B6 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2008 1ST
COM
Parking
» Company can issue necessary
tickets on vehicles with placards.
From B1
city had collected more than 300 of its 850
placards, Pittman said, and many more
were waiting in department offices to be
returned to the city.
Jen Pittman, a spokeswoman for the
mayor’s office, said Denison Parking, the
city’s parking enforcement contractor, was
informed the city placards were no longer
valid as of Wednesday.
Pittman said the instruction to Denison
was clear: “If you see an expired meter and
it’s got a (city) placard, ticket them.”
The Marion County Sheriff’s Depart-
ment expects to replace the 2,468 placards
with 1,000 mirror tags reserved for sheriff’s
employees, said spokesman Julio Fernan-
dez. Many other groups possessed the plac-
ards, including political party workers and
employees of the Marion County prosecu-
tor’s office.
Those new tags will not be available until
next week, and Fernandez said Denison
will not ticket vehicles using Sheriff’s De-
partment placards in authorized areas until
the new tags are distributed.
David Lurvey, a businessman who lives
Downtown and long has been concerned
about the parking situation, said he noticed
a difference Wednesday.
“The beauty is that all the metered
spaces were filled with cars — paying cars,”
he said.
The changes bring Indianapolis parking
rules for public employees closer to those
of similar cities, which restrict employee
parking more carefully.
In Columbus, Ohio, the city grants park-
ing spaces to 352 of its 566 non-police em-
ployees who work downtown, said mayor’s
spokesman Dan Williamson. Police, who do
not take their squad cars home, are shuttled
in from an outlying parking facility.
Louisville, Ky., allows some free permit
parking at meters for official business but
limits that to two-hour stints, said execu-
tive administrator Cathy Duncan. Only
Metro Council members are guaranteed
the permits. A limited number of other
Boring
» Education board plans to send
rebuke to textbook publishers.
From B1
weren’t enough to get a sense of the contro-
versies of the past. They did not offer a way
to determine the importance of World War
II in history, or provide enough details to
make a decision that slavery was bad.
Five other board members agreed and
voted the entire list down before the compro-
mise was suggested. Under that deal, schools
will get the warning letter and the state will
work on a rebuke to be sent to publishers.
A spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill said
the company has worked hard to make
books interesting.
“Our programs, specifically designed to
state standards, include many components
that increase students’ interactivity with
our content including stories, class projects
and Web sites that contain games, anima-
tions and other digital tools,” spokeswoman
Mary Skafidas said.
Representatives for publishers Hought-
on Mifflin and Pearson did not return
phone calls seeking comment.
State Superintendent of Public Instruc-
tion Suellen Reed had urged the board to
approve the books because doing so would
allow schools to buy them at a guaranteed,
discounted rate. But she agreed with Shane
that many of the books didn’t read well.
Social studies textbooks have been dull
for decades, said Robert Brady, director of
social studies for Indianapolis Public
Schools.
“I just think the books are sterile,” he said.
“All the fun is softened. When I read history,
the controversies are what’s interesting. . . .
The actual content is watered down.”
Good teachers, he said, rely on primary
sources, class discussions and interactive as-
signments to bring the subject matter to life.
Jail
» Former detective’s 1967 Jaguar
convertible was impounded.
From B1
Carter said he didn’t know Poskon and
agreed to release him on the recommenda-
tion and request of Randy Dings, a Hamilton
County Sheriff’s Department detective. The
sheriff said Dings had been contacted about
Poskon, whom Dings regarded as his mentor.
“I didn’t just release the guy and kick
him to the curb. I released him to a detec-
tive to take him home,” Carter said. “Was it
a mistake? Absolutely was!”
Poskon, a Metro Drug Task Force investi-
gator before he retired, was given a jail sum-
mons for an Oct. 10 court hearing on the
charge of operating a vehicle while intoxi-
cated. He was unavailable for comment
Wednesday.
Normally, Poskon would have had to
post bond to gain his freedom before an
initial court hearing or await the hearing
to have the judge waive bail and release
him on his own recognizance.
Poskon was arrested after a deputy
clocked him driving 68 mph on south-
bound U.S. 31 at 1:55 a.m. Sunday. The
speed limit is 55.
“There was an odor of alcohol from his
breath, his eyes were red and bloodshot,
and his speech was slurred,” Carter quoted
the deputy as reporting.
Poskon failed field sobriety tests. After be-
ing taken into custody, Carter said, he regis-
tered 0.09 on a chemical test for blood alco-
THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR } INDYSTAR.
public servants may obtain them with the
signature of a deputy mayor.
