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Last updated on Tuesday, July 22, 2014
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Circuit Judge Louis Rosenberg has issued an order directing attorneys representing Mayor Greg Ballard to come up with better answers as to why they cannot provide all the documents a city county council committee says it needs to figure out how the city signed a 25-year $18 million dollar lease for the Regional Operations Center (ROC).
The Court said the two sides have until August 11th to show some progress.
The ROC Investigating Committee began work last fall trying to determine what the city was promised and what it asked for when a contract was signed in 2011 to convert the abandoned Eastgate Consumer Mall on North Shadeland Avenue into an emergency operations center, East District IMPD Headquarters and offices for Homeland Security and specialty police units.
From the start the building's construction was underfunded, behind schedule and incomplete leading to its temporary closure last September due to a potential fire hazard.
The committee has repeatedly argued that its inquiry has been stymied by the administration's delayed and incomplete response to a subpoena for more than 30 sets of documents.
In a ruling issued today, Judge Rosenberg told the city to review its responses for unfilled requests for inspection reports, budgets, the Development Agreement with landlord Alex Carroll and Code Enforcement Notices of Violation and Stop Work Orders as well as project status reports and a punch list.
The administration has been told it must turn over paperwork generated regarding any other potential ROC sites, including information on square footage costs, and invoices on ROC costs.
Judge Rosenberg also wants the city to release two SharePoint presentations for the Department of Public Safety which the administration claims enjoy attorney-client privilege.
The most troublesome item for the city to answer in the Court's order may be its instruction to, "provide any documents relevant to the City's obligation to provide security in regard to the 2012 Super Bowl."
In the year before the NFL Championship Game, then-Public Safety Director Frank Straub repeatedly claimed that the league was requiring Indianapolis to build an emergency operations center as part of its commitment to host the Super Bowl.
The partially constructed ROC was opened the week before the game. Other units moved into the building in the months that followed.
A spokesman for Mayor Ballard's office told Fox59 News that the administration does not have a copy of the 2012 NFL Super Bowl bid requirements.
The Super Bowl Host Committee confirmed that is does have such a copy but claims it is a proprietary document exclusive to the NFL and the city's Super Bowl planners would not release it.
The NFL has refused to provide a copy of the 2012 bid requirements.
Fox59 News has filed multiple Open Records Act requests seeking the SB XLVI document.
Indianapolis was recently unsuccessful in bidding for the 2018 Super Bowl.
A bid requirement for that game, obtained by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, on which Indianapolis based its unsuccessful proposal for SB LII, does not include such an ROC mandate.
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