Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Taxpayers Lose Regardless Of Who Becomes Indianapolis' Next Mayor

Joe Hogsett may be running TV commercial where he claims he's going to put a stop to the downtown insiders cheating the system and stealing our tax dollars as he touts his credentials as a former federal prosecutor, but it's all just a bunch of baloney. He's more beholden to their interests than his Republican opponent, who only moved to the city a few short years ago and knows nothing about city-county government other than he thinks everything Ballard has done during his two terms in office is all hunky-dory and wouldn't change a thing.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that both candidates are delivering the middle finger to Indianapolis residents who've been cheated and robbed to benefit a French company and the monopoly electric car sharing business which Mayor Ballard broke numerous state and local laws to award to the company. Of course, I already shared with you Hogsett's "I could care less how many laws were broken or how much taxpayers are being defrauded" attitude about the deal. Here's what Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had to say to WTHR's Mary Milz about Blue Indy:
Brewer: "I think you're going to see BlueIndy take off. We've got some time before the numbers really start coming in, but it's exciting that a billion-dollar company wants to make that kind of investment in Indianapolis. There could have been some...it could have been handled better from, you know, a communications standpoint, you know, inside local city government, but at the end of the day, I think we all agree that initiatives like this make our city better." 
Hogsett: "How this contract was reached and who said what to whom and who got to check this or that, I'm not the mayor and I'm not on the council and I'm not really qualified to opine, but certainly, the BlueIndy's technology of making our environment cleaner and greener, along with the other initiatives Mayor Ballard has engaged in, 'Rails to Trails' included, I think he should be commended for."
I believe I've related this story before but it bares repeating. After Hogsett served as campaign manager for Evan Bayh's first gubernatorial campaign, Bayh rewarded him by appointing him Secretary of State. There was a big securities fraud case involving Ski World, the infamous failed ski resort in Brown County that was supported by a bunch of political types and which had been represented by Ed Lewis, a politically-connected attorney with close ties to the Bayh family. Lewis had allegedly facilitated the payment of a bribe to win a liquor license for Ski World, in addition to signing off on a prospectus filled with glaring misrepresentations. The securities division under Bayh had shelved the complaint against Ski World and when the defrauded investor's attorney met with Hogsett soon after he took office and asked him what he planned to do with the case, according to former Indianapolis Star political reporter Dick Cady, Hogsett supposedly replied, "We're not going to do a goddamn thing."

Hogsett will not put a stop to the corrupt manner in which Indianapolis' municipal government business is conducted regardless of what he says while he's out campaigning. He had a chance as federal prosecutor to do something about it, and he was more interested in leveraging the power of the office to forge a deal with the downtown power brokers to push Ballard out of office and allow himself to become Indianapolis' next mayor. That's the only rational explanation one can attribute to the massive public corruption evidence presented to the federal prosecutor's office during his tenure that got swept under the rug the same way it's been done for decades under the political hacks who occupied that office in the past. Look at his campaign contributors and try to tell me he's not already beholden to the same corrupt masters who've been pulling Ballard's strings since the day he took office. It's very depressing for Indianapolis voters, who have virtually no choice in candidates for mayor or council in this year's municipal election. If you choose not to participate in this year's election, I won't fault you. It won't make a damn bit of difference in how this city is governed.

At a neighborhood meeting last night, both Council Zach Adamson, the incumbent Democrtic council member for my district, and his Republican opponent, Sally Spiers, expressed their disappointment and opposition to the manner in which the Ballard administration carried out the Blue Indy deal. Adamson told our neighborhood meeting that he had spoken to Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry about the possibility of a criminal investigation. To his disappointment, Curry claims there is no criminal matter to investigate. Curry obviously wouldn't know public corruption if it jumped up and bit him in the ass. Who would have thought we would be getting a prosecutor as useless as Carl Brizzi was when it came to prosecuting public corruption? Remember how Curry promised to open up a hotline for whistle blowers to aid in prosecuting public corruption when he was running for prosecutor? Why is that people who report public corruption to his hotline become the targets of retaliatory acts while nothing is done to prosecute the public corruption they report?

8 comments:

Pete Boggs said...

Setting aside perception from reality for a moment; when was the last time taxpayers "won?"

Anonymous said...

Adamson is full of it he is nothing more than a hack.

Flogger said...

If there is a low turn out in this years election it would not surprise me. People who have followed the goings on in Marion County either in Advance Indiana or other blogs must realize we are governed by the Republicrat Party. What I would call the automaton voters will go out and vote the straight party ticket. Hogshitt or Brewer will not make a difference to the people of Marion County, it will make a difference only to the parasites who live off the government.

Anonymous said...

When it comes to the illegal Blue Indy rental car business and all the other illegal Greg Ballard scams Maggie Lewis' City County Council allows to survive, to say one "likes the concept" but "does not like the way it was implemented" is pure double speak as far as we citizens are concerned. When we the people hear BS like that, we know that is no serious, sincere desire to stop illegal deals or lawless politicians in this town.

And as far as going to Curry, another useless politician IMHO, all that tells me is the politicians are using Curry as a fall guy... in effect, "well, I went to someone else and they won't do anything. Waaah, waaah, wahhhh"

The actual truth is that Democrat Maggie Lewis' City County Council made more than one illegal deal legal. And no amount of double speak will ever change that fact.

Period. End of paragraph. End of excuses.

Gary R. Welsh said...

One of the points Adamson made is that the power grab bill Ballard got through the legislature a couple of years ago gave him a line item veto, among other things, which he has used to veto appropriations to allow the council to pay their own attorneys to fight some of these matters in court. It takes Republican votes to override a veto. There's only been one to date and that was over the additional funding for police.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:00 here, Gary, and I thank you for your 9:15 remark. I know Zach has to be frustrated at the very real anger and disgust we the people have for all Councilors and for the blatantly corrupt Greg Ballard in the light of illegalities galore in Vision Fleet and Ballard's Blue Indy rental car business he forced us taxpayers to finance. Ballard has made people like Zach and Christine the shock absorbers for our anger-

Councilors like Adamson and Scales are getting the heat; I can only imagine the pressures of trying to do something, anything, when the RINO establishment Republicans on the Council eagerly allow our poor excuse for a mayor do what he wants, when he wants, any way he wants.

And I am aware that this real piece of work we have as a mayor has used every devious political trick including running to the Legislature. And, of course, the biggest Legislature political prostitute whose initials are Brian Bosma does whatever he is told to get through for the corrupt RINO GOP structure.

Josh said...

"Brewer: "I think you're going to see BlueIndy take off. We've got some time before the numbers really start coming in, but it's exciting that a billion-dollar company wants to make that kind of investment in Indianapolis."

I thought Indy taxpayers were the ones doing the investing here? What has the company invested?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for writing about this, Gary. Is there anything average Joe citizens like me can do? I'm so sick of the nonsense and it's obvious to anyone paying attention no matter who wins election in November, we all lose.