Council votes to oust Boyd as president

A coalition of Republicans sided with four Democrats on Monday to topple the leadership of the City-County Council — an unprecedented move that could affect a number of important city initiatives this year.

An 18-11 vote to make Democrat Steve Talley council president pushed aside Rozelle Boyd, who last year became the council’s first Democratic president in more than three decades.

The writer of the story opines that the rancor displayed during the vote could call into question the fate of big Indy projects like the Colts’ new stadium. Could be interesting though. A Republican chairman and a Democratic majority on the council. Presumably the chair has some powers that allow him to guide the course of the council, but the Dems will have enough votes to vote him down if he gets out of control. I’m probably being naive in thinking this could lead to some sort of bipartisanship. But, there’s always hope.

Introduced Version, House Bill 1126 Per the LSA digest:

Provides that employees, volunteers, and volunteer directors of: (1) certain community mental retardation and other developmental disabilities centers; (2) certain rehabilitation centers; and (3) nonprofit organizations; are immune from civil liability arising from the performance of the duties of the employee, volunteer, or volunteer director if the employee, volunteer, or volunteer director exercises reasonable care in the performance of those duties.

My problem with this bill (and it’s more a problem with existing law than anything added by this bill) is that it conditions the immunity on the individual having exercised reasonable care in the performance of the individual’s duties. This really does nothing to help a person defend themselves against a negligence suit. The key question in a negligence question is whether a person exercised reasonable care while performing a duty. If you did, you’re not negligent. If you’re not negligent, you’re not liable. So, I suppose the bill could theoretically be defending the person against strict liability or vicarious liability or some of the more exotic actions, but I doubt that’s the intent.

Looks like the bill was up for committee hearing today, but I couldn’t find whatever action may have been taken.

Indiana General Assembly Maybe the links on this page will work later tonight, but as of 8:50 p.m., I can’t get any House or Senate calendar information. The House Calendar just gives me a pdf document with “bad date” up in the corner and no information on the page. The link to the Senate Calendar has been taken down. (I’d like to think the link was taken down because of my prior post indicating that the Senate Calendar showed a date of March 1, 2004, but that’s probably just me being full of myself.)

Senate Committee Hearings
The Senate Committee Calendar, Tuesday has the matters listed in my my prior post.
Wednesday (1/12) will have:
Judiciary
SB 0002 Parenting time.
SB 0008 Arbitration in family law.
SB 0049 Jurisdiction and venue of computer crimes.

Health and Provider Services
SB 0197 Reciprocity for dentists.
SB 0222 Preexisting condition waivers.
SB 0224 Home health care services and hospice services council.
SB 0225 Office based sedation standards.

Education and Career Development
SB 0053 Technology training for state employees.
SB 0112 Academic honors diploma awards.
SB 0229 School for the Blind.

House Committee Schedule for (1/11)
Public Safety and Homeland Security
HB 1022 Military base protection act.
HB 1025 Public safety protection fees.

Public Health
HB 1069 Home and community based services.
HB 1056 Food handler exemption.

House Bill 1004, the tax amnesty bill passed Second Reading with a couple of amendments. One provision of the bill stated that the amnesty was not available to tax liabilities that had been reduced to judgment. Rep. Turner’s Amendment changes the provision to say that the liability has to have been decided by the tax court and denied transfer to the Supreme Court (which makes me wonder what would happen in the case where transfer was granted by the Supreme Court which in turn decided against the taxpayer.) Rep. Welch’s Amendment provides that a taxpayer taking advantage of the tax amnesty has to agree that he, she, or it is not eligible to take advantage of a similar tax amnesty program for the same type of tax that may be instituted in the future.

Kernan aides deny claims by Daniels’ camp:

Did you know Indiana keeps some public retirees’ pension records in a shoebox?

Neither did the outgoing administration of Gov. Joe Kernan, which says that allegation and several others made in a pamphlet promoting Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels’ legislative agenda just aren’t true.

This kind of nonsense reminds me of the incoming Bush administration when they lied about “missing ‘W’s” on their keyboards and a vandalized White House. Remember all the media coverage when we found out those claims were a pack of lies? Me neither.

Mitch, unlike your former master, you won the job fair & square. Now get serious. Forget about propaganda, leave the D.C. beltway GOP shenanigans behind you, and get to work. Consult Bob Garton, the state’s Republican leader. He knows what being a responsible Hoosier Republican is about. If you do, maybe I’ll forget what happened to the federal budget while you were Bush’s budget man.

Daniels response to the claims: “Daniels defended using the campaignlike jabs, saying they were included for “readability” and to keep the momentum for change in Indiana strong.” Translation: “Tell the rubes some outrageous lies, and they’ll do what you tell ’em.”