Leadership

The lack of leadership from the Bart Peterson administration has been appalling. First, he begins his administration with a crucial fight to stamp out the menance of violent video games. This was not an important endeavor and it wasted valuable city resources and time that resulted in a losing effort. Meanwhile other more important issues were not addressed, like the current (historic) budget crisis. The budget has been in crisis for decades to the mismangement and thievery of previous so-called leaders who robbed Peter to pay Paul. Peterson knew there was problems with the budget, as he said so repeatedly during his campaign. At the same time he proposed to hire 200 new police officers. But if you review his Peterson Plan I, there is nothing in there about fixing the budgetary problems that were known to exist. He just tried to ignore it just as the state ignored the court order related to property tax assessement for nearly a decade. Instead of Peterson urging his fellow do-nothing Democrats to take the steps necessary to ensure that the changes would be phased in over a period years, he and they buried their heads in the sand and pretended that everything would be okay. Then when the proverbial shit hit the fan, he pretends to help to solve the crisis. Real leadership prevents the crisis by taking early action, not by providing after the fact bandaids.

The IndyWorks proposal is another example of this mentality. Waiting until five years into his administration to address a problem that had been given bandaids solutions for years was counterproductive. Especially, when it could have been more effectively dealt with when there was more Democratic control of the state government and legislature. Instead he waits until it is crystal clear that there will be a shift in the state government before he even proposes a solution to a crisis. Again, lack of leadership and foresight rears its ugly head. Dealing with the budget should have been one of its first priorities. It was clear to anyone who paid attention that the eight year Goldsmith administration was about shifting costs to the future so that increased taxes would not occur under his watch. That is why he had the fight with the Library Board, the school districts, and was constantly refinancing every loan to lower payments during his time, without concerning himself with how those extended payments would wreck havoc on the future budgets of Indianapolis. Yet Peterson chose to ignore the problems, until it was too late. Now, the city has to face the prospect of even more service cuts, at a time when greater services are needed because of the decades of neglect. The CSO problem with our sanitary sewers, the deficient road network, the deficient drainage system (as anyone out in the rains of May 13, 2005 could attest), the lack of payments to the state for juvenile incarceration, the deficiency in our court and jail system, and the police pension problem, etc.

It is long past time for real leadership in Indianapolis. Are we going to demand it as citizens, or allow ourselves to continue to be bamboozled by the puffery and pretty words.