Knuth Running For County Council
From the Allen County Democrats blog:
Okay, it feels odd to write a headline about myself. But the fact remains- today I announced that I will be a candidate for Allen County Council At-Large.
Be sure to visit my website- www.kevinknuth.com.
Kevin enters the race with a press release on the Maplecrest extension project:
Council Approves Maplecrest Extension Work
Two weeks ago councilman Tom Smith successfully stalled the vote on whether or not to proceed with $124k worth of work to move some utilities around for the Maplecrest Extension project. Tonight that ordinance came back before the council and was approved with only Smith and John Shoaff voting against it.
It’s my understanding that only 20% of this amount will come directly from the city as the other 80% will come from the state. Nevertheless, I agreed with councilman Smith when he made the argument that council should wait and see what happens with this project at the county level before proceeding. The city admits that the work would not need to be completed for approximately 3 years so what’s the rush?
And just for those of you keeping score at home, the city’s portion of the Maplecrest Extension project, if approved as planned today, would be $2 million.
Open Government Ordinance Held Again
The Open Government ordinance was held again but this time at the request of its author - councilman Mitch Harper. Harper indicated that the timing hasn’t worked out for him as he hasn’t been able to review city attorney Joe Bonahoom’s proposed language changes. Bonahoom has made several changes, including a number of “Whereas” statements, and the language is now more complicated than the simple ordinance Harper proposed.
Unfortunately this is why it’s important to pass a good ordinance when you have the chance. Who knows what’s going to happen in the future or what topics will turn into a political football. It’s also unclear if the city would even be able to abide by the ordinance now given the recent departure of its webmaster.
All in all, another disappointment for an otherwise good ordinance…
UPDATE: For more on this and other open government related business see Stephen Parker’s latest post at Around Fort Wayne
New Public Information Website On The Way
Another milestone for the open government task force was reached today when the city and county agreed to develop a joint city-county public information website. This will be a web portal that citizens can access to get information about all public meetings including notices, agendas and minutes.
The idea was proposed by Recorder John McGauley as well as Fort Wayne Public 1 during the last open government task force meeting. Congratulations to McGauley, Commissioner Bill Brown, city CTO Clifford Clarke and mayor Henry for following up on this suggestion and taking steps towards the first local government public information portal in the state of Indiana.
You can read the press release below…
Open Government Ordinance Back on Council Agenda
After a two-week hold, councilman Mitch Harper’s open government ordinance has resurfaced on the city council agenda. Readers will remember that two weeks ago the council voted 7-2 to hold the ordinance in order to give council attorney Joe Bonahoom time to review the language.
The ordinance would force all meeting notices to be placed on the city website and would also create an entirely new section of the city code entitled “Open Government”.
Republicrate or Rhino?
Saturday’s local page of the News-Sentinel had a column by Kevin Leininger titled ” No such thing as ‘free’ money. Applause to County Councilman Cal Miller’s vote on the “$100,000 sidewalk for 15 or 16 students” vote. But did you catch Councilman Nelson Peters comment on this item? This from a self-professed conservative Republican lawmaker and I quote, ” The money would just have gone somewhere else, probably far away”. This is a BIG government excuse for an action - in no way a conservative response! Since to be elected in Allen County almost requires you to profess being in the Republican party, we get people like this that are so far from the historic Republican principles that it makes you wonder. This is the same guy that traveled to Indianapolis with our previous Democratic mayor to pitch the greatness of tearing down a 14 year old Memorial Stadium that had just been paid off with the BIG government push to build a monument to public ownership, but giving a private, Atlanta-based corporation total control of the facility. Leininger’s final five paragraphs cover what is wrong with these so-called “earmarks” - AND PIGS MAY BE FLYING SOON IN ALLEN COUNTY!
Redevelopment Commission To Expand TIF Districts
As noted elsewhere in the blogosphere ( here and here), at Monday’s meeting the Redevelopment Commission will vote on holding a public hearing in regards to expanding three of the city’s TIF districts . As someone who is extremely cautious about TIF expansion I was obviously alarmed when I saw this on the agenda last week so I called Greg Leatherman, executive director of redevelopment, to ask him what was up.
Leatherman explained that under the new state law (HB1001) TIF districts must actually touch the projects they are serving and this expansion would simply be to insure that the commission is fully compliant with that law. He told me specifically that they anticipated capturing no new revenue from the expansion - this was simply a measure they were taking to legally use existing funds that were already earmarked for specific projects.
Indiana Election Commission Letter to Local GOP
Here is the letter from the Indiana Election Commission, referenced in the JG story about the GOP finances, that led to Steve Shine ultimately changing the way the party reports their debts. I will say that my layman’s reading of this opinion leads me to believe that all debts, including run-of-the-mill bills, must be reported.
Apologies for the resolution but it was faxed to me and not sent electronically - I suggest downloading it for better viewing…
A Candid Interview with IPFW Student Body President-Elect Kody Tinnel
I had a chance to sit down with Kody at the student union a couple of hours after the results were announced. I spoke with him about the controversial statement, his goals over the next year, his future as a politician and how his Libertarian background might influence his decisions as the student body president.
A couple of interesting tidbits - It turns out Kody won despite some of the professors asking students not to vote for him during their class. He also talks about the election “bribery” system employed by IPFW in order to increase voter turnout (didn’t seem to help much).
I enjoyed the interview and I think readers will too. You can download it here…
My Complaint to the Allen County Election Board
April 19th, 2008
Room 136
1 East Main Street
Fort Wayne, IN 46802-1811
This complaint was faxed to the Allen County Election Board at 260-449-7908 at noon on April 19th, 2008. This complaint was emailed to the Allen County Election Board at electionboard@co.allen.in.us at noon on April 19th, 2008. This complaint was also mailed to each member of the Allen County Election Board (Therese M. Brown, Andrew M. Downs, and Zachary E. Klutz) on April 19th via the US Mail Service.
The Journal Gazette ran a front page article on April 18th, 2008 concerning the pre-primary CFA-4 reports filed by both the Allen County Republican and the Allen County Democratic Parties. The Journal Gazette article discusses in detail the fact that the Allen County GOP properly listed all of their outstanding debts on the CFA-4 form as required by Indiana Campaign Finance Law. The Allen County Democratic Party elected not to list any outstanding debts on their CFA-4 form. In fact per the Journal Gazette article Mike Bynum, the Chairman of the Allen County Democratic Party, told the Journal Gazette that “the party did not list every outstanding bill on its report, as he didn’t believe it was necessary.”
Indiana Campaign Finance Law is 100% clear on this issue. I direct your attention to the 2008 Indiana Campaign Finance Manual where it clearly states on page 55:
(PHOTO OF RELEVANT TEXT REMOVED - SEE PREVIOUS POST FOR DETAILS)
This section of the 2008 Campaign Finance Manual is clear and broadly defines debts. Clearly the Allen County Democratic Chairman is not interpreting the law correctly and the CFA-4 form filed by the Allen County Democratic Party should be corrected immediately.
Debts owed by a Committee are listed on CFA-4 Schedule D. The instructions at the top of this form states the following:
“List all debts and loans, regardless of the amount, OWED BY the committee during the reporting period. Include all amounts owed for or to lend institutions, individuals, credit purchases, committee credit card accounts, etc.”
Once again, I feel that the instructions on the top of CFA-4 Schedule D are extremely clear and require that every debt regardless of the amount be listed.
I request that you inform me of the date, time, and location of the meeting during which you will discuss my complaint as I would like to attend the meeting if my schedule allows.
Sincerely yours,
Mike Sylvester
