Indianapolis Councilor Jeff Miller has plead guilty to four felony counts of battery on a person less than 14 years old.

The plea deal triggers Miller’s resignation from the City-County Council.

A special election is not required as the Republican Party will call a caucus and choose Miller’s replacement.

The City-County Council passed a proposal earlier this week to amend Indianapolis-Marion County ethics and lobbying laws. The proposal creates employment restrictions and post-employment restrictions for city-county employees and certain officials.

A current official, the deputy mayor, and any individual with appointment authority may not be employed by or work as a subcontractor for any person with a contract or arrangement with an agency. Moreover, former employees must wait one year before being employed as a lobbyist following termination of employment with the city or county.

All government contracts will require vendors to certify adherence to the employment restrictions. The proposal also adds things of value to the list of reportable lobbyist gifts and requires lobbyists to list the name of the official, appointee, or employee receiving a reportable gift. Lastly, the proposal amends penalties for lobbyists and their firms for registration, reporting, and ethics violations.

Mayor Joe Hogsett has introduced a proposed ordinance to the City Council, intending to update the city’s lobbying laws.

The proposed ordinance would require lobbyists to disclose any gift of $25 or more. Additionally, the ordinance would prohibit a current public official from having an employment contract with any organization doing business with the city. The ordinance would also forbid a former public employee from lobbying within one year following employment. The ordinance also would increase penalties for violations.

If the ordinance is adopted, it will become effective immediately.

Today the Indianapolis Office of Finance and Management begins implementation of its new Enterprise Resource Planning software, which will cause a temporary halt on generating request for bids or quotes, and vendor payments.

The new system will allow informal quotes to be e-mailed as long as the Office has a vendor’s current contact information and a valid e-mail address. Invitations to bid will be formatted differently but contain the same information. The vendor notification of this change can be found here and the Purchasing Division home page can be found here.

The conversion is expected to be complete by October 3.