Make way for Candace

As former Union Township trustee Candace Ulmer ascended the dias after been sworn in as a de-facto Zionsville Town Council member two years ago, she was heard to remark, ''Watch out Zionsville.''

Ulmer joined the Zionsville council by virtue of the consolidated government act, and then last May ran and won a seat on the council from Union Township. Ulmer ran opposed in the fall, and

bank rolled with a large infusion of cash, and despite opposition her campaign paid off and she won handily.

Ulmer takes her marching orders from many, including Elizabeth Mueller, a resident of Union Township. Mueller is a well known left-winger, who has moved many times, looking for greener pastures after getting into squabbles with locals.

When the Matt Price/Chad Pittman cabal took over the town council, Mueller, via Ulmer got Mueller's spouse, Steve, named to the Zionsville Park and Recreation Board. Follow? Ulmer is the force behind many of the important appointments, and "un"appointments. Former Park Board President Ellen Butz was unceremoniously dumped from the parks board for an unknown because Butz got cross-wise with Ulmer.

Elizabeth Mueller has been inserting her heft through her husband, Steve, into the business of the parks board. It was no secret to insiders that some parks board members were frustrated with Mueller, who was taking his marching orders from his frau.

And, Councilor Ulmer hasn't been reluctant about an earmark for her hubby, John, in his role on the Eagle Creek Watershed Alliance. Candace persuaded the council to pony-up some $28,000 a year for five years for a water gauging station on Eagle Creek.

But, with the creek's first high water last spring, the gauging station was swept downstream.

Well, to the point of all this - this has been in the works for a while. Town insiders report that within the last two years, Ulmer accompanied a group of the Boone EDC, and went to either North or South Dakota to investigate ''multi-purpose'' arenas, specifically built for ice hockey.

Ulmer turned in receipts for the trip to the town for reimbursement of several hundred dollars. But, know what? Ulmer never gave a report to the town council for spending taxpayers' funds, so as far as residents knew, the trip never existed.

Until now.

The council has approriated $53,000 for Crowe-Horwath to do a feasibility study for a 3,000 - 4,000 person multi-purpose arena (ice stadium) for Zionsville. Click on the preceeding link to read the letter of engagement with Town Council President Tim Haak.

It's hard to follow the dots, but stay with me - remember Allan Rachles - the current president of the Zionsville Plan Commission. Rachles was a former partner with Crowe. Rachles donated heavily to Haak's campaign in both 2007 and 2011.

And, don't miss this one.

The Indianapolis Ice hockey team will be out of a home for two years because the state plans to remodel the Indiana Coliseum. There are rumblings that a site on 421 for the ''multi-purpose'' stadium has already been selected,

So, how does this get back to Ms. Ulmer? Now, she is circulating a questionnaire asking Zionsville residents what strategy they would have the town pursue over the next four years. What variety of strategy isn't specified.

One open-ended question posed asks what sort of big expenses the town may have soon, and how should they be paid for. (Humm, how about a multi-purpose stadium?) No one is sure about the questionnaire's intended audience, nor is it readily accessible on the Town's website. It's invitation only perhaps?

Strange, didn't Zionsville residents weigh-in on their vision for the town in the questionnaire done for the pricey Economic Development Strategic Plan? And, of course Ulmer promises anonymity, which means she can pick and choose which responses fit her/council agenda.

''Watch out Zionsville,'' the Candace cometh.

The Leopard Shows Its Spots

Well it didn't take time for the leopard to show its spots.


Remember all that pablum the current Town Council administration spoon-fed the gullible voters during their mega bucks campaign last May - that it ''will work tirelessly to reduce waste and eliminate duplicate services?''

Within a month of being in office, the Town Council fired planning director Terry Jones, and the senior building inspector John Merritt for no reason other than, ''We want to go another direction,'' so said El Presidente Haak.

In the next breath, the council approved hiring an ''interim'' planner from American Structurepoint at $130,000 a year, according to our sources. The combined salaries of Jones and Merritt were never a whisker near $130,000. This particular hire was never reported in our local media.


Merritt was a hard-nosed and respected inspector, who at times ruffled builders' feathers making them toe the line on building codes. He obviously was targeted. So, the council decided to satisfy the complaints of disgruntled builders to make it easier for the contruction codes to cut corners.

