Breaking My Silence: IMCPL Funding

Long time no talk, right? Well, that's about to change. As I've mentioned in the past, I have several stories I have yet to right but are in the line-up, so they will be published. But right now, I need to talk about the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library.

I was listening to Greg Browning on WIBC this past Saturday, and this topic came up. I unfortunately only heard the last half hour or so of the topic before his show ended. But in that short time, many callers expressed concern about out of control government spending.

Let's be clear. The Library has plenty of room for criticism, especially the fiasco that occured during the expansion of Central Library downtown. But of all the municipal corporation budgets passed by the City-County Council, only the Library Board budget was passed unanimously.

After that happened, a backdoor deal was made to sell the city's water and sewage utilities (not lease, sell). This will, if approved by the proper government bodies, result in over $400 million dollars for the city to use for almost anything it wants. The concern some have raised is that the money will be used for economic development. Of particular concern is the $15 million bailout for the Indianapolis Pacers by the Capital Improvement Board, which is still massively in debt, borrowed $7 million from the state (with $14 million still possible) while in debt, and has not yet come to the conclusion that those in debt can't spare $15 million.

We, as citizens, are paying 2% additional in sales tax on food and beverage to finance the debt on the RCA Dome (now demolished) and Lucas Oil Stadium.

Maybe the concern that professional sports will get a huge chunk of change is completely unfounded. I hope it is. But those on the 25th floor, regardless of party, have demonstrated how sports-crazy they are. We need to build a city here. We should take care of the citizens first, and professional sports last.

The library system we have here is one in the best in the nation. When I talk to family and friends about their library system, even those in major cities, they don't have the services we get. Library usage has risen, so these aren't services that just aren't being used.

Besides the money from the water deal, we have a $15 million "rainy day fund" built into the city budget. And from attending those budget meetings, I didn't hear about any restrictions on what the city can or can't spend that money on.

The library should look into reducing hours, pay for employees, and a variety of other options. But closing branches isn't something easy to reverse once the library's funding becomes more stable and predictable. Let's do all we can to work out a sensible future for the library financially, and in the mean time, shore up some of the surplus money the city has to keep the library stable until a solution is in place.

Indianapolis City-County Council Meeting Tonight

A full view of what's on the agenda is here. The following are some items of interest that I found:

To be voted on:

• Prop 12 of 2010 appoints Stuary Lowry as the Director of Parks and Recreations. I was half an hour off in getting to the committee meeting on time, but I was told by someone exiting the meeting that there was no call for public comment. I have e-mailed my district council representative,Maggie Lewis (D-District 7), as well as the At-Large representatives, and hope a public comment can be added to the City-Council meeting before the council takes it's vote. I can live with my own fault if I missed my opportunity to have my voice heard, but it was never given a chance. The council should rectify that tonight.
• Prop 22 of 2010 amends a few parts of council ethic requirements and how to file complaints and handle them.

The following proposals are only being introduced to the council:

• Prop 30 approves Dennis G. Papenmeier as hearing office to preside over "administrative adjudication" of parking citations. If my definition of "adjudication" is accurate, this probably means Mr. Papenmeier will be presiding over the Parking "Court" that I've blogged extensively on. This will be referred to the Administration and Finance Committee.
• Prop 33 reappoints Michael Halstead else to the huge City Market Corporate Board of Directors. The City-Market's board is bloated and needs focused leadership, not more bureaucrats. Mr. Halstead is probably not the person to provide that, since he's been on the board since 2006. His background (surprise) is architecture. Here is his resume and here is his Linkedin profile.
• Prop 32 is funding various activities within the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation.
• Prop 35 is to fund two city-supported not-for-profit corporates, Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association and Indianapolis Economic Development Inc., as well as the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation. This is a common legislature tactic to put funding for various groups in one proposal even though the groups don't necessarily have the same goal, or anything in common. This forces representatives to vote for or against the whole package, even though they may support part of it. What should be done is this proposal should be broken into three, with ICVA, IEDI, and the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation in each. Each should lay out a specific budget on what exactly they intend to do with the money. It is disturbing that all of the additional funding being proposed in all of the additional funding proposals is being tossed into Section 3(a)3's "Other Services and Charges" category, meaning little accountability can be expected or enforced.
• Prop 36 will use a federal grant to fund EnderDel, a manufacturer of automotive lithium-ion batteries. I have previously expressed my concern at how much federal funding is propping up the budget of the City of Indianapolis, and am very concerned where all this money will come from once it dries up.
• Prop 37 uses $400,000 in a state grant to fund fiber-optic cables and related equipment installed by Lockheed Martin Aspen Systems Corporation.
• Edward Coleman (L-At Large) introduced another piece of legislation as well, Prop 39, to amend the ordinance banning firearms in city parks. This changes it so that law enforcement can carry their firearms into city parks, and that licensed firearm owners who can carry can also. It is still illegal to discharge any firearm unless it is in defense of self or others. This is sure to cause some controversy. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

The full council meeting will start at 7:00PM. Attend if you can.