City-County Councillor Paul Bateman Pays the Price: Nice Knowing You!

"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" - Matthew 16:26

Minister Paul Bateman, the Democratic City-County Councillor who broke party rank to give approval to Mayor Greg Ballard's short-sighted and short-monied fifty-year parking lease to ACS, might as well vote with Ballard and the Republican caucus for the remainder of his short time in office in exchange for a job with the City or with a city contractor because this is almost certainly his last term.

Steve Talley, the former council president who resigned the District 11 seat, which Bateman assumed, to take a job in the Department of Public Safety in the Peterson Administration in 2005, has decided he'd like his seat back. Needless to say, party faithful and elected officials in Lawrence Township are strongly supportive. Talley already did an impressive amount of door-to-door for other Democratic candidates in 2010, so he's undoubtedly reconnected with many of his constituents.

In his short time on the council, Bateman had already stained the Democratic Party's brand when, in late 2009, a bankruptcy trustee sought a nearly $1.3 million judgment against Bateman and others for allegedly using money, or authorizing the use of such monies, from the Russell Foundation for personal expenses, such as clothing, dental work, and purchase of a fleet of vehicles. Bateman was never charged criminally, and he made the right decision to step down from the Council's Ethics Committee when the investigation was ongoing. But I never understood how someone could be so integral to an organization while knowing so little about expenses of over half of its total donations toward non-charity related activities.

Moreover, that cloud was hardly one the party needed hanging over it while it was trying to contend that the GOP had bred a "culture of corruption" via Tim Durham, Lincoln Plowman, and Carl Brizzi.

In the interest of full disclosure, when I served as campaign manager for Pam Carter's attorney general race in 1992, Paul Bateman was one of the first people on board. Bateman was working with the UAW then out of Anderson, he was very helpful to our effort, and I've liked him personally since then. In fact, even today, if I saw Councillor Bateman on the street, I'd shake his hand and wish him well.

But not as a councillor.

City-County Councillor Paul Bateman Pays the Price: Nice Knowing You!

Governor Daniels Complicit in Shady Brizzi Real Estate Deal Or Just Hiding Egg on Face?

Dirty.

I don't care whether it's "technically" legal if it is, which is a huge if. But the Indianapolis Business Journal's Cory Schouten all but proves what I've believed all along.

Let's put together the pieces.

Paul Page says that Carl Brizzi brought an Elkhart property to his attention, so they bought it.

Really, Paul? I hadn't heard you dabbled in commercial. I thought you were a residential guy. But, hey, diversification is good. Just one question. What made you think this was a good deal?

Really, Carl? That's how you spend your free time? Trolling Elkhart, Indiana for hot commercial properties?

Did I mention that only a few months after Brizzi and Page bought the building, its value shot up $500,000 (from $700,000 to $1.2 million ) based on a 10-year lease with the Indiana Department of Child Services at a rate that, if all proceeds were applied to the mortgages, would have had the owners owning free and clear a building in about five years.

I bet if somebody knew that the Indiana Department of Child Services was looking for 13,000 square feet in Elkhart (in other words, a property exactly like the one Brizzi bought), that would be very valuable intelligence, wouldn't it?

But you'd have to know somebody with that kind of information, and I'm sure Brizzi didn't.....what's that? John Bales? You mean Brizzi's business partner? Wait. Isn't he the same guy who represents the state in about every county brokering deals for state agency office space?

But wait! We get confirmation from Page himself.

From Schouten:

[Page] said Brizzi earned his stake in the Elkhart building by bringing him an attractive investment opportunity. He said Brizzi and Bales, a Brizzi partner on previous deals, approached him about the Elkhart building.

It gets worse.

Schouten provides these details on the Elkhart deal. Read closely. You need to hear it all - the good, the bad, and the ugly about this property.

1. The property has two mortgages: A $1.2 million first mortgage with Huntington Bank and a second mortgage for an unspecified amount with a company called BAB Equity LLC, which lists a post office box real estate broker John Bales has used for his companies and political contributions.

2. A spokesman for the Indiana Department of Administration said the second mortgage does not appear to violate Bales’ state leasing contract, which bans him from any direct or indirect ownership interest in properties the state leases.

3. Bales said in an e-mail that he does not control BAB Equity but refused to say who does. He did not respond to follow-up questions including why the company uses his post office box.

4. Bales and his firm, Venture Cos., orchestrated the $2.5 million, 10-year deal that put the state’s Department of Child Services into the building a few months after L & BAB LLC acquired the one-story building at 1659 Mishawaka St. in February 2008.

Interesting. Does DCS know who runs BAB Equity? If not, how can its legal counsel offer any comment on whether Bales has an ownership interest? BAB. What could that possibly stand for? Brizzi AND....hmmm. I need a "B" name.

I wouldn't tell who owns it either if I were Bales because I'd know the follow-up question would be, "Who financed the 2nd mortgage?" As a perhaps related question, does anybody think it's weird the second mortgage wasn't recorded until the day before the FBI raided Tim Durham's office?

Some other choice tidbits:

- Venture (Bales' company) arranged to list the building for sale with an asking price of $1.8 million in late 2008, immediately after the DCS executed its lease deal. The property did not sell.

- The Elkhart building had a market value of about $700,000 before the state lease and $1.2 million after the lease, according to an April 2008 appraisal prepared for Huntington Bank. The appraisal says the building would be difficult to market to traditional office users because it is surrounded by industrial properties and has no street frontage.

- The 1986 building had been vacant for several months and badly in need of repairs when L & BAB put the property under contract. The appraisal noted the 15,200-square-foot building had interior mold, three broken AC units and deferred maintenance on windows, exterior bricks and parking-lot pavement.

- L & BAB had planned to spend $422,500 to renovate the building and prepare most of it, about 13,000 square feet, for the arrival of DCS. The company eventually paid $825,000 for the property, and got a $15,000 allowance from the seller to remedy an animal infestation.

- Financial documents included in the offering show the building owner, building seller, DCS and an insurance company split more than $577,000 of expenses to renovate and outfit the building. The owner’s portion was about $315,000, while DCS paid about $200,000 for upgrades including new restrooms.

The records show Page invested $321,835 in the building and financed $993,750. That includes a commission of $88,400, and a development fee of $45,600, both going to Venture (Bales' company).

- Records suggest Brizzi was added as a co-owner of the building late in the process. Financial documents provided to potential buyers in 2008 list Bruce Zeller of Carmel-based Zeller Construction Co. as co-investing with Page. Zeller did not return a phone message.

What does this all mean? Carl Brizzi got "inside" information from a guy who works for Governor Daniels. Because the Governor hates government owning things, we got fleeced. The State could have bought that building and saved a bundle. Instead, the guy Daneils entrusted to find it deals (and the one who advised and negotiates rates, right?), handed valuable intelligence to a business partner crony, and on top of that, the State even paid $200,000 to make the building better. Wow.

I asked a colleague of mine who is in commercial real estate how he thought this might have gone down, and here's his hypothesis:

(Bales) knows he has a 15,000 SF requirement in Elkhart. He identifies several possibilities, one of which is the building in question ("Building A"). He tips off Brizzi and Page. Brizzi and Page put the building under contract (or get an option with the owner) for 60 day "due diligence period" w/no penalty for not moving forward with deal - it's called a "free look" in the industry. This contract allows Brizzi/Page to purchase Building A at a fair market price (or a bit higher to sweeten the deal for the owner), but for a vacant property. So relatively cheap.

Bales decides w/state signoff that Building A is the best location for the state. Brizzi/Page exercise their option or otherwise move forward on their contract and close on the property. The contract might even have a clause that makes closing contingent on landing a deal. Regardless, state lease on Building A signed at closing or shortly thereafter. This has immediate impact on value of Building A, taking it from a vacant property to a fully leased (10-years), $17 per square foot (e.g., rich) property. Building A also becomes (theoretically) immediately marketable for its income stream to an investor, so it should be easy to flip.

Payoff for Brizzi/Page - at least $500k-$1million each, for almost no risk. Bales without doubt gets something something (like 50%) under the table from Brizzi/Page (without technically violating the self-dealing clause in his state contract).

Not bad for a days work. This scenario is comparable to Gordon Gekko, trading on inside information that the market does not possess. If Building A were a stock/security, there would be a good case for securities violations under federal law... Bales surely violated his ethical duties as a licensed broker, but I'm sure there is no paper trail! So good luck proving it.

