Email Eavesdropping - RE: Cricket

Tomorrow the Board of Public Works  will consider letting a $2.5 million contract for the proposed Gaelic Sports Park (aka Cricket fields, aka World Sports Park) using RebuildIndy money.

Here is an email exchange that began with Councillor Zach Adamson appealing to the members of the Board of Public Works .  I have to say, it is good to see our Councillors stand up for reasonable use of taxpayer funds in this way.

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Councillor Adamson to Public Works Board:

Dear Members of the Public Works Board.

I am writing to you today to ask you to vote against the awarding of the contract for the Global Sports Complex with the use of Rebuild Indy funds. I believe this to be an illegitimate use of these funds.  

I do understand the need for city leaders to be ambitious, forward thinking and visionary. That being said,  there’s a difference between being visionary and delusional. The possibility of any real return on this investment is questionable at best, especially in light of news from the city  in Florida who already has such a Cricket Complex and their regrets for investing in it.  

And ultimately, these funds are deliberately set aside for addressing the multi million dollar back log of failing infrastructure across our city. This is NOT what these funds are for.  

Thank you in advance for your serious consideration of a NO vote on the use of RebuildIndy Funds for this purpose and thank you for your service to our fine city.  

Warmest Regards,  

Zach Adamson, Councillor, At-Large
 

Reply from Mayoral appointtee to the Board of Public Works, Dennis Rosebrough:

Good morning Councilor. Thanks for sharing your opinion. Improving parks infrastructure seems to be an appropriate use of the funds. At the end of the project, we end up with first class athletic fields that can be used for many activities including soccer, lacrosse and other games that require fields. The design does not preclude any use including cricket or Gaelic sports. In the worst case scenario, we end up with a beautiful, multi-functional recreational facility on the east side of the city that can be used by young and old.  It could also become a regional center for emerging sports like cricket and draw thousands of people to our community in the future.  

There were those who thought a domed stadium addition to the Convention Center was foolish and that even involved a new tax. As a member of the PR group for the that project, we heard all of the arguments. With Mayor Hudnut’s and the City-Council’s bold vision, it was built - and as they say, “the rest is history.”  Obviously, this project is not even in the same league (maybe $5 million cost and no tax impact vs. $50 million and a new tax), but it does represent a “vision” for our community. I will proudly continue to support this project.  

Dennis L. Rosebrough  

Deputy Commissioner - External Affairs 

Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles
 

Comment back from Adamson to Rosebrough:

Mr. Rosebrough, 

You’re flowery words about this Complex are small consolation to the dozens of people who have been hit by cars and killed in our city because they lack sidewalks to connect them to needed resources, just in this last year alone. I’m sure the communities across our city who have been waiting for major repairs on their streets for decades will be equally unmoved by your embrace for this Complex at their expense.  

I am by no means opposed to the Complex itself and if we could afford it, I’d be excited to hear about it. However, you might not have heard, the city has both a multi million dollar budget shortfall and several hundred million dollars in backlogged infrastructure needs. Needs the RebuildIndy Funds were deliberately created for. This investment is not for repair or stabilization of an existing park. It is for a whole new repurposing of an existing park. One that is not in need of repair.  

I hope when you cast your shortsighted vote in support of this inappropriate use of the RBI funds, you’ll also include a message to all the folks who will not see the needed infrastructure repairs because these funds were diverted. Perhaps, the best thing for me to do at this time is to publish your email reply and include your email so my constituents will be able to send YOU their cries for needed infrastructure. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to hear from you and I’m sure you’ll be able to pacify them with the grand vision of the new Cricket Stadium.  

Since you took the liberty to include Mr Lotter in your reply to me, clearly so you could earn good graces with the mayor, I’m including the other councillors in this reply so they might know what to tell their constituents when they call or they read in the newspaper about yet another grandmother, cyclist or child is killed while trying to pass down a busy street with no sidewalk or shoulder.  

Again, my warmest regards.

Zach Adamson, Councillor, At-Large
 

Hitting the reply to all button, Councillor Angela Mansfield added her point of view:

I concur with Councillor Adamson's statements.  Using Rebuild Indy funds for this purpose is absolutely wasteful!  These funds were raised on the backs of our rate payer constituents and the funds should go back to our neighborhoods. We need sidewalks for every day use for safe transportation to grocery stores, drug stores, jobs, schools, religious institutions, etc. The sidewalks would also provide an opportunity for many to exercise and create a connected community. Building a cricket field for just a few is not only shortsighted given our budget constraints, it is completely delusional.

