City Utilities tries to waste $340,000 of your tax dollars
As many of you know I am sick and tired of our local Government officials contracting everything they possibly can to out-of-town consultants.
According to the News Sentinel our City Council blocked a proposition from City Utilities to hire another out-of-town consultant to develop educational materials for schools, how to manuals for homeowners, and development standards for use in residential and commercial construction. These materials would be used to implement a program to promote a rain water initiative that is supposed to get 1000 homeowners to build rain gardens to help retain storm-water runoff. The consultant would also have designed 16 rain gardens and would have helped run community meetings to promote the rain gardens.
Why on Earth does our City Utilities group feel that we have to hire an International Consulting firm to handle a simple project like this?
I have several questions:
1. How was this project put out to bid. What were the bid specifications?
2. How many firms bid on this project?
3. How many local firms were contacted concerning this project.
I am very tempted to start a new Consulting Company and bid on projects like this. It is 100% ABSURD to hire a company that is not located in Fort Wayne to handle something simple like this.
I imagine I would hire about 5 people and perform this project in a more efficient and cost effective way and I further bet we could come up with a better project since the people I would hire live in Fort Wayne and understand Fort Wayne.
I have contacted the City Public Information Officer and I plan on learning exactly how this consulting contract was put out for bid; and more directly, IF it was put out for bid.
Mike Sylvester, a person who is tired of hiring out-of-town consultants for every small task.
P.S. I am extremely glad that City Council blocked this wasteful consulting contract in a time when the City is supposed to look for ways to cut costs…
Where Have All The Back-Slapping Bankers Gone?
Chris Schoen of Barry Real Estate did an admirable job at tonight’s city council meeting describing the current state of the retail and condominium portions of Harrison Square including the challenges they face. He admitted that they only had 5 condos under contract and only 50 more “interested” parties. He described how the current credit crisis is causing them to change their financing expectations - they will probably only be able to get a 1st mortgage for 50% of the project instead of the 75%-80% they originally expected. He also said they will need 50% of the condos and retail space sold before they can expect any financing.
Despite these setbacks he assured council that they are committed to the project and will do whatever it takes to make sure it’s completed per the city’s contract (you can read more details of Schoen’s presentation at Around Fort Wayne). But what I want to know is why are they having such trouble getting financing? During the public hearing on Harrison Square I remember watching a whole stream of bankers walk up to the podium and declare how vital this project was to the community and how it would transform our city.
Now, when the rubber meets the road, these guys aren’t willing to put their money where their mouth is. Shame on each and every one of you for using your influence to peddle this project past the taxpayers while refusing to support it financially…
Update: What’s Going Down(town) has more detail as well
County Tells Harper They Want To Increase Taxes But They Don’t Want To Be Held Accountable
The gist of this bridge maintenance discussion is that the county can raise the wheel tax but a major portion of that increase will go to the city. So the county is requesting that the city agree to send revenue from this tax increase back to the county so they can use the money for bridge maintenance. But councilman Mitch Harper gets the county council to admit that they really want two things from the city
- An agreement from the city to reallocate the city’s portion of the increase wheel tax revenue back to the county for bridge maintenance
- A resolution from the city asking the county council to raise the wheel tax
Yes you read that right. The county has the responsibility and authority to raise taxes to pay for bridge maintenance but they want to try and dodge that responsibility by getting all the municipalities to send them resolutions requesting the tax increase. Nearly this entire mess is the county’s doing and if they want to raise taxes to fix it then they should have the courage and political will to do so. Attempting to blackmail the municipalities is nothing short of political chickenshit - and yes that’s a technical term…
Pape Hammers County On Their Abdication of Bridge Maintenance
Councilman Tim Pape gets into a lively discussion with county councilmembers Paula Hughes and Roy Buskirk over the need to raise revenues for bridge maintenance…
Karen Goldner On The Irresponsibility Of The Maplecrest Extension
Karen Goldner’s point here is one that should be heeded by all taxpayers. Namely that it’s the county’s own irresponsible decision of eliminating the cumulative bridge fund that has lead to the shortfall in maintenance dollars, and now the county wants to use all the major bridge fund money to build the wasteful $55 million Maplecrest Extension. Does anybody out there really believe we won’t be having a conversation a few years down the road about how to fund major bridge maintenance?
Councilman Smith Educates Paula Hughes On Maplecrest-Ardmore Differences
County councilwoman Paula Hughes tried to compare the Ardmore Extension project with the wasteful $55 million Maplecrest Extension and even went as far as calling it a mirror image. Councilman Smith didn’t like the comparison and explained quite eloquently that there is actually no similarity whatsoever…
FWCS Board Needs To Get Serious About Fixing Facility Problems
The News-Sentinel and WANE tv have a multi-part story about the state of facilities within Fort Wayne Community Schools. They are going to the five schools that the administration claims are the most dire and showing some of the issues they face. Of course they don’t talk about how much fixing these items might actually cost - no doubt it would be well under the $500 million wish list that was defeated in last year’s remonstrance.
