Democrats Begin Leadership of City-County Council Tonight

For just the second time in the history of Unigov, the Indianapolis/Marion County City-County Council will be headed by Democrats when the Council opens its first meeting tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the Beurt SerVaas Public Assembly Room down at the City-County Building.

City-County Building

Sixteen Democrats and 13 Republicans will begin a four year quest to make life better here in Indianapolis.  There will be new faces, people to watch in the caucus, and much more as Republicans transition to the minority again and Mayor Greg Ballard has to begin to work across the aisle to get his agenda to match the Democrats' agenda on the Council.  If there is no agreement, there will be gridlock, and government here in Indianapolis will be locked up tight like the government we've seen in Washington, D.C. over the past few years.

Things have not gotten off to the smoothest start between the two separate branches of government.  By his public comment, Ballard mistakenly seems to think the Council is still to serve at his beck-and-call while the Democrats want to make it clear that the Council is its own entity.

All-in-all there are four or five Democrats on the Council that I think probably want to be Mayor someday in the future as well.  Keeping their ambitions in check while trying to move the ball forward for the city will be extremely interesting to watch.

I do believe the Democrats got it right when they promoted a dynamic Councillor like Maggie Lewis to be the Council President.  Like any new job, she will probably make a couple of mistakes, but I think she is definitely a bright and worthy leader for the caucus.  She has already expressed a willingness to work with the Mayor.  Now is the time to put words aside and make actions speak loudly.