Comments on Advance Indiana™: Why Is A Libertarian Lobbying So Hard For Libertarian Ed Coleman's Vote In Favor Of Ballard's Bad Parking Meter Lease Deal With ACS?

ACS, Where do I begin? Why Indianapolis should not...

2010-11-07T13:41:30.694-05:00

ACS, Where do I begin? Why Indianapolis should not allow this deal.
Absolutely the worst company I have ever worked for. "Butt Kissers" and "Liars". 95% retention rate. I can only laugh. They lost contracts with Nike, State of Texas Family Services, including many other contracts in other states and other countries.

Affiliated Computer Services have totally made a "Muck Up" of the Food Stamp offices in Indianapolis. That is a joke in itself. I took a tour of each welfare facility in Indianapolis with my buddy, "Steve". Steve is newly appointed director of a non-profit service for the aging and needed to see the chaos the aged faced at these offices. The dog pound looks better than some of the offices and I am more than positive the dogs are treated better than ACS treats their employees.

Joining ACS was an absolute mistake. I was promised everything under the moon as an inducement to work for them. Even if it is in writing - don't believe them unless you intend to sue to enforce your contractual rights. I was promised a raise to bump my salary to a reasonable and competitive rate. The employees are paid almost 40% below the regional average. They are an awful company to work for. They have no consideration for their employees. Their ethics are non-existent. If ever given an offer from ACS, run for the hills and do not look back.

List of Cons
- Salary freeze happens every year regardless of the $7,000,000,000 in yearly revenue.
- Management says the 2010 salary freeze will end soon, but does not know when.
- Typical answer by management to all questions, "I don't know".
- No opportunity for advancement, unless you BUTT KISS or are in the elite circle.
- No communication
- Managers that go off on tantrums, in office lobbys, in front of people applying for services.
- Paranoid management.
- Did I say no communication!
- Huge caseloads of 600+ that make daily working conditions highly stressful and
unmanageable.

There will be a mass exodus once the economy turns around. People will remember and resent this company. I cannot believe the Mayor would support Affiliated Computer Services considering their track record, not to mention their lack of structure and lack of ethics within the welfare department. Only goes to show that Ballard himself and those supporting this company, Coleman, lack ethics and values.

"Muse-Uprising"? Will pull the song up ...

2010-11-07T11:41:36.255-05:00

"Muse-Uprising"? Will pull the song up at Rhapsody and listen. Thanks, Lenore.

"Of course the City hasn't come even clos...

2010-11-06T17:07:20.407-05:00

"Of course the City hasn't come even close to making an argument that this is something that requires a public-private partnership. Instead of selling of a city assets, we could easily buy the meters ourselves and keep 100% of the profits."

Exactly, Paul. Someone wants to spend tomorrow's revenue, today.

Sean said: "It is selling off monopoly contr...

2010-11-06T16:59:15.448-05:00

Sean said:

"It is selling off monopoly control."

Very good, Sean. I'm glad to see someone else complain that this tactic is not free-market competition, at all, but crony capitalism.

It's Mitch's favorite play.

Deal or no deal. Profit or no profit. Public or pr...

2010-11-06T16:15:25.038-05:00

Deal or no deal. Profit or no profit. Public or privatizing. At least do it with integrity. The premise of the world should not be greed, it should be humanity. When we begin to have companies that operate under an ethical umbrella, only then will they have respect that would be well deserved with the profits to follow. When you engage in unethical business practices and you employ unethical employee's, those type of unethical people begin to follow. It's been long known you are known by the company you keep. $$$$ speaks volumes in this deal. It doesn't benefit the city other than maybe a convenience, it will actually cost the city and its taxpayers. The people involved, Ballard, ACS, Barnes & Thornburg, Vaugn, and the others, all know this is a bad deal for the people. It's not however bad for their pockets. They depend on the ignorance of the people to get this deal pushed through. Since the local news and IndyStar so inadequately lack in giving the full details of all that is involved most will only find the injustice after the fact.
This deal reminds me of a song a good friend of mine listens to, Muse-Uprising. My friend reminded me this is a song all should listen to. Eventually the people will rise and the politicians will fall. Humanity should come first.

No, Tim, the jury came in on this deal a long time...

2010-11-06T08:25:21.997-05:00

No, Tim, the jury came in on this deal a long time ago. This deal is not even remotely close to beign a good one...as have been proved time and time again by Aaron Renn, Gary Welch, myself and Phineas Baxandall.

Tim, this isn't even close to being real priva...

2010-11-06T08:18:13.650-05:00

Tim, this isn't even close to being real privatization. Privatization is about using the forces of the marketplace to get cheaper and better services for the public. With a 50 year contract, ACS will not have any market competition. We're not even allowed to get rid of them and go with a new vendor unless we wait 2 years after cancelling the contract and paying off ACS. Oh, and we're not allowed to borrow money to pay ACS the termination fee and get rid of the company.

Of course the City hasn't come even close to making an argument that this is something that requires a public-private partnership. Instead of selling of a city assets, we could easily buy the meters ourselves and keep 100% of the profits.

I too am very suspicious of what has motivated Klop to push Coleman his deal that screws over the public in favor of a politically-connected contractor who has already participated in one billion dollar privatization screwup.

