Nobody Wants to CIB
Mitch Daniels and Pat Bauer did not agree on much over the past six months, but one thing both men agree on is neither one of them wants to deal with Capital Improvement Board issue next session.
I’m paraphrasing here, but Daniels said “as long as he’s Governor, he never wants to see another CIB bill.” Bauer blamed the CIB as the reason for the special session saying it caused resentment among out-state lawmakers whose communities had their own needs and thought Indianapolis was getting special treatment.
So what’s a Mayor, who did not create this mess but unfortunately owns it, to do?
Well I still think the Mayor can beat the shortfall in part by collecting all non-pacer revenue from Conseco Fieldhouse which is $7-9 million. That would go a long way to close the gap.
But in the event that doesn’t work, if you can beat em, privatize them. That’s right, turn the management of Conseco Fieldhouse, the Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium over to a private company. In exchange for the private company eating the operating expenses, the city can let them keep most of the profits.
Think of of as renting your home through a private management company. You get a portion of the rent and they take care of the rest. I frankly don’t see any other way out for the city, unless it is willing to make the deep cuts necessary to make this work. And from what I’ve been able to gather, there’s no stomach for that either.
So Mr. Mayor, my advice, turn the management of the CIB properties over to a third party. Let them run them and keep a million or two for the city coffers. If your critics say you are washing your hands of the whole thing, tell them you’re just doing what everybody else is.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:20 am
Mayor Ballard did inherit a big problem with the CIB. But Ballard contributed mightly to the problems of the CIB. Mayor Ballard appointed Bob Grand, who has a HUGE conflict as attorney for the Simons who want the CIB to give the Pacers $15 million more per year.
Did Mayor Ballard order any investigation of the CIB to see how they arrived at the position they did? Nope.
It was Mayor Ballard who refused to say “no” to the CIB continued insistence on revising the Conseco Fieldhouse contract so taxpayers can pay the Pacers' $15 million operating costs at Conseo while the team makes 100% profit on the building.
Ballard was not responsible for the boneheaded Lucas Oil Stadium contract. But he's responsible for a lot of other things. He's made bad problem sworse with his handling of the CIB.
As far as privatization, we have had so many bungled efforts at privatization of late, I”m not sure that's the route to go. It also opens the door to even more political cronyism than exists with the board. Nonetheless, a private company would have to see a way of making a profit. Since the CIB has given away so much income off of the buildings they operate, they're not even close to making a profit. Not sure why a private company would want to even consider doing it. That private company would inherit all the CIB contractual responsibilities.
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:31 am
Ditto to what Paul posted above.
When will we see some CIB heads, and other heads, roll??
I don't see anyone cooking from the Colt's give-away deal. I don't see anyone cooking over Conseco.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:19 am
Paul is right. There seem to be no consequences for CIB members….or their grossly-inflated staff.
Here's another take:
The governor and certain legislators didn't have their motives questioned, either. Forget how you feel about a stadium being built. Once that decision was made, the CIB was set to fire up the funding apparatus. They have 40 years of history doing this, and evidently, they've pushed some initial-years maintenance cost into the bonding. I didn't previously know that, but it seems to have worked.
Along comes a few jealous Republican legislators, who didn't want Bart Peterson to have a victory of any kind. They wrestled control of the construction funding away form a proven entity–CIB–to a brand-new, untested entity, the state.
They were warned that the first few years of a large facility contain multiple maintenance funding challenges. Evidently, until a new facility is up and running for a few years, it isn't fully booked, thus the maintenance is a drag on the overall budget.
The governor and legislators were warned this would happen. They zealously pushed forward with their plans and ignored the warnings.
And the local press reported almost none of this, so the ruse was continued.
We recently learned that the CIB is a bloated and outdated bureaucracy, much in need of a house-cleaning. That does not alter the facts: their construction/maintenance funding model has worked. We abandoned that for political expediency and quick headlines, in favor of an untested entity to build Lucas.
