Friday, February 3, 2012

Council Committee Assignments

The assignment of Councillors to committee has some 'winners' and 'losers' on the Democrat side of the aisle, and a more homogeneous distribution on the Republican side.  There are 11 committees with 51 D positions and 30 R positions available.  Given 16 Ds and 13 Rs, that calculates to an average of 3.2 committees per D and 2.3 committees per R.
The eleven committees, number of members, and the abbreviation I'll use below are:
Committee on Committee (3) COC
Administration & Finance (8) ADMIN
Community Affairs (8) CA
Ethics (6) ETHICS
Law Enforcement Study Commission (7) LESC
Metropolitan & Economic Development (8) MED
Municipal Corporations (8) MUNI
Parks & Recreation (8) PARKS
Public Safety & Criminal Justice (9) PSCJ
Public Works (8) PUBWKS
Rules & Public Policy (8) RULES
Here are the Councillors, listed by the number of committees to which they have been assigned.  An asterisk after the committee denotes that Councillor serves as Chair.
6 Committee Assignments
(D) Vernon Brown (COC, ETHICS*, LESC*, PSCJ, PUBWKS*, RULES)

5 Committee Assignments
(D)Leroy Robinson (CA, ETHICS, LESC, MED, PSCJ)
(D) Joe Simpson (ADMIN, ETHICS, LESC, PARKS, PSCJ)
4 Committee Assignments 
(D) Maggie Lewis, (COC*,ADMIN, RULES, CA*)
(D) Williams Oliver (LESC, PARKS*, PSCJ, PUBWKS)
3 Committee Assignments
(D) Zach Adamson (CA, MED, PUBWKS)
(D) John Barth (CA, PARKS, RULES)
(D) Monroe Gray, (MUNI*, PARKS, RULES)
(D) Pam Hickman (ADMIN, CA, PUBWKS)
(D) Mary Moriarty Adams (ADMIN, MED, PSCJ*)
(D) Vop Osili (MED, MUNI, PARKS)

(R) Ginny Cain (ETHICS, MED, PUBWKS)
(R) Janice McHenry (LESC, PARKS, PUBWKS)
(R) Jeff Miller (CA, ETHICS, MED)
(R) Christine Scales (LESC, PARKS, PUBWKS)
2 Committee Assignments
(D) Jose Evans (MUNI, PUBWKS)
(D) Brian Mahern (MUNI, RULES*)
(D) Angela Mansfield, (ADMIN*, RULES)
(D) Steve Talley, (MED*, MUNI)

(R) Jeff Cardwell (MED, MUNI)
(R) Aaron Freeman (CA, ETHICS)
(R) Jason Holliday (MUNI, PARKS)
(R) Ben Hunter (ADMIN, PSCJ)
(R) Robert Lutz (MUNI, RULES)
(R) Mike McQuillen (COC, RULES)
(R) Marilyn Pfisterer (ADMIN, PSCJ)
(R) Jack Sandlin (CA, LESC)
(R) Ryan Vaughn (ADMIN, PSCJ)
1 Committee Assignments
(D) Frank Mascari (PSCJ)

Councillor Evans is the only incumbent D who did not get to Chair a committee, while President Lewis Chairs 2 and Councillor Brown Chairs 3.

Additionally, during the Rules committee meeting where 4 committees were combined to create 2 committees and 1 new committee was revived from a few years ago, much was made of saving taxpayers money.  The 2011 committees provided 84 seats, while the 2012 committees provide 81.  Not much cost savings really, especially given that when budget time rolls around the 2 combined committees will have to meet the same  number of times as the original 4 did last year.

7 comments:

Gary R. Welsh said...

Wondering if Vernon Brown collects a per diem check for attending all those council meetings when he should be at work performing his other taxpayer job as a battalion chief for IFD.

Had Enough Indy? said...

I don't know what Brown's work schedule is, but the Councillors do get paid per meeting attended, plus a flat annual amount.

He's definitely got a busy schedule. But also, his constituents get more representation than do those of say, Mascari.

Gary R. Welsh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gary R. Welsh said...

There is also nothing like good ole fashioned racism. I note that black councilors have been afforded the most appointments to committees to ensure that they will earn more money as councilors by having more meetings to attend because of the per diem schedule. It's funny how black Democrats in this town are always the first to scream racism, but when they are in power they have no problem blatantly discriminating against white people to favor their own.

Ben said...

Gary please...Do you really think that Osili needs the money?. You normally post some brilliant stuff, but that comment was just plain stupid and elementary at best.

Im surprised that you would make such a statement.

Had Enough Indy? said...

Gary - I'd say its more about power centers within the D party. It was nearly a year ago when the deal was struck to shove Sanders overboard and put Lewis in as President, if the power center promoting her would support Kennedy. I would only suppose that Brown is part of that inner group as well.

I must say that Brown has shocked me by his radical and nasty moves to marginalize the Republicans. But, this committee list also suggests he is trying to elevate a subgroup of the D Councillors to corral most of the power and influence of the Council. If you look at the three Councillors with 5 or more assignments, they cover every committee except Municipal Corporations. All this can easily backfire as resentment builds up.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Hey, Ben, this has nothing to do with Osili. The council members who got 4 or more committee appointments are Brown, Robinson, Simpson, Oliver and Lewis, all African-Americans. Everyone else, including Evans and Osili, were appointed to three or fewer committees. The only councilor who received one appointment was a white council member, Mascari. Of those councilors appointed to only two committees, all but one were white. I've successfully sued the county coroner's office for reverse discrimination so I know a little bit about the law. The racial disparity in those numbers on their face are racially discriminatory no matter how you cut it, Ben. There is no way of sugar-coating it.