Comments on Advance Indiana™: Ackles Paid Double His Salary In Settlement With City

Indy, the salary issue has absolutely nothing to d...

2009-10-04T18:57:11.577-05:00

Indy, the salary issue has absolutely nothing to do with the discrimination issue. I don't see the connection you're trying to make but yes the law should be followed in every instance.

AI, you're right that Elrod was a little difficult to hear. When he started talking about it, he mumbled a bit. I got the impression he was kind of uncomfortable with the question tossed to him by Vaughn. I did hear it in person and again on video. I thought my recollection was right, but I guess one could interpret it a different way.

Sorry, I thought Coleman voted for the amendment to move the redistricting money to the parks.

Paul: If there's no excuse for not following ...

2009-10-04T18:00:45.070-05:00

Paul:

If there's no excuse for not following the law, then why doesn't "Bones" Ackles pay the court judgment for discrimination against him???

Right is right, Paul, and the taxpayers did not discriminate against people under color of elected office, "Bones" did it...he should pay for his official misconduct...and while we're at it, whatever happened to all that county property that turned up missing on "Bones" watch? Shouldn't he be held legally accountable?

Paul, You misunderstood. Coleman voted with the Rs...

2009-10-04T16:01:56.498-05:00

Paul, You misunderstood. Coleman voted with the Rs to keep the money allocated for redistricting. He opposed the Democratic amendment to transfer the money to parks. You also need to go back and listen to what Elrod said again. It was difficult to hear him.

Indy, Bottom line is that they still legally had ...

2009-10-04T15:35:06.797-05:00

Indy,

Bottom line is that they still legally had to pay him. There was no excuse for not following the law.

AI, I didn't hear Elrod's explanation qui...

2009-10-04T15:34:00.564-05:00

AI,

I didn't hear Elrod's explanation quite that way. I thought he simply said that you can redistrict any time you want except right before an election. I took that "right before" to be less than the one year window. I didn't think Elrod's explanation gave the D's anything to pounce and, in fact, supported Vaughn, but I could be wrong. In fact, one of the D councilors suggested that in response to the amendment, that paying for Elrod's legal advice was a waste of money.

I think you're right though that Elrod is probably just carrying the political party water for Vaughn and gang.

As far as Coleman's vote, that $290,000 for redistricting in 2010 is a complete waste of taxpayer money. I agree with Coleman that I'd much rather see the money spent on parks than to go to some politically connected law firm (i.e. Barnes & Thornburg) to defend early redistricting.

Paul, Again, I don't think you can lay it at E...

2009-10-04T14:51:05.687-05:00

Paul, Again, I don't think you can lay it at Elrod's doorstep. He didn't make the decision; the council did. I also went back and reviewed his comments on redistricting. He said the same thing I've said. Yes, the council can redistrict any time as long as it doesn't do it in the 1-year window prior to an election; however, he said the statute mandating a redistricting could come into play again if the redistricting happens in 2010. I don't think that was the answer Ryan Vaughn wanted to hear when he called on him to explain. The Democrats pounced on that explanation to point up the waste in doing a redistricting now. What I couldn't understand is why Ed Coleman voted with the Rs on the Ds amendment to move the money out of redistricting and into the park's budget.

I was no fan of Ackles but I wonder who is laughin...

2009-10-04T13:19:13.523-05:00

I was no fan of Ackles but I wonder who is laughing now.

"Bones" Ackles is a disgrace! This inco...

2009-10-04T12:57:31.713-05:00

"Bones" Ackles is a disgrace! This incompetent racist boob, cost us taxpayers big time...and why hasn't Carl Brizzi indicted him???

Gary, We had three legal arguments: 1) Indiana ...

2009-10-04T09:06:22.976-05:00

Gary,

We had three legal arguments:

1) Indiana Wage Claim Act - This statute is very strict. It requires that an employer pay an employee his wages within a period of time or there will be strict consequences, namely the employer will be required to pay the employee triple his wages and cover attorney's fees.

2) Law Not Intended to Apply Retroactively - if you read the statute half way closely, it was clearly never intended to appy retroactively to coroners already in office. In fact the statute talks about that coroners needed to pass the test within six months of taking office. Mr. Ackles had already taken office two years earlier when he was elected. I think it is pretty clear fromt he language that the legislature intened a prospective application of the rule to coroners getting elected down the road.

3) Cornorer Test Law Was Unconstitutional - The office of coroner is a constitutional office, with the qualifications for that office in the Indiana Constitution. There are cases out there that say if you change or add to the qualifications for a constitutional office (as opposed to one created by statute) it takes a constitutional amendment and can't be done by a simple statute.

#1 was a really, really strong argument with #2 fairly close behind. #3 was at the least arguable - there is case law on both sides of the issue. I doubt if we would have ever needed to get to that argument though because of #1 and #2.

Bottom line, here we simply had bad legal advice tainted by partisan politics. I have preached on this before. Council members need to have OBJECTIVE legal advice, untainted by politics. They're not getting that now from Elrod (the council's attorney) or from City Legal. Certainly Vaughn, who is an attorney, had a political agenda that caused him to overlook the law.

I see the same thing happening with redistricting. The $580,000 expenditure is being sold as needed so they can redistrict using the 2010 census data for the 2011 election. They legally can't do that, yet they plod ahead anyway.