And, chiming in on the conversation we have this from Councillor Frank Mascari:

I also agree with councilor Adamson. We in Indianapolis have more issues at hand then a sports park.  

Frank Mascari  

City Council District 20

More on Gaelic Sports

An anonymous 'tip' hit my email box, saying that the World Sports Park, aka cricket park, aka Gaelic sports park, was in fact presented to the Parks committee on August 23 last year.  The sender shared a link to the minutes of that meeting, directing me to page 23 of that pdf.

This was the budget hearing for the Parks Department, and the PowerPoint presentation of Parks Director, John Williams.  The presentation did indeed list the World Sports Park as a "2012 Accomplishment".  I went over to WTCY and located the video from that hearing and have embedded the full 24 seconds related to this park:

 

 

The email also sent me to one of the Mayor's Initiatives pages on the Indy.Gov site, dedicated to this park on the site of the current Post Road Community Park.  The plan shown there is different, even in shape, much less field types, from Williams' slide.  The Indy Parks website shows a map of the Post Road Park, which is the same rectangular shape was included in the budget presentation.  I was unable to find any World Sports Park in the list on the Indy Parks website.

 

Back to the Mayor's initiatives page - there is contained on that page a link to a World Sports Park 'brochure', which turns out to be a bigger version of the map shown on the main page.  Right clicking I was able to get the creation date of that document - 4/16/2013 3:08:33 PM.  My, but, that is the same date as the Mayor's Indian announcement of the project.  What a coincidence.

 

IBJ reporter Anthony Schoettle reports:

Mayor Greg Ballard revealed Tuesday during a trade mission to India that Indianapolis hopes to host the inaugural United States Cricketing Championship next summer or fall.

It was the first public announcement of the city's plans, and suddenly shed light on a $6 million project to create a complex that would host the event on the city's far east side.

Already, Ballard has enlisted the Indiana Sports Corp. and Visit Indy, the city’s tourism arm, to help attract, promote and conduct the cricket event, according to Marc Lotter, a spokesman for the mayor. The event will be sanctioned by the United States of America Cricket Association.

Lotter told IBJ the effort to host the event is part of the initiative to transform a 40-acre city park in the 1300 block of South Post Road into an international sports complex capable of hosting local, regional, national and international cricket, rugby, lacrosse and hurling events.

One multi-use field already is complete at the Post Road Community Park and is being used by the city’s local cricket club, Lotter said. The park will be renamed Indianapolis World Sports Park.

The $6 million project began two years ago. Lotter said that once it is complete in summer or fall of 2014, the park will have five athletic fields and be capable of holding events attracting as many as 10,000 spectators.

10,000 spectators.  Here is the aerial of the park property at 1300 S. Post Road, captured as a screen shot from MapIndy.  This aerial was taken in the spring of 2012, and you'll note the cricket playing field was not yet installed.

 

I wonder what the neighborhood thinks about this?  Evidently, at least one neighbor heard the same day the rest of us did, as they texted Councillor Brown during the April 18 Public Works committee meeting while this project was being discussed.  DPW personnel, including Director Lori Miser, could not say how much outreach the Parks Department had done in the area.

 

Well, I've rambled on.  This project may have been know by certain insiders, but it was kept very low on the radar.  Way too low for some Councillors, and way too low for the public who will foot the bill for at least $5.8 million.

SB621 - The MDC Appointments

As I noted in my last blog entry, SB621, which has now passed through the Legislature and awaits Governor Pence's signature, would remove the ability of the County Commissioners to make two appointments and give one to each of the Mayor and the Council.

The law takes effect on July 1, 2013, presuming, as I do, that the Governor will sign it.

However, by state law, the appointing body gets to set the term of its appointments.

The President of the County Commissioners, and County Assessor, Joe O'Connor, informs me that when Cornelius Brown was appointed in September, 2012, it was for a one year term through September of 2013.  When Ed Mahern was appointed in January, 2012, it was for a 3 year term, which would expire at the end of December, 2014.

This is what the new law would say:

(d) METRO. The metropolitan development commission consists of nine (9) citizen members, as follows:

(1) Five (5) members, of whom no more than three (3) may be of the same political party, appointed by the executive of the consolidated city.

(2) Four (4) members, of whom no more than two (2) may be of the same political party, appointed by the legislative body of the consolidated city.

 

The new state law does not specifically terminate existing appointment terms.  Nor does it say which new appointing body would get to exercise its new appointment power. 

