Melina Gets Rocked on Rocky Ripple
March 1, 2011 11 Comments
You may have heard last week that several citizens in the Rocky Ripple and Butler-Tarkington areas were less than thrilled with the floor protection plan proposed by the U.S. Army Corps. The plan calls for a floodwall along the Central Canal which residents argue the 6 foot floodwall would cut off their view of the canal and are understandably upset.
Melina Kennedy decided this could be a good opportunity for her campaign and got Democratic At Large City-County Council candidate John Barth (who is also a former president of the Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood Association) to stage a little press conference calling on the Mayor to work with the feds to put the plan on hold. Unfortunately, she made a mistake and did not read up on the history of the issue.
The Marion County Republican Party sent out the following e-mail yesterday:
Dear Marion County Republicans,
As I’ve mentioned to you before, there are sure to be many instances of the Democrats looking to score political points by revising history. A blatant attempt at this occurred late last week with one of the Democrat Mayoral candidates, Melina Kennedy. She held a press conference on Friday taking issue with Mayor Greg Ballard for a plan by the City of Indianapolis and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to construct a flood wall along the White River; a plan that was developed while Melina Kennedy was Deputy Mayor for Bart Peterson.
It’s interesting that Melina Kennedy is jumping in front of cameras now when she did nothing to help those residents when she was in an influential position in the Peterson administration. The history of the Rocky Ripple situation dates back to the 1990′s when the town opted out of the flood wall plan. Years later, during the Peterson-Kennedy administration, Rocky Ripple asked to be included back in.
Melina Kennedy often portrays her role with Mayor Peterson as a neighborhood advocate, but last week she said we “just recently learned that a major flood wall will be constructed…” and “there was very little understanding and notice provided to the neighborhoods to share their input about this concern.” Wasn’t she fighting for neighborhoods when she was Deputy Mayor?
The vast majority of the planning and decisions on the project were made during the Peterson-Kennedy administration. And it was in 2004 when the Town of Rocky Ripple’s request for inclusion on the flood wall was denied. You can click here to view the City correspondence from 2004 when the Peterson-Kennedy administration denied Rocky Ripple’s request.
Last week, I released the following statement to the media regarding Kennedy’s comments, “This is a desperate attempt by Melina Kennedy to revise history and pander for votes. The fact is Melina Kennedy was the Deputy Mayor during the time the flood wall plan was developed and she did nothing about it.”
Mayor Ballard’s administration is currently reviewing this project, and has made a plea to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to extend the deadline for public comment on behalf of Rocky Ripple and surrounding neighborhoods.
I wanted you to be armed with this information so you can help us set the record straight.
Sincerely,
Kyle Walker
Chairman
Marion County Republican Party
Ouch. As it turns out , the City is working with the community to see what can be done about the situation though cautioning that they will have to consider the amount of time a change of plan will set the project back and that it will also likely increase the cost.
Interestingly enough, there was a community meeting with over 300 people in attendance and staff from Department of Public Works to discuss the plan and the options last night at the Riviera Club. We’re told Melina Kennedy did not attend but did send a staffer to the meeting who was promptly booed for being political.
Guess Melina figured out it is only fun to be in front of the cameras before everyone figures out you might have something to do with the problem.
Of course what really happened is that Rocky Ripple constituents got what they wanted back then, but now they have had a change of heart.. Of course, Walker left that part out of the statement.
Just because we want to win an election doesn’t give us Republicans a license to be intellectually dishonest.. .It’s not going to work anyway. Let’s try to keep some dignity while we’re going to the inevitable 2011 slaughter.
Paul, they got what they wanted in 1996. In 2004, they decided they wanted back into the original plan and the Peterson administration said no. Bottom line is Melina should have checked before she jumped in on this one.
We’re also going to take offense to you saying “just because WE want to win an election doesn’t give US Republicans.” You don’t want Mayor Ballard to win and do not support the Republican Party at least not in this election. Talk about being intellectually dishonest.
