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Sunday, December 21, 2008

Ind. Law - "Barnes & Thornburg's involvement in city business troubles some"

That is the subhead to this lengthy story today on the front-page of the Indianapolis Star, reported by Brendan O'Shaughnessy. Some quotes from the story:

A review by The Indianapolis Star shows just how tightly the law firm is woven into the fabric of the Ballard administration. Day to day, those with past or current connections to Barnes & Thornburg help decide how to spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars, set crime-fighting policy, decide whether to keep parks open and determine how best to defend the city against lawsuits and more. Consider:

Either Grand or Loftus, who headed Ballard's transition team, regularly sit in on Ballard's weekly meetings with key staff.

Ballard's public safety director, Scott Newman, is a former Barnes & Thornburg attorney.

Chris Cotterill, who heads the corporation counsel office, also worked at Barnes & Thornburg.

Four other key members of Ballard's administration have to one degree or another a connection to Barnes & Thornburg or to Grand, one of the top GOP fundraisers and lobbyists in the state.

Ballard appointed Grand chairman of the Capital Improvement Board, considered the top prize among city boards because it controls millions in contracts as well as fancy suites for Colts and Pacers games.

Barnes & Thornburg was paid $96,000 this year to lobby at the federal level for the city.

Loftus was paid $60,000 this year to be the city's lobbyist at the Statehouse and an additional $55,000 to act as the administration's special counsel.

Everyone from the mayor on down says they have been careful to avoid any such conflicts.

" 'Does Barnes & Thornburg represent someone?' is not the right question," Grand said. "The question for any person in the administration is, 'Has anybody at the firm contacted you on behalf of issue X?' That would be wrong."

More from the story:
Ballard stressed that the city has cut overall legal fees by more than half compared with the previous administration.

And he said the firm helped the city save millions of dollars by helping to persuade the state to take over the city's police pension and child welfare liabilities as part of property tax reforms passed by the legislature earlier this year.

"I think they (Grand and Loftus) are acting in the best interest of the city," Ballard said. "If they were acting in their own interest, the numbers would show something else."

Besides, he added, "I get a lot of advice from a lot of people."

Inexplicably, the online story does not include the graphics that were in the print version

One of the charts, which I considered to be the most informative, is labeled "An abrupt shift in where money goes" and has this intro:

A comparison of outside legal service costs between 2007 and most of 2008 shows Mayor Greg Ballard has cut such expenses by more than half. It also shows a major shift in where the money is going -- mostly a shift from Baker & Daniels, which had close ties to former Mayor Bart Peterson, to Barnes & Thornburg, where Robert Grand and Joe Loftus work.
The bottom line, from the chart:
In 2007 BT earned $145,571 from the City, and B&D earned $2.49 million.

In 2008 BT earned $670,861 from the City, and B&D earned $0.

Total to all lawfirms in 2007, $7.55 million. In 2008, $3.37 million.

For another view, see this entry from the blog of Paul Ogden, who is also quoted in today's story.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 21, 2008 01:03 PM
Posted to Indiana Law