The Afternoons with Amos PODCAST for Friday, May 15, 2015 Since April, Afternoons with Amos has provided an opportunity to Black State Senators and Representatives to appear on the third Friday of the month to hear from the community and to share what they and other African-American lawmakers are doing. Senator Greg Taylor and Representative Cherrish Pryor appeared on the program and they, Amos and listeners discussed a wide variety of issues. The program also honored the Life Well Lived of B.B. King who died May 14th at age 89. B.B. King’s hits were played leading into and out of breaks.
Source: Amos Brown
In addition (At the 1:10:40 Mark On the Media Player) Listeners were stunned by the surprising announcement by the City of Indianapolis’ Corporation Counsel Andy Seiwert that admitted mistakes were made in the contracts written with a fledgling company, Vision Fleet, for Indianapolis’ Freedom Fleet electric car program that’s been sharply criticized by Republican and Democratic lawmakers. City-County Councilman Joe Simpson was reached by Afternoons with Amos and reacted sharply and harshly on air to the new revelations. Here’s what the City’s top Lawyer said in a statement. “In 2013, the City of Indianapolis began a partnership with Vision Fleet.” The statement continued to say that after research, planning and pilot, “The City moved to formalize the partnership with a contract for services. Along the way, human error led to the creation of a contract that did not accurately characterize the nature of our agreement with Vision Fleet. Once the error was brought to our attention, the city’s legal team redrafted the contract to reflect the actual agreement and services provided, as described in the original MOU and other policy documents related to Vision Fleet.” Seiwert continued, “In recent weeks, we described the original contract as a ‘prior draft’ for the sake of differentiating the two documents; however, this description created confusion and was ultimately inaccurate. The original document, what we called a ‘prior draft,’ was a fully-executed contract, and it was replaced by a corrected fully-executed contract, which stands intact today. We sincerely apologize for this error and for the unnecessary confusion. Our mistake is not Vision Fleet’s mistake, and it should in no way reflect on the quality of service we are receiving from the company and the benefit provided to the City.”
Rep. Cherrish Pryor
Sen. Greg Taylor
Prior to the reaction from Simpson and Rep. Pryor, both she and Sen Taylor discussed during the bulk of the program a wide range of issues. Both strongly support making big changes at the Indiana’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) especially in the wake of the release of an audit by an outside consulting firm that pointed out numerous failures and lapses of management and procedures. Several callers brought landlord tenant issues to the legislators attention and called attention to perhaps that’s a future issue that needs to be explored. Both lawmakers talked about school funding issues, especially cuts in the dollars the Indianapolis Public Schools will be receiving and how that might affect school safety. Both lawmakers were deeply concerned about that horrendous fight caught on video at Northwest High School that has the community buzzing and concerned. Both also expressed concern that schools were following the state’s bullying laws that govern all schools – public, charter and private – in Indiana. Pryor and Taylor emphasized the importance of the community reporting bullying to the school, not just orally but in writing. Rep. Pryor was stunned when a caller said that a local charter school – Imagine – refused to provide a copy of that school’s bullying policy or even have a written student handbook. Imagine is chartered by Trine University which has shown to operate charters that are less than effective. Imagine Charter is in Rep. Pryor’s district and she made a note that maybe its time she arranged to visit the school and find out what’s going on. The Afternoons with Amos PODCAST For Friday, May 15, 2015 Runs 99 Minutes ©2015 WTLC/Radio One. PODCAST Begins On Media Player After Brief Video Ad.
