More cops keep getting in trouble.  Two more IMPD officers are being investigated for alleged wrongdoing. 34-year old Christopher Poindexter is in trouble for reportedly filing a false police report to cover up an accident involving his fiancee sideswiping another vehicle while in his department issued car.

Another officer, James Ingalss is in hot water for allegedly having sex with a hooker while on duty.

And those incidents follow the suspension and subsequent criminal investigation of IMPD officer Anthony Smith who is believed to have forced a woman to perform a sex act on him in order to avoid an arrest.

Throw those three in with officers Jason Edwards, James Davis and Robert Long who are accused of stealing from drug dealers. IMPD Patrolman Jeremy was busted for helping a prostitute. George Leon Benjamin was charged with DUI for two crashes involving a police car.

Believe it or not there is some good news in all this. Bad officers are being weeded out and no one is trying to cover up their bad behavior. There about 2000 members of IMPD, and if you throw in the rule of thumb that 10 percent of all people are bad actors, you can see how IMPD is no exception.

I’m more concerned when these incidents are covered up from the public. There’s no question that IMPD needs to get its own house in order and Chief Mike Spears tells me new orders and policies are being drafted to address these issues.

But I have to be honest, as much as I get annoyed when I read stories about bad cops, I’d be much more worried if I never heard about them.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson says she won’t break the $3.8 billion lease of the Indiana Toll Road, but she says she will try to renegotiate it if she can.

Thompson made her comments by announcing she would take a second look at all of the state’s privatization contracts. She says Lt. Governor Candidate Dennie Oxley would spearhead the effort.

JLT says the Toll Road lease as well as the privatization/modernization of FSSA intake and eligibility were bad deals for the taxpayers and that she would try to cancel or renegotiate them. She said everything was on the table and she would make the best decision based on what was most cost effective.

JLT did not say all privatization was bad and said she could support privatization for some services and equipment manufacturing, but she would not privatize the administration of state programs.

JLT said after 20 years the Toll Road consortium will make a profit and that money should be going to the state. She downplayed the fact that consortium would also assume the costs and maintenance of the Toll Road.

A spokesperson for the Governor’s Office said the Toll Road lease has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars for state transportation projects and the consortium is investing more than $400 million in making improvements.

Frankly, absent some major breach of the agreement or serious meeting of the minds by the two parties, I don’t see how the Toll Road lease can be renegotiated. And if it were, I hope someone can find the $51 million they’ll have to pay for every year the lease is shortened.

I’m hearing this morning that Stuart Lowry will be named this morning as the new head of Indy Parks. Lowry, I’m told, has expierience at White River Park as Director of Family Programs. An official announcement is expected this afternoon.

I’m keeping an eye on the Barack Obama campaign today.  They’re expected to announce Barack’s VP in the next couple of days.  They’ve rented space at the Old State Capitol in my other home of Springfield for a Saturday announcement.   John McCain reportedly will announce his VP on Aug. 29. 

Although a lot of people around this state are looking at Senator Evan Bayh,  I tend to lean more towards Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.  I leaned more towards Bayh prior to the conflict between Russian and Georgia and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf being run out of Islamabad on a rail.  Both events highlight the need to have someone with strong foreign policy credentials under his belt.  Biden fits that better than Bayh.

In addition, by picking Bayh Democrats would have to spend a lot more money in Indiana to ensure that Jill Long Thompson becomes Governor.  Because if Bayh goes to the Washington his seat becomes vacant and whoever is Governor gets to pick his replacement.  I can see Democrats spending money to make Indiana competitive, but not that much money.

Although if Barack really wanted someone with the right mix of foreign and domestic experience, he would have picked New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.  Richardson is a former U.N. Ambassador, Secretary of Energy and Congressman.  The only negative against him is that he is Hispanic and having a Black and a Hispanic at the top of the ticket might be too much change for some people.

Just so you folks know, we’ve added a couple new links to Indiana Barrister.  There’s now a link on the left side of your screen so you can go through the city’s budget yourself.  We’ve also added a calender feature on the right side of the screen.  That will be for important events in our community. I’ll be updating it this week.  We’ve also added a couple more blogs to our recommended reading;  Stop Governing Like This and Circle City Pundit.  Kevin and I are always working to improve Indiana Barrister and provide you with a valuable resource.  We hope it’s working for you.  Let us know what else we can do.

One of the kindest people I’ve met during my time in Indianapolis has died. Lucuious Newsom died Monday at St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove.  If you didn’t know him it was your loss.

He was someone who spent time helping those in need. He and his mobile food pantry helped feed the poor, clothe the homeless and and find shelter for the needy. You might have recognized him from his bib overalls that he wore.

I met him last year after hosting the Governor’s Awards ceremony for Indiana Black Expo. He shared with me a story about a young man who vandalized food pantry. Lucious didn’t return the act with anger but kindness. He even showed me the man’s pocket knife that he kept. What surprised me was the knife had a picture of a KKK member on it. Lucious told me in so many words the best way to deal with your enemies is to show them love and compassion and eventually they come around.

I think we all could follow that advice a little better.

Good-bye, Lucious. You will be missed.

Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson may be crying poverty, but from an intial look at his budget someone at the Sheriff’s department likes to spend money like a drunken sailor in a Vietnamese brothel.

As I told you earlier Anderson, requested a $26 million increase over last year’s budget. MCSD spent $84 million in 2007 and was on track to spend $91 million in 2008 and requested more than $111 million in 2009. That amount was cut back to about $85 million. After going through the budget on-line, here’s what I discovered.

