Pay to Play in Zionsville

Ever wonder how some of Zionsville's town business is engineered?
It doesn't hurt that your campaign consultant is a big shot lobbyist, or you were all clubby members of the Zionsville High School Class of '86.

Back in 2007 when upstarts Matt Price, Timmy Haak, Michelle Barrett and Mark Plassman set their sights on the incumbent Crane administration, a hired-gun named William F. Stuart was brought into the stable to run their campaign, according to a highly placed confidential source, Stuart was the brains that got three of the four elected, at an astronomical cost of $80,000, for a town council spot that paid a council member $5,000 a year.

The possible return on the investment must have been mouth-watering to the development interests.

Stuart, a long-time Democrat operative, and a registered agent for the engineering firm of Beam Longest and Neff - (BLN) - worked hand-in-hand with a San Francisco firm of Terris Barnes Walters to design the expensive campaign brochures, and media ads.

Campaign filings show that Price, Plassman, Haak and Barrett paid over $38,000 to the firm for campaign services and mailings.
Those same documents show that Price paid $6,000 to Maple Hill Consulting of Fishers for "consultation.'' The resident of the Maple Hill address is William F. Stuart.
Coincidentally, the San Francisco company's web site also listed Jim Longest as a client along with Zionsville's Reorganization, and several Indiana Democrat legislators. (The reference to Jim Longest's campaign has been taken down now.)
That's the same Jim Longest who is president of Beam Longest and Neff, and a current member of the Zionsville School Board, and also a member of the Class of '86, along with Price and Haak.

And good old ZHS buddy Longest dumped $950 to Haak's campaign coffers, and Longest's brother Tim coughed-up $500 to Timmy.
Fast forward to 2009 when the contract for the town's engineering services was up for renewal.

The engineering firm which had the town business for over 25 years was HNTB, a highly-respected Indiana company, but the newbies pushed for BLN, despite the fact they could find nothing wrong with HNTB's work.

So along with the new council mummy-dummies Judie Essex and Candy Ulmer, (defacto members because of the newly constituted consolidated government) BLN was awarded the contract a few months ago, which is worth approximately a half million dollars yearly.

Did Haak recuse himself from voting for a firm, whose officials gave him $1,450?
Guess again.

Stay tuned for more Pay-to-Play Zionsville style.

Talk about the Pay-to-Play Chicago style!