No Shame in Failure

Friends,

I apologize for the delay in this email. I’ve stayed extremely busy, and have also done a lot of work to take better control of my schedule to make sure I’m making progress on longer-term goals for this term on the Council.

Speaking of those, I thought this might be a good time to check in.

How are you feeling about the city here at the end of May in 2024? How are you feeling about our leadership in the executive and legislative branches?

Do you feel like your Council and your Councilor are working hard for you? Do you feel like we are doing enough?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the Council functions and what we’ve spent our energy and time on as a body thus far.

Here is my answer to the above questions: We are certainly working hard. But we, as a Council, are not doing enough. I, as your Councilor, am not doing enough.

I think that I am failing you in a few big categories:

1. Policy Triage and Prioritization.
2. Transparency and Participation.
3. Organizing and Deputizing.

Some thoughts on all three:

1. Policy Triage and Prioritization.

City leaders in all branches of government seem to agree that we would be foolish to attempt to pass serious policy while the Statehouse is in session.

Let me pause for a second to let you reflect on that. Our mayor has been quoted in the newspapers saying that his strategy is to “hide” as the Statehouse debates policies. But beyond our inability to influence the Indiana State legislature from the capital city, we find ourselves unable to even debate or pass our own local legislation. No proposals or resolutions of substance are recommended to be discussed or passed while the part-time state legislature is in session. Ask any political insider and see if they disagree with that assessment.

As horrific as I find that status quo, I’m certainly not disagreeing that the Statehouse refuses to let the economic powerhouse of the state govern itself: the proof is in the pudding.

But it has been months since Sine Die, when the legislature ended their session. I think most of my constituents were hoping that the Council would come out swinging the day after Sine Die, announcing a visionary set of policies and proposals to offer a clear and present counter to the extreme right-wing policy that stayed in the news throughout the Session.

I’m extremely proud to be among a group of Councilors who are taking on the huge and serious task of reducing and eventually eliminating road deaths in Indianapolis via a Vision Zero plan. But we are still not yet even contemplating the language to include in a proposal, which would be the first step towards actually rallying the resources to start implementing these changes. I haven't moved fast enough. We haven't moved fast enough.

Other massive priorities for all of my constituents, based on emails and calls I have received, would include helping to repair and maintain alleys, finding some relief in property taxes, building more affordable housing, and incentivizing entrepreneurship and retail in the many existing and empty first floors of completed mixed-use developments. To the best of my knowledge, the Council has not spent a moment contemplating or working to resolve any of these issues. Or if anything is being done, my constituents and I sure haven’t heard about it.

What HAS been discussed at great length is the possibility of backing out of a barely-six-month-old plan to create a tax area to redevelop the Diamond Chain site, and instead create a tax area to redevelop the Heliport into soccer stadiums. For more than a month, there have been multiple news articles a week on every major news source discussing these stadiums. But two months ago, I had exactly zero journalists or constituents asking me to weigh in and focus my time on soccer. We simply cannot allow ourselves to be distracted away from important policy work to this extent.

I’d love to ask constituents directly at public meetings what their priorities are for city government. Dollars to donuts says that if you asked each individual taxpayer and resident in Indianapolis about their top five issues they want their government focused on, “decide which group of millionaires or billionaires to get into bed with to create a soccer stadium” would not make the list.

2. Transparency and Participation.

Back in April, after the news highlighted a large public debate on charter schools and a vote coming up at the next Council meeting, the Council did not so much as set aside some time for debate - instead passing the very controversial acceptance of the relevant zoning decision with zero comment from or even TO the public, even from Councilors.

Now, with the seemingly endless discussion about soccer stadiums, we find ourselves in a situation that is both confusing and important to the general public. I’ve seen probably a hundred constituents in person since returning from vacation a few weeks ago, and in that amount of time I believe virtually every single one of them asked me some variation of “So what the hell is going on with all this soccer stuff?”

I pride myself on transparency. I’m apparently providing so much of it in these emails that I can be quoted in the Indianapolis Business Journal without any journalist actually communicating with me directly! But it’s difficult to be transparent the way my constituents demand (and deserve) given the way we do business as a legislative branch of government.

