Indianapolis is My Home

03
Jan

Bad Timing on Indianapolis Headlines

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Areas, Elected Officials, Government, News, People, Politics

Trying to catch up on local news stories and working through my Bloglines reader and saw that the following two stories were right next to each other. I thought that was pretty ironic don’t you think?

• Ballard says crime will be top priority
• Indy police sergeant faces DUI charge

You may want to start looking around the offices there first for things to clean-up.

28
Dec

New Mayor Elect - Greg Ballard Announces Team

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Elected Officials, Government, News, People, Politics

The upcoming replacement for Mayor Bart Peterson is Greg Ballard. Ballard won an election on a fraction of the financial backing that Peterson had in his campaign. The win was attributed to face-to-face campaigning by hitting the streets and neighborhoods.

I don’t have much loyalty for Peterson per se, but with all the complaints, I thought he’s done a tremendous job of improving our city during his tenure as mayor since his initial election in 1999.

I’m hoping Ballard will do a fine job, but I think Bart Peterson was voted out of office more than Ballard was voted in. Ballard announced his administrative team, which includes the individuals listed below:

• Olgen Williams, deputy mayor for neighborhoods
• Paul Okeson, chief of staff
• Chris Cotterill, corporation counsel
• Carolin Requiz Smith, director of Latino affairs
• John Cochran, special counsel to the mayor
• Greg Wilson, director of minority business development
• Marcus Barlow, press secretary

I’m looking forward to a new year and seeing just how things work out for the city. I think there are good years to come with big projects in the works and new developments from a commercial standpoint.

Team List Source: IBJ Daily
Photo: Ballard for Mayor website

18
Dec

Indiana Representative Julia Carson Passes Away

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Elected Officials, Government, News, Politics

Long-time Indiana Congress woman Julia Carson lost her battle with cancer this past weekend. She had been ill for quite some time and had been missing quite a bit of her duties and responsibilities due to her health issues.

The Washington, D.C. office and the district offices of the Honorable Julia Carson will continue to serve the people of the 7th Congressional District of Indiana under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Representative Carson died on December 15, 2007. The vacancy became effective December 16, 2007.

Carson has been a representative since 1997 when she was elected as the first woman and African-American that has ever been elected to represent the Indiana 7th District.

Our condolences to the Carson family.

Sources:

• House of Representatives - Office of the Clerk
• Julia Carson on Wikipedia

12
Dec

I Need Me a Township Board Position

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Elected Officials, Government, Politics, South Side

I’ve gotten quite a bit more involved in my local community over the past year or so and have become friends with a great group of individuals who are themselves active. One of the people I’ve met wrote an interesting letter to the editor into a local, south side newspaper. The topic involves a local township government board who barely works yet receives a king’s ransom in benefits for the time invested. How’s $4,000/yr and full health benefits for your entire family for $50/mnth sound?

Below is the text of their letter to the editor:

I attended the Perry Township Advisory Board meeting on 11/13, and I was appalled at the behavior of some board members. Evelyn Sayers and Marvin Hawkins seem very unwilling to listen to advice or to allow conversation regarding a merger between PTFD and IFD. Mayor Peterson and Mayor-Elect Ballard both support merging township fire departments with IFD to save money and better protect the citizens. Perry firefighters and Trustee Coons also want to move ahead with merger talks, as do two board members, Decker and Kirchhoffer. One might wonder why other board members stand in opposition, until the underlying facts are examined.

A merger would all but eliminate the need for township government. Each of the 7 members of this board, who meet for less than 24 hours for an entire year, is paid almost $4000 apiece for their service. More shocking is the fact that each board member is eligible for full family health care at a cost of only $50 per month..for the whole family! The remaining cost of this insurance is carried by the taxpayers of Perry Township. Now you know why this board does not allow constituents the right to speak and is unwilling to listen to talks of merger. They have a sweet deal at the taxpayer’s expense, and they want to hang onto it.

Evelyn Sayers indicated that she was concerned about a fellow board member who is self employed, has several children and cannot afford insurance on his own. President Marvin Hawkins indicated that he will be financially hurt by losing the insurance coverage. Welcome to the real world folks! Many of us are self employed. Many of us feel the pinch of high insurance premiums. Employers often provide health care to their full-time employees at a reasonable cost, and when family members are added, the costs skyrocket. Why should the members of this board be allowed any insurance at all on the taxpayer’s dime? Perry Township Advisory Board members work less than one full work week for the entire year! This board needs to immediately vote themselves into an ineligible class and stop this wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars!

Okay, I’ve got to get me one of those jobs. If you know of any openings like this, just look for my resume on Monster, HotJobs, CareerBuilder or IndianapolisHelpWanted.

25
Nov

Me and Some Politicians Take In A Pacers Game

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Celebrities, Conseco Fieldhouse, Elected Officials, Government, Indiana Pacers, Indy Pro Athletes, People, Politics

A friend of mine (thank you Aaron!) called me on Saturday to see if I were interested in going to an Indiana Pacer’s game. He had tickets and wasn’t able to go. He said they were really good tickets and I figured it would be a good early birthday gift for my son.

