BOOK SAYS FORMER INDIANAPOLIS MAYOR GOLDSMITH'S APPROACH TO DELIVERING SERVICES FAILED

INDIANAPOLIS - Former Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith may be involved with White House efforts to aid the needy through faith-based initiatives, but a new book paints a dismal portrait of Goldsmith's efforts to work with the poor during his eight years as mayor.

"To Market, To Market: Reinventing Indianapolis" is co-edited by two Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis professors and includes chapters written by academic experts and public figures who examine Goldsmith's actions as mayor.

The book's analysis provides a focus to a central issue that links Goldsmith's years as mayor and efforts to deliver services to needy persons through faith-based initiatives: does government deliver services more efficiently through private entities such as religious institutions?

According to the editors, IUPUI School of Public and Environmental Affairs Professors Ingrid Ritchie and Sheila Suess Kennedy, Goldsmith spent his two terms as chief executive creating an urban laboratory for programs designed to bring market efficiencies to municipal government - to make government smaller and more effective, and to remove regulatory burdens on business.

"The major thesis of the Goldsmith administration was that 'marketized' public services could be delivered at lower cost, without a corresponding decline in the quality or quantity of those services," the editors said.

According to the book, Goldsmith himself claims to have made massive investments in infrastructure, to have effected significant reductions to the city payroll, and to have provided dramatically increased funding for neighborhoods and public safety, all while achieving an overall saving of $230 million dollars.

According to the book's contributing authors an examination of these claims, however, shows them to be false.

According to the book, Goldsmith claimed to practice 'compassionate conservatism' but the facts show Goldsmith attempted to gut regulations that protect poor people from slumlords and he 'marketized' parks that priced poor families out of city swimming pools and golf courses.

A review of other Goldsmith administration claims shows:

• Goldsmith made staffing and policy decisions that most neighborhoods adamantly opposed.
  
• Goldsmith demonstrated a consistent disregard for public opinion, democratic process and political accountability.
  
• Goldsmith spent a billion dollars on the city's infrastructure. The facts show that, although antiquated sewers were by far the most pressing infrastructure problem when Goldsmith took office, sewer overflows were not addressed, and discharges of raw sewage continue to pollute local rivers and streams.
  
• Goldsmith claimed privatization meant more efficient and effective government, but the facts show he left Indianapolis with more debt, more crime, more confusion and more civic polarization.

The book, however, does credit Goldsmith for a successful privatization initiative at the airport.

Contributors include former Indianapolis Chief of Police Paul Annee, IPS School Board Vice-President Kelly Bentley, Indianapolis International Airport Public Affairs Director Dennis Rosebrough, as well as professors from Butler University, California Western School of Law and IUPUI.

The book published by University Press will be available to the public in the next six weeks. The publisher is currently distributing review copies. Books may be ordered by calling 800-462-6420.

The White House office on faith-based initiatives is expected to focus on the President's pledge to make federal money more available to religious organizations that provide social services to the needy.