Mayor-elect Greg Ballard says he’ll name nearly a dozen members of his cabinet this week. He says there will be a couple surprises in his choices, but the public should be happy with the picks. Ballard says some of the positions he’s filled are Chief of Staff, Corporation Counsel and Deputy Mayor of Neighborhoods.  He adds the public shouldn’t  expect wholesale firings, saying a number of individuals in city government have expertise in areas that can serve the public well.

Ballard says his priorities will be reducing the number of dropped calls to the Mayor’s Action Center line, putting the police department back under the Mayor, outlining a plan to deal with the abandoned housing issue and instituting an ex-offender work program.

Ballard also says he plans a baseline audit of city functions and will incorporate a program called “City Stat” to measure the performance of city agencies. He also plans to create a department of “Enterprise Development” to look at whether more privatization is needed for city services and whatever other efficiencies can be discovered.

The Mayor-elect also told me he wants to create a Mayor’s Night Out where the Mayor would take one night a month to meet with members of the community and also plans to increase city cooperation with neighborhood groups.

Ballard will be sworn in as Mayor on January 1.

I just wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Also Happy Hanukkah and Kwanza where it matters.

This year has been an adventure. My son had major surgery, I was on Bill O’Reillly, we had a serious upset election in Indianapolis, some idiot in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department thought it would be a good idea to issue an illegal search warrant on my apartment and confiscate my laptop, luckily for the taxpayers IMPD found Jesus didn’t serve the warrant thereby avoiding a big giant, costly lawsuit.

I started doing TV editorials on WRTV and some of them might be Emmy-worthy. I’ve got some business ventures in the works that will hopefully be very profitable down the road. And I’ve found somebody who is definitely worth keeping around long-term. Score one for the good guys.

I hope you all get what you want for Christmas and some of you get what you deserve.

There are only a few things to report on this Friday before Christmas.

The funeral for Congresswoman Julia Carson is this weekend. A horse drawn carriage will carry the Congresswoman from her home on 25th and Park to Capitol.  She will lie in repose until 10 p.m. at the Statehouse Rotunda. Speakers will include Governor Mitch Daniels and her grandson, City-County Council Member Andre Carson.

The head of the Indianapolis Housing Agency says he hopes to have a signed agreement soon with the owners of Phoenix apartments. The northeast side apartment complex has been the site of numerous crimes, including the death of three-old Tajanay Bailey. Bud Meyers says something may be worked out later today. The city has sued the complex’s owners, RCM Phoenix Partners, for more than $300,000 in welfare payments. Meyers their main goal isn’t so much money, but to improve the quality of life of the residents in the complex.

Don’t be surprised to see the Ballard administration start naming top appointments next week. Sources say Ballard should have a list of top nominees this weekend and make his decisions after Christmas.

Enjoy your weekend.

Mayor-elect Greg Ballard is receiving reports from his various transition team committees on operations concerning the city of Indianapolis. I jokingly say it’s like giving the city getting an enema. And the more I hear about the committees’ work and what they’ve found, the more apt that metaphor.

This city is in bad shape, folks. Much worse than a lot of people, including myself, could have ever imagined. Here are some examples.

At the Department of Public Works, there was no basic maintenance plan for upkeep of the fleet. More than a third of the city’s salt trucks are in bad condition. And there are serious questions about our salt supply.

The number of dropped calls, ones that never get completed because the person hangs up, to the Mayor’s Action Center was described as “outrageous.”

There are city workers who have take home cars and law enforcement officers who need them.

There are serious management issues in the Indianapolis Fire Department.

There are “concerns” at the Airport.

There are city employees who haven’t had raises in five years.

And while small, but significant, once a pothole is reported, the city has no time deadline to get it fixed.

These are just the tips of the iceberg. I think a major audit of this town is in order.
A spokesperson for the Ballard team would not comment on the specifics of the transition committee reports, only to say that the Mayor-elect is going to set standards and hold individuals accountable.

Good luck, Mr. Mayor-elect. From the looks of things, you’re gonna need it.

Marion County officials say they are almost done with their reassessment of residential property as ordered by Governor Mitch Daniels. Assessor Greg Bowes says seven of the nine townships are very close to being completed and Center and Washington townships could be done within a couple of weeks. The reassessment of commercial property won’t be done until February 1. 

If the Department of Local Government and Finance approves the reassessment, County Treasurer Mike Rodman says your reconciliation bill could be mailed on April 14 and the bill would be due on April 30. Should that occur Rodman says he will formally ask the state to move the due date of the Spring property tax bill to mid-July, otherwise taxpayers would only have a two-week window between due dates for their tax bills. Don’t forget though, not much is expected to change in the way of your tax bill. And it’s unlikely your rebate check will cover the cost of your reconciliation bill.

Labor leader John Bartlett will take over the Indiana House seat being vacated by Mae Dickinson.  Dickinson resigned on December 7, saying she wants to spend more time with her family.  She had been in the legislature since 1991.   Bartlett overwhelmingly beat outgoing City-Council member “King Ro” Conley.  According to party insiders, many of the precinct committeemen wanted someone other than Conley saying it was time for the party to go forward.  

As a side note, another name is surfacing as a dark horse candidate for the 7th Congressional District.   Ice Miller attorney Randall Pollard’s name is being floated as a candidate Democrats could coalesce around.   Currently, most of the major players are lining up behind State Representative Carolene Mays, City-County Council Member Andre Carson and Robin Winston, former State party chairman.