SB 621 - Additional Changes, and, Interesting Questions Arise About the MDC

SB 621, which tries to extend the life of Republican rule over Marion County, has passed out of the Conference Committee changed from the form it had when entering that body.  The body itself was changed, substituting Republican Senator Waltz for Democrat Senator Breaux, and Republican Representative Speedy for Democrat Representative Bartlett.  Having shed any semblance of bipartisanship, the all Republican group passed their version of a 'compromise' piece of legislation.

All sections of the bill now clearly apply only to Marion County.  As we all expected, the 4 At-Large Council seats are again to be eliminated.  The Controller can now 'only' change the budgets of all Departments and Offices if the revenues drop from the levels expected when the budget was passed and 'only' twice a year.  The County Commissioners still lose their two appointees to the Metropolitan Development Commission, but one is shifted to the Mayor and one to the Council, giving the Mayor 5 and the Council 4 appointments.  Lake and Allen Counties are struck from the burden of having to count all absentee ballots at a central location - now only Marion County must do so.  And, Marion County's Township Boards drop from 7 members to 5 at the next election.

Interestingly enough is the question of when the MDC appointments shift.  According to state law, the term of these appointments may be from 1 to 3 years, as determined by the appointing body.  Here is the law, with the MDC portion highlighted:

IC 36-7-4-218
Membership of commission; terms and removal of citizen members
Sec. 218. (a) When an initial term of office of a citizen member expires, each new appointment of a citizen member is:
(1) for a term of four (4) years (in the case of a municipal, county, or area plan commission);
(2) for a term of three (3) years (in the case of a metropolitan plan commission); or
(3) for a term of one (1), two (2), or three (3) years, as designated by the appointing authority (in the case of the metropolitan development commission). 

A member serves until his successor is appointed and qualified. A member is eligible for reappointment.

So, one outstanding question is, when the Marion County Commissioners appointed Cornelius Brown and Ed Mahern, for what term did they appoint them?

The new section regarding the appointing bodies takes effect on July 1, 2013.  But at what time would the Mayor and the Council get to begin taking over those two appointments?

The shift of MDC appointments has always been the worst of the Republican power grab, and will leave Indianapolis and it Citizens even more at the mercy of Mayor Vaughn and his rapacious appetite for giving away taxpayer money to favored developers, regardless of how many employee contracts he has to gut or how many cops and firefighters he has to lay off to afford doing so.

Perhaps First Mention of World Sports Park at Public Works Board - July 11, 2012

The July 11, 2012, meeting of the Board of Public Works  appears to be the first time a contract was let regarding the 'Gaelic Sports' park known as the World Sports Park.

Larry Jones presents a contract to scope out the feasibility of creating a second cricket field at a park on South Post Road, north of Brookville Road, that would meet international standards.  He notes that the contract would be with Crawford, Murphy, and Tilly, Inc. because it was chosen by Indy Parks  for the work back in 2010.  ReBuildIndy money would be used for this initial work, but Jones does say that if it is determined feasible, then the cost would be 'substantially higher' - but no cost estimate is asked for or divulged.  The motion almost fails for lack of a second.

Here is the clip from WCTY's archives:

Public Works Board - August 22, 2012 - Sounds Like Regular Park Improvements

Still scanning through the Public Works Board meetings for discussions of the 'Gaelic Sports' complex to be known as World Sports Park.

On August 22, 2012, the Board voted on an amendment to the lone contract let for this venture to that date.  The way I hear it, it sounds like enhancements to an existing park and not much more.  Certainly not anything that DPW Director, Lori Miser, said would cost between $10 and $15 million.  (BTW, at Monday night's Public Works Committee of the City Council meeting, Miser said the total cost was $6.8 million - no explanation of the difference from the estimated price tag just 4 months earlier.)

A Board member had to ask where this park is located.  Here is the short segment of the meeting that dealt with the WSP.

Cricket Field Plans - Hiding in Plain Sight

I began looking for the Public Works Board meeting that actually approved the $5.8 million cricket fields dubbed 'City of Indianapolis World Sports Park'.

I caught an allusion to 'last fall' in today's Board of Public Works meeting, so began cruising WCTY's archives starting with September, 2012.

I found an item on the December 5, 2012, meeting of that Board - a 2nd amendment to a contract regarding the project.  The ensuing discussion among Board members brings out the expectation that this project will total $10-15 million, be part of a public-private partnership already being worked on, and is being done in conjunction with the Parks Department, which failed to mention anything to the Council.

I've embedded the entire conversation and will bring forward any other clips of other meetings where the 'gaelic sports' are mentioned.