Thursday, February 3, 2011

No-So Hearing - Is the Council Skirting State Law?

As I noted earlier this week, the Economic Development committee was scheduled to meet on Wednesday. This was not a regularly scheduled committee meeting date and the only item on the agenda was Prop 292, which would authorize Mayor Ballard to float a $98 million bond, backed by property taxes from the consolidated downtown TIF district, and loan it to the developer of the proposed North of South project - a project which was not considered worthy of a loan from any financial institution.

The ice storms caused cancellation of Wednesday's meeting.

But, lo and behold, notice put out just today (Thursday, February 3), says that there will be a meeting of this committee Friday, February 4.

State law mandates 48 hour notice of public meetings in Indiana.

[edited 2-4-11 : the meeting is set for 4:30 pm in room 260]

Perhaps the rush is due to the full Council meeting set for Monday night. But, at least they can follow state law. It really isn't asking too much from our elected officials.

Is the committee's chairman, Jeff Cardwell, skirting or even outright violating Indiana's public notice laws?

4 comments:

Blog Admin said...

Heaven forbid a public meeting is actually held on a weekend!

Had Enough Indy? said...

It is not unheard of to have a committee meeting just prior to the full Council meeting, as well.

This move should appall everyone in Indianapolis.

Ballard and Vaughn don't care what they have to do to keep taxpayer money flowing to the special interests and well connected. Meanwhile, they cut the Library, Parks and IndyGo budgets.

Their vision for Indy is crystal clear.

Anonymous said...

This deal makes no business sense.

Appears to be targeted to satisfy Eli Lilly executives (Mayor Ballard's fathers former employer) and unchecked power of cities construction companies lobby. (Wishard & Clarion is not enough, now that taxpayer convention center expansion, JW Marriott, & Lucas Oil are done)

At least JW Marriott has true "gap" financing leveraging mostly private funding.

No So is almost 100% public financed with a poor business case that was rejected by every private investor and bank in town.

It should be rejected in committee, and not make it to the full council.

Anonymous said...

Isn't there someone who can stop this meeting. It clearly does not have proper notice, therefore, anything occurring at the meeting should be null and void. I am not aware of any exceptions that permit a public meeting from not having at least 48 hours notice posted.