Illegal Campaign Contribution - OK; Free Cookie - You’re Fired!
The JG fronts a story about three workers in the Allen County Clerks office that were fired for receiving a bag of free cookies. Yes, you read that correctly. While protecting the public trust is important it appears clerk Therese Brown might have been a trifle overzealous in this matter. And don’t forget that Brown is the same clerk that didn’t bother to ask a single question during the election board’s “investigation” into Matt Kelty’s illegal campaign contributions. But hey, it’s nice to know that she’s monitoring the donut supply but unwilling to protect the integrity of our election process…
Corporate Welfare – Fort Wayne Style
For retail business, including pubs, bars and restaurants, the false conception that “new” jobs are being created falls flat. Most, if not all, of these jobs end up to be “transfers” not “new”.
- And when a project like Harrison Square is using property tax abatements as incentives toward the transfer of retail establishments from “existing” to the “new” area, it gets even stranger –
Jefferson Pointe is a successful retail entity that is generating about $2 million per year in property tax revenue – but it’s through the TIF funding process. Since it and Harrison Square are now linked in an extended Economic Development Area, the payments toward debt retirement at HS will be coming largely through this TIF fund. So the property taxes being paid by successful retail properties at Jefferson Pointe are being used to build a facility so that it can compete with them for the retail customer’s dollars. In addition, these successful commercial entities and all other property taxpayers in the city will be paying higher taxes to replace those that are being abated on the new retail space. What a double crock!!!
State of the City
There are plenty of people bitching and moaning about various aspects of the mayor’s State of the City address, but I want to take a moment to voice a positive comment. Today’s speech discussed many of the initiatives that Henry rolled out during the campaign but there was one initiative that I hadn’t heard before and that I found particularly interesting - Henry has decided to restart the Mayor’s Night In & Mayor’s Night Out program. Under this program Henry will have regular meetings at City Hall (and other locations) where citizens can come in and voice their concerns directly with the mayor. I applaud the mayor’s continued effort to support open government initiatives and I look forward to speaking with him at the first meeting on March 17 19.
Name That Pharaoh
Readers will surely recognize the elected official in this commercial for the Fort Wayne Home & Garden Show. It’s nice to see elected officials that don’t take themselves too seriously and have a good sense of humor
FWPtv - City Council Tax Abatement
In this installment of FWPtv we take a look at the discussion at yesterday’s city council meeting involving the Harrison Square tax abatement. Specifically we’ll take a look at the Q&A session involving the director of Redevelopment Greg Leatherman. There was an interesting exchange between the council and Leatherman that we’ll break down in the video.
City Council Approves Tax Abatement
The city council voted 8-1 to approve the tax abatement for the condos and the retail space at Harrison Square. The sole dissenting vote was councilman Mitch Harper who expressed concern that the abatements could conflict with changes coming in the form of HB1001. I was going to write more but Scott Spaulding at DFWB already has a great synopsis that you should read. Spaulding goes into detail on the question of whether or not the tax abatements will actually pass through to condo owners as the city suggests and the repercussions this might have on they types of loans available for these properties.
You can watch councilman Harper’s explanation for why he voted against the abatement below.
Barry Real Estate Continues To Bilk Fort Wayne Taxpayers
The city (and 7 members of city council) attempted to retroactively raise our property taxes but now they feel the need to give Barry Real Estate a $20 Million tax abatement for building a few retail shops and condos as part of the Harrison Square project. How much money do we have to give these guys and when will it end? If council approves this we’re literally going to be subsidizing the purchase of $200k-$300k condos. Is that the best use of our tax dollars? I personally think it’s an insult to many people in our community that truly need the help and aren’t getting it.
Obama-Bayh Ticket? I Don’t Think So…
Sylvia Smith had a column exploring the possibility of an Obama-Bayh ticket despite his early endorsement of Hillary Clinton. She gives various reason why he might be a consideration but makes no effort to explain why he shouldn’t (and likely won’t) be Obama’s choice if he wins the Democratic nomination. I’ll go ahead and give you some of the reasons I think he would be a disastrous choice for the Democratic Party.
Tracy Warner On the Secret Squirrel Society & Angry White Boy
Tracy Warner had a column yesterday discussing the battle between the secret squirrel society and Steve Shine. There wasn’t any new information offered but Warner weighs in on the matter and does so with candor. I want to point out that this is when Warner is at his best - too many times, in my opinion, does he pull punches when describing the political landscape or events here in the city. Lately this has not been the case, and whether or not I agree with his position, reading his column has been more enjoyable because of it. As for the Kelty matter Warner writes:
Clueless about the real reasons their candidate, Matt Kelty, lost last November’s election (his campaign was awful and voters didn’t trust him), some hard-right party members are still lashing out against the party hierarchy in the wake of Tom Henry’s victory over Kelty in the mayoral race last November.
I disagree that Kelty supporters are clueless. I think they understand the reasons he lost but they blame the party leadership for those issues. For example, the infamous loan was brought forward by party insiders after the primary election and afterwards Shine was unable to bring the party together. This undoubtedly hurt Kelty’s fundraising and having “Republicans For Henry” didn’t help his trust with the voters either.
As an aside, Warner also takes a shot at Dan Turkette of FortWayneNews.com:
The list of precinct candidates reads almost like a who’s who of Kelty supporters and other disaffected party members. The Kelty camp includes both Kelty himself and Glenna Jehl, his campaign manager, … , and Dan Turkette, who authors a rather mean-spirited blog formerly called Angry White Boy.
Like I said, whether or not one agrees with him, it’s nice to see Warner throwing some elbows…
Police to FWCS - What’s This All About?
UPDATE: JG has a follow-up that says the investigation revolves around an alleged relationship between the Assistant Principal of Wayne High School and a 17-year old student.
There was an obtuse story in today’s JG that referenced the police being dispatched to investigate the inappropriate behavior of a Fort Wayne Community Schools administrator:
Police were called Friday to investigate what a Fort Wayne Community Schools board member said were allegations of inappropriate behavior involving a school administrator and a student.
City police dispatch logs said officers were called about 5:45 p.m. to Fort Wayne Community Schools’ Grile Administration Building on South Clinton Street. According to the logs, officers were called to take a report regarding “inappropriate behavior” and to possibly escort an employee off the property.
Does anybody know what this is about?
