While I respect my brothers and sisters in the press, every once in a while I wonder where they’ve been? Take two stories in the press today. One is the proposed ordinance that would ban firing off guns in Marion County unless under certain circumstances. The story made the headlines today, but we had the story last week with the interview with its proponent Angela Mansfield. Also, everyone is freaking out over the city’s bond rating and how it may drop because if the Mayor doesn’t get Indy Works, part III and Hometown Matters. Once again, this is not new. Yours truly wrote about this on March 28. And I still haven’t read anywhere else how the city and FOP have reached a tentative agreement. I’m not saying we’re better than the rest of the press, far from it. I would kill for the staff and resources of my friends on Monument Circle, but you would think these guys would be ahead of the curve with as many people as they have. Oh well, I always said one Abdul is worth million everybody else.

Never underestimate Bart Peterson. The Mayor is a real smart guy. This is evidenced by his latest contract offer with the Fraternal Order of Police. The police would get a 12-percent raise by 2010, but there is no retro pay. Of course, this plan depends on the Indiana General Assembly passing the Mayor’s public safety finance plan. And that’s what make this so brilliant.

If the cops approve the pact, the Mayor can declare victory. If the police turn it down, the Mayor can say he put the best offer on the table and the cops turned it down and now they’re Frank Anderson’s problem. And if the Legislature turns down the public finance package, the Mayor can say he did his best and blame the General Assembly. So he walk away scott free.

Tactically, this is a brilliant move. It will be interesting to see if the FOP picks up on this and how they respond. Good move, Mr. Mayor. Now if only the rest of your local party could be more like you, what a wonderful county this would be.

Happy Easter.

The City of Indianapolis and Fraternal Order of Police have reached a tentative agreement. Under the terms of the four-year deal, officers would not get a raise in 2007, but would get a 12-percent raise by 2010. There is no retro pay in the agreement, but the city would increase its contribution to the officers’ 401K plans. Overtime pay and insurance would stay the same. Officers could start to vote on the new contract offer as early as next week.

Mitt Romney was in town yesterday raising money for his Presidential campaign. He had his fundraiser at the Columbia Club. I’m told he did pretty well. John Edwards raised $75,000 his last trip. Rudy Giuliani made $250,000. Hilary Clinton may be coming on May 5 and Lord knows how much she’ll raise? It’s got me thinking that for most of these candidates, Indiana is an ATM machine.

Let’s face it. The primary is in May, long after the primaries in the bigger places. It’s a state that hasn’t voted for a Democrat for President since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. And it only has 11 Electoral votes. I’m actually surprised they show up at all.

I guess the good news in all this is on the Republican side. With Governor Mitch Daniels supporting John McCain, Secretary of State Todd Rokita endorsing Mitt Romney and Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi backing Giuliani, we can’t say Indiana won’t have a connection to the White House if one of those guys becomes President.

Once again there are quite a few things going on in the world of local and state politics today.

Indiana Republican continue to express their outrage over the failure of constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, however sources inside the GOP camp admit that a good chuck of this issue was to corner Democrats and force them to vote it down in the full General Assembly and use it as a campaign issue in 2008.

Center Township Trustee Carl Drummer may be out of a job. Senator James Merritt says legislation calling for the merger of fire departments may yet be amended to eliminate township trustees in Marion County that don’t have fire departments. That would eliminate both the Washington and Warren Township Trustees who’ve allowed their departments to merge and Drummer’s office would be a collateral effect of the legislation.

Marion County Sheriff Candidate Kerry Forestal is playing down speculation in the blogsphere that his candidacy has angered Blacks in the Democratic Party. Forestal may want actually talk to some Blacks, because I have yet to her from one who is enthusiastic about his candidacy. In fact, many are bitter.

That’s the latest for now.

Although I’ve been critical of the Indiana General Assembly for not getting anything done so far this session, I have to say yesterday, their inaction was one of the best things they could have ever done. The House Rules and Legislative Committee voted 5-5 on a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage. Because the measure didn’t get a majority of votes so it didn’t pass. I argue it would have done more than that because while the first section of the amendment said marriage shall be between a man and a woman, which was fine. It was the second section that raised my eyebrows. It read the Indiana law or the Constitution could not be construed to grant the “legal incidents” of marriage to unmarried couples. No one can still tell me what a “legal incident” of marriage is and the posturing on this issue has gotten real old, real quick.

Eric Miller and his crowd need to go somewhere and sit down. In fact, to paraphrase Robin Williams from his role in “Good Morning, Vietnam” Eric Miller is in more need of oral sex than any white man I’ve ever met. This issue needs to be out to rest. Marriage is not under attack by gay couples and activists judges. This is Indiana! Do you people remember how much effort it took to get people to change their clocks in this state? If that’s any indication of how hard it is to change things in this state, then marriage should be fine for a long time to come.

