A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

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IN-08: GOP politicizes tragedy in support of Hostettler

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The Courier Press has an article on a attack ad against Brad Ellsworth the National GOP put out for the benefit of John Hostettler.

The ad tries to lay responsibility at the feet of Sheriff Ellsworth for the triple murder/suicide committed by Travis John Moore on April 22, 2005 while he was on work release. I’m not sure what the GOP thinks Ellsworth should have done. Typically the sentence and terms of incarceration are not matters in which a Sheriff’s Department are particularly involved. The prosecutor’s office, in conjunction with the court and the Defendant, makes the decisions on plea agreements and the like. The GOP suggests that Ellsworth “endorsed” the deal, even after the murders, when in reality, they are apparently referring to a report wherein Ellsworth’s office determined that the judge was within his authority to order the work release, which is almost certainly accurate.

The first few paragraphs of the article:

National Republicans accused Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth on Thursday of endorsing a judge’s decision not to incarcerate a work release participant who would go on to commit a triple-murder/suicide.

Ellsworth responded with a written statement saying Indiana 8th District Rep. John Hostettler’s “callous decision to politicize this tragedy shows he knows nothing about protecting this community and even less about what it means to be a leader.”

Indiana Lawmakers’ finances

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The Indy Star has a run down of Indiana lawmakers’ finances (h/t Tippecanoe Politics) .

Items of note:

  • Senator Lugar gets about $30,000 in social security benefits on top of his Senate salary of $162,000 per year and various other sources of income and has a million dollar home in Virginia.
  • Senator Bayh’s wife’s income is not disclosed, though she apparently works on nine corporate boards. Senator Bayh owns a $1.8 million “beach house” in Delaware.
  • Rep. Visclosky – nothing really jumps out.
  • Chris Chocola – Outside income includes “between $714,218 and $4 million in dividends, capital gains, interest, and rent.” (First, that’s quite a range; second, how do I get a piece of that action?). His major assets are estimated as being between $12.2 million and $35.7 million, including property in Michigan worth a couple million.
  • Mark Souder – His major assets include a partnership in his family business, “Historic Souders of Grabill” which is apparently worth a couple hundred thousand.
  • Steve Buyer – Nothing really stands out other than that his Monticello Law Office is estimated to be worth $100,000 to $250,000 and has a mortgage of “between $15,000 and $50,000”. I wonder if 1) that law office is the same thing as his Congressional Office across from the courthouse; 2) whether the fact of that being his Congressional Office helps him pay his mortage; and 3) whether these things explain why he hasn’t moved the office to Lafayette or somewhere more central to his Congressional District despite some bellyaching from constituents about the remoteness of his Monticello office.
  • Dan Burton – $1.8 to $3.7 million in assets, including properties in Indiana, California, and Kentucky.
  • Mike Pence – Won $250 in a golf tournament.
  • Julia Carson – did not report the amount of her outside income. Has between $17,000 and $80,000 in major assets.
  • John Hostettler – Stock in Boeing, Exxon, GE, IBM and Bristol Myers worth between $6,000 and $106,000. Credit card debt between $45,000 and $150,000.
  • Mike Sodrel – Income from between $1.1 million to $5.25 million from his transportation company. His wife remains a “secretary” for the company. His major assets range between $6.4 million to $27 million, mostly in his trucking company. He has a bank note between $500,000 and $1 million.

    So, I’d put their net worth in the following order:

    1. Chocola – wealthy
    2. Sodrel – wealthy
    3. Bayh – rich
    4. Lugar – rich
    5. Burton – rich
    6. Visclosky – well off
    7. Buyer – well off
    8. Souder – well off
    9. Pence – modest
    10. Carson – modest
    11. Hostettler – in trouble

    • Interim Study Committees

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    Representative Dvorak has posted a list of topics to be studied by legislative interim study committees which I will shamelessly cut and paste:

    Interim Study Committee on Public Health and Safety Matters
    -Railroad labor camps
    -Coal mine safety
    -Smoke detectors and sprinklers in health facilities
    -Food handling regulations for tax-exempt organizations

    Interim Study Committee on Government Administration and Regulatory Matters
    -Impact of privatization of non-health related services performed or administered by state agencies
    -Impact of privatization on state employees who have been laid off
    -License branch operations and closings
    -Eminent domain issues (including the use by small, private utilities)
    -Various matters involving non-profit entities

    Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Matters
    -Rights of “next of kin” in situations involving criminal activity
    -Improvements to Indiana’s background check system
    -Coroner qualification issues

    Interim Study Committee on Children’s Issues
    -Child labor
    -Children’s health issues with emphasis on diabetes and obesity

    Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Issues
    -Alcoholic beverage display requirements
    -Clerk licensure and training
    -Other various issues that were not resolved during the last session

