Last month I worte about the new Center Township Assessor Eugene Akers who decided he was going to keep his job as an IPS administrator while serving as Assessor. I speculated this would be a conflct of interest. Mr. Akers didn’t think so then, but apprently he’s found Jesus since then.

Akers is taking a leave of absence from IPS. It’s unclear how long the leave will be, but it took him long enough.

He tells the Indianapolis Star there was no conflict because the “school district didn’t pay taxes.” That was the point of my argument. The district didn’t pay taxes, it was a taxing body. A taxing body that Ackers would have got a paycheck from. A taxing body that could potentially lose money based his assessments of Center Township Property.

If Mr. Ackers’ didn’t see a potential conflict for something this obvious, if I were a Center Township property taxpayer, I’d take a close look at my bill when it comes later this year. Who knows what else he would miss.

Indianapolis is becoming home to a distrurbing number of carjackings. According to WTHR-TV, there have been 13 car jackings in the Circle City since January 1. That’s virtually one a day. Add in a murder every three days, prominent citizens becoming victims of crime and it all ads to a perception that lawlessness is sweeping the city. This is not good seeing how there is an AFC Champiosnship game taking place this weekend. I hope they brought their bulletproof jackets.

(I originally wrote this column 12 years ago. I felt a need to reprint it following a discussion over whiskey and cigars with a friend. Thanks for indulging me.)

Recently I had a conversation with a black friend of mine and she told me something I found was a bit disturbing. We were arguing over crime and how to deal with it when she told me, “Abdul, your attitude is typical of middle-class back folk.” I asked her to tell me what that meant. She then went on to say as middle-class blacks tend to move up the socio-economic ladder, they forget their origins, and treat poor blacks the same way whites do.

I have to say I was a bit taken back by all this, because I was being attacked for my status in life which I had no control over. So I told her that she really needed to get grip and maybe the weave in her head was too tight and slowing the flow of oxygen to her brain.

I for one find it rather annoying that I’m accused of being insensitive just because I have a low tolerance level for crime, welfare, and people reproducing who shouldn’t. And I’m not saying these problems are exclusive to poor black neighborhoods so get that attitude out of your head right now.

What I am saying is that attitudes of individual responsibility, self-reliance, and hard work are not the exclusive property of white folks. Why should I send my children to horrible schools and stay in crime-ridden neighborhoods? What possible point could there be to prove? That I’m a well-to-do idiot? I don’t think so. I’m sure there would be some thrill in moving my furniture in my house in the middle of the night so no one will see and steal it later that day while I’m out working.

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Ike Randolph, Indianapolis City-County Councillor, says he will not run for Mayor against incumbent Bart Peterson. Randolph cites famliy and personal reasons. Randolph, a Republican, was first elected to the council in 2003.

Republican City-County Councilman, Dr. Philip C. Borst announced that he will not seek an eighth term on the Indianapolis City-County Council. The council’s Republican leader says “it is just time to give up the seat. I have thoroughly enjoyed serving the people of Perry Township and Marion County going on twenty eight years.” The first eight years Borst represented all of Marion County as an at-large councilmember from 1980-1987, and the last twenty years as a district councilman in Perry Township.

Borst has been a Southside veterinarian for 32 years, and is the owner of The Shelby Street Animal Clinic. He and his wife Jill have been married for 26 years and have two sons, Alex a junior at Purdue University and Eric a junior at Lutheran High School.

The Daniels Administration is sending local governments a message with this year’s budget. The state is no longer going to solve your financial problems, but it will help you get the tools to do it yourself.

Daniels budget Director Chuck Schalliol today announced there is no new money in the Governor’s budget for property tax relief for local governments. The nearly $25 billion spending plan includes slightly more than $2 billion for property tax replacement credits. That is money that goes to the locals to avoid property tax increases for services.

Schalliol says the problem with local governments has been spending. He says spending has grown at 6.1 percent while income has risen 5.1 percent annually. He adds local issues should be addressed by local governments where there is local accountability. He did not come out and directly endorse plans like Hometown Matters or a proposal by Senator Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville) to give local governments more authority to raise revenue, but he said they are on the right track.

Schalliol says the state would pick up part of child welfare expenses in 2009.

The Budget Director says local problems should be addressed, but not through increased State taxing and spending. He adds that prior state efforts to provide property tax relief have failed.

Schalliol’s comments came as he unveiled the state’s spending blueprint to lawmakers. The budget has new money schools and provides for the first year of full-day kindergarten. It also finishes off payment to schools and local governments. Overall state spending increases have been kept under four percent.

Money from privatizing the lottery and increasing the cigarette tax were not included in the budget as the revenue would go toward dedicated programs.

I’ve made it perfectly clear that I am no big fan of the Blue Ribbon panel’s recommendations on how to deal with crime. The more I read it the more I shake my head. One line item actually says it all.

One page 2 of the Recommendations Offered by the Neighborhood and Family Committee, there is a call for increased funding for Multi-Service Centers to reach their main constituencies through core programs. I’m taking this recommendation with a grain of salt because one of the members on the panel making the suggestion is Regina Marsh, Executive Director of the Forest Manor Service Center.

So basically Marsh is recommending her agency get more money.

Did I mention she was once part of a criminal investigation back in 2001 involving illegal bingo operations.

Of course I did.

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson unveiled his crime plan tonight. I was teaching and could not see it live, but my DVR recorded it so I watched as soon as got back to my place. I made it a point to watch it twice, so I could comment intelligently.

The Mayor is right when he says the pre-1977 police pension is the albatross around the city’s neck and it must be removed. His idea to borrow more than $450 million to make the pension solvent by putting it into a fund administered by the Public Employee’s Retirement Fund or a private firm is not necessarily a bad idea. With a reasonable return on investment, the pension fund should do quite well.

What I am not a big fan of is nearly a half-billion dollars in new debt that could potentially grow into more than a billion dollars in payments over the life of the loan. If I want that, I’ll go to the Payday loan place on East Washington Street. I would rather the Mayor use any revenue stream generated from consolidation or Hometown Matters to pay off the balance of the loan.

An aggressive payment schedule would eliminate the loan debt in less than a decade, thereby freeing up hundreds of millions of dollars in funds that can be used for public safety or tax relief.

The Mayor has put an interesting idea on the table, it just needs some tweaking.

I’m glad to offer it.

My friend Rishawn Biddle over at Expresso is reporting Mayor Bart Peterson wants to borrow more than $450 million to pay of the city’s outstanding pre -1977 police pension obligation. The loan would stretch out over 25 years and cost the taxpayers more than a billion dollars, with interest included. The revenue would come from taxes that were raised as a result of Hometown Matters.

This may sound odd, but I owe the folks on the 25th floor at the City-County building in Indianapolis an apology. I made the mistake of commenting on Mayor Bart Peterson’s Blue Ribbon Panel report on crime by only going by the report in this morning’s online edition of the Indianapolis Star. I should have read the whole report. Before reading it in its entirety I said the report was full of nothing but common sense. After reading through the document I can’t help but reach the conclusion that it’s a 110 pages of common sense.

I found the report to simply restate things that have already been said or proposed before, finding jobs for ex-offenders, working with at-risk youth, address mental health issues and strengthen families. That’s it.

I could have written this and saved everyone time and money.

It is a disappointing document because it does nothing but state the obvious.

Well here’s another obvious statement, crime is caused by criminals! As long as there is an environment where criminals feel they can act with impunity, none of this matters.

Indianapolis is no longer safe.

I no longer feel secure.