However, if amendment supporters really want to protect marriage and strengthen families, then they should take real steps to protect the institution. First, they should be about job creation. Most families break up over financial matters. When couples can make a good living, they tend to stay together. Second, how about fighting crime. Crime can break up a family. Just ask the mother on the east side of Indianapolis who was killed by a stray bullet. How about working to bring more choice to schools, so families have options when it comes to their education. How about stepping child support enforcement, so men who have fathered children will be responsible and there will be less dependence on government.

If the proponents of strong marriages and families really want to do some good, they’ll focus on those issues, not some mirage called gay marriage.

Today the Indiana House Rules Committee will take up SJR-7, the amendment to the Indiana Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage. The language of the amendment reads as follows, marriage shall be between a man and a woman and nothing in Indiana law shall be construed to require the legal incidents of marriage to unmarried couples.

To be brutally honest with you, I really don’t see what the big deal has been about this issue. I had no idea that gay marriage was such a threat to Indiana families. When a young, pregnant mother in Indianapolis was killed in her apartment by a stray bullet, I don’t think it was a gay couple trying to get married who fired the gun that destroyed that family. I also don’t think it’s been gay couples trying to marry who have opposed progress in this state, keeping away badly needed jobs which can only strengthen families. And it’s not gay couples trying to marry that are responsible for the high drop rate, obesity rate and brain drain, all things that go to harming families.

So if Indiana has all these other pressing problems, why is gay marriage even on the radar screen? It makes for good talk show fodder, but that’s about it. The argument that the amendment is needed to block “activist” judges who might one day in the future rule a certain way is silly. That’s like saying I might get shot one day so let’s takeaway everybody’s gun.

I understand people who truly think marriage is under attack and needs protecting, but it’s usually a famous celebrity heterosexual couple that’s causing the problem by having as many spouses as I do dress shirts. But amending the Indiana Constitution is pointless. Amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage is like giving the drummer from Def Leppard a second drumstick, I’m not sure what good it will do but it definitely won’t make the music sound better.

I was out of town this weekend working on legal stuff back in Illinois and made it a point to keep Indianapolis off the radar screen. I asked myself “what could possibly happen while I was gone?” I should have known better.

Not only is a 4-year old one of the city’s latest homicide victims, but a woman is killed by a stray bullet. These aren’t examples of mope kills mope, but innocent civilians falling victim to the hands of evil doers. And to make matters worse, we are now back to averaging a homicide every 2.7 days. And according to the Indianapolis Star, we’re ahead of where we were last year at this time, and you know what happened last year when it came to homicides.

I would expect law enforcement, particularly the leadership, to be on top of this. But instead, Frank Anderson is not only offering up endorsements for an election that is four years away, but he is also not communicating with his fellow Democrats. I spoke to a number of them over the weekend, and Frank’s actions have also raised the ire of Julia Carson, the Godmother of the Marion County Democratic Party.

If Julia is not happy, and puts her machinations into work, there is no way candidate Kerry Forestal can become sheriff. All this in less than 72 hours. Can’t I leave you people alone for two minutes without something silly happening? I guess not.

Marion County Sheriff Frank Anderson announced a new program yesterday to get illegal guns off the street. Using $100,000 as seed money, Anderson hopes to use the money as a seed fund for Crimestoppers. The money would be used for people who report illegal guns. If you report the gun you get $500, but it must be picked up by the police.

I will give the Sheriff credit. He is taking a step, a small step, but a step nonetheless. My issue with the Sheriff has not been his commitment to public safety, but his absence in the public. I made it a point to do a Google search of the Sheriff to check which news stories he had appeared in talking about crime. I only came up with a handful, prior to yesterday’s news conference.

Anderson told me he’s been doing his job by running the department. I don’t doubt that, but I think it would make a lot of citizens feel better if they saw their Sheriff a lot more often.

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson offered some thoughts today on a number of issues. And in those thoughts there was praise for Republicans and criticism for some of his fellow Democrats. He said while he disagreed with State Senator Jim Merritt over consolidation, he gave Merritt praise for offering up ideas on how resolve the issue. However he criticized Pike Township Trustee Lula Patton over her opposition to fire consolidation saying she was more concerned about jobs than public safety. He also admitted the Sheriff has not been very visible as the city goes through it’s latest crime wave, however he says the public will see a lot more Frank Anderson in the future. Wow, being almost assured re-election is great for candor. I like this Bart Peterson.