    Statutory Committees

    Code Revision Commission
    -Using respectful language when referring to people with disabilities in code

    Counterterrorism and Security Council
    -Security at ports, freight yards, and rail yards

    Commission on Courts
    -Appelate issues
    -Establishment of a dedicated fund for court fees
    -Establishment of a court with exclusive jurisdiction over commercial driver’s license cases

    Indiana Economic Development Corporation
    -Whether to develop incentives to encourage film, television, and new media production

    Environmental Quality Service Council
    -Indiana’s impact on Lake Michigan water quality and participation in the Great Lakes Protection Fund
    -Regional sewer districts

    Health Finance Commission
    -Cost of delivering health care to diabetics
    -Health coverage systems used in other jurisdictions
    -Monitor and report on the impact of the privatization of health services performed or administered by state agencies (including the impact on laid off employees)
    -Advisability of a certification program for surgical technicians

    Health Policy Advisory Committee
    -Restraint of trade issues associated with contact lenses
    -Advisability of consolidating all the various health-related study committees

    Select Joint Commission on Medicaid Oversight
    -Medicaid reimbursement rates

    Commission on Mental Health
    -Social, emotional, and behavioral health screening of children

    Natural Resources Study Committee
    -Park issues, including development of Rail/Trail corridors

    Pension Management Oversight Commission
    -Police and fire pensions
    -Factors used to compute public employee pensions
    -Funding sources for pension relief for municipalities
    -Issues related to the 1977 Police and Fire pension and disability fund

    Regulatory Flexibility Committee
    -Renewable energy development

    Sentencing Policy Study Committee
    -Impact of sealing and expunging criminal arrest and adjudication records, including the impact on employment and recidivism rates

    Commission on State Tax and Financing Policy
    -Eligibility for certain military benefits
    -Expanding eligibility for the property tax deduction for low-income senior citizens by removing AV criteria
    -Child welfare system funding
    -Issues pertaining to public transportation and commerce

    Law enforcement immunity for police chases

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    The Supreme Court has recently decided a couple of cases, one out of Gary and one out of Indianapolis, having to do with law enforcement immunity and police chases.

    The Supreme Court decided that law enforcement immunity doesn’t apply to police officers operating an emergency vehicle chasing a criminal who cause injury to a third party. They did so because they found that the duty to operate an emergency vehicle with “due regard” for the safety of all persons under IC 9-21-1-8 negates the law enforcement immunity conferred by the legislature under IC 34-13-3-3(8).

    So, the Supreme Court ruled contrary to my suggestion of how the case should be decided. But the Court’s opinions do not address my argument, so I don’t know where I went wrong. I wonder if the defendants raised a similar argument.

    My argument was based on statutory construction: ““[I]t is only after a determination is made that a governmental defendant is not immune under the ITCA that a court undertakes the analysis of whether a . . . duty exists under the circumstances.” (The ellipses omit ‘common law’, but I do not believe common law duties ought to be treated any differently than statutory duties under these circumstances.)

    As I wrote before:

    Using this principal of immunity jurisprudence, you have to make the immunity determination first. Either the defendant is immune or not. Immunity exists in spite of duty. It’s not that the tortfeasor hasn’t breached a duty of care. That’s the whole point. The tortfeasor has acted negligently but the legislature has granted immunity in spite of the negligent breach of a duty.

    So, first you look at ITCA (the immunity statute) and ask whether the police officer’s act constituted law enforcement. If so, the governmental entity and its employees are immune from liability. End of analysis. It’s only after you’ve established that immunity does not exist that you worry about whether a duty has been breached, regardless of whether it is a duty imposed by statute or by common law.

    So I don’t know if my reliance on prior caselaw regarding how to analyze immunity statutes is misplaced or if I am misconstruing the cases or what. But there does not appear to be any such bifurcated approach in these cases. The court seems to say merely that the duty imposed by the legislature limits the law enforcement immunity granted by the legislature.

    Filed Under: Law

    State to hold open forums on Indiana Trails Plan

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    According to the Palladium-Item, the State will hold five open forums for public comment on the Indiana Trails Plan in the wake of Daniels announcement that he is doubling funding for the state’s recreational trails from $10 million to $20 million in the next fiscal year.

    Meetings are 6-8 p.m. local time.

    • Thursday: Madison, Clifty Inn, Clifty Falls State Park.
    • Tuesday: North Judson, Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area conference room.
    • June 22: Indianapolis, Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park, The Garrison.
    • June 27: Fort Wayne, Franke Park Pavilion.
    • June 29: Winslow, Sugar Ridge Fish and Wildlife Area cofnerence room.

    The Indiana Trails Plan is available here.