Out of that $26 million increase, $17.5 million went to salaries and benefits. $8.889 million was for salaries, $2.2 million went for raises. He only spent $26 million on salaries in 2007, so why would he need $36 million in 2009? Unless he hired a bunch of people and now trying to get you to write checks that he can’t cash?

In addition, in 2008 MCSD only spent $44,000 on hospital supplies. It requested $1.1 million in 2009. That’s a lot of band-aids.

A lot of sheriff’s deputies must need new clothes, because Anderson went from spending $146,609 on uniforms in 2008 to wanting to spend more than $390,000 in 2009.

Someone at MCSD must also be using a lot of paper because printing costs went from just under $11,000 for 2008 to about $193,000 in 2009.

The rumors about Anderson wanting to buy new cars must be closer to the truth than I thought. His vehicle budget went from $11,000 in 2008 to $723,000 in 2009.

Tired? I hope not, there’s still more.

Anderson’s building security budget went from $0 in 2008 to $400,000 in 2009. I feel safer already.

They also must be expecting to get sued a lot over at the jail. They spent $275,000 on settlement payments in 2008 and expect to spend $2.1 million in 2009. I’m definitely practicing the wrong kind of law.

A lot people must also be getting sick over at the Jail too because medical and hospital expenses are going up from $3.02 million in 2008 to $6.2 million in 2009.

And those pesky cars and vans showed up again under capital expenditures. Anderson only spent $114,000 on cars in 2008 and nothing on vans. Those numbers went up to almost $1.7 million for cars and $740,000 for vans in 2009.

I’m sure the Sheriff has a pretty good explanation for all this. I’ll be watching when he testifies at his budget hearing in a few weeks.

By the way, if you think I am pulling this all out of my rear, you can see the numbers here for yourself.

For those of you who are total geeks and want to go through the Mayor’s budget line by line, there is a copy on the city’s website.  Here you go. Happy reading.

Some local activists are furious over the thought that Mayor Greg Ballard is considering selling some of the city’s smaller parks (2 acres or less) to developers.

Despite the fact this is part of an effort for the city to get its arms around the more than 6,000 parcels of land it owns, and the facts the parks have been running a $4 million deficit.

Say what you will about whether it is a good idea for the city to sell off some of its more costly greenspace, but might I offer a suggestion. If the city wants to get rid of some of its properties and the activists don’t want it to private developers, then might I suggest the city give the parks to the activists?

The activists can form a not-for-profit and the city can sell (for $1) or transfer title to them. There can also be included in the contracts a clause that if the parks deteriorate the land reverts back to the city which it can then sell to a developer.

I frankly don’t see how hard this is.  If the local activists truly believe these properties are worth saving, then they should not have a problem putting actions behind their words and take over the management of these smaller greenspaces.

And since the parks will no longer be on the property tax rolls, Marion County taxpayers will get a break.

Everyone wins under this scenario.  And since I can’t believe we are even having this discussion, let’s take things out of park and get it in gear!

Last month I did a state-by-state analysis of the Presidential race using data gathered from Pollster.com.  Since we’re expecting Vice-Presidential picks this week, including keeping an eye on Evan Bayh, here’s a breakdown on where the candidates are.  Remember, if there is less than a 3-point difference between the candidates, I consider it a tie.

John McCain

• Alabama, 49-36.
• Arizona, 50-40.
• Arkansas, 47-40.
• Georgia, 48-42-2 (Barr).
• Idaho, 53-37.
• Kansas, 49-37.
• Louisiana, 54-34.
• Mississippi, 51-41.
• Nebraska, 55-45.
• Oklahoma, 50-32.
• South Carolina, 47-37.
• South Dakota, 45-40.
• Tennessee, 50-35.
• Texas, 47-41.
• Utah, 60-30.
• West Virgina, 45-37.
• Wyoming, 53-40.

Barack Obama

• California, 50-37.
• Connecticut, 55-33.
• Delaware, 50-41.
• Hawaii, 61-31.
• Illinois, 52-35.
• Iowa, 47-41.
• Maine, 49-41.
• Maryland, 55-30.
• Massachusetts, 54-35.
• Michigan, 48-43.
• Minnesota, 50-38.
• New Hampshire, 48-42.
• New Jersey, 50-37.
• New Mexico, 49-41.
• New York, 53-32.
• Oregon, 49-42.
• Pennsylvania, 50-40.
• Rhode Island, 53-30.
• Vermont, 60-33.
• Washington, 50-38.
• Wisconsin, 51-38.

Toss-Up

• Alaska, 44-42 (Obama)
• Colorado, 48-45 (Obama)
• Florida, 46-45 (McCain)
• Indiana, 43-42 (McCain)
• Missouri, 47-44 (McCain)
• Montana, 47-45 (Obama)
• Nevada, 45-42 (McCain)
• North Carolina, 48-45-2 (McCain)
• North Dakota, 45-42 (McCain)
• Ohio, 46-43 (Obama)
• Virginia, 47-45 (Obama)

Applying the math to the electoral map, here’s the breakdown.

• Obama – 264 Electoral votes, down 8 from the last survey.
• McCain – 154 Electoral votes, up 20 from the last survey.
• Undecided – 120 Electoral votes.

The biggest move was Georgia, although slightly from the undecided column to the McCain side.  Georgia  has 15 electoral votes.  However, McCain is still defending more traditional red states than Obama is blue.  If we did a little speculation and gave the states to the candidate who was ahead,  Obama wins 312 electoral votes to McCain’s 226.  But don’t get too excited or distressed, November is a long way away.