I only hope we can learn form these errors as someone steps up to reform CIB.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:49 am
'There seem to be no consequences for CIB members….or their grossly-inflated staff.” Oh, they must be following the IPS model? Or, government schools in general might be the model? When we discuss “no consequences” (for failures over decades) why would we find outrage in one situation and not in the other? I see where our Speaker is suggesting a review of PL 217 or was he just trying to prop up the corpse with our tax dollars?
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:05 am
Regardless what “model” they're following, Pascal, the light of day only helps solve the problem.
Do you ever let up on IPS? Don't you get tired?
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:41 am
It would be hard to improve on Mr. Gregg's letter to the editor in this morning's star the gist of which is, “The fact is, more money won't mean better students”. Something that should be stenciled on Mitch's forehead, Bauer's butt, and Kenley's Kindle. I'd say that IPS was the poster child for stupid government spending but the point of my comment was directed to those who prefer stupid spending to wise spending and have selected stupid spending for no consequences. That is, selective outrage. I am surprised at Mitch's comments about consolidation as it is not like him to be confused about the fruits of spending, namely, student academic achievement (all else can be done for much, much less). Conant consolidation for Indiana helped ruin already bad government schools. For a big picture guy, chasing nickels and dimes is unseemly-we don't need any more poor instructors, and, looking at total costs, we aren't getting much for any dollars in schooling. The light of day argument is a good one, but when it comes to government schools the lights should never be turned off as selective outrage keeps the corpse alive even though it should be decently buried, covered with decades of reports showing it's expensive failures and unfixability regardless of how many dollars our 150 member school board throws at the failure.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:15 am
Comment on two thoughts:
a) Why not follow the govs leadership and sell/privatize the whole CIB situation. A 75 year deal starting to sound real good for even if the city only received a few (very few) million a year it would be better than the current situation and get rid of a continuing headache.
b) back to charter schools verus public: what about this for a start as headlines: IPS drops all intermural sports and going to intramural only–think of the savings as to number of coaches paid, ADs and staff, busing to events all over the state, all the cherry picking among private school to completely unfold, big gyms/stadiums with large seating no longer needed nor the upkeep, heating, cooling, etc. –sounds like a win/win situation. Next let every school have the freedom to establish itself as a “special topics” school and no longer have districts and students use the city bus system to get to school (as they do in many places in order to attend special schools), schools get flat grant based on population of area plus funds on per student basis. Sounds like answer.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 am
Isn't the CIB essentially already privatized? None of the employees work for government, they make more than the average government worker, they contract out most of their services, like security, maintenance, parking, etc.
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:58 am
The time will come when the pitch forks and torches become a reality. The people will become so incensed that they will literally drag these people out of their offices and tell them to get out of our city! The shift is happening and our public servants are still thinking that we will disappear while putting their heads back into the sand even as our legions grow into armies. Wake up Ballard and others for you are on the public's radar and you're not just a mere blip bouncing around, but a very obvious target of our disdain.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:04 am
Your are right Paul. Gov. Daniels and Rep Kenley were.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:11 am
We need to remember that Mitch Daniels demanded and got control of the construction of Lucas Oil stadium because the state could do it better and cheaper. He immediately used the $50 million set aside for cost overruns and construction. Had that been allowed to remain, we would not be in the mess that we are now. I agree that there needs to be a major shakeup on the CIB but on this set aside for operating expenses, they were right and Daniels was wrong. That is why the solution rests with Daniels and the state.
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 am
Privatizing will not accomplish anything that the CIB couldn't do itself today.
They must either increase revenue, decrease expenses, or abrogate its responsibilities by borrowing increasing amounts of money which defers any real action and makes the problems worse.
This should be a wake up call to everyone that MAJOR changes are need to build a sustainable CIB business model. (which was broken with the Colts one sided Lucas Oil deal.)
If the Colts and Pacers are not going to cooperate, then Municipal Bankruptcy Reorganization is the only alternative remaining.
Immediate action is required!!!
