If You Want Transparency, Open Your Eyes!
I’m in Chicago today for a legal seminar and a couple other things, but I’ve noticed a repeated call for transparency for the Capitol Improvement Board.
As much as some people would like to think that it is a mysterious cabal that operates in darkness with robes and a pentagram, it really isn’t. The meetings are public and anyone can ask questions. You just have to show up.
The CIB is a quasi-municipal board, which means even though the members are not elected, they are all appointed and there is oversight. They have no authority to raise taxes. And a copy of their budget and finances are available if you just ask for it. The meetings are not broadcast live, but they are replayed on Channel 16.
So contrary to popular, and usually uninformed opinion, there is no conspiracy here. All you have to do is take some initiative and show up and ask a question.
By the way, you’ll notice the recurring theme here is called show up. And yes, I do know when the next meeting is, but let’s see if anyone here can find out for themselves and I’ll see you there.
April 6th, 2009 at 9:48 am
They may not be some secret cabal but they speak with forked tongue…and they like to minimize serious funding issues too. I knew about the problem with Lucas oil stadium long ago. Why is it just not becoming a major issue?.
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And what will showing up to this non-elected group’s meeting accomplish? Perhaps we should be going to the CIB’s masters and complaining to them, et wot?
April 6th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Dawg,
Don’t forget, this is mostly a new board. Much of the old board left when Peterson did.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Abdul: they’ve been there for 14 months. That “new” excuse doesn’t work any more. If it doesn, I can entertain you with pages and pages of Goldsmith crap that the Peterson folks had to deal with. Some of it was pretty stupid.
And there’s nothing “quasi” about them. The State public access counselor, I believe, or perhaps a court, has ruled they’re subject to the Open Door Law.
Their sole financing comes from publicly-approved funding devices. Their sole appointing authorities are elected officials.
They’re as public as taking a bath on Monument Circle.
That said, I know that their agenda/results are usually entirely pre-determined. They’ve had substantial phone conversations among themselves. So long as a majority doesn’t participate all at once, it’s legal. And they’ve got their marching orders…there is no original thought at that board.
Ugly, but legal. Show up if you like. I’ve been in the past, and they treat you like a leper. I didn’t mind, but it’s not welcoming.
Dawg is right: hit on their appointing authorities. I am pretty certain Ballard is hearing about this. Flood his office with calls and letters.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I went to the first half of the meeting with Early moaning about dog shows in our future. The CIB should have cooperatively made their minutes, budget, and everything else available to parties that requested them in the past- contrary to what was recently described in the Star by a community activist. Web site access doesn’t seem a lot to ask either as Capitol Improvement Board theoretically refers to improvements benefiting our citizenry.
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Maybe the source of the problem is these people thought they were appointed to the Captial (with an ‘a’ Improvement Board), and they’re just trying to help-out the capital situation of our poor sports teams?
April 6th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
TA is correct, Abdul. The issue isn’t whether or not there’s transparency during the meetings. The issues are the backroom handshakes that are clearly beneficial to private interests over the needs of the community.
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And obviously, Abdul is correct also. The meetings are public and the records are available. So transparency is clearly not the solution. The solution is the removal of CIB appointees (whenever you hear “appointee, understand the deck has been stacked against us) and the dismantling/redistribution of their organization.
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I’d rather see a full time city council who are held accountable than an appointed board who costs the city and state 10′s of millions. The cost of full time salaries is worth the return, many times over.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
On April 15th during the tea party day protests, we are going to kick open the door to the CIB and demand total accountability. I have already called Bob Grand and left him a message while expressing my deepest concerns. If the public monies are taken by increased taxation for the CIB’s shortfall, let the daily protests begin. We will move forward to making a public request for the resignation of those who continue to violate our laws and steal from our treasury. I have had enough of this nonsense and it’s time for direct action to occur.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
You’re missing the point. GO AFTER THE APPOINTING AUTHORITIES. “Kicking in doors” will accomplish exactly one thing: you’ll startle some poor lowly secretary, who likely agrees with us.
THe elected officials are accountable to us. The individual CIB members are not. In fact, they’re quite arrogant. Bob Grand thinks Steve Goldsmith hung the moon….that tells you just about all you need to know.
I just checked, and similar minutes, etc. for IngoGo’s board are not available, either. That’s a tempest in a teapot over there, too…sometimes I wonder why we even havhe a bus system, it’s so bad.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
We need to go after all and hold them accountable. Bob Grand has a law practice and when the public is aware of what he’s been up to behind closed doors, his business will suffer financially. Just wait and see the exodus of people working with other lawyers in our city who stand upon principle and watch their businesses grow during this time.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
A city-county councilor, a reporter from two prominent local publications and representatives of neighborhood organziations all report that the Bob Grand and the CIB are not complying with requests for public documents and are not opening up their books for full disclosure, yet we are supposed to believe a blogger who says those poeple just believe in conspiracies and what they are claiming is not true.