And, remember American Structurepoint?

That firm has a $59,000 contract with the Zionsville Economic Development Commission to design an Economic Development Strategic Plan for the town. This is the same plan that is currently under intense scrutiny by several citizens groups who caution the plan will destroy Zionsville's character.

Talk about the appearance of impropriety and a possible conflict of interest.

No wonder one of the first acts the council considered was to waterdown the town's policy on conflict of interest. As originally written, it prohibited the town councilors from voting on anything involving a campaign contributor. As repealed, it tosses all restrictions aside.

So, voters, how can the town expect unbiased planning decisions from an ''interium'' planner, whose bread and butter comes with a company that has a vested interest in a strategic plan that many residents have called into question?
During their campaign, the tag team of Jeff Papa and Susana Suarez touted ''They are convinced that investing in new enterprise can be accomplished without compromising the integrity of our traditional values.'''

The ''new enterprise'' at this point appears to be American Structurepoint, whose principles dumped loads of contributions into the coffers of the campaigns of the Haak et al administration. (See last post.)

Talk about integrity?


The blog Advance Indiana had an interesting post on American Structurepoint.


Another curious matter is that of the longevity of the ''interim'' planning director. How long will the financially strapped town be paying top dollar for an "interim" planning director in an economic downturn?

Since the uncermoninous dumping of Jones and Merritt in January, the openings for those jobs have not been posted on professioinal job sites. Ask Ed Mitro, town manager, why.


Methinks Mitro knows how to count the leopard's spots, but the unfortunate man is wary. He may be the beast's next meal.

Who Gave The Candidates' Cash

As promised by Zionsville Confidential, here is the information on individual donations to the winning candidates in the 2011-2014 Zionsville Town Council race.


And, stay tuned for the detailed list of the donations that went into Political Action Committees, which dumped tons of cash into those candidates' coffers.

If you are going to printout the latest list of donations, better get our a ream of paper - there are a lot of donations from friends and neighbors, and some from far-flung places.

For the donations list, click here.





Or you can click this link:


http://www.docstoc.com/docs/115813432/Zionsville-Town-Council-Campaign-donations

Big Bucks Council

Zionsville residents should be proud of its' new council - it's one of the fattest cash cows in the town's history.

The Magnificant Seven took in $91,899.89 in campaign contributions for a $5,000 a year position - $91,899 - the tail is wagging the dog folks.


These figures come from campaign reports on file at the Boone County Clerk's office in Lebanon. And, who got the lion's share of the goodies?

Candace Ulmer, the former Union Township trustee, who collected $18,46l, following closely by incumbent Tim Haak, with $18,101. Mrs. Ulmer is going to be "The one to see.''

The balance went to:


Susana Suarez, $16,572
Elizabeth Hopper, $14,236
Tom Schuler, $13,966
Jeff Papa $10,561

The largest contributor to the campaigns was a political action committee, Civic Pride of Boone County, which dumped $24,502 into the seven coffers. Civic Pride's contributors are a mix of developers and their attorneys and those wonderful folks who bring you more apartments.

Civic Pride's largest contribution went to Mrs. Ulmer of $10,458, and close behind was the new council president Haak, who picked-up $6,858.

And following Civic Pride in contributions was the Metropolitan Board of Realtors PAC with $7,210, which doled out $1,000 plus goodies to the seven campaigns.

Wonder why our local newspaper hasn't followed the money?

Publisher Andrea Cline is the spouse of Pat Cline, an officer with MIBOR, whose bank is none other than the Bank of Indianapolis, which employes Tim Haak - just a coincidence.

One name missing as a contributor in any of the seven campaigns was Chad Pittman.

This is the same fellow who gave birth to the Citizens for a Better Zionsville, and in 2009 confided with former councilor Michelle Barrett:

''I appreciate your leadership of our town and the direction you are taking us. Who would have thought that we could have come this quickly to aligning our town planning area with the school district to make it easier to plan and control our own destiny.''

Zionsville Confidential has heard unofficially that lately Pittman has been having a case of the jitters seeing his name in print, closely aligned with bank-rolling the council candidates. This is also the same fellow that still has a Papa/Suarez sign up on his barn on the corner of 334 and Michigan.

Stay tuned. Zionsville Confidential is preparing a complete list of all the contributors.