OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Indianapolis Municipal Corporations Committee Meeting - September 17, 2025

City-County Council — Wednesday, September 17, 2025
BodyIndianapolis, Indiana
SessionCity-County Council
DateWednesday, September 17, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:15:32

Transcript — Verbatim
0:05

Good evening, everybody.

0:07

Welcome to tonight's municipal corporations committee meeting on this day, September 17th.

0:12

We are going to begin.

0:14

I'm Chairman Jared Evans, by the way.

0:15

We're going to begin with introductions, starting with Councillor Hart.

0:21

All right.

0:22

Thank you, Mr.

0:22

Chairman.

0:22

My name is Michael Paul Hart, representing District 20.

0:26

Thank you, Mr.

0:26

Chairman.

0:27

Mike Dill, District 24.

0:29

Thank you, Mr.

0:30

Chairman, Josh Bain, District 21.

0:33

Thank you, Mr.

0:33

Chair.

0:34

Brian Mowra, District 25.

0:36

Thank you, Mr.

0:36

Chair.

0:37

Jesse Brown, District 13.

0:39

Thank you, Mr.

0:39

Chair.

0:40

Renee Allen, District 15, the Far Isat.

0:43

Thank you, Mr.

0:44

Chairman.

0:44

Kristen Jones, District 18.

0:47

Thank you, Mr.

0:47

Chair.

0:48

Allie Brown, District 10, City of Lawrence.

0:50

Thank you, everybody.

0:51

Again, I'm Chairman Jared Evans representing District 17 on the far west side.

0:56

We will begin tonight's meeting with proposal number 279, which reappoints Mr.

1:02

Richard Wilson Jr.

1:03

to the Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation Board of Directors.

1:07

Whole mouthful.

1:08

Please come on up, sir.

1:10

If you'd like to begin by uh saying a few words about yourself and why you'd like to serve on this, thank you, Mr.

1:15

Chairman.

1:16

I appreciate your uh confidence very much.

1:18

It's been an interesting four years.

1:21

Um I know that you specifically had wanted to hear about fair policy, so I'll defer on that to answer any questions that you might have.

1:28

But I do want to share a couple of things that are really exciting, I think, for us.

1:33

So I've been championing over the last 18 months a fiscal sustainability study where we're taking a look at every single part of our operation.

1:41

We're looking where we can leverage revenue, where we can look at our expenses and see you know the things that we must do because there's a statute or a regulation that says you must do it.

1:51

Are we doing it in the most efficient way?

1:54

We're going to look at the things that we need to do that support the things we must do, right?

1:58

Um things that support our coach operators, our mechanics, our our back end staff.

2:03

Um, and then there's things that maybe we should be doing, and we don't know it.

2:07

So we want to take a look at that.

2:09

And are there things that we're doing that we don't know why we're doing it, and maybe we don't need to do it anymore, and we can just stop doing it, right?

2:16

So we've engaged in this study, it's been going on for a few months now.

2:20

The preliminary results have come back.

2:22

I won't bore you with all those details, but it's really exciting.

2:25

Um and then the other thing I want to bring up to you is we've working with Bart Brown, our controller, CFO, uh, and his budget team, who I want to uh Justin and his team, Justin Burkope and his team, we started doing what we what I call zero-based budgeting.

2:42

So at the beginning of the budget process, we start up flat line zero, and everybody justifies everything they do using that same criteria.

2:51

This is stuff we must do, this is stuff we need to do, this is stuff we should do.

2:56

And I'm happy to report that this year we have slowed the rate of growth in our budget by 20 percent.

3:02

And Bart will give you all the details of that later.

3:04

But I'm really proud as chairman of the finance committee.

3:07

I'm really proud of that accomplishment.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Budget████████████████████████████28%
Health And Hospital Corporation█████████████████████21%
Library Services██████████████14%
Public Transportation█████████████13%
Public Transit███████7%
Public Health██████6%
Public Safety███3%
Community Engagement██2%
Transportation Safety█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Indianapolis Municipal Corporations Committee Meeting - September 17, 2025

The Municipal Corporations Committee of the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council met on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, at 5:30 PM in the Public Assembly Room of the City-County Building. Chair Jared Evans presided. The committee considered a reappointment and heard budget presentations from IndyGo, the Marion County Health and Hospital Corporation (HHC), and the Indianapolis Public Library.

Proposal 279 – Reappointment of Richard Wilson to IndyGo Board

  • Richard Wilson was reappointed to the Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo) Board of Directors. He highlighted his work on a fiscal sustainability study, zero-based budgeting, and a 20% reduction in the rate of budget growth. He expressed confidence that the Blue Line BRT will be a "game changer." Councilors Bain, Brown, and Dill voiced support. The committee voted unanimously to recommend the reappointment to the full council.

