Greg Ballard was inexperienced when he chose his first Public Safety Director, Scott Newman, the former Marion County prosecutor. Newman was a brilliant choice though foisted upon Ballard by the shadowy cabal of Ballard advisors who really run Indianapolis right now.
When Newman resigned two years later for health reasons, Ballard was enamored by the impressive resume of Dr. Frank Straub, while ignoring the turmoil Straub had created in White Plains where the City Council was about to vote “no confidence.” (Sound familiar).
Last week it leaked out that the committee advising Mayor Ballard on Straub’s replacement had come up with four finalists. The committee, whose only Black representatives are Ballard loyalists, met with them last week at a near Westside Black church.
The inside finalists are: Indianapolis Fire Chief Brian Sanford and head of the Homeland Security Division Gary Coons. The outside finalists are: Todd Keil, a former assistant secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama administration; and the assistant city manager of Corpus Christi, Texas, Troy Riggs.
Under Sanford’s leadership, Blacks have been promoted to significant leadership positions in the fire department. Unlike the severe lack of Black leaders in the police department.
Coons is the former Perry Township trustee. His public safety credentials were shaky when he was named to head the Homeland Security Division of Indianapolis’ Public Safety Department.
The two outside candidates are interesting.
Riggs has been in Corpus Christi for just three years. A 20-year veteran of the Louisville Police Department, Riggs was there when Louisville merged their city and county police almost 10 years ago. But it’s unclear what role Riggs played in that effort.
Louisville/Jefferson County has less racial diversity than Indianapolis/Marion County (22.9 percent vs. 28.6 percent). I don’t know, yet, the racial diversity of Louisville’s police or what role Riggs, if any played.
According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times newspaper, “During his tenure as police chief, Riggs helped update the department – reworking its core missions, adding social media and computer-driven policing while also increasing the crackdown on gangs.”
Sitting on the Texas Gulf Coast, Hispanics are the majority (59.7 percent) of Corpus Christi’s residents. Just 4.3 percent are Black. I don’t know the racial diversity of Corpus Christi police and what Riggs did as chief to improve that.
Keil, the fourth candidate has an impressive resume with 22 years experience in law enforcement and security. Keil worked in the State Department during the Clinton and Bush administrations in a variety of security positions.
President Obama named Keil assistant secretary of Homeland Security for Infrastructure Protection, responsible for protecting key American public and private facilities vital to the nation’s security, public health and safety and economic vitality. But in February of this year, Keil abruptly quit after publicly complaining about the lack of protection of critical chemical facilities in this country.
Rev. Charles Harrison, one of the screening committee members, told Fox 59 last week that he was impressed with Riggs. The buzz seems to be that Riggs is the favorite.
Unfortunately, Mayor Ballard’s Nixonian-styled PR apparatus refused to make public the resumes of the four finalists.
The four choices don’t set the world on fire. Each has strengths and each has weaknesses. And we must fault the Ballard administration’s refusal to emulate other cities like Spokane and Hartford and provide the public more information on these finalists. The administration refused to provide detailed resumes of the finalists or create a forum where the public could hear the finalists’ views on issues.
Instead, the four met secretly with a hand picked committee and no one knows what questions were asked or the finalists’ views.
It’s ultimately Mayor Ballard’s decision. His first public safety director insisted upon by others was a home run. His second was a failure. And his third?
The community awaits the decision, but is not holding out hope it’ll be a good choice.
What I’m hearing
in the streets
At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, first lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, Vice-President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama set the table for the final seven weeks of this highly contentious yet critical presidential election.
But Indiana won’t see the major effort we saw from the Obama campaign in 2008.
However, African-American enthusiasm and votes for President Obama could result in Democratic victories here in local races.
To that end, WTLC-AM (1310’s) “Afternoons with Amos” program again will be Indy’s media leader in providing numerous opportunities for our community to hear from the candidates in the 2012 elections on the issues important to our Black community.
Starting this week, every Tuesday, we’ll be interviewing candidates in key districts. The state Senate and House districts in the Indianapolis area where Blacks comprise at least 10 percent of the population. These Senate Districts 28, 30, 33, 34 and 35. And House Districts 86, 87, 89, 92, 94, 95, 96, 98, 99 and 100.
The candidates for Indiana governor, attorney general, and superintendent for public instruction along with the candidates for U.S. Senate and the 5th Congressional District which includes a good part of Indy’s Northside have also been invited.
Democrats, Republicans, independent write-ins, even a Socialist have been invited to appear.
On Oct. 22, “Afternoons with Amos” will host what may be the only media debate in the 7th Congressional District with the two candidates on the ballot, André Carson and Carlos May.
Finally, unlike the TV stations and the Indianapolis Star, “Afternoons with Amos” will also focus significant attention on school board races which now occur in November.
Our program will devote 11 hours of coverage, inviting all school board candidates to appear on our program to talk about the issues of importance to residents of Pike, Warren, Washington, Wayne and Lawrence townships and IPS. They are the districts with the highest African-American enrollments.
Speaking of candidates on the ballot, the Indiana Election Commission unanimously upheld the ruling by the Marion County Voter Registration that independent candidate Mmoja Ajabu’s nominating petitions didn’t contain enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot for 7th District Congress. Ajabu can appeal to a court but time is running out in his quixotic effort to unseat Carson.
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