All we know for certain is that Bales got $120,000 in commissions. What we don't know is if there were any other buildings in play. What if there weren't? At some point, isn't there a conflict when a broker helps a third party become an owner to consummate a deal that's already on the table? What we also know is that Bales has previously pitched crappy space to government decision makers. Remember when Bales tried to move the Metro Drug Task Force to a rat-den?

You know what I want to see now? Every contract with John Bales' name associated with it. How many friends has he enriched or gotten better deals than the market would have born, but for his intercession and trading on information only available to him? How much did he cost the taxpayers with Governor Daniels' blessing?

Were I the Governor or the Mayor of Indianapolis, I'd end any and all Bales' contracts right now pending a formal investigation.

Will you, Governor? Will you Mr. Mayor?

(Crickets chirp. Tumbleweeds roll through).

Governor Daniels Complicit in Shady Brizzi Real Estate Deal Or Just Hiding Egg on Face?

Random Thoughts on "The Market," Racinos, Carl Brizzi's Amazing Luck, and Larry Brodeur's Bad Fortune

For the second time this year, insurer Wellpoint announced that it will delay rate hikes on individual policies in California. Did “the market” make Wellpoint wait, or was it fear of government scrutiny or regulation? Even those who despise “government” have to admit that it’s a useful vehicle for reigning in prices when the market doesn’t (which is a strange notion because isn't the market already supposed to deliver the lowest price?) Sometimes the thing that drives “the market” to innovate quickest is the fear that if it doesn’t, government will step in. This is probably why after President Clinton took a swing for the fences in 1993 but failed, medical inflation still slowed.

Regarding “the market,” if Republicans so detest government bailouts, why would any self-respecting GOP member vote for slot machines (or anything else) for racing tracks to “keep horseracing viable” (i.e., to keep an unprofitable product afloat)? Why don’t Republicans let this industry fail? Does it have anything to do with the fact that a lot of wealthy Republicans are the ones who raise and race the horses? Seriously, can you envision in your wildest dreams Republican legislators voting to let Navistar put up slot machines?

Speaking of hitting the jackpot, this weekend Carl Brizzi did an interview on WIBC with Steve Simpson. It was too maddeningly incomplete and evasive to recount blow by blow, but the most intriguing tidbits are these:

1. When Carl Brizzi and Paul Page bought a building in Elkhart for $825,000 as co-owners, they didn’t put any money down.

According to Brizzi, the purchase “was collateralized by the building and the lease(s).” But only one lease has been disclosed – the one with the State of Indiana for over one-quarter of the entire purchase price per year. Friends, would any bank give you a loan in such a circumstance without a signed lease? No? Then wouldn’t that mean that BEFORE Brizzi even obtained the building, the State had a deal with him? If so, the State could have bought the building itself and saved hundreds of thousands over the building’s life. If anybody in real estate can explain how something doesn’t smell rotten in this transaction, I’m all ears.

Also, I'm still waiting for Brizzi to explain how he happened to be trolling around Elkhart looking for office space. My thinking is that if I had a really good friend (cough - John Bales - cough) in real estate whose job is to get governmental units office space, he might know about an agency looking for some space, and he might know where and when they need it.

2. When speaking about the Mobarecki plea deal (you know, the one where Brizzi gave a guy with five pounds of dope, sixty thousand worth of drugs, and sixteen thousand in cash in bags of chicken in his freezer just a D felony plus ten of his cash back), Brizzi threw an unnamed John Doe on his staff under the bus.

What Brizzi said was that he had to be so lenient because "serious allegations" had been made against somebody in his office about what the deal for Mobarecki's cooperation was. Can anybody envision how that could be anybody but Larry Brodeur, the prosecutor who was on the case whose e-mail went public on Brizzi's bad decision? How awesome for Brizzi. By pulling the old "I can't say why because it's a personnel matter," Brizzi leaves us to infer, and there's only one person we know of who could be under that microscope - the guy whose e-mail hosed Brizzi publicly.

Random Thoughts on "The Market," Racinos, Carl Brizzi's Amazing Luck, and Larry Brodeur's Bad Fortune

Double Shock Power Wednesday for Brizzi, Judge William Young

Fox 59’s Russ McQuaid (who has been on Brizzi like onions on a Harry & Izzy’s steakburger) reports that a waitress for the restaurant name dropped Brizzi and Peyton Manning to a police officer following her arrest for operating while intoxicated.

Her case was ultimately (and properly) handled by a special prosecutor. You might say, “So Brizzi's policy of recusing himself worked? What’s the issue?”

McQuaid reports that Judge William Young “turned down the special prosecutor request three times to display his displeasure with Brizzi's ownership of the bar, the inherent conflict of interest, and the expense of administering such a relatively minor case.” (Unfortunately, the story does not report what the actual cost is for a special prosecutor).

Ring. Ring.

“Hello, Kettle? Yes, this is the pot calling to tell you you’re black.”

Judge Young is worried about how much it cost in one case to appoint a special prosecutor?

How about the cost that we’ll all pay for the class action lawsuit because the Judge has been charging extra money for people to take their traffic cases to trial, in pretty clear violation of, oh, what’s that called again…...oh, right, the Constitution?

My rule of thumb is that if the Indiana General Assembly approves a law and the Governor signs it specifically to undo something I did, that’s a pretty good indication that I’ve screwed up majorly, and I might just want to sit down and keep quiet.

Also, the Indianapolis Star's Jon Murray reports that after Brizzi's press secertary Mario Massillamany resigned following his DUI arrest, Brizzi hired the PR firm of Hirons & Company.

According to Murray, this deal actually saves the taxpayers money because, at $6,500 per month, it ends up being $78,000 annually, which was $2,000 less than Mario's salary, and that's before including benefits. (In fact, I'm astonished Mayor Ballard hasn't outsourced every public information officer job yet in exchange for campaign cash from the PR firms. But I digress).

Two things bothers me about this story. First, the bar shouldn't be how much would we have paid if Mario stayed. It should be how much can we save now that he's gone. Am I to believe that, in this economy, Brizzi couldn't find anybody with a PR background who would serve in his office for eight months?

I'd say with almost certainty that Brizzi didn't even try for fear that posting the job publicly would result in too many punchlines. But I'd bet with, again, almost certainty that some young upstart would come in for a $50,000 salary, the chance to throw massive money into a deferred compensation plan, and an opportunity to say (s)he managed the hardest PR campaign in Marion County history. If you survive that, what agency wouldn't hire you?

But Brizzi needed "professional" crisis management. I understand there's always going to be an overlap between the PR related to the operation of the office and the PR related to the candidate in the office. But we shouldn't have to pay for the impossible - an effort to rehabilitate Carl Brizzi's image.

Double Shock Power Wednesday for Brizzi, Judge William Young

A Gary Varvel Cartoon I Like!

I love his artistic style, but for the most part, not his politics or his humor. But I'm excited today because this almost NEVER happens. I agree with Indianapolis Star editorial cartoonist Gary Varvel!

Maybe there is hope for America if we can come together on an issue.

A Gary Varvel Cartoon I Like!

IBJ Asks Brizzi to Step Down. Mr. Mayor, Governor?!? Where are you?!?

Today, the Indianapolis Business Journal joins the cavalcade of folk asking Carl Brizzi to hang up his spurs.

From today's editorial:

Brizzi, 41, now is dismissing calls for his resignation from leaders of both parties as “ridiculous.” But we join the chorus calling for him to step down and are incredulous that he’s trying to hang on until his second term concludes at year-end.

Consider what Brizzi himself wrote to supporters in December, as he was taking heat for his brief stint as a director of Fair Finance Co., an Akron, Ohio, firm co-owned by Durham that government investigators now suspect was a Ponzi scheme.

“As a public official, I am, understandably, held to a higher standard—and any association or action is subject to greater scrutiny,” Brizzi wrote.

Indeed, it’s hard to imagine an elected position in Indiana where impeccable ethics is more essential. As the top prosecutor in the state’s largest county, he has a tough job. His effectiveness is hindered if other players in the process—from deputy prosecutors and defense attorneys to defendants and sitting judges—perceive him as tainted by scandal.

To be sure, not everyone calling for Brizzi to step aside has the purest of motives. Republicans are eager to distance themselves from a politician with no political future. And Democrats are eager to use the controversies involving the prosecutor to cast doubt on the integrity of the entire GOP. The stakes are high as Democrats seek to return to the high-profile post for the first time in 16 years.

But this is more than a bunch of political posturing. Brizzi ruined his political career through his own bad judgment. Those lapses have hurt Brizzi’s ability to do his job—“to relentlessly pursue the bad guys,” as he likes to say. It’s time for him to stop putting his own interests ahead of the city’s and step down.

