Public needs assurances, state examiner says

It keeps those politicians and lawyers out of trouble.

Mr. Haney does your wife collect a check from her law firm, if she does, then she profits.

I would like Ms Jarosz to tell us who besides Haney, Heck
and Seidensticker filed these forms.

How about Griffiths, who is employed by United Consulting.
United Consulting is a vendor of Carmel and a big donor to the "Friends of Jim Brainard".

How about Jeff Worrell and his CRC work and his ownership
of property apparently under the purview of the CRC.?

There isn't anyone that sits on an board, commission, or committee for the city,CRC, or parks that has a potential conflict of interest???
You have got to be kidding me. Are people living in fantasy land??? I guess it is natural to get all these unanimous votes for everything?

Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp said the forms are important because cases that legally are in the clear still could be questioned by the public.
"There is what you do legally to dot all your i's and cross all your t's, but you still can have a difficult time avoiding the appearance of impropriety," Leerkamp said. "The public perception can even be more damaging than legal arguments."

Exactly. Well said. That's the main point of ethics considerations: Appearance and the public's perception. Which is why it's best to do your damndest (speaking to you public servants) to avoid the situations altogether. Whether you think it's OK or not. When in doubt, don't do it.

Did Carmel pass that ethics law that the mayor opposed? At least you folks are trying to do the right thing, good for you.

If anyone is suprised by this happening in Carmel, I have some swamp land in Florida for sale. Serving as an elected official is not for the purpose of providing a revenue source for a company you own or to help your friends profit from your influence. Reason number 3000 that Home Place is not interested in being annexed by the City of Carmel. Property taxes go to fund people who are elected officials and making a profit by funneling money to their own companies and companies that their friends own, something is just not right about this.

How profound of you Sonia. Leerkamp letting the voters know that she can walk and chew gum, at the same time.

335,000!? Wow, those SWC and Home Place annexations can be expensive. Fortunately for Animal Farm, Matt Milam and CCHP saved 'em $3.5 million over three years by contesting (and defeating!) Napoleon's efforts.

Special thanks also to Judge William Hughes for knowing the law and applying it correctly, and to Fred Yde and Noax, whose remonstrance also saved the critters of Animal Farm about $3 million over three years.

Hoosier/Home Place/Ham Co resident

Marvin wrote:

I would like Ms Jarosz to tell us who besides Haney, Heck
and Seidensticker filed these forms.
How about Griffiths, who is employed by United Consulting.
United Consulting is a vendor of Carmel and a big donor to the "Friends of Jim Brainard".
How about Jeff Worrell and his CRC work and his ownership
of property apparently under the purview of the CRC.?

Ron Carter is an elected public servant whose photo is glamourously displayed on the website of Stakeholder.com under the About Us caption. Looks conflicting since Stakeholder, Inc. receives huge sums of money from Mayor Jim Brainard's campaign funds. Hop on over to the Hamilton County gov. website and look under Current Election Info the click on the Campaign Finance Reports. After clicking on Brainard, James you have a choice of many periods of reports. The Annual 2007 one is a good place to start.

Marvin wrote:

I would like Ms Jarosz to tell us who besides Haney, Heck
and Seidensticker filed these forms.
How about Griffiths, who is employed by United Consulting.
United Consulting is a vendor of Carmel and a big donor to the "Friends of Jim Brainard".
How about Jeff Worrell and his CRC work and his ownership
of property apparently under the purview of the CRC.?

How about Les Olds, taxpayer-paid Director of the Redevelopment Commission? He was a founding partner of CSO Architects (the "O" stands for Olds.) CSO is paid by the City to design and oversee the building standards for the entire City Center complex.

geez wrote:

It keeps those politicians and lawyers out of trouble.
Mr. Haney does your wife collect a check from her law firm, if she does, then she profits.

Exactly. Shouldn't nepotism also be covered under conflicts of interest?

There will be line of city employees filing these forms if nepotism is included. Better print more forms.

The city of Chicago has an ordinance which caps contributions from current or hopeful city contractors at $1,500 for a candidate or that amount each year for an elected official. It applies to anyone who has done business with the city in the last four campaign reporting years, or who is seeking to do business with the city.

Why isn't that good enough for Carmel Cornfield?

Crooked Cook County wrote:

The city of Chicago has an ordinance which caps contributions from current or hopeful city contractors at $1,500 for a candidate or that amount each year for an elected official. It applies to anyone who has done business with the city in the last four campaign reporting years, or who is seeking to do business with the city.
Why isn't that good enough for Carmel Cornfield?

Good idea, but I am sure that the good "republicans" of Carmel, would see such a limitation upon their right of free speech.

If you look at the Brainard 2003-2007 political contributions, you will see that over 96% of those contributing to his campaign, are individuals who are doing business with the city, do not live in the community. Another interesting aspect, is that the majority of his campaign expenditures is to the constituent management company www.stakeholder.com - which is being used as a front, so that the public cannot know what he is spending the over $770,000 collected upon.

I wonder if Brainard has ever filed a conflict of interest form?

Crooked Cook County wrote:

The city of Chicago has an ordinance which caps contributions from current or hopeful city contractors at $1,500 for a candidate or that amount each year for an elected official. It applies to anyone who has done business with the city in the last four campaign reporting years, or who is seeking to do business with the city.
Why isn't that good enough for Carmel Cornfield?

I think Carmel has a Mayor Richard Daly of their own - Brainard.

Hoosier/Home Place resident