Michael-Paul Hart, City-County Councilor Joins!

Nigel Jason Hammer (0:00)

Hello, everybody. My name is Nigel Jason Hammer, right over there with a very special in-studio guest.

SPEAKER_2 (0:07)

Michael-Paul Hart, one of the few Republicans on your City-County Council.

Nigel Jason Hammer (0:12)

MPH.

SPEAKER_2 (0:13)

How you doing, man?

Michael-Paul Hart (0:14)

So far, so good.

SPEAKER_2 (0:16)

You signed off on $1.9 billion last night, counselor?

Michael-Paul Hart (0:19)

No, I was a no on that one last night.

SPEAKER_2 (0:23)

$1.9 billion, give or take just a little bit here. Walk me through the highlights and lowlights of what we're on the hook for here in Indy.

Michael-Paul Hart (0:34)

Well, I think we're short on highlights, but I mean, I'll at least take you through some of the, you know, some of the dramatic parts last night. You know, there was an attempted introduction of a flock proposal that didn't quite make it yet.

SPEAKER_2 (0:47)

Was that Jesse Browns?

Michael-Paul Hart (0:48)

It was Jesse Browns, which was, you know, an interesting posture from the Democrat Party yesterday to really show his position and where it stands. There's not much left on the bone there.

You know, the president was adamant that she didn't receive anything from him. And, you know, he was adamant that he had sent something in, in which, you know, at the end of the day, he probably didn't follow procedure. But, you know, it's getting along with everybody else over there to try and get things done.

Nigel Jason Hammer (1:12)

Is that what it is? I mean, we had him on the show talking about it yesterday.

SPEAKER_2 (1:15)

And like his plan, as, you know, quirky as Jesse can be on a number of things, his flock camera plan seemed pretty middle of the road. It's going to be here, so we have to have some regulation to it. That's certainly not something that's outrageous.

But the council president said they didn't receive anything from him.

Michael-Paul Hart (1:36)

That's what she was saying. And, you know, my interpretation of it is there's another version of it that the council vice president is working on. And there is a lack of collaboration on what that should look like and how it should be introduced. And that's why ultimately nothing happened last night. I agree. We do have to start working on something about this. We're here talking about this last time. We've got the cameras, but we don't have rules.

And we've got to get these rules together. And yeah, what he's presenting wasn't too crazy.

SPEAKER_2 (2:03)

So the police got the biggest chunk of the money last night. Some people say it's too much because they're short 200 officers. The police are saying, yeah, but our officers are all working over time because we're so understaffed. What do you think?

Michael-Paul Hart (2:19)

They are. I mean, they are working over time. But I think the biggest thing that gets left out of this conversation is that there's something called a Collective Bargaining Agreement that the Mayor's Office makes. And so the Fire Department, the Police Department, DPW, they all have unions and they all have Collective Bargaining Agreements. Well, in the agreement with the FOP, it states that we have to fund so many officers. So we have a contract, there is a contract with the city that we are beholden to the council to make sure that we're funding. And it says we have to fund 1,743 officers. So there's a discrepancy there is that we do have to pay for it because there's a contract saying we have to pay for it.

SPEAKER_2 (2:57)

Interesting. Okay.

Michael-Paul Hart (2:58)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (2:59)

I've not heard that yet.

Nigel Jason Hammer (3:01)

We need to get more officers.

I would love the recruiting to be better here in the city. I mean, no question.

SPEAKER_2 (3:10)

And Councilor, you've done write-alongs before. Why do you think there is a shortage? Is it because of who the prosecutor is? Is it because of who the mayor is? Is it a combination of that?

Michael-Paul Hart (3:22)

I think it's a combination of a lot of things. I think the feeling like, hey, I just apprehended this person, arrested them, and I put them in, and they're back, and I'm doing this whole thing over and over again. I think there's a level of frustration there, absolutely.

And I'm trying to figure out exactly what it is. I'm meeting with, I just met with, actually, all the folks that oversee health for our officers to understand, is there a benefits compensation that just isn't matching? Is it dollars? What does that perfect package look like to make us look attractive? Is it leadership? Is it showing that we believe in the men and women who are officers, and we want to show that we have trust from them? And I think, honestly, that's a big part that's missing, is that there's not enough leaders in Indianapolis who are showing support for IMPD, and they're finding that support around us, which is in our donut county.