The action by Indianapolis and Marion
County will not completely eliminate plac-
ard parking Downtown.
Federal agencies issue separate creden-
tials, and an investigation by The Star
found those privileges are also abused.
About 450 spaces are allocated to the
nearly 1,000 federal employees in the Min-
ton-Capehart Federal Building; others are
expected to pay for a spot in a commercial
lot or find an alternate means of transport
to work, according to the General Services
Administration, the federal government’s
property manager.
Federal employees also are among those
1,500 people who soon will be unable to use
Sheriff’s Department permits.
Employees in the U.S. Marshal’s Office
will have to pay at the meter like other mo-
torists or find a spot in a commercial ga-
rage, said Buz Brown, chief deputy U.S.
marshal. Employees will be reimbursed for
taking public transit but not parking.
Brown said he empathized with his em-
ployees’ parking difficulties.
“But until that is resolved,” he said, “I
can’t allow them to be out there using a
parking placard where there’s no official
business being done. . . . If they park at a
meter, they have to pay for a meter.”
The questions of how to govern those
workers and whether all permits should
flow through one agency likely will be the
subject of future City-County Council
deliberations.
“The council will probably draft some-
thing very vague to begin with and then
hammer it out in committee with everyone
coming to the table, including the public
safety director and the sheriff,” said
Thompson, the clerk of the council.
Jay Stewart, executive director of the
Chicago-based nonprofit watchdog group
Better Government Association, said he
hopes officials don’t just start from scratch,
but also examine who was abusing the
parking privileges. He said the real ques-
tion is whether reforms here will stand the
test of time.
“It’s obvious this is a program that ran
amok,” Stewart said. “Two years from now
what’s the story going to be?”
✭ Call Star reporter Heather Gillers
at (317) 444-6405.
Bill Gulde, a history teacher at North
Central High School, tries to do that in his
classes.
He assigns students to go into the com-
munity in search of history, turns class
into a debate and assigns individual re-
search projects. His European history stu-
dents are tasked with tracking particular
countries in the news.
“Some of the books are dry and boring,
but if you’re doing your job right, the text-
book is just a supplement,” he said. “Social
studies is much more than just a workbook
and a textbook anymore.”
But Gulde dreams of a day when text-
books are written more engagingly, per-
haps in a narrative style similar to the
bestsellers by historians such as Doris
Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough.
Many textbooks do incorporate a strong
narrative storytelling technique and pre-
sent opposing sides for students to figure
out their opinions, said Gary B. Nash, di-
rector of the National Center for History
in Schools. For the board to make a sweep-
ing dismissal, he said, is wrong.
“I believe that’s a first,” said Nash, who
wrote one of the history textbooks on the
board’s list. “I must say it’s quite a stun-
ning conclusion.”
His book, for example, examines Mc-
Carthyism by presenting several view-
points about the Hollywood Ten. Text-
books today are more interesting than they
have ever been, said Nash, whose daughter
teaches in Carmel.
“That was one of the main criticisms of
the older books, that the publishers in trying
to offend no one ended up with oatmeal,” he
said. “I would love to see if some of the
members could go up to their attics and find
the textbooks they studied as sixth- or
ninth-graders. They would be very, very dif-
ferent.”
✭ Call Star reporter Andy Gammill at (317)
444-6494.
hol. It is illegal to drive in Indiana with a
blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or higher.
The 1967 Jaguar convertible Poskon was
driving was impounded. He was released
from jail about 8 a.m.
Carter said Wednesday that the favor-
itism he showed in granting the release
was inappropriate.
“When the detective who worked with
him said that he would pick him up and
take him home, I did what I did, and I
don’t have any excuses,” said the sheriff,
who was awakened by the detective’s call
about 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
“I wish I would have at 4:30 in the
morning have had more time to think
about it,” he said. “But the reality is I
didn’t, and it was wrong.”
Carter said the policy allowing him to re-
lease an inmate without a judge’s authoriza-
tion exists because such releases are neces-
sary under certain circumstances. In
retrospect, he said, this was not such a situa-
tion, and he had never done it previously.
Sgt. Matthew Mount, a spokesman for
the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police De-
partment, said Poskon has reported his ar-
rest, as required, and that an internal in-
vestigation is under way. The offense is a
minor misdemeanor, punishable by up to
60 days in jail and a maximum $500 fine.
He said the full police authority wielded
by reservists can be valuable to retired
professionals, who join the reserves to
maintain those powers and be eligible for
higher wages in security jobs.
✭ Call Star reporter James A. Gillaspy
at (317) 444-5529.