Indiana

COUNCIL STUFF

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Although the city of Indianapolis is facing tens of millions in budget shortfalls, the Council overwhelmingly tonight approved spending $1.5 million for the arts. Councilors said the arts programs went to help youth and would in turn help lower crime and stimulate the economy, however critics said the city had to pay for other priorities.   Many Councilors felt that since the money was allocated from last year’s budget and many organizations had already spent or had plans to spend the money, it would have been unfair to change things midstream.  However some supporters of the measure told the arts community that the money would probably not be there the next time around so they should start making other arrangements.

In other news, the Council went forward tonight with a measure that would allow the city to appoint members of recently merged fire departments to be the head of IFD. Current law only allows the head of IFD to come from within the department and did not include the merged departments. A proposal that would have allowed the Mayor to appoint a chief from outside the department did not make it to a full vote. However, despite the passage of ordinance, sources say if the Mayor cannot find a qualified candidate for the job within IFD, he can come back to the Council and they will change the rule.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).