That’s how Monday night’s City-County Council and four years of Democratic Control came to an end.  It wasn’t short by any means. The meeting started at 7 p.m. and finished shortly before midnight. Measures to start a process to repeal the public safety tax, have the council approve tax abatements, tie the unionization of hotel workers to a $48 million city financing plan for the new Marriott all failed for lack of votes. Only 12 Democrats showed up for the last meeting and one Republican was absent.

The more interesting moments weren’t what happened, but how they occurred. For example, Councilors got deadlocked over an ordinance that would have included more than $400,000 in missed pay for several hundred Marion County Sheriff’s Deputies. Democrats Ron Gibson and Paul Bateman changed their votes to allow the measure to pass.

Council Attorney Aaron Haith and outgoing Minority leader Phil Borst won’t miss each other after some testy exchanges over parliamentary procedure. Republican Mike Speedy decided to shoot for a lot more face time by commenting more Monday night than I have ever seen him do so in the three years that I’ve been watching the body.

By the time it was all said and done, nearly five hours had gone by and a lot of people were tired and ready to bolt. I was one of them. There is an old saying that the two things you don’t want to see made are laws and sausage. As a Muslim, I’m not supposed to eat pork, but a couple patties sound really good now

There are a lot of things on my radar screen this morning. As funeral arrangements are pending for Congresswoman Julia Carson, Marion County Democrats are still as one operative put it, “in a tailspin” over who should lead the party. Civil war anyone?

Also Council Democrats are going to make one last effort to exert their power tonight. On the agenda are two resolutions, one would require the developers of the new convention hotel project to get a “labor peace agreement” in order to get city financing. In coming Council Minority Leader says the measure would guarantee workers the right to organize, but John Livengood of the Indiana Hotel and Lodging Association the proposal would force the hotel to hire union work.   Call me crazy, but I’m very suspicious of this plan. There really isn’t much difference between the pay grade of union and non-union hotel work. So the only people getting rich out of this deal would be the union in the form of dues, because neither the workers nor the company will benefit.

The second measure is a Council resolution calling for a reversal of the public safety tax. Democrats finally realized they could not vote to repeal the tax because they would be breaking the law, so they have decided to go the non-binding resolution route. The point of the resolution is to embarrass the Republicans by putting them on record as opposing the tax. I personally would like to see a resolution that says anyone who does business with the city, but also serves on the Council, would cancel their contract and give the money back to the taxpayers.

I’m also hearing there may be more to the shooting incident involving Indiana Pacer Jamaal Tinsley than thought. Police are investigating a double homicide on the southwest side in the 4900 block of West Troy. 47-year old Anthony Earl and his 18-year old son Michael were shot multiple times. Police are initially calling the shooting was a possible home invasion robbery. However sources say Michael Earl might have been involved in the shooting involving Tinsley, and identified the owners of the truck that was used in the incident, and his murder was in retaliation.

Look at the front page of today’s Indianapolis Star and check which has the bigger headline.  This weekend’s snow storm or the passing of a political legend?

I was in the middle of teaching when I got the text message yesterday that Indiana Congresswoman Julia Carson had passed away. I was not surprised it finally happened. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and was put into hospice care, a clear sign that her time was limited. Although I was not surprised, I was saddened. Carson was old school politics; build a machine and deliver on those constituent services. That’s how she won. That’s how she built a legacy. It was a concept many of my Republican and Libertarian friends, particularly those who lived outside Marion County could never understand. I recall a number of conversations over cocktails where someone would say “I don’t see how those people in Indianapolis could vote for Julia Carson.” My response, “frankly dude the citizens of Indianapolis could care less what you think.” Carson was like a neighborhood restaurant that anyone who wasn’t from the neighborhood would never eat in, but for the locals, it was a slice of heaven. And that’s what Carson was to her constituents.

What will be interesting to see is what happens next. The civil war which I’ve been alluding to inside Democratic circles has already begun. Center Township Democrats are pushing for Andre Carson, Julia’s grandson, as the likely replacement. They are also calling for the head of County Chairman Mike O’Connor on a platter because of last November’s election losses. The problem for the Center Township crowd is that while they may want Carson, my sources tell me no one else does. Whether it’s Carolene Mays, David Orentlicher, Mike Rodman or Robin Winston, there are a significant number of Democratic insiders who want someone else. And O’Connor can get the last laugh because he has been quietly filling vacant precinct committeemen spots who are necessary to pick the party’s nominee for the next special election.

Just the very fact that there is this much chaos in Democratic circles is a clear sign that Julia is gone and Carson’s city will never be the same.

Three weeks after she announced that she had terminal lung cancer, Julia Carson passed away at age 69. She died in her Indianapolis home this morning.

More to probably come from Abdul . . .

UPDATE: 12:17 PM

“Julia Carson, the first black and first woman to represent Indianapolis in Congress, died early Saturday morning. She was 69. Carson announced last month that she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and that she would not run next year for a seventh term. Carson was first elected to Congress in 1996 following service in the Indiana State Legislature and with Center Township. She championed children’s issues, women’s rights and efforts to reduce homelessness and was a staunch opponent of the war in Iraq. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Who may fill the now vacant seat for Indiana’s 7th Congressional District? Tune in for a special report on the life and career of Julia Carson at 2:00pm this afternoon, hosted by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz. Abdul in the Morning will have more analysis Monday on Newstalk 1430-AM, WXNT.”