About: Jeff Pruitt

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pruitt@fortwaynepolitics.com
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I am a lifelong Democrat that likes to call myself a populist Democrat. In this sense I think more power should be shifted to the people and away from politicians and the elitist interests that attempt to control them. Philosophically I suppose I would classify myself (if I must) as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. In general I believe in ALL of our inalienable rights and thus by definition realize they are not provided or doled out by the government. I'm originally from Kansas and a graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in Physics and I moved to Fort Wayne in the summer of 2000. I don't claim any special expertise in the government arena other than I follow it very closely and always have. In that sense I suppose I'm a pundit - I'll leave it up to others to decide if I'm any good at it...

Posts by Jeff Pruitt:

Councilmembers Send Budget Letter To The Mayor

7/23/08 @ 12:16 am

On Tuesday three members of the city council sent a letter to Mayor Henry regarding the 2009 budget. According to Tom Didier, Liz Brown and Marty Bender, tax increases are pretty much off the table. They also suggest that a good budget will have to start from leadership in the mayor’s office:

Although there have been recent suggestions to look at reducing the homestead credit or raising taxes, it is imperative that in order to make informed budget decisions that we council members first know that all departments have taken the necessary steps to reduce costs wherever possible.

The best job that the City Council can do with respect to passing a good 2009 budget comes from your leadership as our Executive. We will look at the budget you present and challenge spending where it may seem unreasonable.

You can read the full letter here.

Filed Under City Council, Featured | 2 Comments

Everything Is An “Economic Revitalization Area”

7/21/08 @ 1:30 am

This Tuesday the City Council will hold a public hearing about declaring the corner of Wallen & Coldwater an economic revitalization area. So what is an economic revitalization area anyway? Well it’s specifically defined by state statute ( IC 6-1.1-12.1)

Sec. 1. For purposes of this chapter:
(1) “Economic revitalization area” means an area which is within the corporate limits of a city, town, or county which has become undesirable for, or impossible of, normal development and occupancy because of a lack of development, cessation of growth, deterioration of improvements or character of occupancy, age, obsolescence, substandard buildings, or other factors which have impaired values or prevent a normal development of property or use of property. The term “economic revitalization area” also includes:
(A) any area where a facility or a group of facilities that are technologically, economically, or energy obsolete are located and where the obsolescence may lead to a decline in employment and tax revenues; and
(B) a residentially distressed area, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.

First, let me just say that this is basically in my neighborhood as I live less than a mile from the site. Second, in no way, should this area qualify as an economic revitalization area. There have been over a hundred new homes and apartments built in this area, a new shopping center that is filling up, a gas station, and a major office complex - all in the last 5 years.

This area is clearly showing strong signs of economic growth and frankly I find it insulting that the city wants to label something in this neighborhood an Economic Revitalization Area. The city has and continues to abuse the tax abatement process and I believe this property is another example of that.

Just read the state statute cited above and then visit the area and you tell me if it meets the spirit of the law. In fact the city should be publicly challenged to specify exactly which part of the above statute they are using to declare this area an Economic Revitalization Area.

The city council needs to end the current piecemeal abatement process and do one of the following:

  1. Approve abatements that only go to ACTUAL Economic Revitalization areas
  2. Streamline the abatement process so everyone gets one without any of the bureaucratic red tape
  3. Lower the tax rate for everyone so companies receiving abatements are not given an economic advantage over their competitors
Filed Under City Council, Featured | 18 Comments

FWCS Remonstrance - One Year Later

7/20/08 @ 10:07 am

Kelly Sodurland has an article highlighting the one year anniversary of the successful remonstrance put forward by the Code Blue Schools organization against Fort Wayne Community Schools’ $500 million facility project. I think the important thing for voters to remember is that the board has decided to put politics ahead of progress:

After abiding by the state’s one-year waiting period, the board could introduce a new proposal, but administrators and board members say there are no concrete plans to do so soon.

For one thing, there have been no formal discussions on how to formulate a new plan.

Now why would that be? Many of the buildings do need serious repairs and yet the board, and the district, has done next to nothing to identify and address those looming needs. Of course it wouldn’t have anything to do with reminding the public, right before an election, about their previous grandiose facility plans would it? Nah, that’s just too cynical.

Read more

Filed Under 2008 Local Elections, Featured | 2 Comments

A Horrible Day For McCain

7/19/08 @ 8:12 pm

The US applies a strategy of “appeasement” by sitting down with Iranian officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki agrees with Obama’s 16 month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

That just about undercuts McCain’s entire foreign policy campaign in one fell swoop…

Filed Under 2008 National Elections | 3 Comments

An Open Suggestion For YLNI

7/19/08 @ 2:50 pm

Over the past year or so I’ve had the opportunity to meet several people involved with the Young Leaders Of Northeast Indiana (YLNI) organization and I’ve attended a few of their events and meetings as well. The people I’ve interacted with are an impressive lot that truly care about the future of our community.

