Questionable union tactics in Fort Wayne

The News-Sentinel has an article written by Kevin Leininger that is a must read if you are interested in unions. 

I tend to be somewhat anti-union.  I spent nine years in various industries prior to becoming an accountant.  I spent the first five of those nine years at three different factories as a member of three different unions.  I spent the last four years as a manager at a non-union facility.

There has been much talk about unions with the big three automakers begging Congress for a handout.  Many Americans are against bailing out the big three; in part, because of the United Auto Workers union.

Unions exist because at one time in the United States companies took unfair advantage of their workers.  In the past some companies forced their employees to work in extremely unsafe conditions and took advantage of their employees by firing them just before they were eligible for pension benefits, etc.

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The Galloping Gobbler, Poison Control & Happy Thanksgiving

I just returned from running in the Galloping Gobbler - a 4 mile race organized by councilman Mitch Harper. I’m not sure how many people were there but it had to be close to a 1000. I had a great time and was able to run the entire race without requiring medical assistance so I suppose it was a successful race.

Speaking of medical assistance, last night I got together with the What’s Going Down(town) bloggers to brew some beer and we had a minor incident. While transferring the beer from one fermenter to another we removed the airlock and I was informed the airlock was filled with vodka (about an ounce) so I could go ahead and drink it.

After drinking I quickly realized that it wasn’t vodka. After a little discussion we remembered that the airlock was filled with Star San sanitizing solution instead of vodka. So I read the label on the Star San bottle and it said to call poison control immediately - just great. So for the first time in my life I called poison control and they were really helpful.

At first I thought the solution I drank was undiluted but then I realized that the Star San was diluted one ounce to 5 gallons of water so basically what I drank was just water - disaster averted. I’m starting to wonder if this wasn’t some sort of grand conspiracy to throw me off my game before the Galloping Gobbler race. Either way, the moral to the story is don’t drink anything you didn’t pour yourself or watched someone else pour. Yea I realize most people learn that in 2nd grade - I guess I’m a little slow.

I’m getting ready to start smoking our turkey and just thought I’d pass on a Happy Thanksgiving to anyone that might be reading today. And if you get a chance you might as well root for the sad sack Detroit Lions - they should win at least one game this year…

Hell Freezes Over

I can’t believe it. The News-Sentinel has acknowledged the existence of bloggers and actually (gasp!) linked to their respective blogs. Bob Caylor of the News-Sentinel reports on last night’s tax abatement discussion at city council:

A proposal to update the city’s system for awarding tax abatements to new or expanding businesses won a generally favorable reception Tuesday night from City Council, although council members suggested several areas they would like to revise.
[...]
Three people spoke during a public hearing on the proposal. All are bloggers who follow City Council closely.

Steve Parker, who runs www.aroundfortwayne.com, praised Brown and Goldner’s work, but he raised the question of whether the council would endorse the use of a tax abatement to help attract a casino.

John Kalb, who frequently contributes to www.fortwaynepolitics.com, applauded the ordinance. Kalb has frequently criticized the city’s use of tax abatements in the past.

Jeff Pruitt, who runs the www.fortwaynepolitics.com blog, said it was a step in the right direction. However, he said he still opposes tax abatements. Instead of selectively rewarding business expansion or relocation, the city should lower taxes uniformly to stimulate investment, he said.

Actually the News-Sentinel has been better about this than the other local paper so I guess I shouldn’t be completely surprised.

One of my biggest complaints about traditional media has been what I perceive to be an establishment bias. What I mean by that is only one side of the story gets told - typically that of the politician or the developer - and everyone else is ignored or downplayed to a significant degree. Kudos to Caylor and the NS for breaking that mold.

Of course I’m not sure how Caylor got the blog links past his editor - maybe he was on vacation, heh…

The Harrison Shipwreck

Chris Schoen, CEO of Barry Real Estate, came before the city council tonight to report on the “progress” of the Harrison Square condominium project. Let’s just say there wasn’t a lot of good news (although there was some).

Schoen began by telling council that this market is as bad as he’s ever seen and thus Barry Real Estate has changed their financing package to include a first mortgage for only 50% of the total cost. Despite this reduction in first mortgage debt, Schoen said they have still been unable to secure financing on the project.

