You all know I am a big fan of government consolidation, particularly when it comes to Township government. Township government is about as dated and tired as Brittney Spears’ music act. However, with that said, I will come to the defense of the Republican Township trustees in Marion County on one instance. Before Mayor Bart Peterson, “Hizzoner” as I like to call him, goes after them, it would be nice if he could get his own party in order.

Pike Township Trustee Lula Patton has no desire to give up her fire department. In fact, she stood with other township trustees and State Senator Mike Young, opposing the Mayor’s plan. In addition, the incoming Wayne Township Trustee David Baird, has also hinted that now that he’s got the job, giving up the Wayne Township Fire Department might not be the best idea. Both Patton and Baird are Democrats. If I were the Mayor I would spend my time and energy trying to get Patton and Baird on board (I’d use a butterfly net when going after Baird, though).

The Mayor has a good chance of getting consolidation this legislative session. Democrats control the House and a consolidation-friendly Senator is the head of the State Senate. And Governor Mitch Daniels is in favor of less government. However, if we’re going to push for consolidation, save the taxpayers money and get rid of outdated government, like charity, it should start at home.

As you all know I’m a Shakespeare fan. My favorite line from Richard III is “A horse, A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” The line occurs at a time in the play where after King Richard’s horse is killed and he is at the mercy of his enemies. Literature experts say the line is usually used when someone is in need of an unimportant item. Well in that case, allow me to paraphrase. “A coroner! A coroner! My County for a Coroner!” You know where this is going.

My good friend Matt Tully, columnist for the Indianapolis Star, has written a piece this morning calling on the Mayor to step up to the plate and call for Ken Ackles, the Marion County Coroner, to step down. I’m going to go a step further than Matt, and call on any elected Marion County Democrat to call on Ackles to resign.

If you don’t think they’re already talking about this, think again. Many privately are already saying Ackles and his office’s recent shenanigans have been an embarrassment for the party. I just finishing reading the Coroner’s mission statement on his website which talks about vision, integrity and excellence. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen much of any of that as of late.

It’s been written that former deputy Mayor and all-around really smart guy, Mike O’Connor is going to take over as the new head of the Democratic Party in Marion County. I could not see a situation where Mike would want Ackles on any ticket any time soon. And if the Marion County Democrats are smart, they will put pressure on Ackles to step down. It’s never easy telling a loved one that they have a problem, but keeping Ackles in office is helping no one, well maybe Republicans.

Dear Lord,

How’s it going? Sorry to bother you, I know we talk five times a day, but this is kind of a special crisis. You see things are getting more bizarre in Marion County. I’m not talking the usual bar in the government building weird, or the school district employee who plans to double-dip as center township assessor, but really weird. You see we have this coroner Ken Ackles, you may have seen some of his handiwork lately. And the coroner’s made this new hire; her name is Dr. Joye Carter.

She seems like a nice lady. She’ll be the new contractual pathologist. I know I shouldn’t bother you with this, with your son’s birthday coming up, but once she comes on board, could you pay a little extra attention to the Marion County coroner’s office. I’m asking this because once she got her Indiana license, it just made me think of her testifying on the witness stand in a murder trial and what the defense attorneys are going to do to her. I saw some of my defense attorney friends salivating on their way to the Legal Beagle to buy a round of shots because they can’t wait to get her on the stand.

I mean look at her record. In 2001, the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners fined Dr. Carter and she nearly lost her license for allowing an unlicensed pathologist to perform autopsies. In addition, in 1998 her office was accused of tampering with evidence in the connection of the trial of murder of a 12-year old girl. That same year, workers in her office admitted angry employees stacked bodies on top of each other in the morgue in violation office policy. And in 2000, a federal jury awarded an employee $250,000 for wrongful discharge for exposing illegal activity in the medial examiner’s office. I won’t even start with the Enron deal. This can’t be good.

