A Lone Voice From The Public At Tonight's Council Meeting

The state's worst city council met tonight and lived up to its reputation. The Democratic-controlled council, as a face-saving measure for killing Councilor Christine Scales' TIF proposal for the Avondale-Meadows neighborhood, introduced Proposal 33 offered by Councilor Steve Talley, which would take $3 million of Rebuild Indy funds to use on infrastructure improvements for a proposed grocery story in the blighted neighborhood. The only public testimony came from Jocelyn Tandy-Adande, one of the few African-Americans who actually supported Ballard in 2007 when he first ran for mayor and has ever since regretted supporting him. Jocelyn took the opportunity to lambaste Mayor Ballard for selling out the black community, while singling out praise for Councilor Scales, who she mistakenly called Councilor Cain, for her work on behalf of the Avondale-Meadows neighborhood. She makes some pretty good points on the double standards in how the Mayor and the council have chosen to dole out public dollars. I particularly loved her comments calling out Councilor Jefferson Shreve, the Bloomington resident the Marion Co. GOP imported to the city to take a seat on the council to fill Jeff Cardwell's seat after he resigned to join the Pence administration. Shreve's only opponent at the caucus election to fill the vacancy was a long-time Perry Township resident and elected township advisory board member. Shreve's opponent didn't make thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to the county party like Shreve did in the past year or promise to vote for Mayor Ballard's tax increases as his first action as a councilor like Shreve promised to win the party's backing. Proposal 33 failed on an indecisive vote, 14-13, and will be voted on again at the next council meeting. Mayor Ballard told the Republican council members during their caucus prior to tonight's council meeting that he will veto the proposal if it is approved by the council.