Amen, IBJ. I know it will hurt my Democratic party to have Mark Massa take over now, and he'd be all but a lock as the replacement. But if there's any officeholder who must bestow confidence upon the public at all times, it's the one holding the scales of justice. As I reported yesterday, it's time for Brizzi to take his thumb off of those scales.

Also, why haven't Mayor Ballard or Governor Daniels joined the call? Okay, let's be frank. Mayor Ballard probably doesn't know Carl Brizzi has problems because nobody's put it in a comic book yet. But the Governor? Why hasn't Indiana's biggest GOP bat taken a swing? Doesn't he care about the mockery this office has become? Or is he simply too afraid that his growing national political clout will look feeble if Brizzi completely ignores him? Or, is it something much more personal?

So what's the deal, Governor? We're listening.

(Tumblewoods blow past).

IBJ Asks Brizzi to Step Down. Mr. Mayor, Governor?!? Where are you?!?

The Brizzi Chronicles Continue; iPOPA Asks, "Where are Mayor Greg Ballard and Governor Mitch Daniels?

Russ McQuaid with Fox 59 reported yesterday that Carl Brizzi sold out an alleged rape victim, Amy Lindsey, by giving her assailant a beneficial plea deal because he worked for attorney Paul Page, Brizzi's business partner.

According to Ms. Lindsey, Brizzi worked out a plea deal over lunch with the alleged assailant, Robert Odendahl, along with Mr. Page and attorney Carolyn Rader.

Here's the story from Lindsey:

 
It is critical to note that former Deputy Prosecutor Courtney Curtis, who was on the case, told McQuaid she never told Amy Lindsey that. Instead, Curtis said Lindsey's story was suspect, which is why the office agreed to the reduced charge of criminal confinement, which would keep Mr. Odendahl off the sex offender registry and permit him to later petition for modification of his sentence to a misdemeanor.

Regardless of whether Ms. Lindsey's story is true, this case is disturbing on many levels.

First, Ms. Curtis's phrasing is interesting. She doesn't say the lunch meeting never happened. She says she never told Lindsey that the meeting happened. Wouldn't that be simple enough to check out by asking Page or Brizzi? (I'm thinking Brizzi might not return my call, so can somebody else check?)

And if this meeting happened, how can Brizzi say he's not playing favorites with Page? Breaking bread with the alleged criminals you're prosecuting is what he does with everybody? That's hardly the right signal for a guy supposedly advocating for victims. (If you do criminal defense and you've met Brizzi for lunch with your client, please contact me...because I want to see if you're on Brizzi's donor list).

Also, if the rape story was so suspect, why was Odendahl charged? Didn't the prosecutor screening the case talk to the victim, or does Brizzi's office just charge people with rape willy-nilly to let them correct any mistakes on the back end, provided they have the right counsel?

Elsewhere in the GOP nightmare known as the Brizzi Administration...

The Indianapolis Star joined the chorus of folks asking for Carl Brizzi's resignation. Here's the read:

One of the saddest aspects of the Marion County prosecutor's financial ties to defense attorneys is that they're legal.

The law, however, only opens the door to conflict of interest. Prosecutor Carl Brizzi has walked through, more than once. Two key members of his party have said "enough," and so should Brizzi.

Mark Massa had plenty of strategic reason for demanding Brizzi's resignation Wednesday in the wake of revelations by the Indianapolis Business Journal of Brizzi's intervention in a criminal case on behalf of a client of his business partner.

Massa is the GOP candidate to replace Brizzi, who is not seeking a third term. Democrats will run against Brizzi, in effect, so Massa needs to distance himself.

That said, there is no way Massa's criticism -- seconded by GOP County Chairman Tom John -- can be dismissed as "a political stunt" by an obstinate prosecutor.

It was at best abysmal judgment for Brizzi to have become half-owner of an office building with a criminal defense lawyer. It raises red flags that Brizzi had to put up no money toward the $900,000 investment with Paul J. Page.

Then to personally push through a lenient plea deal for an accused drug dealer who was a Page client, over the objections of the deputy prosecutor, and to order the return of $10,000 confiscated from the defendant, takes observers beyond skepticism to cynicism.

Nor is it the first time.

There is the continuing FBI scrutiny of Brizzi's ties to financier Tim Durham, his 2006 campaign finance chairman and the target of a securities investigation.

And there's the case of Paula Willoughby. Sentenced to 110 years in prison in 1991 for hiring a man to kill her husband, Willoughby walked free in 2009 via a sentence modification Brizzi's office supported. Her father, businessman Harrison Epperly, along with defense attorney Jennifer Lukemeyer and Lukemeyer's law partner James H. Voyles Jr., were election campaign contributors to Brizzi. Brizzi gave back Epperly's $28,500 -- after the sentencing change -- and said it played no role in his decision.

The public should not have to trust him on that, because the entanglements Brizzi has indulged in should not exist in this critical office. Laws and rules, not just personal behavior, should skew toward credibility and independence at all costs. Massa's pledge of a batch of reforms, including eschewal of outside business dealings, sounds bold, if a bit self-serving, in the current atmosphere. It ought to be moot. The old temptations must go, and so must the man who has succumbed to them.

Lucky Carl Strikes Real Estate Gold

First, I'm not sure why people keep reporting Brizzi's Elkhart buildling buy was for $900,000; it was for $825,000. (Look at 1659 Mishawaka Street for the Abnikcar sold to L&BAB LLC entry).

Second, isn't anybody curious about how Brizzi just happened to come upon a property which had 13 of its 15,000 square feet rented by the Indiana Department of Child Services within five months for $248,000 per year on what I'm told (and still trying to confirm) is a "triple net lease"? Under this type of lease, not only does the landowner get a lease payment for the space, renter (in this case, the State of Indiana) would also pay for the real estate taxes, utilities, and maintenance, which means there is literally no risk for Brizzi and Page. At that rental rate, the two would own the building free and clear in just over three years.

Can I ask a question?

Why wouldn't the State of Indiana have just bought the building, which the Department of Administration could have done under Indiana law. Obviously, DCS was in the market for a lot of space. Wouldn't somebody have looked around and said, "Hey, here's a building we can buy for $825,000 that's just the right size! That would sure be cheaper than idiotically leasing that same space for $248,000 a year for ten years!"

Maybe somebody with the state did know DCS was looking. Maybe they were the person looking. And maybe somebody told somebody else about it. Is this conspiratorial supposition? Maybe.

Don't you have to ask how Brizzi got so lucky? What compelled him to look at commercial properties in Elkhart? Was it the thriving Elkhart real estate economy? I bet if you asked, he couldn't answer any better than he could tell you why he bought Cellstar stock.

Also, how does Brizzi get away with listing a 50% interest in an $825,000 building as being worth $50-$100,000 on his Statement of Economic Interests?

First Place Media Strategy

On the politics end, there's been a robust debate in Democratic circles about whether D's should have been first to call for Brizzi's resignation, and I apologize to the Democratic candidates for prosecutor, Terry Curry and Greg Bowes, if anybody took away from my critique the idea they were comfortable with what was going down in Brizzi's office.

I've heard Curry "on the stump" quite a bit, and what this office has become sickens him. But until Massa spoke, nobody had called for Brizzi's resignation publicly or weighed in on Brizzi as strongly as Massa did. Once the dam broke, Curry then took it up a notch and asked for a special prosecutor to investigate Brizzi. Fortunately, this angle got covered by Channel 13. (Well played, sir).

Greg Bowes also took a swing at Massa after the fact:

Yesterday, the Republican candidate for Prosecutor announced he would establish a "Public Integrity Unit" to investigate crimes committed by public officials. On February 12, 2010, when I filed my candidacy papers, I announced to the press that I would establish a public integrity unit. I am glad to see the Republican candidate likes my idea.

Bowes also pointed out his long-standing suspicion of Brizzi's estranged relationship with truth. Bowes reminded voters that in December of 2006, he filed an extremely detailed complaint with the Indiana Disciplinary Commission in which he argued that Brizzi knowingly lied at a public hearing. Bowes wrote:

On July 19, 2006, Carl Brizzi . . .in his capacity as Marion County Prosecutor, gave testimony before (the City-County Council's Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee) regarding Marion County’s collective efforts to manage the problem of overcrowding in its jail.

