WMB Heartland Justice Partners Tries To Hold Meeting To Lobby Council Members In Violation Of Open Door Law

Advance Indiana has obtained an e-mail several principals of WMB Heartland Justice Partners sent to members of the Indianapolis City-County Council soliciting them to meet with them at the Skyline Club today at 1:00 pm. to address concerns council members have with the controversial, $1.75 billion proposed criminal justice center the private consortium wants to build for the City of Indianapolis. The e-mail, penned by Meridiam Infrastructure's Jane Garvey, Joe Aiello and John Dionisio dated May 18, describes the objective of the meeting as "to see if any compromise could be reached that would enable an agreement for approval by the council on June 8."

Media reports had suggested the deal was dead after council members supporting the controversial project declined to call if for a vote at two recent council meetings because they lacked support from a majority of the council members to move forward with it after the proposal was voted down in committee. City-County Council President Maggie Lewis responded to the e-mail by complaining about the short notice and raising questions about whether the proposed meeting with the company's architects, engineer and fiscal advisors would violate Indiana's Open Door Law. The Council's attorney, Fred Biesecker, agreed in a reply e-mail in response to Lewis' question that the proposed working meeting would indeed violate the Open Door Law.

You are correct that if a majority of the council attended the meeting under these circumstances, it would violate the Open Door Law. In addition, the serial meetings statute (I.C. 5-14-1.5-3.1) generally prohibits a series of meetings that add up to a majority (for example, three meetings each involving five different councillors) if all the meetings concern the same subject matter and are held within a period of not more than 7 consecutive days. 

Hats off to Council President Maggie Lewis for calling out these folks for attempts to conduct meetings with them in secret in violation of the Open Door Law. The Skyline Club, is located in the AUL Tower where the law offices of Ice Miller are located, one of the law firms retained to lobby city-county council members on behalf of WMB Heartland Justice Partners.