In a bold move, City-County Councillor and potential mayoral candidate, Jose Evans, today hand-deliver to Hizzoner Greg Ballard's 25th floor penthouse suite a letter demanding the resignation of Matt Klein, the executive director of the Department of Waterworks.
Evans blisters Klein for failing to capitalize on one million dollars in available federal stimulus funds while spending $700,000 to hire CH2MHill to oversee management of the water company. Evans also chides Klein for "building a new bureaucracy" while failing to exercise oversight of airport water system construction and permitting the "illegal siphoning" of Indianapolis Water to the town of Pittsboro (in Hendricks County).
Evans writes: "In this critical time for the City of Indianapolis, we need strong and effective leadership for our people. The recent controversies and negative publicity surrounding our water utility fall directly under Matthew Klein’s authority. Because of these failures, it’s clear that he is not in a position to lead our water utility in a direction that will safeguard and protect our residents and water customers in the future.”
Under the heading "no surprise at all," the Mayor was allegedly "too busy" to engage Councillor Evans personally. What else would you expect from a Mayor who seems to not be engaged at all?
Kudos to Evans for having the courage to mix it up and take it to the Mayor's adminstration for what I would call "mismanagement" except that connotes somebody was actually managing. Maybe we should call the last two years: "The Unmanagement of Greg Ballard."