This is all the R’s have? My oh my. I salute Kyle Walker’s youthful enthusiasm on this one, but he’s going to have to do better than this.
Jon, Not at all. Walker has video of Melina passing a note in third grade, she was sent to the principal. That will destroy any chance that she had .
Now lets talk about the India and Chili videos…..of winnies vacations. Exactly how many jobs have been created bythose trips? How much money has been brought into our community and how much did those trrips cost?
Wrong and HORRIBLY misleading. This Blog and Kyle Walker should read and listen before criticizing. The issues Melina raised have nothing to do with Rocky Ripple. The Ballard Administration did a deal recently with the Army Corp. of Engineers that INTRODUCED the 6 foot wall as a design element. Originally it was supposed to be an earthen levee. The WALL is what the neighborhood people (except the REPUBLICAN Rocky Ripple Council) are ticked off about. Rocky Ripple’s issues are separate from changing the project design to include the WALL instead of the earthen levee. Mayor Ballard is responsible for the WALL and ramming the WALL through with only the slimest conceivable opportunity for comment. Melina only called for more time to hear comments, instead of the “hurry-up offense” that has become characteristic of Mayor Ballard’s most controversial initiatives. You’d have thought the administration would have learned that rushing things is bad strategy when trying to slip things by the public. The rush-jobs on the Water-Sewer deal and parking deal didn’t work and only provided foder for criticism. I hate to give advice to this administration, but here it is: when whistling through the graveyard, don’t run. Someone will spot you. Here, Melina and the neighborhoods spotted you and called you out. You got caught and now you are slowing things down. Don’t cry and mislead the public to wiggle out of your punishment.
John- you are 100% correct as to this being about the newly proposed wall that has absolutely no relation to anything Melina or the Peterson Admin handled or approved on this issue. This is very poor reporting, WSP. I’d add that the IndyStar article made perfectly clear the timeline of this specific issue. There is no excuse except that you/Chairman Walker are incorrect in your statements. You should issue a correction. You claimed you didn’t “need” to on your false reporting of Melina’s non-announcement because it was (according to you without ever showing proof) included in a reputable news report. Now you do.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20110225/NEWS/110225020/Democrat-Ballard-should-seek-floodwall-delay
“Many residents from the Butler-Tarkington and Rocky Ripple neighborhoods learned of the floodwall plan only after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued an environmental assessment Feb. 1. The barrier’s path is a change from what previously had been publicized.
The Corps is accepting public comments through March 4. The residents are asking for another 90 days to gather public reaction.
“Whenever a major structure is being proposed, it’s critical that neighbors are being included in these conversations,” Kennedy said at a news conference on a pedestrian bridge at Illinois Street and Westfield Boulevard, a block northeast of where the wall would go in.”
Robert, are you seeing a pattern develop here? While Melina may not be the best candidate,her election team is first class and does their homework. This is going to be fun!
Question to ask is what change to took place from last year 2006, to this year 2007, to cause us to pay a big inecarse in taxes?So, whatever that was why isn’t that just reversed? That would be the solution to the problem!Note to politicians: Answer this in two sentences.We need spending limits on everyone in all the layers of the government in the country, state, county, and townships for fiscal responsibility. We taxpayers need to know how our money is being spent. We have limits on our own personal budgets, so all the layers of the governments within Indiana, and the U.S.A. need to also have spending limits. “If we take care of spending, then the taxes will take care of themselves.”
ro0LHu yzqjihzupfak
If I was a Dem candidate for Mayor, I would’ve pocnued on this announcement immediately…hell, the speech would’ve been written BEFOREHAND with blanks to fill in for the numbers. Just goes to show how truly dismal the Dem field remains.For the record, I’m not happy about this, but I am VERY happy about the sale of the water utility to Citizens. My elation at the utility sale more than makes up for this foolishness.
frgNrW vdxstukctqrb