Public Law Monitor

Carmel Wins Annexation Appeal

Carmel Wins Annexation AppealThe Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to allow Carmel’s annexation of a small community in Clay Township known as Home Place to move forward. The lengthy battle between the city and residents of the unincorporated area started in 2004. A majority of the 2,200 households of Home Place objected to the annexation and filed a lawsuit to prevent it. In 2005, Hamilton County Superior Judge William Hughes ruled in favor of the property owners, saying Carmel didn’t prove it could financially afford to annex the area. But, in 2007, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed that decision. The Indiana Supreme Court declined to hear the case and sent it back to the trial court for further review.

After the matter was set aside for a period of a few years, the trial court in 2016 again took up the landowners’ remonstration on remand from the COA. The trial court then ruled in favor of Carmel, concluding that landowners failed to prove that fire protection could be adequately furnished by a provider other than Carmel. The COA affirmed that decision Tuesday. Landowners could persuade neither the trial court nor the Court of Appeals that Home Place could be served with fire protection by Clay Township. The COA concluded the trial court in 2016 properly interpreted state statutes regarding a municipality’s right to exercise powers within four miles of its boundaries, circumstances when a municipality must provide fire protection, and others in reaching its findings and conclusion. Click here to read the decision.

Board of Accounts Finds $1.5 Million Misspent In Public Funds

More than $1.5 million in public monies were misspent or misappropriated in the past year by government entities in Indiana, the State Board of Accounts (SBOA) reported last week. The SBOA issued 70 reports last year that requested that officials or their employees pay back some amount of funds. Of those, 15 government bodies had misspent or misappropriated in excess of $10,000 each. The highest was $338,585 in Tippecanoe County, based on a special investigation of the clerk’s records from 2005 to 2014 but released in January 2017. The SBOA’s audit reports are given to the Indiana Attorney General’s office in seeking civil collections and county prosecutors for criminal activity. The SBOA examines finances of all Indiana government agencies including non-profits that receive state funds. Last year, the board issued 2,250 reports on government bodies.

City Attorney Who Falsified Email Suspended For 180 Days

An Indianapolis city attorney who gave inaccurate information to a news reporter then tried to destroy evidence of his misconduct has been suspended from the practice of law in Indiana for 180 days. In an order posted in In the Matter of: Mark J. Pizur, the Indiana Supreme Court unanimously decided to suspend Mark Pizur for deceitful conduct dating back to November 2015, when he was working for the Indianapolis Office of Corporation Counsel. When a news reporter sought information from the Indianapolis Animal Care and Control (ACC), Pizur sent an email to the reporter saying a kennel owner had not notified ACC or the city that any of the dogs were pregnant. Pizur was quoted in the reporter’s story, but at a subsequent hearing, the kennel owner told the court that statement was inaccurate. Pizur then falsely told the court that he had been misquoted, so the kennel owner submitted a public records request seeking emails between Pizur and the reporter. Before he provided the requested emails, Pizur deleted the statement that was quoted in the article. However, the news outlet eventually sent the kennel owner a certified copy of the original email, thus showing that Pizur had altered the requested documents.

House Tax Bill Eliminates PABs, Advance Refunding

The House Republican leadership has released its draft tax bill, which is available here. A section-by section description of the bill is available here. Among the provisions that would affect state and local bonds, the bill would eliminate private activity bonds (sec. 3601), advance refundings (sec. 3602), and tax credit bonds (sec. 3603) beginning with bonds issued after December 31, 2017. The draft bill would also eliminate tax-exempt bonds for professional stadiums for bonds issued after today, November 2, 2017 (sec. 3604). The bill would also terminate the New Markets Tax Credit (sec. 3406). The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to mark up the bill beginning next Monday, November 6.

EDITORS FOOTNOTE: Joshua Claybourn is Counsel in Jackson Kelly’s Evansville office. He advises clients in matters of business and corporate law, governmental services, and public finance. Learn more here.