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.

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.

Where There's Smoke

Wonder what the flap over an e-mail sent by four Zionsville town council members to the Boone County Commissioners is all about?

Maybe nothing, but again maybe there's smoke, and where there's smoke there's fire.

At the June 6 council meeting when it came time to allow the public an opportunity to address the council, Wendy Brant came forward and claimed the four councilors had violated the Indiana Open Door law.

Ms. Brant, a former Boone County commissioner, is no stranger to the issue of transparency in government. She was president of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government, and testified at the state legislature for the Public Access Counselor.

Basically, the Open Door Law forbids appointed or elected members of municipalities from conducting business privately, outside of the public view.

The e-mail Brant questioned was sent by Tim Haak, council vice-president, to the Boone County Commissioners on Friday, June 3.

It stated: As members of the Zionsville Town Council we are formerly requesting that you table the Ford Road bridge agenda item from your meeting Monday, June 6th. Zionsville is currently updating our Transportation Plan and the proposed bridge replacement plays an integral role in this update. We feel that the item warrants more discussion between the Zionsville Town Council and the Boone County Commissioners and we would like to formally meet to discuss further.
It was signed by Haak, Steve Mundy, Jeff Papa, and Candace Ulmer.
Zionsville Town Council

Ironically, it was Ulmer who on June 1 asked the commissioners to be on the June 6 meeting agenda to express her opinion about the Ford Road bridge, and request that the commissioners delay signing an agreement to proceed with construction of a new structure.

As reported in the Zionsville Star June 9 edition of the Indianapolis Star, "Brant said the four council members made a decision as a majority of the seven-member council outside the public view, challenging them otherwise to identify what public meeting or where in meeting records the issue was discussed and decided. Official action, under the law, includes to 'make decisions or take final action.' ''

Council president Matt Price, and council members Art Harris and Valerie Swack were not copied on the e-mail. Harris and Swack said they were unaware of the correspondence. Unlike the other four councilors, Price, Harris and Swack are not seeking election in November.

Haak, Mundy and Papa defended their action, Papa the most testily during an exchange with Brant. Papa argued that because the county commissioners did not take any action concerning the bridge there was no violation of the law.

But, the commissioners did take an action about the bridge, delaying further discussion until the July meeting. That action came about when Jeff Wolfe, president of the Board of Commissioners, asked for the delay.

What the four councilors seem to avoid here, is that the four of them formally requested the commissioners to take an action, and the violation is because they did not decide this in a public forum, and consequently there was no record of what they did.

Papa can huff and puff all he wants about the timing of the e-mail, and the urgency of contacting the commissioners, but Ulmer was already on the commissioners' agenda, so why didn't the four amigos let her carry the message from Garcia?

MIBOR Buying the Zionsville Election

It's deja vu all over again - MIBOR trying to buy the Zionsville Town Council election as it did in 2007.

So far, MIBOR, the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors, has dumped $7,200 into the coffers of six candidates of the Citizen's for a Better Zionsville PAC slate.

In 2007, by the spring filing, they had spent only $3000.

And the proof is in the campaign expense reports which shows how deep some candidates for the Zionsville Town Council are into MIBOR pockets; and wonder why?

Namely - Jeff Papa, Candace Ulmer, Elizabeth Hopper, Tim Haak, Tom Schuler, all of whom have been endorsed by MIBOR, which is concentrating solely on the Zionsville races among all the donut counties.

And, what's the tab?

According to the reports of receipts and expenses on file with the Boone County Clerk's office for political campaigns during the period ending April 15 here's who got what from the MIBOR Political Action Committee:

Tim Haak $1,052; Jeff Pappa, $1,500; Candace Ulmer, $1,121; Elizabeth Hopper, $966, and Tom Schuler, $1,069; Susana Duarte de Suarez, $1,500. None was reported for Steve Mundy.

MIBOR helped host a fundraiser on April 30th for the Move Zionsville slate after the filing deadline. The real big money reports come in the next filing. Unfortunately it's after the May primary when the Fat Lady's done singing.

Other contributors to Move Zionsville candidates by candidate are:

Ulmer:
Elizabeth Mueller, spouse of Zionsville Parks board member Steve Mueller, $200
Allan Rachles, Zionsville Plan Commission chairman, $200
Dan Montgomery and Andrea Montgomery, of Montgomery Aviation, $200. The Montgomerys, who are the operators of Indianapolis Executive Airport, were significant contributors to Ulmer's campaign for Union Township trustee.

Haak:
Matt Price, Zionsville Town Council president, $500.
Allan Rachles, $200.
Baker & Daniels, Indianapolis law firm, $250.

Jeff Pappa:
Andrea Montgomery, of Montgomery Aviation, operator of the former Terry Airport that Betty Lee Cooper gave away when she was a county comissioner, $200:
Brett Swanson, Zionsville, $325

Susana Suarez:
Allan Rachles, $200
Andrea Montgomery, $200
Javier Ortiz, Atlanta, Ga.,$300
Maribeth Smith, Indianapolis event planner, $500
Bret Swanson, Zionsville, $380

Elizabeth Hopper:
Larry Mackey, (Barnes & Thornburg attorney) Indianapolis, $500
Robert Grand (Barnes & Thornburg Managing Partner), Indianapolis, $250
Jefffery Qualkinbush (Barnes & Thornburg Attorney), Zionsville, $200

Tom Schuler:
Pamela Cutcliff, Zionsville, $200
Debbie Ungar, Zionsville, $300

The other candidates - Tom Santelli, Steve Schanke, Wendy Brant, David Brown, Chris Brooke, Pete Hawryluk, and Marty Thompson - were not endorsed, nor did any of them receive any contributions from MIBOR. Thompson and Brown received no major contributions to report.

Their significant individual contributors were:

Tom Santelli:
Elizabeth Johnson, Zionsville, $300
James Baumgardt, Zionsville, $500
Johnny Johnson, Zionsville, $300

Wendy Brant:
Charles Eaton, Boone County commissioner, $250
Russell Fortune III, Indianapolis, $5,000
Elizabeth Johnson, Zionsville, $300
John Holliday, Zionsville, $500
John Johnson, Zionsville, $300
Welton (Art) Harris, Zionsville Town Council member, $300
James Baumgardt, Zionsville, $500

Chris Brooke:
Michael & Jean Lisch, Zionsville, $1,000

Pete Hawryluk:
Jim Baumgardt, Zionsville, $500
Johnny Johnson, Zionsville, $300

Unfortunately for the voters, the next campaign reports come after April 15 and post primary when the big money will roll in for the fancy yard signs and phone banks.

Remember in 2007 when the challengers each spent an average of $20,000 to buy the council seats, which pays $5,000 a year.

Get the picture folks? Pay to play - but at you're expense - more housing that doesn't pay for schools.