As if the Marion County Coroner’s Office did not have enough trouble, sources tell me the Office may be the subject of a racial discrimination lawsuit. Several employees were recently promoted and given $18,000-$20,000 raises, but all sources say were African American and the white candidates were passed over. A complaint has been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and another complaint will be filed with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission.

It looks like there’s some more controversy brewing for the Marion County Coroner’s office. The Office is looking to hire Dr. Joye Carter as its Chief pathologist. However, a check of public records raises some questions about Carter’s qualifications. Carter was the Harris County Chief Medical Examiner in Houston, TX. In 2001, the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners fined 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 examiners office. The Marion County Coroner did not return calls seeking an interview concerning Dr. Carter.

There’s a lot of news about education in Indiana today. We discovered the dropout rate (1 in 4) is worse than anyone thought. The Governor wants to move forward with full day kindergarten. And IPS wants to give everyone a raise, regardless of whether they’ve earned it. The more I look at this situation, the more I think that education really needs an overhaul and maybe an outsourcing.

Don’t get me wrong, I am the product of public education and I would not trade my grammar and high school years for anything. However, I want today’s students to be just as successful and have as many opportunities as I did. I think the only way to do, is to institute real reform.

The fundamental principle of that reform has to be choice. We can debate how that choice can occur, but there should be choice. Whether vouchers for competing public schools, an education tax credit for all schools, or my personal favorite, refunding the school portion of your property tax bill and letting you take it to the school of your choice.

In the absence of any choice option to reform education, might I make another suggestion: outsource public education. Allow school districts to “contract” out to private schools to educate their kids. We do it to a certain degree with the charter school concept. Private schools tend to get better results and can educate kids cheaper. For example, if it costs public school district A $13,000 to educate a kid and private B, $9,000, then why not allow the public school student to opt in to a private school and the public school district saves $4,000 which it can use to boost pay and other programs. The constitutional issue of church and state can be addressed easily by allowing student to opt out of any religious instruction. If parents want it for their children, they can pay that part of the tuition out of their own pockets. This model would especially be helpful in areas where there are poor public schools and private schools struggle because they do not have enough students.

If you’re not crazy about my ideas, I ask you for your suggestions. If you’re going to suggest decreasing the school code and regulations, I’m with you. If you’re going to suggest outsourcing non-education school functions such as support staff, food service and janitorial work I am with you. If you’re going to suggest just throwing more money at the problem, we need to have a long talk.

I know this is the Holiday season with peace on Earth and goodwill towards men, but there may be trouble and serious divisions brewing between Hizzoner Mayor Bart Peterson and City-County Council Democrats, the Black Democrats in particular. It’s hard to get a read on exactly what the division is, but I can say this. The trouble with being the majority is after a while you start to feed on each other. I’ll have more details as they warrant.

I hope all of you have a safe and joyful Thanksgiving. Back in a few days.

I spent the day at the Indiana General Assembly for Organization Day. Lawmakers were pretty cordial with each other. As I love a good political fight (which eventually can lead to good government) here’s where I see the fights taking place in the 2007 session…

Bauer v. Bosma

This was an easy one, of course. Although both sides spoke of bi-partisanship and cooperation, I can see it coming now. The first battle may be over whether Jon Elrod, who beat Ed Mahern for the 97th House District by seven votes, will get seated at all. Mahern is contesting the election. And according to the Indiana Constitution, the House is the final arbitrator of who gets in, not the voters. Expect more fights over education, property taxes and the Governor’s agenda. Another battle will come over privatization. Democrats are planning to hold hearings on privatization and call witnesses to see how privatization has affected their jobs. Ironically, there was a big AFSCME labor rally at the capital today, protesting privatization.

Conservative Senate Republicans v. Even More Conservative Senate Republicans

Conservatives in the Indiana State Senate are privately grumbling about today’s appointments by Senate Pro Tem David Long. They are upset over the appointment of Brent Steele as Chairman of the Civil, Criminal and Corrections Committee. That may not sound like much to regular people, but it’s the committee that hears the hot button issues like gay marriage, flag burning, prayer, etc. Now you kow what I mean. Some conservatives think Steele took the assignment in exchange for dropping out of the race for Pro Tem. Also getting a nice spot was Gary Dillon, another possible contender. He received the post as chairman of the Rules and Ethics Committee. Tom Weatherwax, who apparently did not drop out of the race for Pro Tem lost his chairmanship of the Natural Resources Committee. It’s unclear what conservatives will do to retaliate, but don’t be surprised if they form their own caucus. They would not have enough votes to pass any bills, but they could form a block to defeat any bill.

White v. Rokita

The incoming Marion County Clerk goes head to head with the Indiana Secretary of State. This will be fun to watch. Beth White is already calling for election reform, including having absentee ballots considered cast if they are post-marked by Election Day. Todd Rokita, threw cold water on that idea, saying the law works as is. The two also have some other major policy differences on elections, including Voter ID. This might actually be the most fun fight to watch, as there are elections in 2007 and 2008.

Those are the three big fights I saw preparing to brew on this Organization Day. Who knows what else is on the way? I’m going to enjoy next year.

