Monday, December 12, 2005

Keller To Provide Needed Vote For Police Merger

Republican Indianapolis city-county councilor Scott Keller will provide the 15th vote Mayor Peterson needs to pass the law enforcement merger ordinance. The measure was voted down just weeks ago when Democratic Councilor Sherron Franklin, an IPD police officer, voted against the merger along with all 14 Republican council members.

Keller told the Star, “I have always been for the concept of consolidation . . . I always felt it would be more efficient and effective to have one police force rather than two . . . Proposal 627 has been refined and that’s a good thing.”

Keller is one of the lead sponsors for Proposal 622, the pending Human Rights Ordinance (HRO). Council President Steve Talley, who re-introduced the police merger ordinance at tonight’s council meeting, announced last week that he would change his position and support the HRO now pending in the Rules & Public Policy Committee of which he is a member. His support secures passage for the HRO out of committee.

The HRO is still two votes short of the 15 needed for passage by the full council, although at least two council members who voted against it last time are leaning in favor of it now. Anything can happen. As they say, politics makes for strange bedfellows.

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