I was at an event last night honoring former Mayor Bart Peterson, and it made me realize how much this city needs his kind of leadership again.

We need vision and passion and ideas and inspiration.

Instead, we got a bumbling place-holder.

Sometimes, you have to lose something to truly appreciate it. Such was the feeling in the room last night.

The sad truth is that Greg Ballard, who accidentally wound up on the 25th floor, has done nothing for the past year to move our city forward. He’s a status quo guy. He’s cut ribbons on projects that Peterson brought here, and he’s touted initiatives that Peterson started.

He hasn’t innovated or created or imagined the greatness we should embrace. He sits. He mayors. He eats cheeseburgers.

But what happens next?

The honeymoon is over, prolonged in fact by two separate presidential campaigns that dominated politics here. More importantly, the predecessor well is running dry. What economic development deals are in the pipeline? What big plans have been laid out for the next three years? What are we doing to compete with other cities?

One more thing: Sooner rather than later, Ballard is going to have to deal with the serious local government budget crunch caused by his Governor’s magical 1-2-3 property tax caps, so you can probably kiss his plans to repeal the COIT increase buh-bye.

These aren’t happy times. Now that we’re out of the national spotlight, it’s time to get local and get our act together.

From a political perspective, that means finding someone — a hack can only dream that Peterson will make another run for it — who can articulate a passionate vision and who has the skill set to implement it.

My greatest fear is that all of the Democrats who are out there right now talking about running for Mayor will actually do it.

What Ballard lacks in eloquence and smarts will be made up for via lots of money raised for him by the people who have a vested interest in making sure he stays in that office and keeps handing them huge contracts.

We have to nominate someone who knows why he or she wants the job and who will wake up every day with this city’s future in mind. We also have to make sure that person is willing to stand up to the people on both sides of the aisle who don’t wake up every day with the city’s future in mind.

The one thing we can’t do is take for granted that we’ll win no matter who’s on the ticket.

One of the great things about working in politics is the array of people you meet.

Now, there are partisans on both sides of the aisle who refuse to associate with their adversaries. I’m not one of them.

If Mary Matalin and James Carville can make it work, there’s no reason why Ds and Rs can’t sling mud at each other and go out for a beer afterward. Lawyers do it in the courtroom all the time.

Case in point: This blog. I disagree with Abdul more than I agree with him, but we can both appreciate that there’s more to life than politics. Heck, before I met my very Democratic husband almost eight years ago, I’ll even admit to dating a few Republicans. I eventually saw the light.

One of the finest folks I’ve met in politics is Robert Vane, who sat squarely across the aisle from me for a year when he was the Communications Director for the Indiana Republican Party, and I served as his counterpart at the Indiana Democratic Party.

I write this post because the secret that he is leaving the private sector to work for Mayor Greg Ballard is no longer a secret.

Robert and I agree on practically nothing, but he is very good at what he does, and I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate him and wish him the best.

Lord knows I’ve been critical of his new boss, who, almost a year into his term, has been unable to articulate a vision for our city or explain issues beyond the simple stuff that he’s comfortable with.

Ballard hasn’t been much helped by his communications gaggle, a true C-team headed up by one Marcus Barlow, who couldn’t negotiate his way out of a tough media situation if you handed him a map, compass and talking points. The guy managed to tick off practically every reporter within a month of arriving on the job. It’s little wonder the folks at the other end of Market Street were eager to ship him to the 25th floor.

Barlow, if he sticks around, will now have to answer to someone with lots of experience and good media relationships.

It won’t be easy for my friend Robert to teach politics and spin to a Mayor who clearly doesn’t get it, but if anyone can do it, he’s the guy.

Don’t expect me to be any nicer to Ballard as he traverses the learning curve, but I thought I’d take a few moments to prove to the readers of this blog that hack does not have to mean hate.

In the interest of full disclosure, I work for MySmartGov.org, a bipartisan group dedicated to promoting the Kernan-Shepard recommendations and making local government more efficient.

I was talking to a Republican friend yesterday who was extolling the benefits seizing “classy” moments in politics. We were in total agreement.

That doesn’t mean avoiding rough-and-tumble campaigning or backing off your goals, but when you have an opportunity to, as Mama Wags would say, “do the right thing,” you do it.

Mayor Greg Ballard and former Mayor Bart Peterson get big “classy” points for coming together today to support the elimination of township assessors.

Now, I wouldn’t be a partisan hack if I didn’t give Peterson way more “classy” points. He is, after all, going to be standing next to the guy who unexpectedly beat him last year.

And there are plenty of old-timey Democrats who are not-so-quietly griping about his support for new-fangled, efficient government that will severely dent the political patronage system both parties have relied on for decades. (If we’ve learned anything from Barack Obama, who kicked lobbyists to the curb and raised boatloads of money from average Americans, it’s that you can change the way things have always been by inspiring people who thought there was no reason to care.)