While discussing the high-profile release of an detainee, James Stewart, who was later accused of murdering seven people, Mr. Brizzi stated, “He was asked to be held, and the judge made a decision not to hold him.” Mr. Brizzi went on to say, “it was his record that caused my front line deputy to ask that henot be released.” He later said Stewart “was OR’d over our objection.”

These statements were false.

The transcript of Stewart’s initial hearing where he was released shows that no deputy prosecutor asked that Stewart be held, and no deputy prosecutor objected to his release, because there was no deputy prosecutor present.

Now, there is a school of thought that cannot be easily discounted that Democrats ingeniously and intentionally kept silent. The theory goes that by waiting for Massa to ambush Brizzi, Democrats ensured that Brizzi's reaction was to lash out, which, sure enough, he did immediately. Brizzi called Massa's press conference a "political stunt," and then referred to Tom John as one of the most "ineffective chairmen Marion County has seen in decades." I dare say we should expect the "payback is a (expletive)" bud to go full bloom before we leave Spring, and Republicans will devour each other for months to come.

But, reasonable minds can differ, and tactically, I still think Democrats missed the boat on this one.

Here's why.

If Democrats had gone out first, Massa absolutely gets an ostensible out for his action. He can say to Brizzi, "Hey, I want to let you know I have to do this because the Democrats put me in a box." But I can't fathom any universe where Brizzi's anger is lessened when Massa craps all over him, and folks, he was going to haveto do it. Whether you agree with me hinges on whether you think a deep cut from within the family shallows if you see it coming and you can blame somebody else for it having to happen. On that score, I just feel certain we would have seen the "Brizzi backlash" even if Dems had gone first, and we would have picked up the PR bump in the process.

One comment posted on this blog today said I'm wrong because:

(1) Democrats would have been accused of "pulling a stunt" in asking for Brizzi's resignation; and

(2) Republicans are in a circle shooting at each other, and it's best to let them be.

With all due respect to Councillor Jose Evans, a political stunt is when you go to the Mayor's Office and hand him a letter asking for the resignation of the water department director. That's grandiose political theater that everybody knows won't change anything. But here, Brizzi had gone so far over the line, there's no way it would have played like a stunt foremost. If you think I'm wrong, go back up and read the portions of the Star's editorial I italicized.

On the GOP self-slaughter, yeah, once a fracas breaks out among all the principles, you can step back. That's conventional wisdom. But until it broke out, we had the chance to impress upon independent voters that D's were leading the charge to clean up the pervasive Durham-Brizzi-Plowman-(Massa?)-(Daniels?) axis of corruption.

Terry Curry, Greg Bowes, Ed Treacy, and Melina Kennedy all made public statements about Brizzi/Massa, but not before Massa stepped to his microphone. Did you see any of their names in the Star editorial?

Why are Ballard and Daniels Tight-Lipped?

Two big names we haven't heard from on Brizzi are Mayor Greg Ballard and Governor Mitch Daniels.

As I previously reported, Kennedy called on Ballard to ask for Brizzi's resignation as well. The Mayor hasn't replied, and I think I might know why. Ballard's campaign consultant (to the tune of $10,000 per month) is Jennifer Hallowell, the political strategist who got Brizzi elected twice and, by quite a few accounts, either had or currently has a social relationship with Brizzi. That's gotta make things dicey for Hizzoner. How do you publicly bust the chops of your political consultant's boyfriend?

And where is Governor Daniels on this? Does he support Massa's call for Brizzi's resignation? If so, why hasn't Mitch publicly conceded that his biking buddy is "riding dirty?"

Does it have anything to do with the fact that the Governor's Office has to approve leases under Indiana law? I'm sorry, who approved the Brizzi building lease?

The Brizzi Chronicles Continue; iPOPA Asks, "Where are Mayor Greg Ballard and Governor Mitch Daniels?

Massa Marks Up Brizzi, Shows Democrats How It's Done

Last Friday, I wrote this:

...the Brizzi reign has reached such cataclysmically embarrassing proportions, I keep expecting an avalanche of high-ranking Republicans to ask publicly for Brizzi's resignation in concert. But nobody asks. Not Tom John, not Mark Massa, not Murray Clark, and not Governor Daniels. I can only conclude by their complete silence that they are okay with all of this.

Five days later (a/k/a "this morning" for the mathematically-challenged among us), Massa called for Brizzi's resignation, and he was joined shortly thereafter by Marion County GOP Chairman Tom John, to both their credit.

From my good friend, Jon Easter, at Indydemocrat:

Little did we know that the first to break the silence on the issue would be the guy trying to replace him from HIS OWN PARTY, Mark Massa.

Can I ask my own party and its candidates a gentle question?

What in the world were you waiting for?!?

Why were you all acting like you needed the Republicans to make it safe in the political water? Was there any doubt that the Brizzi administration was charting a path strewn with public confidence-crushing scandals?

To her credit, Democratic mayoral candidate Melina Kennedy today asked Mayor Ballard to show leadership and ask for Brizzi's resignation. (Technically, Hizzoner would be joining others again after-the-fact, but we'll take his "leadership" in whatever form we can get it).

Kennedy writes:

On election night in 2007, as television stations and thousands of viewers at home looked on, Greg Ballard chose one person to introduce him as the next mayor: Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi.

The rule of law is the basis of our system. If we lose confidence in the very person who is supposed to prosecute our laws, then our community's respect for the rule of law is deeply compromised. We are at a dangerous moment in the history of our city and we must take public corruption seriously.

Mayor Ballard is uniquely positioned to influence Brizzi given the close relationship described above. Indeed, as Marion County’s top Republican, and Indianapolis' top elected official, Ballard has both the ability and the duty to personally ask Brizzi to resign.

Without delay, Ballard should make every effort to end the reign of unethical and corrupt behavior in positions of public trust.

Now, some Demos have retorted that if Brizzi resigns, Governor Daniels gets to appoint his predecessor! You know he'd pick Massa, his former chief-of-staff, and he'd have eight months as an incumbent and all the perks of the office.

Folks, Democrats calling for Brizzi's resignation first wouldn't have made him leave, it would have emboldened him while giving all the Dems the PR benefit of the moral highground. Then Republicans would have had a harder time making the call themselves because they'd be following Democrats' lead. It could have been a win, win, win.

Instead, Republicans can say they lead the charge to clean up their own house while a lot of Democrats watched from the sideline. Are they wrong?

My kingdom for some Democratic media tacticians.

Massa Marks Up Brizzi, Shows Democrats How It's Done

How Much Disrepute Can One Man Bring to a Prosecutor's Office? Ask Carl Brizzi.

The Indianapolis Business Journal’s Cory Schouten reported yesterday that Carl Brizzi intervened in a drug dealer case to get a plea deal that neither law enforcement nor deputy prosecutors wanted, and coincidentally, Brizzi’s business partner, Paul Page, was the defense attorney.

As most iPOPA readers probably know, Page gave Brizzi an ownership interest of between $50,000-$100,000 in an Elkhart office building worth $900,000 with no investment or co-signature on any loan because he said Brizzi found the property. Of course, almost immediately after obtaining the building, Page earned a lease from the Indiana Department of Child Services.

(I suppose we should write it off as coincidence that Brizzi’s ex-wife, Melanie Brizzi, is the director of the Bureau of Child Care, so in her work circles, she might learn that DCS was looking for a new space in Elkhart).

The story also notes that Brizzi directed law enforcement to return $10,000 in cash seized from the dealer, Joseph Mobareki, and that money was routed back to Page.

Schouten reports that Brizzi has gone from mostly hands-off in his early years to intervening on numerous cases, in particular with certain attorneys involved, including Page.

"We knew there was a quid," said a Prosecutor's Office source familiar with the Mobareki case. "We just weren't sure about the pro quo."

Schouten writes about the case:

Mobareki, a bodybuilder and personal trainer, was caught with anabolic steroids valued at more than $100,000, five unlicensed firearms and more than $17,000 in cash, records show. He was charged with seven felony counts of possession and dealing controlled substances and marijuana, for which he could expect six to 10 years in prison based on state sentencing guidelines.

The Prosecutor's Office narcotics unit-in exchange for a plea deal-had hoped to extract Mobareki's cooperation in tracking down his customers and suppliers by translating a cryptic roster of partial names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
But as deputy prosecutors worked the case, Page informed them he had reached a deal with Brizzi for a single count of possession of a controlled substance, a Class D felony and the lowest of the seven charges.

Deputy Prosecutor Larry Brodeur, the narcotics chief, practically begged Brizzi in an e-mail to reconsider his decision to allow for the possibility of an eventual reduction of Mobareki's remaining felony charge to a misdemeanor.