The U.S. Justice Department could be getting ready to investigate the Indianapolis Police Department over claims of racial discrimination. Sources say Justice Department attorneys are planning to come to the city by the end of the month on a fact-finding mission to investigate alleged racially discriminatory activity. Sources say the discrimination does not involve actions against Black officers, but White ones and it goes primarily to promotions within the department. IPD recently had issues over its promotions list, with a Marion County Judge ruling the current list should be set aside since there will be a new consolidated police department on January 1st.

Okay, I admit I’ve been really bad about posting the past few days. The upcoming Holiday season is always bad for me as my mind gets ready to wind down and worry about other things. However, there have been quite a few things going on lately and the least I can do is share some thoughts. Here they are…

Murder in the Capital City

There were four murders over the weekend in Indianapolis, three shootings and one stabbing. What’s scary about the shootings is that one occurred in broad daylight and with another several men broke into an apartment and murdered a man. This is not good news. I hope it’s just a brief blip on the radar screen. Indianapolis has had 135-plus homicides this year. When city officials tell me crime is up all over the nation, I tell them that’s like your son telling you he failed the exam because everyone else did. I hope this is just a blip on the radar screen because when I see red at Christmas time, I don’t want it to be blood. The City and Sheriff’s department need to get consolidation done, and the crime problem under control.

IUPUI and Diversity

I’ve never had a problem with diversity on college campuses. I think people of different backgrounds coming together to exchange ideas is a good thing. However, diversity in skin color only has little more than face value. The problem with the “agreement” for a multi-cultural center at IUPUI and a “diversity” officer is that to me it is simply window dressing. True diversity is diversity of opinion, not skin color. You also get diversity from having people of different socio-economic backgrounds coming together. I am willing to bet two rich people of different skin colors have more in common than with their poor counterparts of the same skin color. I wish someone would think about that kind of diversity.

She’s Not in the Army

Open and avowed Indianapolis lesbian, Julie Benson, tried to join the National Guard this week and got turned down. She said it was because she was a lesbian. The military said it was because she did not meet the height-weight requirement. A lot of people called the radio show with opinions on this. My belief is that if the American ideals are we judge people on merit, then someone’s sexual orientation shouldn’t matter. At the same time, Julie should have known about the physical requirements of military service and made sure she met them. That way, the only way she could have been turned down was because of her sexual orientation. Hopefully, her New Year’s resolution will be to get in shape and give it another go around. If she’s as dedicated to serving her country as she told me during our interview, then meeting those goals shouldn’t be a problem

Normally I don’t write pieces that are too speculative in nature unless I have some facts to back them up. I’ve been following some items for a couple months now and have been able to piece a few items together. It makes for an interesting read, although I’ll be the first to admit it sounds like something that would show up in an anonymous blog. Luckily, anything I write, I put my name on it because my ego is just that big.

There is quite the internal struggle going behind the scenes involving the Mayor, Council President, the Sheriff’s Department and the Black Pastors. Here’s the deal. The Mayor and Black pastors have been at odds for a while concerning funding for programs. The Pastors wanted the mayor to help raise $25 million over five years for programs they would administer. The meeting went south faster than K-Fed’s career. So now the Council President, Monroe Gray, is negotiating with the Pastors to find them their money. Quite a reversal for a man who reportedly dropped the n-word regarding them a while back. By stepping in, Monroe builds a bridge between the Mayor and Pastors.

Why is this important? There is talk that the newly merged Metropolitan Police Department could go back under Bart Peterson. To accomplish that, the Democrats would have to vote for it. Gray and his chief lieutenant and fellow councilor Vernon Brown are already upset because their “juice” doesn’t fly with the new department. They’ve been told to back off several times by Frank Anderson’s right-hand men. In part, they complain Anderson has appointed no Blacks to his upper echelon. There have been quite a few private conflicts between the two parties.

So here’s the connection, by making peace with the Pastors, the councilors increase their pull, which has come under fire lately for a number of missteps. Secondly, the Mayor gets the Police department back. Gray and Brown stick it to Anderson and his staff. And if Gray can find the money, he’s a hero to the clergy and gets them off the Mayor’s back.

I’m still confused about all this, but this is what’s been going on behind the scenes. Now you’re just as confused as I am.

The Indianapolis City County Council is introducing a proposal that would give raises to numerous county and township offices. Proposal 612 would give three percent raises to the County assessor, auditor, clerk, coroner, recorder, surveyor and treasurer. All nine township assessors would also get raises.

This is an exercise in really bad judgment for a number of reasons. First, the raises kick in next year after a number of officials just got elected into their new office. Many of them Democrats, which will raise an eyebrow or two by some members of the public. Secondly, at a time when the County is strapped for cash, no elected official should be taking a raise with county funds. If anything, if you based the pay on performance, I could argue some of these elected officials (i.e. the coroner) owe the taxpayers money.

This is a bad idea that comes at a bad time that could only raise the ire of the taxpayers. Who’s running the show on the second floor?

We need to have a long talk!

By the way, the proposal also takes the salary cap off of Frank Anderson’s salary.

We really need to talk!