Schoen said the strategy moving forward is to try and finalize contracts within the retail portion of the building since banks are currently not lending for condo projects. And if there was a silver lining to Schoen’s presentation it was the progress he cited in the retail portion. Schoen said the following retail tenants were close to signing agreements and would encompass 90% of the total retail space:

As for the condo contracts there was no progress to report. Because the project has changed those that have agreed to contracts in the past will have to be revisited. Schoen said they have had a handful of committed buyers that have stuck with them and he felt those buyers are still committed. However, he did not specify what that number was.

The new drop dead date for groundbreaking is Opening Day April 16, 2009 and that will be put into the condo contracts in order to try and strengthen the financing package - “We believe we will deliver on the full promise of Harrison Square,” Schoen said.

This discussion was actually worse than I expected. I thought Barry Real Estate would have some concrete number of condo contracts signed and/or real estate square footage leased. Right now the official number for both of those is zero. Furthermore, I am not convinced that retail leases will be enough to secure the financing they desire.

Hopefully the outlook will change before April 16 but right now this project is stagnant….

History As Our Guide For Condo Rhetoric

I would caution everyone to cast a critical eye towards statements made by Barry Real Estate at tonight’s city council meeting. They have a history of making statements that simply do not pan out. Will we get a realistic assessment tonight or more of the same?

He (Chris Schoen, Barry Real Estate) stated the projected construction period is 10 to 11 months. To hit opening day of the ballpark, it would require a start in the July 1st to August 1st window. He stated that a more likely start time window is August 1st to September 1st.

we believe that a 50% debt level would be very acceptable. We clean the package up, we’ve simplified it very much - if you will, we’ve still gotta come up with that number of units to get a bank to do it. If in the end, we’ve only sold ten, we have a contractual obligation to the City. If we have to come up with a way to fund 100% of it, right now I don’t know how I’d do that, but we’re committed to figuring out how to do that.

Henry said the developers had a goal of having 30 people put down payments on a condo by the end of the month (July), and he thinks they are close to meeting it.

911 Consolidation Update - Sheriff Fries Is The Only Roadblock Left

I spoke with commissioner Nelson Peters last week about a variety of topics including the controversial county pay raise proposal which I previously wrote about. We also discussed 911 consolidation and I wanted to update everyone on where that stands (I’ll also have a future post on the Bridge Maintenance fiasco).

To make a long story short, Sheriff Ken Fries is the only major roadblock left in consolidation. Peters has submitted a draft proposal for consolidation to Mayor Henry that would make take the two 911 departments and put them under the umbrella of the Multiple Agency Community Partnership. A joint city-county appointed board of directors would oversee the operations with the director of Homeland Security also having a seat on the board.

While Sheriff Fries continues to resist consolidation, Peters did admit that the commissioners could force the sheriff to go along with the consolidation plan. I asked Peters point-blank if the mayor signed off on his proposal would he have the support of the other commissioners and he said no. Peters indicated that commissioner Bill Brown is still against forcing the sheriff into consolidation.

I asked Brown about his position on this and he said “I’m not interested in forcing the sheriff to go along with consolidation. I just don’t think that’s good public policy.” While Brown is pushing for buy-in from the sheriff, Peters doesn’t think it’s going to happen. Peters said he hopes Brown will ultimately come to the conclusion that he has - namely that the only way it’s going to happen is if the commissioners force it.

My thought is that Sheriff Fries has had a long time to become part of the consolidation process and if he hasn’t bought in by now then he probably never will. As of today, nearly everyone is on board and there’s a proposal on the mayor’s desk. The only one holding it up is Fries and, based on the conversations I’ve had, it doesn’t sound like that’s going to change anytime soon…

No Sewer Expansion For Canyon Cliffs

I think everyone, including myself, is a little confused about what exactly is going on regarding the Canyon Cliffs development. Thankfully Ted Nitza and Commissioner Bill Brown have taken the time to explain some of the details.

First, the developers are no longer pushing to lift the sewer restrictive covenant to expand city sewers to Canyon Cliffs. This request is now off the table per the county’s recent settlement with the developer. Readers might remember that this expansion was also going to help provide septic relief to residents in Holmestead Acres development whose failing septic systems are currently polluting Cedar Creek.