Brodeur took exception in particular to the way he learned of the plea deal, through Page directly after a conversation between Brizzi and Page.

Brodeur wrote to Brizzi, "I do not take directions on my cases from defense lawyers."

Brodeur made his case for taking a tougher position on Mobareki: He'd been caught with hundreds of steroid pills and bottles of liquid steroids, 700 Xanax pills, almost four pounds of marijuana, and log books listing his customers, including a local high school coach.

"Paul Page has contended, throughout the pendency of this case, the [sic] Mobareki is nothing more than a body builder who foolishly uses steroids," Brodeur wrote. "That is completely incorrect."

'Ill-gotten gains'

The investigation began in February 2008 when IMPD narcotics detectives, acting on a tip from a UPS employee, intercepted a package of steroids bound for Mobareki. They trailed Mobareki after he left the Center Grove Health Club on State Road 135 in Greenwood and later obtained search warrants for his home, car and a storage unit.

Police reports show they found steroids hidden inside an exercise ball, cereal box and jar of protein powder at his home, and seized five unlicensed guns including an SKS assault rifle. Detectives also confiscated $17,550 in cash-most of it hidden inside a bag of chicken in Mobareki's freezer.

"It is drug money and neither Mobareki nor Paul Page should profit from it," Brodeur wrote. "I have been working hard to convince police agencies that the [Marion County Prosecutor's Office] has both the ability and the motivation to strip drug dealers of their ill-gotten gains. Returning the money to Mobareki would certainly undercut that effort."

Mobareki, 35, spent two days in jail and paid $365 in fines, records show. He got $10,000 of the seized cash back, with the rest going to cover law enforcement expenses in a nod to those who had fought the release of the money. He has the right after a year on probation to request a misdemeanor sentence modification.

The handling of the Mobareki case veered from normal Prosecutor's Office procedure in at least three ways, said Henry C. Karlson, an Indiana University emeritus professor of law.

Typically, plea deals in drug cases keep the most serious felony charge, not the least. Defense attorneys usually deal with trial attorneys and not the elected prosecutor. And most major drug cases lead to substantial forfeiture actions-including cars, homes and cash.

"That appears to be a very good plea bargain-the kind of plea bargain lawyers dream about," Karlson said. "It appears to be a very unusual case with a very unusual plea bargain carried out in a very unusual manner."

You can see the extremely strong e-mail Brodeur sent here.

If the saying, "Where there's smoke..." is true, I wouldn't be half-surprised to see a Brizzi bribery indictment at some point in the future.

I take away three things from this story. First, the IBJ is doing some extremely impressive investigative journalism on the Brizzi-Durham-Bales-Page-Cochran axis of ethically-suspect transactions. It's turned into daily "must-read," so kudos to them.

Second, the professional prosecutors in the office know their reputations are now on the line. Those sitting quietly now know that the media is looking at their cases, and if they went along with a Brizzi plea, they'll look as suspect as he did. In short, I'm sure you can expect more of these disclosures from within the office soon as people try to prove to those who might be their new boss that they "spoke truth to power" and the hubris connected with that power rebuffed their efforts.

Finally, the Brizzi reign has reached such cataclysmically embarrassing proportions, I keep expecting an avalanche of high-ranking Republicans to ask publicly for Brizzi's resignation in concert. But nobody asks. Not Tom John, not Mark Massa, not Murray Clark, and not Governor Daniels. I can only conclude by their complete silence that they are okay with all of this.

And, of course, until some Republican buys Brizzi off with a great job offer or demolishes him so thoroughly in public that it's embarrassing to his family for him to stay, he has no incentive to leave. As Shouten points out, if Brizzi finishes his second term, he will be entitled to earn 24 percent of his highest annual salary of $125,000, or about $30,000 per year once he reaches retirement age, by IBJ's calculation.

You have got to be (expletive) kidding me.

How Much Disrepute Can One Man Bring to a Prosecutor's Office? Ask Carl Brizzi.

Brizzi's Mario Driving Recklessly...and Drunk

“He wanted to avoid any further embarrassment by resolving this case as quickly as possible.”

These are words Marion County Prosecutor's Office spokesman and Carl Brizzi's right arm, Mario Massillamany, uttered when Dennis Oxley was charged with misrepresenting himself as a legislators to avoid a public intoxication arrest.

These might be words Masillamany will want to remember.

As if Brizzi did not have enough problems, Masillamany was arrested in Hamilton County last night for being twice the legal limit (.16 BAC) while driving 31 miles per hour over the speedlimit. (Always a good call to be both drunk and driving fast).

Will Brizzi fire Masillamany? He says yes in the story "if he's charged," and how couldn't he? Remember when Brizzi fired (cough, I'm sorry accepted the resignation of) Deputy Prosecutor Gillian Deprez?

I don't see any way Brizzi could maintain credibility by claiming there is a difference here. What's he going to say, "Sure, he was .01 percent more drunk than Deprez and driving recklessly, but at least he got stopped before he caused any property damage!" (Of course, "Brizzi's credibility" has been an oxymoronic expression for months).

If only Masillamany, the chair of the Hamilton County Young Republicans, had a close friend in the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office who could handle this for him.

Oh wait! Isn't Marion County Deputy Prosecutor David Wyser running right now? If Masillamany can delay on until November, he might get a sweet deal just like Paula Willoughby. I'd say it's a strong bet that Masillamany is already a Wyser donor, and if $2,500 can get a 70-year murder beef reduced to 18 served, $250 can surely get you diversion.

Brizzi's Mario Driving Recklessly...and Drunk

Ogden Raises Interesting Questions About Plowman

Republican Paul Ogden asks some interesting questions about Lincoln Plowman in a recent blog post.

Specifically, why would the Marion County GOP donate $2400 to Plowman in February of 2009? That's two years before his next election, and the guy is in a staggeringly Republican district. Oh, wait! Did anybody else notice and think it was fishy that the exact same day that check came in, Plowman wrote a check to himself for $1930 for money he had loaned the committee? Why did he need that money so urgently?

After reviewing Plowman's last report, I have questions of my own.

Is the cool thing now in the GOP operating above your means and then loaning yourself money so it looks like you raise more than you do?

Plowman repeatedly loaned himself money, including a $3,082 on March 5, 2009, the exact day his campaign bought a PC from Fry Electronics for that exact amount. Why? Because his campaign only had $1300 at the time. He makes the purchase, records the loan, and presto, because campaign finance laws require all incoming "dollars" to be recorded as "contributions," he's just added "$3,082" to his year-to-date fundraising total. (This is why cash-on-hand if the only intrinsically valuable piece of information on a CFA-4. Plowman raised $14,000, a very healthy sum for a councillor, but he only had $500 in the bank at year's end).

Also, last time I checked, campaign finance law say you can spend contributions only on things reasonably related to campaign activities. Raise your hand if you believe that Plowman actually spent $4041...yes, that's four THOUSAND....on the purchase of a new campaign phone and only campaign cell phone bills. (iPOPA looks across entire county, sees no hands).

Just like Carl Brizzi, Plowman also has numerous "meetings" that look an awful lot like a guy eating out on his donors' dime. This practice troubles me because the only difference between campaign donations and something that resembles implied bribery is the law prohibiting candidates from benefitting personally from contributions.

Also, if Plowman resigns and is done with politics, what will happen to his new iPhone? What will happen to his new laptop? Will he keep them? Or will he donate them to another committee or sell them and transfer the proceeds to another committee? Only the latter practices are legal, and I assure you, I'll be watching.

And it won't just be Plowman from here out. Fair warning to both R's and my fellow D's alike....if you use your campaign committee like a personal bank account, you should probably reform your ways, or you might get your feelings hurt.

Ogden Raises Interesting Questions About Plowman

Dizzy on Brizzi Improprieties Yet?

Fox 59 reports that "there was dicussion" about relocating the Metro Drug Task Force two years ago, and the location pushed was owned by John Bales, Carl Brizzi's business partner and campaign donor. The story notes that Bales has a contract that provides him 3% of any lease he negotiates for the City, so he would apparently have double-dipped as owner and negotiator. The other tenant already at that location? Tim Durham.

The move did not happen because law enforcement and a female prosecutor who would have worked there thought it was an unsafe dump. (Fox reports that the prosecutor who opposed the move was demoted and reassigned by Brizzi).

Hamilton County Sheriff Doug Carter stated, "There was discussion early on about the possibility of a move northeast and there was discussion about a specific piece of property on the westside," said Hamilton Co. Sheriff Doug Carter.