Peterson believed in this cause when he was Mayor, and he believes in it now. He pushed several times for consolidation at the Statehouse, and he managed to make significant changes at the local level that saved taxpayers millions and made government more accountable.

I’m no fan of Ballard, who has been wholly unimpressive in what will soon be his first year as the city’s leader, but he should get props aplenty for continuing Peterson’s efforts. Heck, it might even be the start of a long-overdue vision for the next three years, an issue he could partner with Mitch Daniels on at the Statehouse.

I’m sure there will be folks who ask, “Whose idea was this? Who approached whom to get these two guys behind the same lectern?”

The answer is a rarity in politics: You’ve got two people from opposite sides of the aisle who truly, honestly and passionately believe in and are willing to fight for one issue.

That — and the ballot referendum they’re coming together to promote — is something we should all vote “yes” on.

With so much attention focused on the races on the ballot this year, I don’t want anyone to think I’ve lost sight of our fearless leader, Greg Ballard.

A few notes:

Let it snow: Ballard got lucky during his first few months in office. We had no big snowstorms, so he didn’t have to worry about commuters getting ticked because the roads weren’t plowed. Today, Ballard tells us that we can expect the roads to be less plowed this year because salt is so expensive. Someone should tell him that this is one of those issues that you can’t get out in front of. If you don’t plow people’s streets, they get mad. Period.

Homicidal maniacs: Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the uptick in murders since Ballard took office? In fact, if I’m not mistaken, we’ve already exceeded last year’s number of homicides — and it’s only mid-October. So much for the Public Safety Mayor’s campaign promises to bring peace to our streets. His only plan is to buy more jail beds, which history has taught us won’t solve the problem.

Official residence: Ballard and his wife, Winnie, traveled to Denver this week on some sort of fact-finding mission with local businessfolk. I’m told they stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, and at one point, Winnie, who follows her husband to work everyday and already has a taxpayer-funded assistant, allegedly told a small group of people that she thinks the Mayor should have an official residence. Really? While so many Indianapolis residents are fighting to stay in their own homes due to the credit crunch and shady lending? Channeling our First Lady: Let them eat cake!

On the teevee: I was flipping channels last night when I happened upon a pre-recorded town hall-style meeting where Ballard was front and center. I watched as he fielded softball question after softball question — and answered them with long, rambling diatribes. He actually managed to turn a question about balancing the budget into a lecture about how corporations should pony up more cash for privately funded parks. We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of Ballard’s election. It’s really a shame his handlers have squandered so much time without teaching him how to come across like a leader. He has yet to articulate a coherent vision for our city, and he remains an awkward speaker who appears visibly nervous when asked questions about public policy. His defenders will say that’s all part of his “average Joe” charm. I say we’ve gone almost a year without an economic development announcement that didn’t come from the prior administration or the other end of Market Street. You have to wonder if that’s because his handlers are afraid to send Ballard into a boardroom, where he might tell business executives about his awesome Chinatown plans.

Tax anticipation bonds are fairly common for local governments looking for short-term cash to bridge the gap between tax collection periods, but given this story in this morning’s Indianapolis Star, I think it’s high time Greg Ballard stops talking about the awesomeness of his most recent budget.

Also, pay close attention to this part of the article:

Another, related concern for local governments is the effect of property tax caps that the state legislature passed this year.

Matthew Greller, executive director of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, said the new caps limit governments’ ability to generate new revenues and could affect credit ratings that help determine interest rates. Moody’s, one of the prominent ratings agencies, recently warned of that scenario.

Taylor said the caps more likely would affect small towns and school corporations before big cities such as Indianapolis, which has a AAA rating, rare for large cities.

There are quite a few Republican candidates out there right now talking about how it would be crazy not to amend these caps into the Indiana Constitution as soon as legally possible.

Because it’s always a brilliant plan to change our most sacred document before we know the kind of effect that change is going to have.

I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but here goes again: Mitch Daniels’ property tax “plan” was little more than a burden shift from state government to local governments. It was perfectly timed to make him look like a hero for his re-election bid, but the long-term effects are going to be devastating.

Daniels essentially has shrugged and said, “Meh, whatever. Local governments need to tighten their belts and guy up.”

We’re just now getting a preview of what that’s going to be like in the years to come.

I love change. I love moving quickly to solve problems. But we’re talking about something here that in these tough times could literally bankrupt local governments, which, in case you forgot, provide basic services like trash pickup, street repairs, snowplowing, sidewalks, stop signs and other stuff that we really can’t live without.

Of course, Ballard’s hands are tied. Not only does he not understand the budget he signed, but he’s now in a position where he can’t come out and blame Daniels for creating this mess in the first place.

The big losers? Us.