Next, while the sewer expansion may be off the table, the momentum behind the discussion remains as the Allen County Sanitary District has commissioned a study to re-examine the options for providing relief to Holmestead Acres and other existing properties.

My personal feeling towards this is that the homeowners should be responsible for their own septic failures and the city shouldn’t expand services to bail them out. Many people move out of the city and into the county because they feel like there are fewer rules and restrictions that they perceive to be a detriment to their way of life. That’s certainly their prerogative but don’t come crying to the city to bail you out when your little subsistence, self-contained society begins to crumble.

Of course the environmental reality is that they are polluting the creek and the situation isn’t going to fix itself. If the city does decide to add these homes to the existing sewer line then the polluters had better pay the full cost of those services. I don’t want to pay a single penny to bail out individuals who are completely responsible for their own situation - especially those that don’t even live in the city…

Letter to Fort Wayne City Utilities

The below letter is a copy of a letter a reader sent to the head of City Utilities Department:

Kumar,

As a citizen of Fort Wayne, I want to thank you for your work as director of city utilities. I would like to express my concern though about the city extending utilities to the Canyon Cliffs development.

I am a land owner and therefore have no objection to the development.

Where I would have objection is if the city were to extend utilities to this location. This not only defies the Plan-It-Allen plan which was agreed to by both city and county officials, but it also is a liability to taxpayers in the region.

By extending city services, we will only encourage more development

along that corridor in a market that is flooded with open leases.

When we build on the fringes in Fort Wayne, we are only moving existing businesses outwards and the taxpayer is obligated for all of the infrastructure.

If Canyon Cliffs wants to establish a development on the county fringes, that is fine. Please do not allow our utilities and storm water situation to extend out though - this is counterproductive to the needs of this region.

Thanks,

Dave

———————————————————-

TrustBearer Labs

David Corcoran, President

Posted by Mike Sylvester

Harrison Square Hotel Update

Last week Around Fort Wayne reported that the hotel’s general contractor had been to the building department to discuss the project but had not officially obtained the building permit. A source close to the situation has now informed me that a representative from White Lodging will officially obtain their building permit next week.

Whether or not this means they have obtained a construction loan to break ground is unknown at this time; I suppose they could just be trying to allay public concern over the project’s lack of progress. Another interesting note mentioned by my source is that nobody really knows what’s going on except the city’s project consultant Steve Brody. I was told he’s the only interface between the city and White Lodging.

Clearly Brody’s been telling anyone that would listen that “all is well” but it seems odd that the city would put this kind of responsibility in the hands of one individual no matter how capable he might be. Brody claims that White Lodging is still 100% committed to the project despite the slowing economy and slow condo sales. Right now everybody seems relatively comfortable with his reports but insiders are saying that if progress isn’t made by the first of the year then it will be time to worry…

Commissioner Peters On Proposed County Salary Increase

The story fronted by one local newspaper today caused my blood pressure to increase by about 30 points. The county council is considering raising their own salary, and those of many other elected officials, by a large amount while their constituents are hunkering down hoping they aren’t the next casualty of this global financial crisis:

The County Council will consider the recommended salaries for about 50 positions during a special meeting in early December.
[...]
The bulk of the increases, worth almost $140,000, would go to elected officials, including the commissioners and the County Council, and the chief deputies those officials appoint.

I mean seriously, could there be worse timing for a such a move? They would use our tax dollars to raise their own salaries after they cut staff, said they couldn’t afford to maintain the bridges and squandered tens of millions of dollars on a bridge to nowhere? And all this conveniently 2 weeks after the election? Really?

Instead of going into full meltdown mode I decided to call the county commissioners to try and figure out what was going on. Surely, surely our county government officials are not so insensitive to the plight of our local economy that they would propose raising their own salaries while this region and the rest of the country slips towards a depression.

Commissioner Nelson Peters took the time to meet with me today to explain the situation as well as give me an update about the 911 consolidation and the bridge financing issue. It was a good conversation, and I’ll have a post on 911 consolidation and bridge financing tomorrow, but for now here’s a summary of our conversation regarding the proposed salary increses:

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