I have been an anti-Pacer’s fan ever since there continued run ins with the law and less than common sense decision making.

I’ve got to say I’m pleased with their performance. They played the Dallas Mavericks and came out with a win. In the meantime, ending the Mav’s 5-game winning streak as well. I’ve got to say it’s a whole new team as well, at least from my memory. The vast majority of the players are new to me, the only names I really recognized as being around for awhile were: Tinsley, O’Neal (didn’t play) and Jeff Foster.

I’m not ready to go buy season tickets yet, but I’m pleased to say that my earlier opinion of the Pacers may be melting a bit. They looked good at the game and played well as a team. Hopefully Coach O’Brien will be just what the doctor ordered and get some discipline and restraint for our team and players.

The only person not showing some restraint at the game was Mav’s coach, Avery Johnson. He slightly disagreed with the Ref Salvatore on a call. He actually went after him, chased him down the floor to give him some more suggestions on how he should call the game. That got him ejected. Buh-bye.

There were also a number of big names in attendance, continue reading to see the photos of the people in attendance.

Read the rest of this entry »

25
Oct

Indianapolis Wooing USA Basketball for New Headquarters Home

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Elected Officials, Government, Indiana Pacers, Indy Pro Athletes, News, Sports

Indianapolis continues to build on it’s premiere status as a central location for a variety of sports and sports related companies.

A press release issued by USA Basketball today announces that they have requested RFP’s from any city interested in becoming the new headquarters for their executive offices and training facilities from Colorado Springs.

The relocation process reflects the desire of USA Basketball to consolidate its executive and training operations into a single, state-of-the-art location. Currently, USA Basketball’s executive offices are headquartered in Colorado Springs, and it trains its teams at the United States Olympic Committee’s training center, also in Colorado Springs, and various other venues around the United States.

To date, more than 20 cities have expressed interest in participating in the process and have received USA Basketball’s RFP. In concert with its host community, USA Basketball is seeking to establish a focal point for excellence in the sport of basketball and the values the organization prizes in its players and teams: leadership, teamwork, sportsmanship and a sense of national pride. USA Basketball will promote its presence in the host community on a year-round basis by staging a wide variety of signature competitions and festivals, exhibition games, instructional programs, clinics, skills camps and community outreach programs.

The story in IBJ states that Indiana Sports Corp informed the IBJ that Indianapolis city officials are interested in pursuing this opportunity to compete for the headquarters of USA Basketball.

City officials said having the locally-based NCAA and National Federation of State High School Associations-both key USA Basketball members-and the Indiana Pacers makes Indianapolis an ideal home for the headquarters.

If I were Indianapolis, I don’t know if I’d make too many mentions of the Pacer’s right now, it might do more damage than good. I did hear an interesting proposal earlier this week about the Pacer’s organization though. I wonder how things would turn around if Bill Polian and Tony Dungy took over for a couple of seasons.

28
Sep

Julia Carson Missing 13% of Congress Votes this Year

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Elected Officials, Government, Health

Indiana Representative Julia Carson has been absent from her role as a member of Congress over the past few days. She has missed 71% of the votes cast from the floor since Labor Day.

It appears the cause is for health reasons, but even when she’s there it doesn’t appear she’s been physically capable of performing her duties as she’s been elected to do so.

A Capitol Hill newspaper reported Thursday that Carson, who has been using a wheelchair to get around the Capitol, has had aides and colleagues insert her voting card into the voting machines on her behalf when she has been present and voting.

Sistek said she sometimes asked for assistance with her voting card.

“Ordinarily, what she asks for is help getting it out of the card holder. But on a particularly bad day, she might ask somebody to put it in the machine and then she’ll push the button,” Sistek said. “It’s her vote, she’s casting the vote. She’s asking for assistance to place the card.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Org., one of the lawmakers who has assisted Carson, said he was trying to be a gentlemen last week after seeing Carson in her wheel chair at the bottom of a series of stairs leading up to the voting machine.

“It was clear she was going to have difficulty getting out of her chair and up the stairs to vote in time,” DeFazio said in a statement.

He said he saw her vote card in her hand, offered to insert it for her, and asked how she wanted to vote.

“She answered with a lucid `yes,’” DeFazio said. “I took the card and within her full view, I inserted and voted ‘yes’ on her behalf and took the card back to her and confirmed the `yes’ vote.”

Doesn’t appear that anyone knows the reason of her absence currently, only that she requested an absence and was granted that request. Her ability to do her job reliably doesn’t look like it’s going to impact her desire to run again in the next election though.

It reminds me of a post I wrote last year about Rep. Carson’s abilities as an elected representative. To see how she’s voted on a variety of key votes you can see all those details at Congress.org.

Source: Rep. Carson absent without explanation