The blog, Advance Indiana, has raised some legitimate questions about the residency of City-County Council Member Patrice Abdullah. Abdullah represents the 15th District, however his home address on the Council’s website, 1144 Warman, is not in his district. I did a check of the council map and there are two 1144 Warmans, one north and one south. The north address is in Marilyn Pfisterer’s district, while the south address is in Dane Mahern’s district.

Call me crazy here, but I was under the impression a Council member was supposed to live in their district or they had to give up the seat? According to the Council’s latest public list of addresses, Abdullah has lived on Warman since June of 2007. So what does this mean, you might ask? District 15 is heavily Democratic and there is no Republican on the ballot, so Democrats would keep that seat. That’s right. But depending on when Patrice moved to 1144 Warman, his votes on the council subsequent to that time could be considered illegal and therefore invalid as he did not lawfully reside in his district.

One vote that comes to mind immediately is the public safety tax vote that was held on July 23. If 1144 Warman was Abdullah’s home address at the time of the vote, and there is no reason to think it wasn’t, an argument could be made the tax increase was not properly passed because the vote (15-13-1) did not have a majority because Patrice should not have voted. And this goes for any measure that Patrice has voted on.

It’s nice to be back from vacation and bring these items to you. More is on the way.

Posted: 08|12|07 at 11:34 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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The coffee is brewing and the bacon is on the stove, so now I can get back to blogging. I misplaced my jail overcrowding notes, but I should be able to find them by the end of the day and get that story to you.

Meanwhile, Judge Rueben Hill came under fire this week for dismissing a DUI charge against a defendant because the officer was never officially sworn in as IMPD. By the way, the story made this morning’s New York Times. Everyone was freaking out over this, but I don’t understand why anyone was surprised.

During the swearing in ceremony earlier this year, I asked IMPD top brass this exact same question. If my memory serves me correctly, the only officers who showed up for the voluntary swearing in were lieutenants and above and homicide detectives. The rest stayed home since they weren’t getting paid. I asked the Sheriff and the Chief if the other officers were legit since they didn’t show. I was told that wasn’t an issue, since the swearing in was more ceremonial. Really?

I figured it was a matter of time before someone got smart and challenged the arrest using this strategy. And now we’ll have to live with the consequences, which I believe right now, will not look good for Marion County if this gets to the Indiana Supreme Court.

Posted: 08|12|07 at 11:28 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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Let me start by saying it’s nice to be back. I had a great time with my son and revisiting old haunts in that other Capitol City across the border. However, all good things must come to an end. Although I was gone for 10 days, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on here. We’ll just start at the beginning and work our way through.

The Mayor’s Budget Address

I had to watch this three times. I watched the first two times because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I watched the third time for substance and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The only thing more disturbing than the fact Hizzoner did not want to be there (which was evident by his body language and other non-verbal cues) and city employees (probably under threat of the disciplinary action) stacked the audience and ordinary citizens were forced to stay outside, some in the heat, was the actual Mayor’s speech.

No offense to the Mayor, but come on. Hizzoner didn’t lie, but he did leave out some very inconvenient truths. He said his government cut $83 million from the budget over the last three years, then why has city spending continuously increased and more than $83 million?

The Mayor also said child welfare and juvenile incarceration costs are also responsible for the increase. Once again, no offense, but in the city’s own budget presentation using sample data, child welfare costs were only about 6.5 percent of the increase in a local tax bill. And local governments do have control over child welfare and juvenile incarceration costs. The Mayor and his staff know the adjudication of minors and children are made by local judges. The state picks up the initial tab and then bills back to the county. Sitting down and working with the judiciary makes more sense to me than blaming the state again and again and again.

And let’s talk about consolidation. I am a big fan of it and think it should have been done a long time ago. But Mr. Mayor, you know if you got consolidation today you would not see any savings for a while, unless you engaged in massive layoffs. Let’s be straight here.

Fundamentally the problem with county government is spending. Simply put, in Indiana local governments determine what they are going to spend and that incomes the levy. The levy amount then is divided up amongst all the taxpayers and every one pays there portion, residential, commercial and industrial. When commercial and industrial pay a lot less, residential pays more, this is not rocket science, it’s actually Sim City.

This piece is getting wordy. I apologize. Give me a few minutes to go down to the corner store and grab a few things. I’ll be back to write about jail overcrowding, the Hill Court decision and Patrice Abdullah and his residency issues.

Posted: 08|12|07 at 10:19 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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