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I thought the contaminated soil disposal and rising prices for steel caused cost overruns and ate up the contingency money. But Mitch 'spent' it somewhere instead? Huh, I never made the connection.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Suffice to say, CIB should go bankrupt and clear the slate with contracts with the Colt's & Pacers. We have the power to renegotiate these contracts and force the issue, but this would all require true political resolve and bearing the fact that a vast majority of our public servants lack any integrity and continue to wield increased costs on generations to come, we will have to pay for their misdeeds. However, as We The People continue to develop better tools to watch our politicians and educate each other, the time will come where governance will change and we will be able to flesh out the crooks as quickly as possible.
Also, I hope that ofter Mr. Oxley's recent problems with DUI & PI along with impersonating an elected representative, we can actually move forward and demand that any elected representative who is caught with a DUI or any criminal act, to be arrested in jailed immediately. There is no reason whatsoever for them to use their elected position as a means to avoid the same criminal penalties as the people. Also, if we can pressure our public servants to support a bill like this, we should also make it a crime to be intoxicated while working for the people during any function where they have to vote on a particular bill or even in committee. We want our public servants to have a clear mind when screwing the taxpayers.
I do not see any reason why a bill like this wouldn't pass with full non-partisan support.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I also wanted to post this Daily Paul (Ron Paul activist) blog where it highlights what the government is doing to the real estate industry under the “Cap'N'Trade” bill that just passed the US House. This bill needs to be stopped quickly and if you read further, I have posted a comment under the user name “Dime” which I address that mortgage applications are at a 7 month low. If this is true, then that means mortgage applications for the month of June/July are at the same levels as November/December of 2008 and if you consider the information, the months of Nov/Dec are our slowest months in this business. Couple that information with the fact that Nov/Dec 2008 saw the collapse of the credit and equities market which means the real estate market was very slow…
Therefore, June/July months should be the peak of mortgage applications and this is a huge sign that we're not seeing green shoots, we're seeing red…blood in the streets and the slaughterhouse of the US government will continue to stimulate our nation into utter ruin. I also encourage you to learn more about how Quantitative Easing works as it calls for massive amounts of money to be added to the money supply with the hope that consumers will come back and thus, the will remove the money from the marketplace to avoid inflationary woes. Right now, the consumers are not coming back and it appears that people are hunkering down more and more each day. Keynesian economic theory which IS NOT free market-based, but interventionism is failing and until we all understand that the government must shrink and get out of the way of business and consumers instead of ridiculous regulation like “Cap'N'Trade,” we're going to pay dearly for this err in judgment.
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/98213
Call Senator Bayh & Luger and demand that they do not support “Cap'N'Trade” and end all use of bailouts along with supporting the audit of the Federal Reserve per a similar house bill called H.R. 1207.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Wayne, honey, you're having a hard time saying focused, aren't you? This post is about CIB, not cap and trade or Mr. Oxley.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I know what the topic is “Think Again,” but I like to post other ideas to this blog because I know people read them! Actually, some of my recent posts have generated several positive emails. But to directly answer you, the CIB, Oxley, and the rest of the government BS all falls under the same problem–lawlessness.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Wayne,,,,,,Oxley is NOT an elected official …that is why he is charged with impersonating an elected official…therefore he was not a drunken elected official….he did have a part time job which ended in April while this happened in late June. It is shameful behavior but to try and tie it to state employees or elected officials is just not accurate.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Wayne T – I know he wasn't an elected official. I was only mentioning him because I believe that even using the excuse of being in session (for an elected official) should not dismiss any criminal charges if you are committing a crime. The whole notion that they can use this as an excuse for criminal actions–where you and I would be arrested and charged for DUI is not only unfair but ridiculous.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Wayne, the charges are not dismissed, but delayed. Check it out.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:06 pm
This is the best the Dumbocrat Party could come up with??
July 4th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Peyton Manning made $27 MILLION last year throwing a freaking foot ball.
That would employ 600 teachers for one year, or 100 teachers for 6 years.
What's more important? Clearly, foot ball.
July 4th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Peyton Manning made $27 MILLION last year throwing a freaking foot ball.
That would employ 600 teachers for one year, or 100 teachers for 6 years.
What's more important? Clearly, foot ball.
October 21st, 2009 at 8:14 am
[...] took four months, but somebody got the hint. The City of Indianapolis is seeking proposals from private entities to take over the operational [...]