Wednesday’s City Wire
Here are some items of note for your reading pleasure…
The panel taking a look at making the second Saturday night of Indiana Black Expo should have it’s recommendations ready to present to the public by September 20. Panel member Rev. Charles Harrison says the group met this past Monday and batted around a number of ideas. He says two of the group’s main goals are to address the issue of thousands of unsupervised teenagers in the downtown area as well as keeping the gang element at bay.
A meeting scheduled for today between the City and some local pastors over the Brandon Johnson excessive force case has been canceled due to scheduling conflicts. There also been a recurring issue over who the city should actually meet with since there are so many ministerial groups. And to make matters even more interesting, the ministers are divided over whether there should ever there should even be a meeting over Brandon Johnson until the Justice Department completes its review of the IMPD investigation.
If Council Democrats want to take out their frustrations on Paul Bateman, Jackie Nytes and Mary Moriarty Adams for the their vote this week on the Citizens Gas deal they’re probably going to have to wait until the May 2011 primary. The Council Democrat Caucus voted to remove any members who voted for the deal from their committee assignments, however the Council’s Committee on Committees makes the decision as to who gets what assignments and it is controlled by Republicans.
City agencies have submitted their budgets to the Mayor’s office for review. Formal budget hearings won’t begin until mid-August, but the city is looking to deal with $20-plus million shortfall due to tax caps and the downturn in the economy.