So Lord, if you love me, please do the following. If I die, and based on what I’ve written on my blogs about some local elected officials lately, that might be happening sooner than later, please don’t let there be enough of me left for the Coroner to do an autopsy. And please give County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi the strength to plea bargain my case so Dr. Carter doesn’t have to take the stand and my defense attorney friends can go after her like a Katrina refugee goes after free housing. Of course, you could solve this problem by letting me die the way I always wanted to, being shot at the top of the Eiffel Tower by a super model’s jealous husband. If you do that, I promise not to complain about the cold weather anymore. And yes, I realize the last time I spoke to you about it you told me to enjoy it while I could, because if things didn’t change I’d be begging for it in about 60 years.

Amen.

P.S. The test results came back negative, thanks!

2006 has not necessarily been the year of the Black politician and public figure in Marion County. Look at the list, Heather Bolejack, Ron Gibson, Ken Ackles, Eugene Akers, Carl Drummer and Monroe Gray, well I’m not 100 percent convinced on the last one.

But the way things have gone for these folks, I wonder if maybe I should break out my emergency homeowner’s kit from college. It was white clown make-up I used to wear to festivals when I lived in Europe.

These people have made it a point to engage in behavior this year that really doesn’t help Black folks’ image as a whole. I won’t say any of the above mentioned people have committed any crimes, although some have a special prosecutor breathing down their necks, but the sad part it is they will claim racism when they screw up and get caught, instead of taking responsibility for their actions.

What makes it worse is that there are a number of really good African-American politicians out there who work hard everyday to improve the lives of people who generally get left behind. And when others engage in shenanigans, it really hurts the entire group.

I hope things change in 2007, if they don’t I think, I know who’s getting clown make up next year so they can be someone else’s problem.

The Governor’s budget office has put out a new report recommending millions in savings by privatizing and consolidating a number of state functions. Both sides of the aisle are staking out their usual positions, Republicans call it great concept. Democrats call greed based on need. My position on privatizing government services is simple, I’m for it as long as it works. When I say works, I mean when the private vendor can provide the social or administrative service at less cost and equal or better service, and follows the same transparencies of open government that the public sector must, then I say give it a shot. So a company is motivated by profit? All the more reason to give them a shot at state services, you can’t keep a contract if you can’t do a good job, because there will be someone else there to pick up the ball you dropped. A watchful government, combined with the free market should keep things under control. Normally I’d say what do we have to lose, but the more appropriate ending would be what do we have to save.

The Metropolitan Development Commission gave its thumbs up to 300 East. The board voted 6-3 to approve zoning variances for the famous “bar in the government building.” Board members gave their approval after the investors made a number of changes in the proposal, including opening hours, a ban on live entertainment and outside noise. The investors also agreed to submit a new design to separate the bar area from the restaurant. That will be tricky because the place is not that big, having been on the inside. What’s more interesting is that if the opponents of 300 East wanted to make some noise, they would abandon any fight over zoning and go straight to the issue of the actual lease between the investors and Center Township Trustee Carl Drummer. There are some major questions there that could be asked during a deposition after an injunction had been issued to stop the investors from taking possession of the property. By the way, the liquor license has not been approved yet.

Although the Marion County Coroner and other local government officials have agreed to work out a deal to keep the office functioning, there was apparently a lot more going on behind the scenes.

According to sources close to the coroner, Ackles ordered staff to remove charts from the files of Dr. Stephen Radentz’s offices at the Forensic Pathology Associates of Indiana. Sources say 14 boxes were removed Tuesday night from the FPA offices. Three of the boxes contained information regarding pending cases. In addition, sources also say autopsy equipment had been taken and not all of it returned. The removal of the equipment sources say, resulted in a four hour delay in performing autopsies.

Ackles did have a meeting today with Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi. During that meeting Brizzi asked Ackles whether he was prepared in the event Dr. Joye Carter’s license was not approved. Ackles told Brizzi he had a plan “B” and “C.” When asked about the plan, Ackles simply responded, “I’m the coroner.”

