“Everybody knows.”
It’s Mayor Greg Ballard’s favorite phrase; his security blanket of ineffectual explanation whenever his policies or actions are questioned.
When people in the neighborhoods dared to question him at one of his Mayor’s Night Out’s, he answered “Everybody knows.”
TV reporters with the temerity to question him, or when TV reporters collar him in the streets, Mayor Ballard cries out “Everybody knows.”
Even in the few interviews he did with me, his fall back phrase was always, “Everybody knows.”
Mayor Ballard’s crutch phrase was on full display last Sunday morning in the most disingenuous display of his arrogance in an appearance on RTV 6’s “Indianapolis This Week.”
Rafael Sanchez talked with the mayor on the electric car scandal and the failure of the Justice Center plan. The usually-tough Sanchez let the mayor have his say, virtually unchallenged, during the interview.
Maybe that’s because what Mayor Ballard had to say made no sense.
The mayor blamed politics, Democratic councilors seeking re-election, everyone but he and his administration for the debacles.
I know the mayoral ego was slammed by the 23-6 City-County Council vote to sue the city over the improprieties in the Vision Fleet electric car deal. All the Council Democrats voted to sue, but something the mayor conveniently forgot in his Channel 6 interview was that a majority (8 of 14) of Republicans on the Council also voted to sue.
Here’s the facts the mayor ignored and my friend Rafael didn’t bring up.
As this column reported four weeks ago, Executive Order 6-2012 issued by Mayor Ballard on December 12, 2012, decreed that in converting the city’s fleet to electric or hybrid cars, it would be city policy to buy or lease such cars with the process run through the city’s procurement procedures.
Ballard’s Executive Order also stated clearly that the specific vehicle needs of public safety (police and fire) would be taken into consideration in the push to electrify the city’s vehicles.
According to WXIN/Fox 59 and WTTV/CBS-4, in mid-2013, the mayor signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vision Fleet to supply the cars. A contract was signed in February 2014 to lease the cars from Vision Fleet, but the deal was structured to avoid City-County Council scrutiny and the city’s procurement procedures.
But, using the word “lease” in the contract posed problems for Ballard’s Boyz, so it was changed to a management services agreement in June 2014.
Early this year, the contract changes were publicly revealed. That’s when the public and media learned it wasn’t a lease deal, but a “managed services contract,” which avoided the city’s own procurement rules.
When Councilors and media learned of the deception, Ballard’s Boyz twisted into pretzels trying to explain their sneakiness.
Then came the bombshell that some $300,000 had been paid to Vision Fleet from restricted funds from the city’s Storm Water tax. Major no-no under city and state rules.
Of course, Mayor Ballard mentions none of these verified facts.
I understand Mayor Ballard’s hurt and upset now that his crowning political achievement, having Indianapolis become the first major city to turn its vehicle fleet all electric or hybrid, is crumbling before his very eyes.
But you must admit, it’s puzzling that since he announced his Freedom Fleet proposal, no other major city’s trying to emulate it and automakers that produce electric and hybrids vehicles haven’t come with offers.
Oddly, while Mayor Ballard’s traveled the country talking up his Freedom Fleet scheme, he hasn’t sold the concept here at home.
Because of Mayor Ballard’s pathological disdain and dislike of Indy’s Black media, the Ballard Administration made no effort to explain the Freedom Fleet concept to our African-American community.
When Mayor Ballard says, “Everybody knows,” he doesn’t mean Blacks because in my view, he’s made little to no effort to coherently communicate with our Black community for several years.
The mayor has a point that politics is in play, but not partisan politics. Rather the politics of payback for the years Ballard ignored council members of both parties.
The mayor and his minions would only deal with Council leaders – never with individual council members about their district’s issues.
Republicans turned on the mayor’s electric car deal because he went against his administration’s own policy and forced police to use electric cars not designed for police work.
Also, Mayor Ballard told Channel 6 Sunday that “Everybody knows” why we need a new Justice Center.
Well, mayor, we don’t.
From the start, this Justice Center deal was shrouded in secrecy and controversy. The initial location was right on the Hendricks County border of the Indianapolis International Airport. Key stakeholders like the county prosecutor, clerk, judges, defense attorneys, bail bonds folks, even the County’s Building Authority, were left out of the planning process.
In Sunday’s interview, Ballard whined that he’s the “Chief Executive” of the city. But in the Justice Center deal he didn’t act like one. He never engaged with other county elected officials and stakeholders or citizens.
He never explained exactly why taxpayers needed to spend $1.5 billion over 30 years for a new courthouses and jail.
The Ballard Administration royally screwed up these deals. Now that’s something “Everybody knows!”
See ‘ya next week!
You can email Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