They have hosted influential speakers, held roundtable discussions/debates and, in general, they’ve encouraged their members to become involved in the community. For brevity, I really am shortchanging the good work they’ve done but you can check out their website for more information if you’re so inclined.

What I would like to see from the organization now is a push towards policy involvement. I’m not suggesting the group has to cut back on anything they are doing now - far from it. I just think this community needs an organization willing to put forth leaders to guide the future of the community and end, to quote county councilman Paul Moss, the “incestuous relationships” that are abound in our local government.

In my opinion, the most effective means to change local government is by applying a ground-up approach and that means a wholesale change on the various boards and commissions that make up our government. YLNI has a plethora of members that would be great additions to these boards and I would suggest they start by lobbying for one of their members to fill the empty spot on the Plan Commission.

It’s one thing to lobby for change and try to steer the ship from the outside but it’s quite another challenge to try and take the wheel yourself. YLNI has shown to be an effective and impressive community-building organization and now they should consider taking the next step which is to influence public policy by getting more involved in local government organizations…

Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | Leave a Comment

Lessons Learned?

7/18/08 @ 4:47 pm

It’s important to keep a tally of lessons learned, especially during war, to try and avoid similar mishaps in the future:

  1. We misjudged then — and we have since — the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries … and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
  2. We viewed the people and leaders in terms of our own experience … We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
  3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.
  4. Our judgments of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
  5. We failed to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces and doctrine.
  6. We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.
  7. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement … before we initiated the action.
  8. After the action got under way and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course … we did not fully explain what was happening and why we were doing what we did.
  9. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgment of what is in another people’s or country’s best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.
  10. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action … should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
  11. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions … At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world.

Unfortunatley for all of us these were Lessons Learned by Robert McNamara from the Vietnam war and published in 1996…

Filed Under National Politics | 1 Comment

Does President Bush Pay People For This?

7/18/08 @ 4:12 pm

If I ranted and raved about everything this horrible President did then there’d be nothing else to post on this site. But this one is so ludicrous I just can’t resist. After years of insisting he would never agree to a timeline in Iraq he has flip-flopped and agreed to a timeline time horizon:

President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed that a “general time horizon” is needed for the reduction of U.S. combat troops in Iraq, the White House said.

A time horizon? You would think that this was written by some Jon Stewart intern but no…

Filed Under 2008 National Elections | Leave a Comment

Is GiaQuinta The FWCS Board Spokesman?

7/18/08 @ 10:47 am

Yesterday the NS had an article about the board’s refusal to release the superintendent’s evaluation and FWCS board president Mark GiaQuinta was quoted in a way that makes it sound like he’s the official board spokesman:

The Fort Wayne Community Schools board will not release the results of its evaluation of Superintendent Wendy Robinson, which was completed this week.

“The board believes (this) is a confidential matter, but we also acknowledge the completion of our duty to the public to review the progress of our chief administrator,” board President Mark GiaQuinta said in a statement Wednesday.

“While we won’t discuss the details, we can say that overall we are pleased with the direction Dr. Robinson is taking the district, and we are looking forward to continuing to work with her in educating all students to high standards.”

Did I miss the meeting where the board gave the president the role of spokesman for the entire body? I don’t recall hearing city council president Tom Didier speaking on behalf of all city councilmembers. GiaQuinta should speak for himself and stop using the word “we” unless he has express permission from the other board members. Another odd statement from the story:

GiaQuinta called the evaluation “constructive and positive” but further denied The News-Sentinel any request for the actual document, adding he was not afraid of any public backlash.

“I’m not afraid of anything,” he said.

Except turnips - sorry that was just too easy…

Filed Under 2008 Local Elections, Local Politics | 10 Comments

If Nobody Reports It, Is It News?

7/17/08 @ 8:45 pm

As Mitch Harper of FWoB would say - “Blogs have sped up the news cycle”. WANE and the JG “blogged” the Plan Commission vote on Canyon Cliffs today but as of now (8:45pm), Indiana News Center doesn’t have a story up on their website at all…

Filed Under Local Politics | 2 Comments

Sewer Restrictive Covenant Will Remain In Place

7/17/08 @ 4:25 pm

The restrictive covenants will not be removed as the Plan Comission voted 4-3 against it. Ken Neumeister, Paul Moss and Harold Kleine were the only votes for lifting the covenant.

The head of the Sewer District is livid. Speaking to people in the room:

You can go thank them for killing Holmestead. Unbelievable - they killed our opportunity. It makes absolutely no sense. I’m not going to sit through this listen to Bill Brown ask “Why aren’t you doing this?” I don’t know why the hell we didn’t do it. We had a different director of City Utilities, the environment was different…

My final thought on the matter - Holy crap the people still can win in this community…

Filed Under Featured, Local Politics | 7 Comments

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