Joe Hogsett, left his job as United States Attorney and in a series of interviews with Indy media, reintroduced himself to city/county residents as a potential mayoral candidate. Hogsett’s entry into the race caused Mayor Greg Ballard to continue his recent displays of pique, anger, irritation and plain bad manners in media interviews.
In interviews, including his only live one on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos,” Hogsett made several points in establishing himself as a credible opponent to Ballard.
Hogsett told me he was greatly concerned by Indianapolis’ rising violence and crime and felt he could do more to help the city, not as U.S. attorney but as mayor. While not directly criticizing Ballard, Hogsett raised the issue of leadership, placing one of Ballard’s weaknesses on the table.
Hogsett publicly asked, if Indy’s taxpayers are paying 65 percent more for public safety, why do we have fewer police on the streets?
Hogsett’s media blitz clearly unsettled the mayor, his minions, and his campaign braintrust. They ordered Ballard’s favorite apologist to pen an Indianapolis Star column blasting Hogsett as a career politician. Ignoring that Ballard’s been in elected office six years and eight months, longer than Hogsett’s years as Indiana Secretary of State.
Two days after Hogsett’s media blitz, to push the mayor’s plan for only working class and senior homeowners to pay for quality preschools, the Ballard campaign organized a photo-op with IPS Superintendent Dr. Lewis Ferebee and some cute preschool students at IPS School #55.
Ballard and Ferebee were photographed with adorable four year olds starting their third day of school. Former teacher Ferebee was warm and comfortable with the kids, while Ballard was the opposite.
I attended the event hoping to learn more about the mayor’s preschool plan; especially the funding.
The few Ballard press conferences I’ve attended in recent months weren’t designed to allow media questions, except in pre-arranged, one-on-one sessions.
So I was surprised when the mayor and superintendent sat down to take questions directly.
In his friendly, pleasant manner, Ferebee calmly answered or danced around questions he was asked. Ballard was another story.
Ballard was irritated when I asked about the fairness of low and middle-income homeowners being the only ones paying for his preschool plan.
“How we fund this in the future is developing,” said Ballard. “What’s fair is that these kids are educated.”
When asked if he or his administration were talking with council Democrats about the plan, Ballard testily said, “his team was” but didn’t say he was. Ballard arrogantly refused to even acknowledge if those meetings would be held.
But the next day, Ballard told the media about meeting with Democratic Congressman André Carson about his anti-crime plans. Carson, though, didn’t endorse Ballard’s plan and chided the mayor for not applying for federal funds to hire more cops.
And though the mayor criticized the numbers of dropout and expelled students in his July 30 speech, he rudely ignored my question of what the city was doing about truancy in the first weeks of school.
After Mayor Ballard’s interview aired and was posted online, Mayoral Chief of Staff Ryan Vaughn demanded on Twitter that I, “Address the real problem with the Homestead Tax Credit. The working poor taxed to pay the bills of upper income home owners.”
I found it odd that Vaughn, a normally calm, rational person, went on Twitter to ask me about a City policy/program, knowing the mayor’s media staff has standing instructions not to provide me with any information about Ballard administration activities.
It’s true that local income taxes subsidize the local homestead credit. A snap examination of Indianapolis/Marion County household incomes shows that 57 percent of all incomes are over $35,000, outside the “working poor” classification.
Rudimentary economic analysis shows Vaughn’s Twitter declarations are ludicrous. But if there’s credible data to backup Vaughn’s contention, then he’ll end the administration’s bigoted boycott against providing me with public information.
What I’m Hearing in the Streets
Back to Ballard in a minute.
I asked Hogsett about that $750,000 contract the city gave Hogsett’s new employer Bose, McKinney and Evans, last December, well before the firm or Hogsett knew they’d be working together.
The contract, awarded to former Ballard aide John Cochran, is to engage the local media in opportunities to tell the city’s side of the new Justice Center proposal.
I asked Hogsett if the contract should be made public. Though he danced around the question, Hogsett did acknowledge the importance of transparency in government business.
For the record, Bose hasn’t reached out to me about anything concerning the Justice Center.
Four years ago, the city built a new Bethel Park pool because the pool leaked 8 million gallons of water. Well, guess what?
The pool’s sprung a serious leak in recent weeks, with a couple of acres of saturated parkland fenced off. And NO public word from Indy Parks. Why?
IUPUI is spending $45 million to build a new dorm on campus. So why is the Ballard Administration and the Capital Improvement Board (CIB) giving away $5 million to IUPUI to pay for maintenance on the Natatorium, which IUPUI owns and is responsible for?
Remember when Ballard’s Boyz said the CIB was broke and needed a state bailout and more taxes levied? Now they’re wasting cash subsidizing facilities others (IUPUI) are responsible for, while basic city/county needs are starved for cash.
It’s another taxpayer rip-off engineered by the Ballard Administration.
See ‘ya next week!
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
