Advance America goes after Ballard on Front Porch Alliance

http://www.advanceindiana.blogspot.com/

This past week, Mayor Ballard named another black minister and friend of Williams, Rev. Doug Hairston, to run the Front Porch Alliance. At the press conference, you saw the faces of several black ministers standing with Mayor Ballard and Williams. Noticeably missing from the press conference were any non-African-American neighborhood leaders. Are white neighborhoods not a part of the Front Porch Alliance? There is a troubling concern that Williams intends to funnel millions of our taxpayer dollars to his black clergy friends through the Front Porch Alliance under the guise of fighting crime, helping troubled youth and cleaning up neighborhoods. In the past, these programs have produced dubious results and raise serious questions about public funds being used for "religious purposes." One of this biggest recipients so far has been "Peace In The Streets", a program run by Williams' own son at the westside neighborhood organization Williams ran before becoming deputy mayor.Mayor Ballard needs to remember who elected him mayor. None of these black clergy helped with his election last November. And that's the way it should be. They aren't allowed to use their churches' nonprofit status to engage in partisan political activities. People have attempted to explain to me that Ballard believes he won election last November because these black clergy told their church members to stay home on election day to deny Mayor Bart Peterson re-election to a third term. That's not what happened. People were fed up with rising taxes, out of control crime and the ethical lapses the Peterson administration and the Democratic-controlled council brought us. Mayor Ballard should never forget that.