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Take the claim that the CIB budget is open. So what? Any accountant worth his or her salt would say that seeing the budget is meaningless unless you see the raw numbers behind the budget. Those are the records that have traditinoally not been disclosed by the CIB.
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Likewise, the notion that the CIB meetings are open is also nonsensiceal. First, I would point out that they, undoubtedly intentionally, have their meetings in the middle of the day, on the other side of downtown, and don’t publish the time or location of their meeting on city/county calendar. Contrary to the assertion here it is a big deal that you have to call the CIB to get the time and location of the meeting. Imagine if our counsel operated that way?
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Nonetheless, the CIB meetings are dog and pony shows. The decisions are made behind closed doors and trotted out for the meeting. I defy anyone to show me the CIB meeting where they deliberated and decided to give the Pacers $15 million more. That deal was struck in the back room.
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Just a couple days ago I talked to a reporter who has written extensively on CIB issues. I asked him how open the CIB is with their records. He said they are “terrible” and that it is almost impossible to get information out of them, except for that information they dress up for public dissemimnation, e.g. see the budget. As a card-carrying member of the media elite, I’m pretty sure he didn’t believe it was a “conspiracy,” but simply an organization that likes to operate with as much secrecy as possible.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Considering the Star’s reporting of the weeklong nonstop shredding of documents from Mayor Peterson’s document closet and hauled away by a waiting trash truck, lack of transparency is still a large issue. The only thing transparent is their ineptness.
April 6th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Paul, where DO you get this crap?
April 6th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I’d have a hell of lot more sympathy for a city bus system that wanted, 15M, 47M, whatever figure over however long, than for pro sports. And, I LIKE pro sports. They’ve just become unaffordable, with the song and dance you have to go through to get straight answers unbelievable.
April 6th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
We’re forever speaking with our hands and pointing in the right direction, while failing to move our feet. So, here we are; but where are we going (you know, that trend thing)?
The CIB challenge is also an opportunity in disguise, to do what’s right and Constitutional in spirit; vs.”legal,” by obscure retrofit of vocational bias, lawyerly or judicial misapplication. There is no better marketing opportunity for those involved, than getting this right. It’s time for a reality check; not more checks from working citizens, or increased taxes on their virtues and vices. You don’t need Mdme. Currie or tea leaves to know, that the days of marxist minor leaguing, muni-leveraging & metro-hopping are over. Socialism only appears to succeed “on stage,” until the curtain drops and the house lights are turned on. Forget tax increases, finger pointing and complaining! Act like the free market minded pros you claim to be, and just do it. Convert your claims of benefit into tangible shares of ownership (SEC quality or better) that pay dividends to real live investors. Getting this right is nothing more than the will to do so. Surely those capable business minds can see the templated, future benefit of getting this right. Green Bay is the standard, free market defined. Every team and city wants the relationship like the Packers have with citizens of Green Bay. Why not define Indianapolis & Indiana with progressive, citizen centered policy? Who wants more of the Detroit trend, didn’t we vote that off the island? How many more “one time” dome styled taxes can the citizens & free market support?
Management is too often mired in the “serious business” of status quo (reminiscent of a lecture hall scene in the movie AnimalHouse), and tail chasing recitation of “how things are,” vs. the ledership challenge of rebalanced policy; reconciled to Constitutional purpose. The half-pregnant “logic” of public / private partnerships, is inbred, fee market cronyism; and not the free market capitalism of a sovereign people.
Leadership requires routine examination of how things should be; reconciled to the oath and citizen centered purpose, or spirit, of the US and Indiana Constitutions, the paradigm of public service. These guiding documents are law and therefore inextricable from the duties of public office. We need leadership- right now.
April 6th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
lol @ Wayne Kirk! Wayne, when you go for your visit at the CIB, let me know. I’ve got a new pair of Red Wings I need to break in!
April 6th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I exchanged voice messages with Bob Grand today. In Mr. Grand’s response, he promised me (I have the saved voice message) that he will gladly turn over all the information I request.
I have made phone calls to Paul Ogden and others in our community as I want to make sure I have all my questions in order to present to Mr. Grand. We shall see if we will get the answers we desire of if Mr. Grand and those in the CIB are just playing cat and mouse.
April 7th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Excellent news, WK. How cna we all see whatever information you get? Where can it be posted verbatim?
April 7th, 2009 at 7:01 am
Mr. Kirk/CIB: Will the Pacers and Colts open up their books to independent auditors? It may seem outrageous to team owners, but so is an expectation of more funding when the paper says we have an 87M shortfall in state revenues.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Part of the deal with the bail-out of both teams should be that their ‘raw’ books should be opened up to the public……yeah, like that will happen.
April 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
My issue with the CIB is that as appointed officials they shouldn’t be distributing tax funds. How do we hold them accountable? The CIB should be composed of entirely elected officials that we can vote out of office if we disapprove of the way they run things.