half-hour debate Friday evening. They agreed on the need for better mass transit and more police. Neither wanted to short-circuit the city's electric car-share program or throw away the city's single-source recycling plan.
The general agreement on almost all issues followed the mold of most of the community forums in which the two have participated during this campaign. Except here, the time was more compressed and the questions from moderator Jim Shella of WISH-8 came rapid-fire, with limited time to answer and no chance of rebuttal.
The closest the two came to friction was on the plan for a new criminal justice center proposed by Republican Mayor Greg Ballard that was scrapped when Democrats on the Indianapolis City-County Council objected to the cost. Brewer blamed Hogsett for helping to kill it by publicly coming out against the proposal after contracts were awarded and it neared final approval..
"It was stopped at the 1-yard line because of politics," Brewer said . . .
Both candidates said they thought a controversial electric car sharing program, BlueIndy, was worth preserving because of the long-term benefits to the environment and its contribution as an alternative mode of transportation.
"I would inherit it and honor the contract and make it work," Hogsett said, adding that there should have been more "transparency" by the Ballard administration on how many city resources would be needed to roll out the program. "My obligation (as mayor) would be to make sure it works."
Brewer said BlueIndy would be a good program in the long run.
"The bottom line is the city has already entered the contract, and to get out of it would require a lot of skin in the game," Brewer said.Tuohy neglected to mention the only newsworthy item that came out of last night's forum when Hogsett said he couldn't comment on the City's controversial, one-sided recycling contract with Covanta because his law firm, Bose McKinney, represented the recycler in a deal that benefits only the private contractor as with virtually every privatization scheme this corrupt administration has concocted the past eight years. The Ballard administration, which in typical form entered into the contract without any competitive bidding process, sold its value based on a similar recycling plant in Montgomery, Alabama that abruptly shut down earlier this month because of changes in commodity prices for recycled goods.
The only point of disagreement noted between the two candidates was the controversial privatization of a new criminal justice center proposed by the current administration, which the council rejected after this blog published a series of damning reports on the deal and what it would mean to Indianapolis taxpayers. The Star and the rest of the media in this town beat up on council members for rejecting the deal because they have a problem whenever any public officials block deals intended to defraud taxpayers in order to financially reward a handful of downtown insiders they favor.
Actually, Hogsett had a glaring conflict on that deal as well. His law firm had been hired by the Ballard administration under a $750,000 contract to lobby the council to approve the criminal justice center deal, an amount that pretty much covered the salary and benefits the law firm will have paid Hogsett from the time he left the U.S. Attorney's Office last year and when he takes office as mayor on January 1. Hogsett draws his big six-figure salary free of any billing requirements like other attorneys while he campaigns virtually full-time for mayor. If he had a real opponent instead of a fall-guy opponent like Chuck Brewer, he would have been accused of accepting a bribe from the law firm. The Ballard administration abruptly cancelled the lucrative contract with his law firm after Hogsett announced his opposition to the criminal justice center deal.
Hogsett's good buddy, Evan Bayh, followed the same path during the two-year period he ran for the U.S. Senate after he left the governor's office. He received about $1 million from the Baker & Daniels law firm while he devoted all of his time running for the Senate without any billing requirements. Everyone knows why guys like Hogsett and Bayh are given high-paid jobs at law firms for no work. Their employers know they will be rewarded with no-bid contracts and favored treatment of their clients once they take office. It is bribery by any other name. In Bayh's case, his law firm lobbies Congress. Hogsett's law firm both lobbies city government and has been a reliable recipient of no-bid contracts for legal work. His firm is guaranteed to be sitting in the driver's seat when he becomes mayor.
Watching Hogsett dismiss any problems with the blatantly illegal and criminal contracts the Ballard administration entered into with Blue Indy and Vision Fleet is evidence of a man who is too bribed up to represent the public's interest, not of the tough prosecutor he falsely portrays himself as in his bid for mayor. During his time as U.S. Attorney, he covered up rather than prosecute major public corruption events occurring on his watch. Those who benefited from his failure to prosecute public corruption are lavishing campaign contributions on his mayoral campaign, which is out-raising and out-spending Brewer's campaign by a 4-1 margin.
Those disgusted by Hogsett's self-dealing ways have little choice in Brewer. The guy only moved to Indianapolis about four years ago to open up a fast food restaurant. He has no family here, and he has no prior association with the Republican Party. I've yet to be able to discern a single Republican view he holds. He's in the military reserves where he is subject to be called up for active duty service on a moment's notice that could force him to abandon the mayor's office for months at a time.
The story goes that Marion Co. GOP Chairman Kyle Walker stumbled onto Brewer while dining at his Potbelly sandwich shop on the Circle. Brewer started providing free meals to Walker and other party workers when they came into his sandwich shop. This led to Walker asking him about his interest in running for the City-County Council. There was only one problem. Brewer lived in a downtown condo far from the south side council district where Walker wanted him to run. Brewer missed on the first attempt to find an apartment address in the south side district before finding another apartment in a complex owned by the politically-connected J.C. Hart within the district. Called out by this blog for voting somewhere he didn't live, Brewer had no choice but to sell his lovely downtown condo and live in an apartment he had no desire to live.
When Walker failed to find a candidate willing to run for mayor, Brewer stepped up and ran. The guy had never even attended a single city council meeting at the time, let alone have any knowledge of our City-County government. But the decision would financially benefit Walker, whose wife, Jennifer Hallowell, is getting paid $10,000 a month by Brewer's campaign to run a lousy, uninspiring campaign, even if the Republican Party and the city's residents were denied a legitimate candidate for mayor of the state's largest city.
If you choose not vote in this year's municipal election as a form of protest, it is totally understandable. It's not like your vote is going to make any difference. The same handful of downtown insiders will continue operating their organized crime syndicate and defrauding us out of our precious tax dollars while neighborhoods across the city crumble and fall further in decline as downtown continues to thrive and prosper from the disproportionate investment of billions of our tax dollars within the mile square. Your taxes will continue to go up as you get fewer services in return. It's why so many have thrown in the towel and moved to the suburbs where taxes are lower, schools and services are better and crime is lower.
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