In 2024, we have not yet had a chance for the general public to speak at any full council meeting. That includes times when multiple Democratic State Senators and Representatives came to the Council meeting to support their constituents.

Indiana has a valid law on the books that was designed to increase public participation in government:

The Open Door Law (“ODL”)(Ind. Code 5-14- 1.5), originally passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 1977 and most recently amended in 2016, was enacted to permit the public access to meetings held by public agencies. When the public has an opportunity to attend and observe meetings, the public may witness government in action and more fully participate in the governmental process. The ODL will serve these purposes if the public understands the provisions of this statute. This guide sets forth the basic elements of the ODL and provides answers to commonly asked questions. To obtain answers to more specific questions, please consult the provisions of the Indiana Code set forth in Section Two of this guide.

If you’ve heard of this law at all, you’ve probably seen it referenced recently in local journalism. In the IBJ article linked above, you can read how an attorney representing the City of Indianapolis sent a threatening letter to the Democratic Caucus, claiming that if the Caucus met with representatives of Keystone, the group developing the Diamond Chain site, that the meeting would be a violation of the ODL. Others have claimed that the Mayor’s own meeting with the Caucus may have violated the ODL. There have been attorneys representing multiple organizations and branches of government all weighing in on the requirements we must meet in order to avoid a public meeting.

Rather than evade this law, why not follow the spirit of it? I’d love to have a large public meeting and allow constituents from across the city to ask questions and share their perspectives on the still tumultuous soccer issue. Sure, there might be some details we can’t share with the public if they’re confidential. I trust the people to understand that but to ask questions regardless. Importantly, though, there should be a public forum wherein constituents are treated as co-creators of the city, not passive recipients of the decisions of their elected officials.  

3. Organizing and Deputizing.

When I was a manager at Angie’s List, I learned a lesson that resonated deeply and has influenced my activism and political work as well. “You can’t do it all.” My wife reminds me frequently that I am not Batman. Despite all of my frustration and desire to do more as a Councilor, I’m already spending about as many hours each week as I can reasonably commit to. The solution is not to try to squeeze blood from a stone. Instead, the solution is to organize. I ran for office because I believed that the people of Indianapolis, collectively, have all the intelligence, resources, strength, and power to build a better world starting with our city. We can solve the problems of this city as long as we trust and empower each other, and then stand beside each other in solidarity.

To that end, I want to step up my organizing and deputizing work. As an amazing case in point: several months ago, my neighbor Tequilla reached out to me because she wanted to get involved in working in the community. We met for coffee and I learned about her amazing talents and experience in logistics and childcare. From that point onwards, I have “deputized” her as my official liaison for youth affairs. Tequilla has attended multiple events put on by the Marion County Commission on Youth and has become an absolute powerhouse in the district, helping parents and youth alike find resources and share their concerns with each other. She has made connections with a whole host of community leaders, non-profit organizations and city departments, and I have gotten a new reliable community leader who I can trust to advise me well on youth issues.

We need Tequillas for every policy area in the city. We need neighborhood associations and precinct committee people to help solicit feedback and support from the people in their neighborhoods, and we need them to communicate with each other to find where their desires and needs are aligned.

Luckily, we don’t need to invent the wheel here. The Near East Side Community Organization, NESCO, was set up to be exactly this sort of umbrella organization to help many of the neighborhoods I represent find power in numbers and support each other. When you go to your neighborhood meetings, ask who your delegate to NESCO is and what their notes are from the last NESCO meeting! If you’re in a neighborhood not represented by NESCO, find other ways to share resources and notes with other neighborhood groups!

I’m committed to spending several hours each week from now on just focusing on organizing - meaning helping other people collectively solve their own problems rather than being a bottleneck myself. I’m extremely happy to work with anyone and everyone in the district by myself, but no well-designed system should have a single point of failure. For the good of the district, and the good of the city, we need neighbors working together to advise me and hold me accountable.

I’d love any thoughts you have about this long email! Could you step up and start taking on more leadership in your neighborhood, precinct, policy area, or friend group? Would you be interested in a public meeting to discuss priorities and offer feedback? Reply to this email and let me know!

In love and solidarity,
Jesse