Lawrence Police Chief Paul Whitehead: "Well, unfortunately, the particular facility we looked at..." started Lawrence Police Chief Paul Whitehead.

Kudos to Russ McQuaid for breaking this story, but it doesn't go deep enough for my tastes.

Who set up the viewing of the property? Who pushed it? To whom? Are there letters or e-mails? Is it a coincidence that Lawrence Police Chief Paul Whitehead was involved? He works for Lawrence Mayor Paul Ricketts, to whom GOP bagman Tim Durham donated a staggering sum in excess of $80,000 over the past few years and to whom Brizzi donated $1,000 in 2008.

As a quick aside, Ricketts donated $250 of that money back to Brizzi in 2008. To all the newbies out there, passing the same money back and forth between political friends is a great way to inflate the value of your political stock because it looks like you've raised more money than you really have. (You can also do this with actual stock, but you might go to prison).

Here's another sidebar Fox missed. Why would a GOP Hamilton County Sheriff air Brizzi's dirty laundry? Does it have anything to do with the fact Brizzi's campaign committee donated $200 to Scott Baldwin, who is opposing Sheriff Carter's hand-picked successor in the May primary?

Of course, despite the GOP's efforts to run from Brizzi/Durham money, it permeates all levels of GOPdom. In the past two years, Brizzi has given $1,650 to the Hamilton County GOP, $1,250 to the Wayne Township GOP, $800 to Washington Township, $500 to Perry, $400 to Warren, and $250 to Lawrence.

Brizzi has given to GIRFCO ($2,500), the Marion County GOP ($2,250), City-County Council President Ryan Vaughn ($2,000), Hamilton County Prosecutor candidate David Wyser ($2,500), City-County Councilor Mike McQuillen ($250), Friends of Todd Young ($500), Mitch Daniels ($1,000), Tony Bennett ($1,000), Hupfer for State Rep ($1,000), Friends of Jim Banks ($1,000), the House Republican Campaign Committee ($5,000), Mike Murphy ($500), and the Committee To Elect Lisa Bentley (Township Board)($250). Brizzi even in-kinded a campaign worker to Attorney General Greg Zoeller. (Who knew indentured servitude still existed in the 21st century?)

GOP Secretary of State candidate Charlie White donated to Brizzi (who also donated to White), and Vaughn gave to Brizzi, who, as mentioned above, gave to Vaughn. (Though we are fellow Wabash men, I don't mind telling Vaughn and White that they both need to pick better company).

Every time I look at Brizzi's campaign finance reports, I get more discomfited. I previously reported that Brizzi was using his campaign committee as his personal bank account. Today I noticed that attorney Mario Massilamany received $1,900 from the Brizzi Committee for reimbursements, mostly for a call phone. Why is the Brizzi campaign reimbursing an attorney for his cell phone to the tune of several hundred dollars per month?

I'm THIS close (holding fingers millimeters apart) to filing a complaint with the Indiana Election Commission. Not only has Brizzi sullied his office, he's making a mockery of Indiana election law. Indiana Code 3-9-3-4 states:

Money received by a candidate or committee as a contribution may be used only:

(1) to defray any expense reasonably related to the person's or committee's:

(A) campaign for federal, state, legislative, or local office;

(B) continuing political activity; or

(C) activity related to service in an elected office;

(2) to make an expenditure to any national, state, or local committee of any political party or another candidate's committee; or

(3) upon dissolution of a committee, in a manner permitted under IC 3-9-1-12.

(b) Money received by a candidate or committee as a contribution may not be used for primarily personal purposes by the candidate or by any other person except as described in subsection (a).

Kudos to Terry Burns at Indianapolis Times for bringing this story to my attention.

Dizzy on Brizzi Improprieties Yet?

Plowman Pulling a Durham?

On January 14, 2010, Lincoln Plowman put his Craftsman tool bench up for sale on Craig's List for $1,500. On January 15, 2010, he listed an extensive comic book collection for $1,000.

Why would a guy sell a work bench? After all, he's a guy. And why sell a comic collection that you've obviously taken quite a while to compile? I get Durham's sell-off. He knew he was in trouble. So can we conclude Plowman knew he'd need money shortly, given he started selling stuff two weeks before he handed over his badge? After all, Jim Voyles' brilliance doesn't come cheaply.

Here's something else that's intriguing, if maybe just to me. What's with Plowman saying he's a "private investigator" when he applied for four scanner frequency licenses? Why would a guy need that stuff if he works for IMPD? If it's because he's doing side jobs, what jobs? When does a city-county councilor and major with IMPD have time to do side jobs? Makes you wonder who might be having equipment they shouldn't have.

The onion is unraveling around the GOP, and each layer seems to smell worse.

UPDATE: The FCC license request is from 2004. But what's interesting is that under "contact information," Plowman lists Skylines Unlimited out of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Huh?

Plowman Pulling a Durham?

Sorry, T.J., But How's That Crow Taste?

When Democratic city-county councillor Doris Minton-McNeil was arrested for battery (she was ultimately found not guilty), Marion County GOP Chair Tom John issued the following statement calling for her resignation:

"We are deeply saddened that once again a Democrat member of the City-County Council has shown such public contempt for law enforcement and disregard for the laws of our great city and the State of Indiana. The citizens of Indianapolis demand leaders who are servants of the law, not people who think they are above it."

I'm sorry, but how can you not read this statement and laugh? Durham? Brizzi? Plowman?

I don't mind saying that I've had some extremely harsh words for Democrats (including Minton-McNeil) who embarrass the party with their imbecilic conduct. But in my mind, there's a far difference between somebody who has too much to drink and acts foolish and somebody who auctions off his office to the highest bidder.

When Tom John publicly calls for Plowman's resignation, as requested by Democratic Party Chair Ed Treacy, that's when you'll know he's serious about getting rid of people "who think they are above" the law.

Sorry, T.J., But How's That Crow Taste?

Brizzi's Got Feds On Him For Allegedly Shaving Years for the Highest Bidder

Fox-59 is reporting that the FBI is questioning whether Carl Brizzi exchanged a sentence modification for campaign cash.

You've got to read this on your own, but the short version is that Paula Epperly Willoughby got 110 years for killing her husband, and Brizzi's office signed off on a sentence reduction to only 18, which enraged former GOP Superior Court Judge Gary Miller, who imposed the sentence. Take it away Fox:

Paula Epperly Willoughby's father is Harrison Epperly, a millionaire real estate magnet with property in downtown Indianapolis. From 2006 through 2008, Epperly donated $29,000 to the Brizzi campaign. $20,000 was donated the weekend before Brizzi's budget busting re-election in 2006. Those were the years his daughter's attorney was negotiating with Brizzi's office for a sentence modification.

Get who else was involved in that? GOP Hamilton County Prosecutor candidate and Brizzi chief trial deputy, David Wyser.

Fox also notes:

On May 29, 2009, less than a month before Epperly Willoughby's motion for reducing her sentence would be filed with the court, Harrison Epperly donated $2500 to Wyser's campaign for Hamilton County prosecutor.

Hanging out with playboys and living the high life on your donors' dollars is troubling, but contaminating justice is deplorable.

There is no end in sight to the number of people whose careers Carl Brizzi will ultimately kill.

Brizzi's Got Feds On Him For Allegedly Shaving Years for the Highest Bidder

For the Love of Money: Brizzi, Kennedy, Curry, & Orentlicher Burn Rate Roundup

Before anybody else goes nuts, yes, I am a “fan” of Republican Marion County Prosecutor candidate Helen Marchal on Facebook. But understand that while I know and like her, I will employ every decent means at my disposal to ensure the Democratic Party recaptures the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office in 2010. I only started becoming a “fan” of Republican office holders when I realized that some, specifically Carl Brizzi, would only communicate by Facebook. If anybody construes my fandom to mean anything else than me trying to keep an eye on the sneaky little (expletive), they have a disingenuous agenda.

But while I’m speaking of Brizzi…

After review of Carlito's year-end campaign campaign finance report, I'm convinced he must have really thought he was going somewhere else. Otherwise, I can’t account for what has got to be an unprecedented non-election year burn rate. In 2009, Brizzi raised $138,573, but he spent $124,291 without making a single media-related or strategic (polling/message consultants) purchase, meaning his income to expense ratio was 1.1. For comparison, Democratic Prosecutor candidates Terry Curry and David Orentlicher had rate of 3.0, and 410 respectively. No, that’s not a typo. David O. raised $184,000 by spending $484, from which I can only conclude that he writes some very persuasive postcards.

