The city will pay an annual fee to a private-sector consortium that will design, build, finance, maintain and operate the facility. According to the Ballard administration, the project won’t require a tax hike.
The company is seeking nearly $1 million from the city after it was forced to remove the billboard, even though it conformed to zoning guidelines for the property.
Democrat Vernon Brown, a key opponent of Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s infrastructure-spending plan, said he plans to resign from the City-County Council this summer.
The county south of Indianapolis was king of the suburbs in the 1970s, but now has fallen far behind Hamilton to the north in population and income, and in recent years slipped behind Hendricks County to the west.
A City-County Council task force recommended Monday an increase in the income taxes dedicated to public safety. It also backed eliminating a homeowner tax break.
City officials and real estate professionals debated on Thursday the pain from moving jails, courts and other criminal justice functions to a proposed complex outside of downtown.
The Indiana University Public Policy Institute is analyzing proposed sites for a Marion County Criminal Justice Complex and may reveal its findings by the end of this week.
Hamilton County might soon join the growing ranks of large utility users looking to hedge against rising prices by producing some of their own power.
In the meantime, city officials are arranging to meet with lawyers, judges and residents who are concerned about moving jails and courts from downtown’s core.
An airport location and the former GM metal-stamping property near downtown are the top two sites listed for a Marion County jails-courts complex in a market survey of 14 potential sites conducted for the city by real estate services firm CBRE.
SerVaas was elected to the City-County Council in 1962 and served for more than 40 years, including 27 as council president. He was one of the architects of Unigov, the consolidated city-county government plan credited with revitalizing Indianapolis.
Moving the Marion County Jail, courts and other criminal justice functions to a consolidated site outside of downtown could gut businesses in the Mile Square and play havoc with legal offices, attorneys say.
Marion County criminal-justice complex project could rival Indianapolis airport terminal in cost, entail public-private financing deal.
Mayor Greg Ballard and Marion County law enforcement officials on Wednesday morning expect to announce plans for a new criminal justice complex, moving operations currently located in the City-County Building and elsewhere downtown.
A city program to help veteran-owned businesses fell short of its goal for its first three years, and it looks like the fourth will be the same.
Economists and politicians on both sides of the aisle have argued for years that streamlining government in Indiana could save millions of dollars, but vested interests and fear of change have stymied real reform.
A years-long fight between Marion County and mall developer Simon Property Group Inc. has moved to the Indiana Tax Court as a judge weighs vastly different estimates of the values of Lafayette Square Mall and Washington Square Mall.
The agreement funds a $15 million budget shortfall for 2014 and could result in a net gain of 80 police officers by 2015. The City-County Council overwhelmingly approved the budget Monday evening.
The Indianapolis City-County Council approved one piece of Mayor Greg Ballard’s budget proposal Monday night, but they’re no closer to agreement on the whole $1 billion spending plan.
The Marion County sheriff can’t control the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, but Mayor Greg Ballard can’t tell the sheriff how to operate jails or secure the City-County Building, and, much to his frustration, he’s been unable to control the sheriff’s spending.