Oh, and what about the conflicts of interest surrounding this deal? How could this simply be ignored? Ethics is something near and dear to me. This deal is dripping with conflicts of interest.

Do continue with what you said, Unigov. Have a gr...

2010-11-06T06:05:01.361-05:00

Do continue with what you said, Unigov. Have a great weekend, all.

You nailed it, Unigov. I don't believe I'...

2010-11-05T23:46:45.056-05:00

You nailed it, Unigov. I don't believe I've met Klopfenstein before, but that's exactly what his thoughts on the deal sounded like. Doesn't matter the terms, the gubment sucks, sell everything off.

As Paul said, there are some things the city should run. I personally think that there's less of a reason to privatize city functions that aren't meant to make a profit. A private, for-profit entity, doing a task (in this case, managing parking at city meters for relatively low rates) that yields little profit either means a huge cut in services, or a drastic increase in fines and rates.

I am waiting to see what Councilor Jackie Nytes tr...

2010-11-05T23:36:37.126-05:00

I am waiting to see what Councilor Jackie Nytes trades her yes vote on this deal It will either be something for the MFCDC or Printing Partners.

The problem with Klopfenstein is that his urge to ...

2010-11-05T20:16:17.978-05:00

The problem with Klopfenstein is that his urge to privatize government services makes him blind to graft.

He is a useful idiot.

Hey Gary, someone forwarded your blog post to me. ...

2010-11-05T16:03:40.086-05:00

Hey Gary, someone forwarded your blog post to me. I wanted to respond to your question: "A Libertarian's support of the proposal certainly couldn't be based on party principles, could it?"

Unfortunately though, I'm not a great scholar, so I'll refer you to those much smarter than me; which in this case, some relevant articles written by the very libertarian REASON FOUNDATION.

http://reason.org/news/show/local-government-privatization-101

http://reason.org/news/show/setting-the-record-straight-on-1

http://reason.org/files/annual_privatization_report_2009.pdf

Granted, while these libertarian writers may favor just about any type of privatization, my jury is still out on whether THIS particular proposal is a good idea or not. I wish you had attended the forum, so I and everyone could have benefited from your critical questions.

SS, while you are exactly correct about competitio...

2010-11-05T16:00:39.165-05:00

SS, while you are exactly correct about competition being needed to do privatization right, not everything is better run by the private sector. The City has made no case, none whatsoever, that buying parking meters and future revenue should be somethign that is privatized. There are a 1000 things wrong with this deal besides the very valid one you pointed out.

Wolf, the revised proposal doesn't come close to addressing the problems pointed out by the Urbanophile as Aaron Renn has already pointed out.

1)The City has made no case that the City can't better do this themselves and keep 100% of the profits.

2) There is no answer for Loftus and Vaughn's confict of interest.

3) They still haven't put the 200 job promise into the contract. As a result it's not enforceable. Plus there are no salaries listed, no requirement that they are full-time.

4) The contract is still 50 years! Is it right to mortgage the future of the next three generations? No it isn't.

5) There is still not requirement that ACS even produce the numbers upon which the payments to the City are based. That's insane. We're not allowed to look at their books. We have to accept their calculations.

6) Why are we contracting with the company that screwed up the FSSA privatization. Isn't one million dollar screw up enough.

I bet you Klop is being paid. There is no reason for a Libertarian to support this measure.

Well said, Sean.

2010-11-05T15:09:55.511-05:00

Well said, Sean.

Having attended most of the meeting last night my ...

2010-11-05T12:03:25.430-05:00

Having attended most of the meeting last night my impression was Mr. Klopfenstein asked a few questions, make a few good points, and in general supported the new reworked proposal.

It was my impression Mr. Klopfenstein wasn't lobbying for anything.

At first glance the new proposal addresses the issues that AI and The Urbanophile had problems with. I'm inclined to say this is overall a good idea that may need some tweaks to address specific issues people brought up such as a predominately residential neighborhood being classied as such in this plan.

I was wondering who the city-county counselor was. I don't recognize most of them by sight and he appearantly spoke a bit at the very beginning asking for input.

The parking deal as constructed should be a "...

2010-11-05T10:49:48.882-05:00

The parking deal as constructed should be a "no" vote for anyone with any sense.

The problem with the deal isn't the outsourcing of the parking management itself. The problem is that instead of setting up a competitive system with multiple providers who must constantly work to ensure their share of the business, the city wants a big up front "bribe" to circumvent free competition so it can use the money now.

It is selling off monopoly control. This fascinates me as everyone knows, regardless of political ideology, that monopolies are bad (although Democrats are less likely to think so if Government is the monopoly provider/option for something).

Thanks for putting this bulls-eye on Klopfenstein,...

2010-11-05T10:36:41.981-05:00

Thanks for putting this bulls-eye on Klopfenstein, AI. So, how about that question, Brad. For whom are you providing, 'consulting work', re your lobbying of registered Libertarian Ed Coleman to vote in favor of Ballard's BAD BAD BAD parking meter lease deal with ACS?

Good question. Regardless I'm glad the L...

2010-11-05T09:44:22.109-05:00

Good question.

Regardless I'm glad the L's are hosting forums now regarding the lone councilman's vote on important matters.