Budget Hearing: Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo)

  • Presented by: Jennifer Pierce (President/CEO) and Bart Brown (CFO).
  • Proposed 2026 budget: $432.3 million total, with operating expenses of $83,979,954 (a 0.5% increase). Capital projects are $179.5 million, debt service $15.9 million.
  • Key priorities: Fiscal sustainability, protecting frontline workers, and increasing ridership. Ridership is at 70% of pre-COVID levels; BRT ridership approaches 200,000 riders/month.
  • Financial strategies: Zero-based budgeting, reduced benefit costs via plan options, and leveraging federal grants (over $500 million). Fare increases approved by the board will take effect in January 2026.
  • Councilor positions: Councilor Brown expressed concern that fare increases disproportionately affect low-income riders ("working poor"). Councilor Hart questioned the long-term maintenance cost of BRT roads and the impact of state property tax reform (SB1) on IndyGo's dedicated income tax. Chair Evans requested better public communication on infrastructure improvements.
  • No vote was taken on the budget; it will return for final consideration.

Budget Hearing: Marion County Health and Hospital Corporation (HHC)

  • Presented by: Paul Babcock (President/CEO), James Simpson (CFO), Dr. Lisa Harris (Eskenazi Health), Dr. Dan O'Donnell (IEMS), and Dr. Virginia Kane (Public Health).
  • Proposed 2026 budget: $2.7 billion (all funds). General fund deficit of $24.9 million projected. Health First Indiana funding dropped from $23M to $6M. Hospital DSH reduced by $70M due to timing. HHC identified $86 million in run-rate improvements.
  • Key challenges: Loss of $38M in Health Care for the Indigent (HCI) from the state, federal cuts (Big Beautiful Bill Act anticipated impacts), and supply cost increases.
  • Services highlighted: Eskenazi Health increased primary care visits by 153% while cutting cost per visit by 41%. IEMS responds to over 400 incidents per day, operates workforce training programs. Public Health conducts over 50,000 housing inspections per year.
  • Councilor positions: Councilor Hart called for more frequent oversight meetings. Councilor Brown questioned a $500,000 ad campaign thanking Governor Braun; Babcock explained it was part of lobbying to retain HCI funding. Councilor Gibson praised HHC's work. Chair Evans requested resolution of pending litigation related to HHC.
  • No vote was taken on the budget. Chair Evans committed to holding future field meetings at HHC facilities.

Budget Hearing: Indianapolis Public Library

  • Presented by: Gregory Hill (CEO) and Lolita Campbell (CFO).
  • Proposed 2026 budget: $89,394,474 (4.64% increase). Operating expenses $67.2 million; revenue $55.6 million; deficit of $11.5 million to be covered by fund balance.
  • Key achievements: Glendale branch visits up 54% after relocation; 86 schools in shared system; social work connectors handled over 1,000 patron interactions; certified autism center at Fort Ben branch, with five more planned.
  • Financial concerns: Property tax reform creates a $2 million revenue deficit. Personnel costs rose 8% due to good wages initiative. Fund balance projected to decline from ~$38M to ~$30M by end of 2026.
  • Councilor positions: Chair Evans expressed concern about fund balance sustainability. Councilor Brown withheld support pending union negotiations on flat-dollar raises (vs. percentage). Councilor Jones supported the budget.
  • No vote was taken. Library expects to return with final budget details before the October 6 full council vote.

Key Outcomes

  • Proposal 279 was recommended to the full council by unanimous voice vote.
  • Budget hearings concluded without votes; final budgets will return for committee action ahead of the October 6 council meeting.
  • Chair Evans directed the clerk to schedule future committee meetings at HHC facilities.
  • Chair Evans requested HHC to resolve pending litigation.
  • The committee adjourned at approximately 8:30 PM.

Meeting Transcript

Good evening, everybody. Welcome to tonight's municipal corporations committee meeting on this day, September 17th. We are going to begin. I'm Chairman Jared Evans, by the way. We're going to begin with introductions, starting with Councillor Hart. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Michael Paul Hart, representing District 20. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mike Dill, District 24. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Josh Bain, District 21. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Brian Mowra, District 25. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jesse Brown, District 13. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Renee Allen, District 15, the Far Isat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Kristen Jones, District 18. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Allie Brown, District 10, City of Lawrence. Thank you, everybody. Again, I'm Chairman Jared Evans representing District 17 on the far west side. We will begin tonight's meeting with proposal number 279, which reappoints Mr. Richard Wilson Jr. to the Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation Board of Directors. Whole mouthful. Please come on up, sir. If you'd like to begin by uh saying a few words about yourself and why you'd like to serve on this, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your uh confidence very much. It's been an interesting four years. Um I know that you specifically had wanted to hear about fair policy, so I'll defer on that to answer any questions that you might have. But I do want to share a couple of things that are really exciting, I think, for us. So I've been championing over the last 18 months a fiscal sustainability study where we're taking a look at every single part of our operation. We're looking where we can leverage revenue, where we can look at our expenses and see you know the things that we must do because there's a statute or a regulation that says you must do it. Are we doing it in the most efficient way? We're going to look at the things that we need to do that support the things we must do, right? Um things that support our coach operators, our mechanics, our our back end staff. Um, and then there's things that maybe we should be doing, and we don't know it. So we want to take a look at that. And are there things that we're doing that we don't know why we're doing it, and maybe we don't need to do it anymore, and we can just stop doing it, right?

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