You will also be pleased to know that over the weekend several bodies were removed from the coroner’s office without proper paperwork being signed.

Now you know the story behind the story behind the deal.

The incoming Center Township Assessor may be sitting on a potential conflict of interest. Eugene Akers was elected November 7 by a 12-thousand vote margin. However, Aker’s new job may conflict with his old job. He currently oversees custodians in the Indianapolis Public School District. He officially takes office on January 1st. By holding both positions Akers would be responsible for assessing property in the school district while still being on IPS’ payroll. IPS makes up about 48 percent of the average Center Township property tax bill. Numerous calls to Akers have not been returned. However a district spokesperson says Akers has told the IPS the Assessor’s office is a part-time job and he plans to stay. The Assessor job pays about $65,185 per year. That number does not include a possible three percent pay raise that may be voted on by the City-County Council.

Current Center Township Assessor Jim Maley was elected back in 1984. Up until recently he says he easily put in 40-60 hour work weeks. He says health problems have slowed him down. He would not comment on Akers.

Outgoing Lawrence Township Assessor Paul Ricketts says it’s odd that an assessor would hold two jobs which require full-time commitments. He also says the potential for ghost employment is also there.

Under Indiana law certain office holders can only hold one office at a time. It is a violation of the Indiana Constitution for an office holder to hold two jobs that are so incompatible with each other that they “create a conflict of interest or go against public policy.”

On Wednesday, Nov. 29th, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Massachusetts, et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency, et al. It’s a fascinating case (at least for lawyers) in that state governments are arguing the federal government is ignoring its charge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press both have good roundups.

To describe the situation in its most general terms, the federal government has, over the years, assigned rulemaking, adjudication and the enforcement of those rules/decisions to government agencies. This is commonly referred to as adminstrative law, and it has long been a target of libertarian criticism. Congress will pass a very general law directing a federal agency – in this case the Environmental Protection Agency – to regulate a broad area of commerce or the environment. The agency then draws up regulations to carry out Congress’ orders.

Although the practice may have started out innocently enough, it has left us with hundreds of thousands (and possibly millions) of pages of regulations that govern virtually every aspect of life. For lawyers, this is job security. For the economy, it is a massive unwieldy drain.

Among all of the rules was one passed by Congress directing the EPA to regulate pollutants with “adverse effects on public health, welfare or the environment.” The EPA claims that this doesn’t give it the authority to regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) and that, even if it did, the EPA could choose not to regulate it at this time. Massachusettes and 11 other states disagree, saying that because CO2 contributes to global warming, they are permitted to regulate it and in fact they are required to do so.

For environmentalists this is an interesting case, but I think it has an even larger impact on the future of administrative law and the balance of federalism. For now, at least, that future is in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Actually, it would be about 85,000 dimes. That’s the amount of a proposed raise that is being floated around the City-County building for members of the City-County Council who want an $8500 raise.

Currently, Council Members make a base pay of $11,400 a year, not including meetings. Their base salary is 12 percent of the Mayor’s salary which is $95,000. The Mayor’s Office got a raise in 2000. Council members also get $112 per council meeting and $62 per committee meeting. There can be no more than 21 council meetings per year and 62 committee meetings. The Council President gets an extra $1982 per year, while the Vice-President, Majority Leader and Minority Leader get $1320. Committee Chairs gets $797. However, a council member can’t get two extra salaries, so if a member is Vice-President and also committee chair, they could only get one stipend. In a perfect world, the most a council member could make would be just over $16,000.

A raise would be a bad idea. Not that Council Members don’t deserve it, per se, however, when the City and County are faced with serious financial crises, including looking for $140 million to make up a budget shortfall, public safety obligations, crime at record levels, pension obligations and not to mention the tax increases that were passed, it would be very bad public relations for the Council to give themselves an $8500 raise. However, the way things have gone this year down at city hall, it would not surprise me if this went through.