Democratic mayoral hopefuls Melina Kennedy’s and Brian Williams have rates of 7.8 and 3.3 respectively. Mayor Greg Ballard posted a solid fundraising year of $830,000 earned, but he spent $377,000 to do it, for only a 2.2 rate.

Burn rates tend to be consistent even when the scale of a campaign changes. For example, Marion County Clerk Beth White spent $3,000 to raise $12,000, for a 4.0 rate.

Admittedly, burn rate is more art than science. For example, Williams spent a considerable amount on production costs early which means he jumped ahead of a conventional campaign. His rate would be a lot more efficient without that cost, so you have to scrutinize the expenses.

Yet even with such limitations, ratios serve as a useful gauge of campaign efficiency. For example, Brizzi’s staff cost him $33,000 to raise that $138,000, for a 4.1 staff to dollars ratio. In comparison, Kennedy raised her $252,000 on about $11,000 in staff costs for a 25.1 staff to dollar ratio, making Kennedy finance director Katie Lineweaver the best buy in Marion County politics.

So how does Brizzi spend almost every dollar he raises in a year?

Living the high life, baby! Reading his report will make you want to become an elected official because what you can do with other people’s campaign donations is amazing. Who's down with OPD (other people's donations)?!? Yeah you know, C!

Carl had a total of $7,300 worth of dining expenses listed under the heading “business meeting.” No, not fundraiser. “Business meeting.” This includes, but is certainly not limited to, 12 trips to Harry & Izzy’s for $2,501, 2 to Ruth’s Chris for $717, 4 to Sullivan’s for $426, five to Ambrosia for $1371, 2 to the Canal Grill for $179, 2 to the Capital Grill for $154, and 2 to Bella Vita for $196. He also spent $300 at a place called Luciano’s in Michigan for a “donor meeting” that apparently didn't go well since there are no Michigan donors on his report. (As an aside, who really goes to ask for money and spends $300 at the meal?)

Brizzi paid $345 to the Indianapolis Bar Association for his annual dues in addition to a total of $1450 for a prosecutor’s conference in San Francisco. One restaurant accounted for $508 of that cost.

Traveling in style is apparently important for Brizzi, who spent $540 on Image Limo in Chicago the same night he went to the Su Casa restaurant and spent $207 for “networking” and $545 staying at the Omni Hotel. On a different date, Brizzi spent $342 for Party Time Limousine. Folks, you don’t spend $342 on a ride to the airport.

Brizzi also has approximately $1,500 in reimbursements to himself for “travel” and “business meetings.” We know not where he went. But it's pretty clear if you work this whole elected official thing right, you can backdoor tons of money.

A couple of my other favorite items are $848 spent at Brown & Joseph for “gifts.” To whom? We don’t know! Nor do we know who received the $350 gift from Iwan Ries, a cigar shop in Chicago. On the subject of gifts, I chuckled at the $604 expense from Circle Center Mall for "employee Christmas bonus" dated January 6. Very timely of you, Carl!

You may say, “Who cares? The guy isn’t spending taxpayer money. He can use it as he chooses, and if his donors are dumb enough to give to the guy knowing he’s going to spend it eating out every night instead of running for office, that’s there idiocy.”

Actually, that’s precisely my point. Only by having concrete restrictions on how campaign funds can be used and more descriptive campaign finance reports can you distinguish between a campaign contribution and bribery.

Okay, maybe it's "reverse bribery" and not "actual" bribery because the donor may not have the intent. But the candidate sure knows that if he wants to keep living the highlife, he needs to keep getting the dollars. As far as the reporting, how do we know Brizzi didn’t smoke every cigar from Iwan Ries himself? Because he’s done such a bang up job disclosing information to us we’ll just trust him?

But in keeping with my New Year’s Resolution of saying something good about everybody, I want to publicly applaud Brizzi for donating $250 and $400 respectively to Indiana Equality and the Lambda Defense Fund, two organizations devoted to ending orientation and gender identity-based discrimination.

You have to have chutzpah out the yin yang to donate to both Indiana Equality and Lambda Defense and Vanderburgh County Right to Life, though I'm going to assume they weren’t in the same room when they got their checks.

Stay tuned for more analysis of the Marion County Prosecutor's Race and what will be done with Brizzi's half million in the bank....

For the Love of Money: Brizzi, Kennedy, Curry, & Orentlicher Burn Rate Roundup

UPDATED: The Brizzi Requiem

Carl Brizzi announced he is not running for re-election. Surprised count? Zero.

Brizzi says he'll throw his weight behind his chief of staff, Helen Marchal. Good call. Wonderful lady. Her husband is Democrat Commissioner Jeff Marchal, a good guy in his own right.

Under optimal circumstances, Ms. Marchal might have a fighting chance to crawl from the wreckage and make a respectable showing. However, knowing I needed such circumstances, I'd be miffed by the following Brizzi quote were I her:

"...after serving as prosecutor for the last seven years, I have wrestled with the question of whether I could make a commitment to serve an additional five years."

You can't serve an additional five years unless you first intended to serve out the remaining one year of your current term, can you? That says to me that Brizzi is stayin' for now.

Sorry, but guilt by association is an often lethal political staple. That's why I'm skeptical Dr. Evil's number two can Febreeze off the Brizzi under any circumstance. But with him clinging to the office, it'll be impossible. You can't establish your own reputation for ethics and adept management when you're still working under the Brizzi cloud.

Were I Marchal, I'd offer to give back the Brizzi endorsement letter in exchange for his letter of resignation. (Seriously, isn't having Brizzi endorse you for prosecutor akin to having Michael Vick endorse you for ASPCA president?) Also, aren't we talking awkwardness on par with The Office? How do you navigate around the fact your campaign's biggest liability is the guy for whom you work? Yow.

Brizzi is actually pretty savvy politically, so you have to ask, "Why doesn't he go and give her a fighting chance?"

I'm beginning to wonder if we had him all wrong. Maybe it wasn't that he is loaded with Tim Durham stock-pick money. Maybe it's that, like Durham, he's completely over-leveraged. If, as one blog reported, every property he owns is encumbered by two mortgages, can you imagine him walking away from $130,000 per year without a sweet deal lined up?

Maybe his continued tenure at the City-County Building is not political arrogance or indifference, but rather the last card held by a crumbling guy with nowhere to fall: if the GOP wants him gone in time to save this election, they better get somebody on his phone with a really good offer.

UPDATE: Rough week. Sometimes I overlook the obvious, such as the necessity that Helen Marchal resign for fear of violating the Little Hatch Act. She is no longer in the office so "The Office" issues are gone.

The federal Hatch Act prohibits local employees from engaging in political activities if the entity for which they work has programs financed in whole or part by federal money. Those activities include being a candidate for a partisan office. Clearly, you cannot stop a sitting prosecutor from running for re-election, which makes Brizzi's remaining all the more troubling, doesn't it?

UPDATED: The Brizzi Requiem

Electrical Workers Make Shocking Donation?

I consider the folks at IBEW Local 481 my brothers and sisters in arms.

I’ve phone-banked out of their hall at 1828 North Meridian Street on at least a dozen Democratic campaigns, and a few weeks ago, I attended Democratic Superior Court Judge David Dreyer's holiday party there. (Kountry Kitchen wowed again. If you haven't been, make a point of going - 1831 N. College Avenue).

So how do I explain the $5,000 IBEW Local 481 gave to Republican Carl Brizzi's 5th District Congressional campaign on May 13, 2009? (Technically the donation is from the IBEW PAC in D.C., but that doesn't happen without local boosting, and Brizzi's campaign lists it as a 481 donation).

Democrats have such strong relationships with unions, it's easy to expect them to support only Democrats. That's unfair. Unions are interest groups, and their leaders survive by safeguarding their members' interests. Sometimes unions have to keep peace with an incumbent Republican likely to win re-election. This may be why the IBEW supported Brizzi in 2006 when he ran against Democrat Melina Kennedy.

If you read contribution reports, you'll know car dealers donate to Attorneys General, manufaturers donate to Governors, and stock brokers donate to Secretaries of State. Why? To keep enforcement bodies out of their hair.

The offices Republican candidates do well garnering union support in are law enforcement-related (prosecutor, sheriff). This makes all the sense in the world. Were I running a union, I'd like the comfort of knowing a prosecutor wouldn't pounce on my local and get headlines only to say later, "Sorry, we were mistaken." As Tim Durham knows, you can't buy back credibility.

