Indy Mayor, Council Agree on Preschool Plan; What’s Wrong in Carmel, California? Plenty.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and the city-county's council have come to an agreement on preschool expansion. Nadezhda1906 / Shutterstock.com
Also in our State & Local news roundup: Fort Lauderdale’s big battle over feeding the homeless pits 90-year-old activist vs. the city.
Here’s our State & Local news roundup for Thursday, November 6, 2014 …
DES MOINES, Iowa: The interim police chief in Iowa’s capital city is looking at an expansion of automated traffic enforcement. The city already has cameras to catch red-light violators and speeders. But as MacKenzie Elmer of The Des Moines Register reports, Chief Douglas Harvey told a neighborhood group that the city is interested in so-called green-light cameras that will ticket drivers who drive through an intersection on a green light at excessive speeds.
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana: Mayor Greg Ballard came to an agreement this week with members of the City-County Council over the mayor’s plan to enroll hundreds of poor local children in preschool programs, Hayleigh Colombo reports for Indiana Chalkbeat. On Wednesday, Ballard offered praise for the scaled-back, five-year $40 million plan, which the mayor had promoted as a crime-fighting tool: “Four months ago, I proposed a holistic approach to make our city safer by addressing the root causes of crime and poverty, including a plan to make preschool affordable to families in need. Indy is now positioning itself as a leader in local support for preschool,” Ballard said.
Carmel, California (Photo by photogolfer / Shutterstock.com)
CARMEL, California: There are plenty of problems the local government in this beautiful seaside city is facing, according to a new “ominous” state of the city report. As Tom Leyde of the Monterey Herald reports, 20 percent of the city of Carmel’s positions are either vacant or being filled temporarily, 30 percent of the city staff are involved in four separate grievance hearings “as witnesses, alleged perpetrators of questionable actions or possible victims,” and to top it off, there are no provisions under the city code if the city administrator is alleged to be a perpetrator.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: A 90-year-old World War II veteran who was recently charged by local officials with violating a new ordinance that outlaws feeding the homeless in public is vowing to continue to unlawfully distribute food. As Kelli Kennedy of The Associated Press reports, “Chef Arnold” fed the homeless a four-course meal at a local beach on Wednesday “as police filmed from a distance and a crowd of nearly 100 mostly homeless and volunteers cheered their arrival.”
LAWTON, Oklahoma: City officials hope that an outside consultant can find potential efficiencies and cost-savings in a report that is to cost no more than $25,000, a cost that will be paid for with private funds. As Joe Fischer of KSWO-TV reports, “[w]hile the main purpose is getting the city to run smoother, Councilman [Doug] Wells says there needs to be focus on the nearly 1,000 city employees and consideration of ‘a reasonable reduction in force.’”