Monday, October 27, 2008
Sheriff Anderson Allows Law Firm To Bilk Taxpayers
Instead of using the free services of Indianapolis' corporation counsel, Sheriff Frank Anderson gives all of his legal work to a political crony and former campaign manager, Kevin Murray, of the law firm of Locke Reynolds. According to the Star's Brendan O'Shaughnessy, Murray has billed the sheriff's department more than $3 million since 2003 and could bill the county an additional $1.5 million before his latest contract expires. O'Shaughnessy notes that the corporation counsel's office employs 27 lawyers at salaries from $45,000 to $90,000. Sheriff Jack Cottey also used outside counsel, but the fees were capped at $290,000 per year. It should also be pointed out that the corporation counsel's office still farms out some of its legal work to local law firms. Some have questioned where that work is currently being steered. Attorney Paul Ogden has more on that here.
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13 comments:
When people talk of welfare queens, they shouldn't picture a black single mother of four that lives in the ghetto driving a new Caddi. Instead, they should picture white males who get filthy rich on the backs of taxpayers via government contracts or direct taxpayer payments (ie: Lucas Oil Stadium). These people are on welfare, there is no question about it. If it were not for taxes, these folks wouldn't have 1/50th of their current personal wealth.
This story just affirms the "who cares about this country" attitude most are taking. I have two large bags of plastic I was going to recycle, but not anymore. Why waste my $1 in gas it would costs me to go out of my way to recycle this stuff when I can just put it in my normal trash and send it to a landfill? I have a decent comforter set that I could give to Goodwill, but I think I might just pitch it into the trash when I get home. It is high time these folks making millions on the backs of taxpayers get taxed and pay their fair share. Time to vote for Obama and others like him who will taxes these people at least an additional 10% in income taxes. They can obviously afford that.
I sure wish somebody could investigate the sheriff's budget.
Where did he get over $2.2MILLION out of a "COMMISSARY" fund? Is he selling Twinkies and Ho Ho's for $20 each? By the train-load?
Somebody is LYING!
What the Sheriff can do, when he gets sued for CCA or CMS' negligence, which is all the time,is to recoup the attorneys fees and any judgments under the privatization contract. He doesn't do that.
To Frank Anderson:
You failed the people of Marion County! Part of the job of any elected official is fiscal responsbility. Giving your crony Kevin Murray 3 Million of OUR tax dollars is a gross failure as an elected official. There is NO justification for that abuse of power, Frank.
Frank, you said "There is no room for politics in law enforcement." You are now a proven hypocrite!
Politics is so wrong with your office... Where else would Kevin Murray get THREE MILLION DOLLARS than from the taxpayers of Marion County, Indiana??? His law firm is set for quite a while. Being your campaign staff really PAID OFF for Kevin Murray.
How about the nepotism in your office, Frank? City-County General Ordinance #55-2008 implements a new section of the Revised Code #293-208 specifically aimed at Frank Anderson: Nepotism is prohibited in all non-sworn positions at the Sheriff's Department! Since Frank Anderson no longer has sworn employees, shall we say goodbye to Colonel Layton's family, and remove them from the payroll? -And how many members of the McAtee family will the nepotism ban remove from the taxpayer payroll?
This is a gross example of the TAX & SPEND Democrats abusing elected office for the benefit of cronys!
Indy4u2c,
Republicans can't throw stones on this issue. The situattion with the the taxpayer money flowing to Barnes & Thornburg under the Republican Mayor is actually worse.
Indy4u2c....you didnt read carefully ....even though the money does seem excessive, it is NOT taxpayer money. The attorney was paid from proceeds of the commissary fund. The prisoners and their families are paying for this .......not one cent of your money has been used unless YOU were incarcerated in the Marion County Jail and purchased items through the commissary.
Before I came to Indiana, I never heard of people in government claiming that money collected in the operation of government services was not the public's money. Such is the case with these so-called commissary funds, which are treated as the sheriff's own petty cash account to do with what he pleases. I don't care from whom the money came. I only care that it was raised through the operation of services within the sheriff's department. That makes the revenues public funds as far as I'm concerned. People say the same thing about the airport authority. The money is raised from airlines fees. So what? It's a governmental entity owned by the taxpayers. Any funds they receive in their operation are public funds, pure and simple.
Before I came to Indiana, I never heard of people in government claiming that money collected in the operation of government services was not the public's money.
It is the classic bait and switch. Public tax money on the outlay but the income is private. In this case, every dime given to this law firm could have been spent on training, equipment, etc.. The tax money that had been collected for that stuff then could have been returned to the taxpayers. Heaven forbid we given taxpayers back any money, we have to keep the elite connected hacks rich. Where is Obama when we need his 20% additional income tax on people like Kevin Murray?
AI,
You're right. Commissary money is not "free money" that the Sheriff is supposed to be spending on the welfare of the inmates. Sheriff Anderson has demonstrated over and over again that that he is not concerned one bit about what happens to the inmates in the jails in Marion County. Which of course, is the reason why he gets sued all the time.
Gary, I reviewed the statute on a Sheriff spending money from the commissary. The only way you could spend the money on attorney's fees is if the City-County Council approved. Do you think they did?
Paul, Could it be that approval is implicit with the approval of his budget?
AI,
Possibly...I'm not sure how an expenditure from the commissary is listed in the budget.
As a side note, I think it's interesting that City Legal had no problem finding the Locke Reynolds stuff to turn over but haven't produced the B&T records yet. It's been suggested that if the cases go from Locke back to City Legal, City Legal will then just farm them out to B&T.
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