Let us not forget that Superintendent Wendy Robinson and the FWCS voted down the Code Blue proposal that would’ve given the schools $250 $300 million to fix the most daunting problems. Political naiveté led them to believe they could steamroll the taxpayers and ultimately get whatever they wanted. Unfortunately for students and teachers, the administration decided to gamble and go for the entire $500 million and after they lost state law required them to wait a year before pushing another proposal.
So one would think that the school board would be actively engaged with Code Blue and other taxpayers in trying to find a solution to these facility issues they’re parading around to the local media. Unbelievably they haven’t done any real work in coming up with another solution and haven’t contacted any of the Code Blue leadership to discuss a compromise. Then again it is an election year and board member Steve Corona doesn’t want voters to remember what happened in last year’s remonstrance.
It’s time the board stop playing with the health and safety of the children it’s entrusted to protect and educate. It’s due time they lay out a reasonable and affordable plan for fixing the most severe problems as well as defining a funding plan for future repairs. They don’t need to reconvene a rubber-stamping task force, pay city councilmembers to hold meetings or hire an advertising agency. All they need to do is listen to the community - the whole community…
Update: Thanks to Evert Mol for correcting me. It was actually a $300 million compromise
Mayor Henry Reconvenes Transition Team
The mayor has called his transition team back to work but this time it’s to help him name a new deputy mayor. The members of this team are:
- Ben Eisbart (chairman), Executive Vice President - Administration of OmniSource Corp.
- Dick Merren, chair of the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) Region 3, Area 4 Community Action Programs’ Council and Chair of the UAW Region 3 Retirees’ Council
- Ken Neumeister, President and CEO of Liberty Construction
- Rae Pearson, Ph.D, President and CEO of Alpha Rae Personnel, Inc., and a State Commissioner for the Indiana Department of Administration
- Chuck Surack, Founder and President of Sweetwater Sound
- Bob Taylor, President and CEO of Do it Best Corp.
- Andrew Thomas, Vice President of Sales with Ridge NAPA Auto Parts and owner of 816 Pint & Slice, and board president of Young Leaders Northeast Indiana (YLNI)
- Irene Walters, longtime community volunteer.
For those of you that wonder what the deputy mayor does you can read the job description here.
If you want to apply then send your resume to:
Fort Wayne Human Resources Department, One Main St., Room 380, Fort Wayne, IN 46802, and mark it to the attention of Deputy Mayor.
Government Meltdown
We have a trifecta of government issues right now that require careful oversight by the citizenry and investigation by our local legislative and financial branches. I think it goes without saying that the wasteful $55 million Maplecrest Extension project tops the list. County commissioners need to answer for the assumptions in their economic impact study as well as their real motivations for fast-tracking the project.
Next on the list is an inquiry into the 11th hour contract given out by former mayor Graham Richard to a startup company consisting entirely of his former staff. City council needs to investigate this matter and figure out what it is we received for the $95k we paid in 2007. Council should also ask if the contract was sole-sourced and if so what the justification was. Local government is not in the business of helping fledgling startups meet their payroll - taxpayers should receive actual services for their taxdollars. Current mayor Tom Henry has publicly expressed his reservations about this contract and that alone should warrant an in-depth investigation.
Finally we need some answers about what’s going on at the Regional Public Saftey Academy. The mayor and city controller’s office have essentially been accusing the former finance director of improprieties and that should give us all pause. This is an angle to the story that has mostly been ignored but if there’s some kind of funny-business going on with the accounting then the public has a right to know. On the other hand if everything is on the up-and-up then the mayor and Pat Roller need to explain why they’ve been besmirching the character of the academy’s accountant…
Maplecrest Extension - Abatements Don’t Matter According to Commissioners
At Thursday’s county council meeting the councilmembers noted that the economic impact study did not include the effects of tax abatements on the bottom line for the TIF district - i.e. they assumed no tax abatements when deciding if it was affordable. The county has now looked at the effect of abatements in the targeted area and (surprise) has decided it’s no big deal. Here’s my favorite quote:
There are two major reasons abatements aren’t likely to deal a crippling blow, Harrold said. First, much of the development will be commercial, which isn’t likely to receive tax abatements.
Tell me this guy isn’t serious. Has he not been watching anything involving city council and their use of tax abatements? If any of that development happens in the city then it will be granted a tax abatement. Council gave them to McDonalds and Subway because they were in targeted economic redevelopment zone and since the consultants’ own study now assumes the Maplecrest Extension TIF will be the #1 redevelopment zone that gets pushed it’s hard to imagine those businesses won’t get tax abatements too.
