We here at Urban Indy have made much of the parking meter deal and by extension, the Broad Ripple parking garage issue. Kirsten has posted twice about it, myself once. You can find our write ups here (my parking garage criticism),  here (Kirsten’s pre-vendor write up) and here (Kirsten’s post vendor announcement).
The past week have brought some more details to light. At this point, I will defer to the Urbanophile, and link you to his EXCELLENT breakdown, displaying the failure that is the Indianapolis parking meter plan.
The IBJ’s Cory Shouten also weighed in last week with a report that got the ball rolling extolling the facts that ACS, the vendor chosen to oversee parking, could see as much as $724 million from the deal, and in some conditions, up to $1.2 billion.
I wouldn’t be doing my job here if I didn’t take the next space to link you here, (indy.gov) the source where you can find your city council representative and tell them that you think this is a bad deal, and that the city should look into other plans on how to solve this issue.
If you keep up with twitter, locals have been lighting it up today spreading the word about Aaron’s post. An inspiring comment by Indy City Council-woman Jackie Nytes should let you know that this is really reaching who it needs to be reaching. Keep up the good work people!
Emailed my council-woman (Nytes). Glad to have her paying attention.
I also emailed my Councilman (Hunter).
ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS – SEC Charges Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. With Stock Options Backdating and False Disclosures:
“The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., alleges that from 1995 to 2006, ACS engaged in a fraudulent and deceptive scheme to provide executives and other employees with undisclosed compensation.”
Above is a part of a recent into ACS.
Seriously folks let’s get real.
Public officials are supposed to be trustees of the commonweal, not political
buccaneers seeking their own private gain. But sometimes, in what economists call a
principal-agent problem, those trustees forsake that obligation and misuse the power
delegated to them in ways that advance their personal interests rather than those of the
public.
Corruption distorts the allocation of resources toward projects that
can generate illicit payoffs. Besides the undesirable efficiency consequences arising
from this distortion, the effect is likely to aggravate social inequalities, because the poor and powerless suffer, by definition, a comparative disadvantage in securing special favors.
If the $500,000 has to be paid if the City-County Council will not vote for the ACS deal. Pay ACS’s political blackmail scheme and get them out of town. Like all the other commentaries together with articles I’ve been reading have showed, ACS is not the kind of corporation we want in our town. Political blackmail, special interests, conflict of interests, WHERES THE FBI? WHERES THE FEDS?
Has anyone ever read ACS Ethical Standards they try to impose on their employees at the welfare office. Their employees aren’t allowed to accept even a Christmas card. Yet the CEO’s and Directors of this company have done just that.
ACS is a shameful, unethical, disgraceful hypocrite, not to mention the so called “leaders” of Indianapolis for creating this mess.
What an embarassment to our city.