Vaughn Bounces Scales From Committee For Refusing To Support Approval Of ACS Parking Meter Lease

I've been telling you for quite some time that CCC President Ryan Vaughn (R-Barnes & Thornburg) has been ordering his fellow Republican councilors to make unpopular votes to support an agenda that larges benefits his law firm's clients. His unethical behavior reached a new low this week after he removed Republican Councilor Christine Scales from the Public Safety Committee after she refused to support the 50-year parking meter lease for Vaughn's client, ACS, and earlier indicated reluctance to support the Public Safety budget put forward by the Ballard administration due to legitimate disagreements with its spending priorities. Scales was the only Republican councilor on the committee to ask tough questions of Public Safety Director Frank Straub, such as why he had money spent on remodeling his offices. Vaughn told Scales his decision to remove her from the community resulted from "communications issues" between the two of them, but she knows it is retribution for her refusal to vote down the line with the agenda he sets for the caucus that often aligns with the interests of his law firm's clients. Scales believes the 50-year lease agreement for the parking meter asset is a bad deal and urged Vaughn in an e-mail earlier this week to table the proposal. Vaughn responded in kind by bouncing her from her favorite committee assignment. Vaughn is replacing Scales with Councilor Aaron Freeman, who like Vaughn is an attorney. If Vaughn thinks Scales has been too independent in her judgment in the past, he ain't seen nothing yet.

While Vaughn may not be able to count on the vote of Scales on controversial issues in the future, he can always count on lapdog Councilor Angel Rivera (R-I Want My MBE Contract). The IBJ has a puff piece on Rivera in which it describes him as a "political neophyte." Not so fast, Mason King. Rivera's political activities date back to his student years at IU where an IBJ commenter reminds King of a scandal that enveloped Rivera's student government ticket that lost their elected positions due to campaign violations. The party ticket on which Rivera was elected as student body vice president, Big Red, was found to have falsified campaign finance reports and disqualified from holding student office. Rivera had claimed 600 t-shirts he purchased in support of his party's ticket emblazoned with the party's logo did not represent a campaign expenditure. Interestingly, another member of his Big Red ticket, Jason Sondhi, has done quite well winning MBE contracts for his minority-owned business, Sondhi Solutions, from the Ballard administration. Rivera works for another MBE, The Consultants Consortium, which is a government subcontractor for ACS. Notwithstanding his employer's business relationship with ACS, Rivera, like Vaughn, sees no conflict of interest in participating in the vote on ACS's 50-year lease agreement with the city for the parking meter assets. Marion Co. GOP Chairman Tom John is a registered lobbyist for Rivera's firm. John engineered Rivera's appointment to the council earlier this year after at-large councilor Kent Smith resigned his seat. John's law firm, Ice Miller, is being paid by the City at least a half million dollars for legal work on the ACS lease.