No More Slush Funds
Friends and Constituents,
Just like that, another budget season has come to an end - almost.
Tomorrow at 7:00 pm at the City-County Building on 200 E Market Street, the Mayor’s proposed $1.9 billion budget will come to a final vote.
According to reporting in the IBJ, no other Democrats are going to propose any major budget amendments. I find this deeply disappointing, as this moral document proposed by the Mayor fails to meet the moment. As my plans to work alongside other Democrats fell through, tomorrow I am instead proposing a budget amendment of my own design.
Check out the extra-long and substantial video, then keep reading. Sorry, no singing or dancing this week.
Here’s the written summary of my budget amendment, to supplement the high-level summary in my video.
There are two main pools of money I’m proposing we move around.
1. "Homes, not Corruption"
Core Action:
- Zero out the Mayor's Office's “uncontrolled” Character 3 slush fund ($1,747,768)
-Redirect these funds to OPHS to pilot a Tenants’ Right to Counsel program in Center and Wayne townships that would provide lawyers to represent tenants facing eviction.
Background:
Center and Wayne townships are experiencing massive numbers of evictions.
Tenants’ Right to Counsel has proven incredibly effective in other cities and states.
Existing OPHS tenant advocacy work has proven helpful in some cases but not in the majority. Currently, 68% of the time, this “legal aid” doesn’t actually contact landlords or opposing counsel at all, but merely gives advice before the eviction case is heard. Today, typically paralegals or case managers provide this service, rather than actual attorneys who can represent clients. This causes the aid to be significantly less helpful at preventing evictions.
Using this $1.75 million as a pilot program could help provide hundreds of tenants in Center Township with attorneys for eviction cases and could collect actionable data about what tenants need to avoid eviction. The data from this pilot will be compiled and used to lobby both institutions and legislators in order to help stem the eviction crisis. If Right to Counsel proves to save taxpayer money and keep families and children in their homes, we can pursue it as a permanent budgeted item. If it doesn’t, we can learn from the experience.
Mayor Hogsett used Character 3 funding from his office over the last two years in order to fund the hundreds of thousands of dollars that went into attacking public education in Indianapolis. (https://indianapolis.granicus.com/player/clip/26139?view_id=50&redirect=true at around 15:00, then again 25:30) This includes the massive contract with Thomas Cook’s former employer, Bose, for the formation of and staffing of the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance and two renewals of that contract during the foundation of the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation. (In the future, taxpayers are paying for two new massive executive salaries via school funding).
Mayor Hogsett also directly funded the creation of the Indianapolis Economic Development, Inc., a shady quasi-governmental organization that has recommended massive tax breaks for unpopular data centers.
Rather than continuing to allow the Mayor to funnel tax dollars to his donors as he has done over the last two years, the Council must show leadership by putting these funds to use for our residents in need.
2. “Officers On-Time, not Officer Overtime”
Core Action:
-Move $25 million that is earmarked for IMPD officers that will never be hired, and $1 million for IMPD’s Flock contract, and instead use these funds to hire more 911 dispatch agents and to provide better security systems for affordable apartment buildings.
-$12.5 million to provide security for affordable housing buildings
-$12.5 million to allow MESA to hire more dispatch agents
-$1 million to allow MESA to design a new modern facility
Background:
Based on IMPD’s hiring plan, the department identified that $25 million within the $400 requested IMPD budget is not expected to go towards new officers. Instead, the money sits in an account untouched for months until later in the year when it’s typically used to pay for excessive amounts of overtime. My amendment would move this money away from IMPD Character 1 to where it can be used now to reduce the burden on our officers and protect our residents.
MESA, the City’s combined emergency services agency that handles dispatch for police, fire, mental health responders and EMS alike, recently determined that they were only staffed around 50% of where they needed to be in order to best keep the people of Indianapolis safe.
In addition, the existing dispatch facility is in a bad state of disrepair; for years they have been asking permission to start the process of designing a new building and identifying a proper site for it.
IMPD officers can’t respond to residents in need until dispatch routes them to the right place. When residents wait on hold for long periods of time with 911, officers are more likely to arrive to a more escalated scene, putting officers and constituents alike at risk.
Meanwhile, at low-income apartment buildings across the city, where many disabled residents and senior citizens live, security has been a major concern. IMPD has provided data indicating that dozens of police runs are made to many of these apartment complexes in an average week, which strains and frustrates residents and officers alike. Officers frequently arrive too late to offer much help, and crime continues despite the frequent officer presence.
Affordable housing projects typically have tight operating margins and thus struggle to fund any new programs or upgrades after their initial construction. Though new housing projects being built in Indianapolis are investing more appropriate amounts of money for security and building this funding into their original financing, projects built in previous years typically do not have proven security measures like improved door locks, key fob systems, and security cameras; their owners and property managers typically do not have the ability to finance the addition and operation of these systems.
In short, drug dealers and dangerous criminals frequently force their way into unsecured buildings and units and then prey upon the elderly and disabled. IMPD has limited authority and ability to help inside apartment buildings, and property management companies don’t have the money to improve security systems. The City can save taxpayers money by investing in physical security rather than dispatching police officers so frequently.
This amendment moves a mere 1.45% of the proposed City budget to where it can be used effectively to save taxpayers money and help prevent our most vulnerable neighbors from suffering. I’ll propose it tomorrow night, and my peers will have the chance to vote for it.
Tomorrow night there will also be a press conference hosted by my friends at LiveFree Indiana. Here’s the details they just provided in their email tonight:
Join us at 6:30pm sharp at the City-County building for a press conference on the Indianapolis budget. Despite historic revenue, the $1.9 billion budget failed to include key #CostOfTheCage campaign commitments like waiving fees for clean drug tests and waiving ankle monitor fees, which would give returning citizens the resources they deserve to re-enter public life successfully. This budget instead carries two defining features: 1) significant cuts to many different social services to accommodate road funding. 2.) a bloated IMPD budget with over $45 million in overtime funds.
It is disappointing that, despite the council overriding the mayor's veto to pass a wheel tax, they did not reopen the budget in any meaningful way to address our priorities or any of the other cuts to services that benefited our neighbors. When we gather tomorrow, we will talk about what a budget that invests in the people can really look like.
LiveFree asks for interested parties to register in advance for the press conference so they know how many to expect.
We’ll also see my TRUST Act introduced tomorrow. Remember, that just means it will be referred to the Public Safety Committee for debate, discussion, and further action. Still, it’s been far too long already, so I am pleased that Council President Maggie Lewis is no longer illegally blocking the proposal’s introduction.
To talk about any of the above, or anything else you’re interested in, join me for the People’s Caucus starting at 6:00 pm.
I’ll have annotated agendas printed for you if you come see me in person.
I’ll also have them, alongside the full Councilor budget packet, available at this link by tomorrow evening!
As a reminder, I have no staff and created this budget amendment, all of the analysis, and my weekly videos by myself. I’d be incredibly grateful for anything you can spare to help me keep fighting.
In love and solidarity,
Jesse