CITY ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF INDY IDEAS WEB SITE AND NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION COUNCIL TO GUIDE THE CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE

Mayor Greg Ballard announced today the launch of the Indy
Ideas Web site and the Neighborhood Association Council (NAC), two
initiatives organized to work simultaneously to encourage citizen
involvement in local government.

Indy Ideas and NAC is a groundbreaking, two-pronged approach to ensuring
that the citizens who will benefit from the recently announced Corporate
Partnership Program will also help guide the program itself.

"No one knows this community better than the people who live in it, so
we want to use this as a tool to reach out to individuals and give them
the opportunity to share with us their ideas to improve city functions
and overall quality of life for all citizens," said Mayor Ballard.

Indy Ideas can be found by logging on to the City's Web site at
www.indy.gov/ideas. This Web site encourages people to get creative and
think of ways that challenges facing the public sector can be alleviated
by the involvement of the private sector. Those ideas will then be
evaluated by the City based on a number of factors, including public
benefit, viability, sustainability, imaging for the City itself, and
potential for incremental revenue.

"To the best of our knowledge, no other municipality has a process such
as this in place to engage its citizens," said Sean Smith President of
Third Street Partners, the firm charged with leading the partnership
initiative. "Only Indianapolis, under the leadership of Mayor Ballard,
has created and launched an on-line 'virtual' suggestion box to
encourage ideas large and small about corporate partnerships. We are
excited to see what creative ideas are brought forward, as we look to
turn those ideas into new revenue that helps solves problems."

The Neighborhood Association Council (NAC) will be comprised of members
of the Marion County Alliance of Neighborhood Association and other
citizen groups. Feedback from this group will have a major influence on
the creation of a public policy which will serve as the backbone for the
process of selecting corporate partnership opportunities. This, along
with the Indy Ideas Web site, are two avenues for citizen involvement
which are unique to Indianapolis.

The NAC will help ensure that the Corporate Partnership Policy follows
all applicable laws and establish guidelines for what is and is not
appropriate as new ideas are brought forward.

Said Michael Huber, Director of Enterprise Development: "The goal of the
Corporate Partnership Program is not to simply put up billboards across
Indianapolis. This project will look for the best relationship between
the public sector and the private sector to the benefit of both. The NAC
and the "Indy Ideas" Web site are direct results of Mayor Ballard's
emphasis of citizen engagement."