Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Council Committee Defeats Marion County Criminal Justice Center Project
After lengthy testimony and public debate, the Rules & Public Policy Committee of the Indianapolis City-County Council defeated the Ballard administration's plan to construct a $1.75 billion, 35-year new criminal justice center for Marion County under a public-private partnership agreement on a 2-6 vote along party lines. Tonight's vote does not represent a vote in opposition to building a new criminal justice center; rather, it represents a rejection of the P3 approach to building it. The overwhelming evidence demonstrated that a traditional, design-build approach under which the city-county government would maintain ownership and control of the complex is a more cost-efficient approach. The administration's claims the privately-built, operated and maintained complex would cost taxpayers less than current facilities strained credulity. Tonight's vote is a major victory for taxpayers and one this blog will not shy away from taking considerable credit given it stood alone in the face of a propaganda machine led by the local media, GIPC, the Indy Chamber, building and construction trade groups, labor unions and other major stakeholders who signed on to the P3 approach from the outset and were unwilling to let the facts get in the way of rational consideration of the best approach for this project.
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10 comments:
Thanks for staying on this, Gary. Big win for Marion County taxpayers tonight. Never mind the fact that Mayor Rent A Suit blew nearly $12M in consulting fees to tee up this P3 turd, most if not all of which is a total loss. But hey that's a lot less than the $500M or so that turd would have cost the city over a traditional procurement method.
You don't hear it enough- thank you Mr. Welsh!
Now onto other matters Gary. Think you could bump it up--say expose three to four public corruptions a day. Then resolve those in our favor as well--we the taxpayers.
Thank you CCC! -Don't put taxPAYERS on the hook for tax increases to grease those property developers and give us another Regional Operations Center debacle.
Gary, so RACER paid to DEMO the sight? So REI( is this the right company?) is free to walk from RACER?
I bet Wells company will extend an option which will be a additional cost taxpayers will have to pay to lock in Wells profit.
Can you share anything on the RACER - private developer land contract or is it shrouded in secrecy like the ROC?
Yeah and a big thanks for keeping "John Q. Public" informed!
Gary,
what are the names of the members of this Council Committee and how did they vote? I am surprised at the (temporary?) outcome in view of the amount of Pork designed into this project. Thank you for your efforts.
The vote doesn't mean the justice center isn't going to happen; it was only a vote against this P3 approach to getting it done. A justice center could still be built on that same GM Stamping Plant site under a different bidding method. Also, don't be surprised if there isn't another effort at next Monday's full council meeting to discharge the proposal from the committee, notwithstanding the committee's negative vote last night, although based on last night's vote, the votes to do that would not appear to be there.
Mike McQuillen and Robert Lutz, the two Republicans on the committee, voted for it. All of the Democrats, including Maggie Lewis, John Barth, Vop Osili, Pam Hickman and Joe Simpson, voted against it.
Gary Welsh, thank you, thank you, thank you for your non-stop efforts in the pursuit and expression of the truth. Advance Indiana is one of the few places Hoosiers can turn for truth and thoughtful analysis.
This "criminal justice center project" outcome is in large part due to your efforts shining the disinfectant of the light of day on the ship of Democrat and Republican political corruption.
I fully believe that the outcome of our ignoble City Council's vote on Ballard's crony "justice center" and the phony financing methodology involved would likely not occurred had it not been for truly civic-minded persons such as you.
Please consider running for public office. Please.
Actually, Joe Simpson was present and spoke against the proposal but is not a member of the committee. Angela Mansfield is a member of the committee who was present and voted against it. Angela should be credited for insisting on the independent financial analysis Umbaugh prepared which showed just how badly-flawed the KPMG analysis was.
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