Rules Committee to Take Up Parking Meter Deal - Again

The Rules committee of the City-County Council meets tonight, beginning at 5:30 pm, in room 260 of the City-County Building. On the agenda is consideration of the revised 50 year lease of the parking meter system (a monopoly) to ACS.

This committee is purposely stacked with Republicans, and all controversial proposals that might not eke out every last Republican vote, seems to find its way to this committee.

Bob Lutz serves as Chair. The other Republicans on that committee are Bob Cockrum, Mike McQuillen, Angel Rivera, and Ryan Vaughn. Vaughn, you will recall from posts on OgdenOnPolitics and AdvanceIndiana, was listed with the State of Indiana as a lobbyist for ACS for a full year, until he claimed it was an error and had that information removed from the State's website. He also works at Barnes & Thornburg, where a Partner, Joe Loftus, serves both as a lobbyist for ACS and Counsel for Mayor Greg Ballard. Vaughn has refused to recuse himself from voting on this matter, saying that only if his law firm become partners with a client in a deal, not merely representing that client, then and only then would it become a conflict of interest requiring his recusal. That logic sets the ethics rules on its ear. Democrats on this committee are Monroe Gray, Angela Mansfield, and Joanne Sanders.