MOUNAYAR: Indianapolis should rediscover public spaces
Too few of the city's revitalization projects are connected by attractive sidewalks, streets, gardens and plazas.
Too few of the city's revitalization projects are connected by attractive sidewalks, streets, gardens and plazas.
The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department likely will have to return more than $273,000 in cash seized as part of a
racketeering investigation after the Marion County Prosecutor's Office missed a civil forfeiture deadline.
Another case has surfaced in which Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi personally weighed in to the benefit of defense attorney
Paul Page, Brizzi’s friend and business partner.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi has said he has no plans to resign, despite Mark Massa’s call Wednesday
morning for him to step down. Brizzi will be eligible for a public pension
if he finishes his second term Dec. 31.
Mark Massa, former general counsel for Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Republican candidate for Marion County prosecutor, calls
on Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, also a Republican, to step
down in the wake of an IBJ investigation.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi last year intervened in a major drug case to offer a reduced sentence over objections
from both law enforcement officers and his own deputy prosecutors.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi paid nothing for a 50-percent stake in an Elkhart office building he acquired with a
local defense attorney.
Records show Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi directed lucrative work for the Prosecutor’s Office to his friend, business
partner and political contributor John Bales.
The bill now likely will go to a House-Senate conference committee to try to resolve the House-passed and Senate-approved
versions of the bill.
The Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute says that all 92 state counties could reap big cost savings — more than $300,000 in Marion
County alone — if they used vote centers on Election Day instead of traditional precinct locations.
Mark Massa, attorney for Gov. Mitch Daniels, is “considering” running for Marion County prosecutor as the Republican candidate.
The leader of the party in the county said he would be “ecstatic” if he would.
The written statement Carl Brizzi released Thursday saying he will not seek a third term as Marion County prosecutor makes
no reference to the controversy surrounding his business and personal ties with embattled Indianapolis financier Tim Durham.
Township boards would be eliminated in Indiana and their local government duties would be transferred to the county level
if a Statehouse proposal becomes law.
Indianapolis property tax bills, paid in two installments due in May and November, should be sent without delay for the first year since
2006.
Lobbyists paid $1,000 or more to sway city or county officials will be required to report all activity online.
A Lawrence Township trustee is proposing to merge the township’s fire department with the Indianapolis Fire Department,
in an attempt to further reduce its operating deficit.
Nearly every Indiana county has failed to send property tax bills on time this year, forcing many local governments and schools
to borrow millions and providing further proof that Indiana’s tax system is still a work in progress more than a decade after
a court ordered a massive overhaul.
Counties wanting to speed traffic among suburbs are building highways to avoid having to travel into Indianapolis. The result,
a 100-mile outer loop beyond Interstate 465, won’t be completed for years, and it won’t be built to consistent standards,
but it might help ease congestion.
Chrysler has returned $5.5 million in bonds to an Indiana county to settle a dispute over millions of dollars the county spent
toward a transmission plant that a Chrysler supplier stopped building last year.
Fitch and other rating agencies are concerned that the phase-in of property tax caps will further strain the city’s finances.