    Daniels foils NIRPC 25 year road plans

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    I don’t know much about the area so I don’t know how big a deal this is, but the headline caught my eye. Charles M. Bartholomew, writing for the Gary Post Tribune has an article (caution: Post-Trib links go stale quickly) entitled “Daniels foils NIRPC 25-year road plans” that begins as follows:

    After 18 months of working and re-working, the Transportation Policy Committee of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission finally declared its 25-year plan for roads and transit in line with state and federal pollution rules Tuesday.

    But as soon as it adopted the resolution by unanimous voice vote, it received some changes to the plan under Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Major Moves that left committee members scratching their heads.

    What puzzled planners and stakeholders alike were some discussed projects that director of transportation planning Ken Dallmeyer removed from the 2030 Plan because they had not been included in the governor’s scheme.

    The projects included reconfiguration and addition of lanes on the Borman Expressway/Toll Road interchange; widening Broadway between 93rd and 109th avenues in Merrillville and Crown Point near the Purdue Technology Center; and adding lanes to Cline Avenue from the Borman interchange to US 12 and to the Toll Road from SR 49 to SR 51.

    Just one more thing to increase Gov. Daniels’ popularity in northern Indiana I suppose.

    Study Committees assigned

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    Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has an article on the study committee assignments given by the Legislative Council, the administrative arm of the General Assembly.

    Her article focuses on the assignment to the Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Matters to evaluate potential changes in the law that automatically deems the spouse as the “next of kin” when an individual dies. Sen. Connie Sipes (D-New Albany) requested consideration of whether that’s appropriate in cases where the spouse has confessed to murdering the decedent.

    But this is one of many assignments made by the Legislative Council. Some study committees are created by statute — sometimes when a legislator is unable to pass legislation on an issue, he or she can get legislation assigning the issue to a study committee as sort of a consolation prize. The other way issues get assigned to the study committees is by assignment by the Legislative Council. Presumably this information will be available via LSA’s Interim Information page sooner or later, but I was unable to find the text of the Legislative Council’s resolution as I was writing this.

    Kole: Municipal Micromanagement

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    Libertarian Secretary of State candidate Mike Kole has a good post entitled “Municipal Micromanagement” which takes a look at a couple of municipal ordinances in Speedway and Greenwood governing rental properties. The ordinances look like examples of good intentions which will almost certainly carry unintended consequences.

    Speedway’s ordinance, among other things, allow revocation of a rental operating license if the property has too much police activity while Greenwood’s proposed ordinance prohibits rental of a newly constructed home for a three-year period.

    Toll Road: Can of Worms for the S.Ct.

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    Niki Kelly has an article on the oral arguments in the Toll Road hearing before Indiana’s Supreme Court. From her write up, it would seem that the Supreme Court might rule against the Plaintiffs, or arrive at a 2 – 2 split which would leave the trial court ruling standing by default, not so much because the Plaintiffs’ challenge fails on its merits, but simply to avoid opening the can of worms they’ve been asked to open. Special legislation — the constitutionally prohibited act of passing a law specific to one group of people or area of the State when more general legislation is possible — is probably the genie that’s been let out of the bottle. The legislature has been passing special legislation under the fig leaf of population parameters for so long that the Supreme Court might be reluctant to wander into the snares that await if it tries to put an end to the practice. I’m not as familiar with State finance issues, but I imagine they’re reluctant to tell the General Assembly how to spend taxpayer money even if the Constitution requires the General Assembly to retire the public debt before it does anything else.

    On the other hand, Matthew Tully has a column suggesting it’s tricky business trying to read into Justices thoughts from the questions they ask. Very true.

    Theodore Kim has an article for the Indy Star. Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has an article for the Louisville Courier Journal. Mike Smith has an article for the Associated Press.

    The Indiana Law Blog has a post on the arguments and provided a link to the Real Audio video of the oral arguments. Abdul at Indiana Barrister attended the arguments in person as did Michael Ausbrook at INCourts.

    Liberal Indiana: Summer Reading for Liberals

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    Liberal Indiana has a post entitled “Summer Reading for Liberals.” Of the books with which I am familiar, LI mentions 1984; Animal Farm; Guns, Germs & Steel; Collapse; and the Bible. (The Bible was mentioned as something LI had read in an ultra-conservative high school, but in the comments, I pointed out that the bits about Jesus in the Bible tend toward the liberal, particularly those parts in the Sermon on the Mount.)

    1984 and Animal Farm are good because they illustrate the dangers of unchecked government. In the comments, I suggested John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” and Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.” Both of those books illustrate the dangers of an unchecked market.

    Most ominous, perhaps, are Jared Diamond’s Gun’s, Germs & Steel and Collapse. They are more ominous because, as the saying goes, “Mother Nature bats last,” and she can dish out far more pain than either unchecked government or an unchecked market.

    Another book I forgot to mention over at LI, is John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty.” It’s a pretty good philosphical justification on why folks should pretty much just be left free of coercion as much as possible.