Just as often, though, unions have to choose the lesser of evils. Maybe the IBEW viewed Brizzi as the least offensive Republican candidate in a district certainly staying Republican. (The the other R candidates are Brose McVey, Luke Messer, Mike Murphy, and Dr. John McGoff). Brizzi certainly couldn't have done worse than Burton, who has a 14% lifetime AFL-CIO voting record.

I understand tough choices. What I don't understand is the timing. Brizzi repeatedly said he would not run unless Burton retired, so why not wait until Burton stepped aside?

I ask because at the close of September of 2009, Brizzi still had $22,000 in his federal campaign committee coffer. It would have been $23,000, but two weeks after receiving that IBEW donation, Brizzi gave $1,000 to Mike Pence.

Yes, the Mike Pence with 0% AFL-CIO rating in 2008 and a lifetime rating of 7%. You know, the chair of the House Republican Conference, committed to regaining GOP control at the midterm elections. Since Pence doesn’t have any real challenge this time around (sorry Dems), all the IBEW’s money could end in the account of a staunch opponent of organized labor. Less than fifty days after Brizzi's donation, Pence shipped $25,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The moral of the story is that giving a donation to a Republican at the inception of a five-way fire-fight that you don't even know he's in is not the same as giving it to him in a two-way shoot-out that's near the finish line. It’s also not the same as paying for independent expenditures that you control. When you hand over a check without conditions, all bets are off.

IBEW 481's history of massive donations, manpower, facilities, and political strategy to Democrats will always outweigh an occasional ill-fated decision like this, but I hope other unions will view this post as a cautionary tale.

Before you hand a check over to a "lesser evil," you might want a commitment that the candidate will use the money for his own race or refund it. Otherwise, you risk propping up those who would destroy everything you wish to preserve or achieve.

UPDATE: The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 103 also gave Brizzi $1,000 on May 27, 2009. They also gave $1,000 to now defunct Republican sheriff candidate, Tim Motsinger, on March 6, 2009, and another $500 on May 8, 2009, donations that illustrate nicely my point about unions and law enforcement R candidates. In folding up his committee, Motsinger stated:

I have made the decision that it is appropriate to return any and all financial contributions and loans that my campaign has received from him (Tim Durham) or his affiliated businesses.

As Local 103 isn't a Durham company, I'm assuming it didn't get its money back from Motsinger. Was it spent, or will there be another Republican committee benefitting from labor union generosity?

Electrical Workers Make Shocking Donation?

"Let My Brizzi Go" and Other Weekend Thoughts

I know I said I would, but I can't....because either (1) Harry & Izzy's isn't doing so well; or (2) Carl Brizzi may have committed perjury.

Carl Brizzi is a silent partner at Harry & Izzy's with a 10% stake.

On February 23, 2009, Carl Brizzi listed his "gross weekly income" on his child support worksheet under "penalties for perjury" as $2,500. That's $130,000 annually.

"Gross weekly income" under the Indiana Child Support Guidelines includes "income from any source including salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, overtime, parnership distributions, dividends, severance pay, pensions, interest, trust income, capital gains, gifts, inheritances, and prizes. "Gross weekly income" also includes "imputed" income based on in-kind benefits, such as a company car, or say, a health club or country club membership.

Carl Brizzi earns $123,000 as our Marion County Prosecutor, which means that, for him to have been truthful on his worksheet, his income from all other sources could not have exceeded $7,000. (I've put aside completely the cash value of the complimentary memberships to the Columbia Club and Highland Country Club - $6,300 value alone - and the sports tickets).

Everybody knows that Harry & Izzy's is not St. Elmo's, which had $13.4 million in sales in 2007 and $12.9 million in 2008. But if you go to H&I's in the evening, it's almost always packed. I'm no expert, so I will defer to industry folk, but I've heard profit margins are 4-5% of sales on most restaurants, and if you're really doing it right, you can get up to 20%. If H&I did only $6 million in sales, Brizzi would have made $30,000 (10% of 5% of $6 million), not $7,000. Also, he has a real estate holding company. Did those properties not make money?

Anyway, working the math back, if the profit margin is 5%, it means Harry & Izzy's would have only had $1.4 million in sales last year ($1.4 x .05 x .10). For that place? Sorry, but there's no way Jeff Smith doesn't have his place humming better than that.

(I might add that I recall reading in the Wall Street Journal back in June that this is the first time in a long-while that restaurants are increasing their profit margins because they've been raising prices 3% annually to cover transportation costs that have now fallen off).

So how do we account for such a paltry profit for Brizzi?

In fairness to Brizzi, I suspect a lot of people shave their numbers to reach some agreed upon result between the parties. But don't tell me it's not perjury. Just say nobody cares about that type of perjury because it's "personal business"-justified lying, a la Bill Clinton. Of course, if anybody should care about perjury, wouldn't it be a prosecutor? I recall Ken Starr caring a great deal when he held that title.

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Even though he's a Republican, I give credit to Senator Travis Holdman for political courage for his bill to make it a Class C infraction to text while driving. Unlike the bill that restricted only teenagers (who couldn't vote), Holdman had the courage to go the "fully monty" legislatively speaking by making it apply to everybody. I don't know how you can know that texting has surpassed drunk driving as the leading cause of accidents and not support this bill (unless you're a Libertarian or really like accidents). Plus, the state will gets tons of money without raising taxes because everybody I know does it. Me?!? No comment.

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I was watching CSPAN last night, and I could have sworn I heard Arlen Specter refer to himself as a Republican. Maybe I was just dreaming. His speeches do have a way of making one drift in and out.

"Let My Brizzi Go" and Other Weekend Thoughts

When Did Carl Brizzi Get Mind-Numbingly Forgetful?

Greg Andrews at the Indianapolis Business Journal deserves a Pulitzer for his investigative work on the Tim Durham/Carl Brizzi nexus. He reports now that Prosecutor Brizzi's financial disclosure that he filed when he intended to run in the 5th Congressional District before Dan Burton decided to stay shows he owned stock in Red Rock, which was worth between $1 to $1,000. The value is not impressive until you realize the stock is worth pennies, so we might be talking about 10,000+ shares.

But it's not the value that troubles. It's that Brizzi had it at all.

First, this stock belongs to a Durham-dominated company that loaned millions to National Lampoon's, the company for which Durham took over operations as CEO when Dan Laikin pled guilty to trying to manipulate its stock value. The SEC also accused Dan Laikin of trying to manipulate the value of Red Rock, though in exchange for a plea of conspiracy with respect to National Lampoon's, the government dropped that charge.

(For those keeping score at home, that's three companies in which Brizzi has invested that have been investigated by the SEC).

But this from the IBJ story:

Brizzi declined IBJ’s requests for an interview about his investments. In an e-mail exchange, he initially said he did not think he owned stock in Red Rock. When presented with the disclosure, he said he thought he had sold it since the filing.

The financial disclosure report was filed in May of 2009. Brizzi can't remember that he didn't sell a stock that turned worthless after May of 2009? Sorry, but he is really giving credence to that classic lawyer joke: How do you know a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving.

Maybe he did forget. "Forgetfulness" is nothing new to Brizzi. In his initial Statement of Economic Interests for the 2004 calendar year, Brizzi states that the only gift he received was a crystal bowl and glasses worth an estimated $100 from his employees at the prosecutor's office. That's it.

In his 2004 amended statement, which he filed almost a year later, on December 22, 2005, he includes 2 tickets to the Indy 500, Brickyard, and F1, 2 tickets to a Notre Dame game, 3 tickets to a Colts game, and honorary memberships to the Columbia Club and Highland Country Club. The total value of all of these gifts is $8,779.

Now, how does somebody attend the triple crown of Indy auto racing and forget that they didn't pay to go? Would it be naive to think Brizzi went to the Columbia Club or Highland in 2004? If so, how would he forgot that he didn't take any cash out of his wallet?

In subsequent posts, I was going to dissect Brizzi's Statements further, including pointing out that he actually created a company called "Vergina," arguably the most tragically-named company in history. (Somebody please tell me this name has family significance. The post would have been titled "The Vergina Monologue." Ba da boom. I'm here all week. Tip your waitresses!) At least Brizzi had the good sense to change the name to to CJB Management.

But now I feel like I'm really piling on. Every Republican in Marion County of note is right now looking for a door through which to push Brizzi before this thing blows up and tarnishes their entire party and its leadership.

It may already be too late.

When Did Carl Brizzi Get Mind-Numbingly Forgetful?