This is Important - Campaign Contributors and No-Bid Contracts

Gary Welsh over at Advance Indiana, posted some really important information the other day.  I feel it is so important that I should post an echo of it here.

In "Rebuild Indy 2 Should Easily Cover the Cost of Mayor's Re-election Campaign", Welsh reports that a reader provided him with an analysis of Mayor Ballard's campaign finance reports and construction companies who received any of the Rebuild Indy money.

All construction company contributions, including the personal contributions of company principles, between 2010 and 2013 were tabulated.  The list was cross referenced to a list of all contracts awarded for Rebuild Indy. The top ten campaign-contributing companies just happened to get no-bid contracts for Rebuild Indy work during that same time period.

Let me say that again - the top ten construction company contributors to Mayor Ballard's campaign, all just happened to get no-bid contracts for Rebuild Indy work.

A no-bid contract is awarded without any competition to ascertain the lowest and most responsive bid for a particular project.  It is just awarded to the chosen company straight out.

Welsh reports this table of the top ten contributors, the value of their no-bid Rebuild Indy contracts awarded between 2010 and 2013 in parentheses, and the amount they contributed during the same period:

1.   American Structurepoint, Inc. ($37,203,475)--$129,700
2.   RW Armstrong & Associates ($13,554,892)--$90,000
3.   United Consulting Engineering, Inc. ($9,066,041)--$101,250
4.   Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates, Inc. ($7,406,845)--$83,500
5.   Butler, Fairman and Seufert, Inc. ($3,847,164)--$63,550
6.   V.S. Engineering, Inc. ($1,957,866)--$41,000
7.   M.D. Wessler and Associates, Inc. ($1,835,236)--$30,250
8.   First Group Engineering, Inc. ($1,282,052)--$36,250
9.   Janssen & Spaans Engineering, Inc. ($1,384,600)--$42,500
10. DLZ Indiana, LLC ($736,250)--$88,905

If you are counting, the top ten contributors got $78,274,421 in no-bid Rebuild Indy contracts and fattened the Gregory Ballard for Mayor Committee coffers by $706,905.

For more analysis, I refer you to Welsh's excellent piece.

Gas Tax "Windfall" - Not What the Mayor Makes it Out to Be

Here's how it looked back on August 14, 2013, when IBJ reporter Kathleen McLaughlin penned an article about Mayor Greg Ballard's proposal to float a bond to add revenue to the nearly depleted RebuildIndy fund:

City officials said Thursday that they intend to spend $350 million over the next three years to improve streets, sidewalks, trails and bridges.

Most of that money will come from existing funds, but $135 million will be borrowed against increased state transportation funding.

...The city expects its share of state gas tax revenue to increase by $7 million, and will leverage that into the bond issue.

The increase in gas tax revenue sent to the City from the State was refined to $7.8 million.  That's were it stood on August 29, when the Public Works Committee of the City-County Council rejected Proposal 250.  I noted in a blog entry the next day that the Mayor's statements to the press were far from the truth.

Well, add one more lie to the list.

I received the real gas tax revenue numbers from the State Auditor's office.  The estimated 2013 distribution of the "Motor Vehicle Highway" revenue to the City of Indianapolis and the County of Marion is $20.25 million.  The estimated 2014 distribution is $23.75 million.  That is a difference of $3.5 million.  Less than half of the $7.8 million the Mayor, Bond Bank Director/Deputy Mayor Deron Kintner, and DPW Director Lori Miser have been touting as the windfall that will pay for the bond.



I added the color highlights to better direct attention to the figures applicable to the City and County

As I noted earlier, the Proposal actually called for annual payments of $9 million on the bond.  So, given that the real gas tax revenue increase is a paltry (by comparison) $3.5 million - they had plans to tap $5.5 million every year for 30 years of money that is usually needed for other things in DPW.  That's not only taking the next generation's increased gas tax, its also trading existing services that by rights should remain in place for the next 3 decades.

There still remains the $240 million of revenue that is already earmarked for road and sidewalk repair over the next 3 years - and that is no small amount of money.

But, to hear Greg Ballard tell it, if the Council does not allow the City to float this additional bond, there will be no infrastructure improvements at all.  That's the story he and his administration are repeating to the media, to the neighborhoods, and to the Council.  It is all a pack of lies.  Mayor Ballard even went so far as to accost Democrat At-Large Councillor Zach Adamson at the Hob Nob with "We're going to murder you guys on this.  You're dead."

They must think they have a lock on the press, a lock on what information gets to the neighborhoods, and a lock on the facts as they prefer to make them out to be.  They must think we are all stupid.

As more of the truth comes out, and it will, I am increasingly grateful to the members of the Public Works committee who voted against this fiscally unsound and cynically presented Proposal to float these bonds - Councillors Vernon Brown, Pam Hickman, Bill Oliver, Monroe Gray, and Zach Adamson.

? Plambeck Out At DMD ?

Rumors are circulating pretty hard in neighborhood circles that Maury Plambeck is out as Director of the Department of Metropolitan Development and that Adam Theis, a City contractor for planning, will be named to replace him.  Don't feel sad for Plambeck, though.  The rumor goes on that he will be named head of a new Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) sub-group that will be funded with $100 million from the Rebuild Indy money (profit from the sale of the water and sewer utilities for those playing along at home).  LISC pays enormous salaries, so Plambeck should be fine.

Here's what I've been able to round up on the internet about the organizations involved.

Theis is currently President of Eden Collaborative, aka Eden Land and Design.  Their website lists a couple of local projects that they consulted on - two at Fort Benjamin Harrison, one for the superbowl legacy project at St. Clair Place, and one for 'transit oriented development' planning for the Metropolitan Planning Organization - part of DMD.  While the website seems to be saying they were a client of DMD for the St. Clair Place project, I could not locate the contract in the City's contract database.  I did, however, find two contracts between DMD and Eden Land and Design. 

Contract 7886 was for $29,040, signed in June, 2010, and expected to run between 6 months and one year.  Its purpose was to create a grant application for the Federal Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program.

Contract 9009 was initially for $250,000, signed in May, 2011, and expected to run through December, 2012.  In May, 2012, this contract was extended to December, 2013, and had its contract limit increased to $450,000.  The purpose of this contract, in part, was to help determine a good location for an IndyGo transit hub and to aid in planning for transit station locations in various parts of Indy.

LISC is a national not for profit organization that, according to its IRS filings, has as its mission to "assist community residents throughout urban and rural areas of the United States to transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy and sustainable communities".  Their 2010 tax filing listed revenues of $101.7 million and expenses of $110.9 million.  They had an increase in assets of $52.1 million for a total of $443.5 million.  They provided grants to a number of Indianapolis organizations in 2010 - by my total $1.3 million.  While almost all recipients were CDCs, there were two exceptions.   The Children's Museum got $45,000 and, my favorite neighborhood organization (oh the irony) Indianapolis Downtown Inc got $43,875.

LISC lists several pages of key personnel who receive over $100,000 in compensation.  Those listed range from a stunning take home of $599,460 for Joseph Hagan, Senior Vice President, to only $443,442 for Michael Rubinger, President.  The lowest salary of the copious number of Vice Presidents was listed at $136,451 for Kenneth Patrick Maher.  I guess Maher needs to step it up.

Although they list Indiana as a State in which they lobby, there is no listing in the City's lobbyist database for LISC.

The City's budget figures show the Rebuild Indy fund with a June 30, 2012, cash balance of $188,732,284 and an expected December 31, 2012, fund balance of $88,006,647 - or $100 million spent in the last half of 2012.

Stay tuned.