Councilmembers Send Budget Letter To The Mayor
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.
Everything Is An “Economic Revitalization Area”
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:
- Approve abatements that only go to ACTUAL Economic Revitalization areas
- Streamline the abatement process so everyone gets one without any of the bureaucratic red tape
- Lower the tax rate for everyone so companies receiving abatements are not given an economic advantage over their competitors
Fire Merit Board Passes Committee 7-2
The firefighters’ preferred merit board ordinance was given a Do Pass recommendation during the city council’s committee session last night by a 7-2 vote. I was somewhat surprised to see councilman Tim Pape vote against the administration and for the ordinance. Although in today’s JG he says that if the mayor vetoes the ordinance then he might change his vote.
The council would only need 6 votes to override a mayoral veto and that seems likely with councilman John Shoaff voting for the ordinance as well.
The fire chief spoke against the ordinance basically saying that the system wasn’t broke so there was no need to fix it. The administration seems to think that somehow the mayor’s authority is being usurped but, as Karen Goldner said, the mayor would still have 3 appointments to the 5 person board and thus would still maintain de facto control.
What was agreed on by all was that this issue has lingered far too long and it was simply time to vote and move on. Under council rules the ordinance will now be moved to next week’s regular session where it will be up for final vote.
A Tale Of Two Fire Merit Ordinances (Update)
Tonight the city council will discuss two separate Fire Merit ordinances. One has the support of the firefighters and was actually introduced last year before it was tabled by the previous council. I believe it will be jointly introduced tonight by councilmembers Tom Didier and Karen Goldner.
The other ordinance is being introduced by councilman Marty Bender and does not have the support of the firefighters. That in and of itself makes his ordinance completely moot as the firefighters would have to approve any ordinance that passes. That leaves me wondering - why is he even introducing it?
Many of the councilmembers made campaign promises to the firefighters to support their ordinance and I would expect they will keep that promise.
I believe the firefighters’ preferred ordinance will pass this evening but the interesting question will be whether or not it will pass with a veto-proof six votes. It appears Goldner, Didier, Harper, Smith and Brown will likely vote in favor with Pape, Hines and Bender voting against it. That leaves John Shoaff as the swing vote so to speak.
I guess I should also say that Mayor Henry hasn’t specifically said he would veto the legislation so there’s no guarantee that 6 votes would be necessary although I’m sure the firefighters would rather not take that chance…
Update 7-16-08: During last night’s council meeting city attorney Carol Taylor said that she didn’t feel councilman Bender’s ordinance would need to be approved by the firefighters themselves. While it’s a moot point now (Bender’s ordinance failed) it does answer my question of why Bender would offer an ordinance that the firefighters clearly wouldn’t support…
City Council Grants Nelson Peters A Tax Abatement
Back on May 27 the city council unanimously approved a tax abatement for Calico Precision Molding. I’m not sure it was reported at the time, but commissioner Nelson Peters has a financial interest in that company. I doubt this information, in this specific case, was relevant to the council’s decision, but I still feel like public officials should report when they have official business before a government entity…
Langley On City Budget Priorities
Charles Langley, former 4th District city council nominee, has gotten a jump on Fort Wayne’s upcoming budget debate by offering a few suggestions at his new blog Deliberation. Readers should check out his post for a comprehensive list of his ideas but I thought I’d share a few that I found particularly interesting:
Take home police vehicles. Perhaps there can be monthly or quarterly rotations of officers taking home their vehicles OR limit this benefit to officers who live inside the city limits. If no compromise can be reached, with leadership failing, officers, as well as other city workers, will not be able to take home city-owned vehicles.
I would think take home vehicles could be restricted to higher crime areas. In fact this would be a benefit for officers that live in those neighborhoods. Perhaps the depart could couple this with other incentives to try and get more officers to live in areas that would greatly benefit from their presence.
Instead of cutting police and fire positions, which seems the status quo, each government department, such as the Division of Public Works, would need to eliminate at least one position. This decision should be made as a recommendation by department leadership and not Council.
Cutting positions is going to be a difficult task politically. I would support a one year salary freeze and perhaps positions could be eliminated through attrition.
The removal of the four neighborhood area advocates; this position should be adequately completed by the district council members with reinforcement from at-large members.
Again this might be a tough sell but I applaud Langley’s effort to jumpstart the debate and throw out his ideas. Take a minute to read all 10 of his suggestions and then feel free to critique his ideas in the comments or suggest your own…
Fort Wayne on wrong track, again…
I was not able to attend the City Council meeting last night so I am forced to accept the newspapers version of events.
Both reporters witnessing the City Council meeting infer or state that the City Council seems to favor the creation of an additional five “Economic Development Target Areas” in southeast Fort Wayne. You can read the newspaper reports here:
From the JG:
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/LOCAL/807020345
From the NS:
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/NEWS/807020310
Creating an additional five districts in Southeast Fort Wayne in order to grant tax abatements to restaurants and retail establishments will just shift the tax burden and create a “playing field” for businesses that is not level.
This will allow City Council to grant tax abatements to more fast food restaurants (Those in Economic Development Target Areas) at the expense of fast food restaurants in the portion of the City that are not “Economic Development Target Areas.”
I am extremely disappointed that this proposal to establish five more “Economic Development Target Areas” was not laughed out of the Council chambers.
Please realize that I cannot understand how any City Council member could support granting tax abatements to retail establishments and fast food restaurants in the first place.
If City Council expands the “Economic Development Target Areas” they will once again prove that they, along with the City administration, support policies that encourage “Economic Re-arrangement” rather than “Economic Development.”
Mike Sylvester
Council Agenda Change - No Fire Dept Merit Commission Discussion
Those of you wanting to watch the discussion involving the ordinance enacting a Fort Wayne Fire Department Merit Commission will have to wait another two weeks. I was told that council president Tom Didier will be absent and thus the ordinance will be held for another two weeks before discussion…
Eleventh Hour City Training Contract Called Legal with No Wrongdoing
This was submitted as a guest post by Dan Jehl, coordinator for Fort Wayne Public1 and writer for Frost Illustrated. You should also take the time to read Kalb’s and Spaulding’s posts on what transpired.
It was called the “eleventh hour” contract and the “lame duck” contract. And it’s about tax dollars. Both the circumstances and timing surrounding this contract never did pass the public’s sniff test. And now, nearly six months later, it was in the sights of the public’s radar—the City Council-the very arena many claim it should have been brought months ago.
This contract is between the City of Fort Wayne and High Performance Government Network for $95,000 a year for three years to continue training of city employees and develop a strategic plan to save millions of dollars. The contract is essentially the same people who were previously doing the training as city staff. The contract was not sent to City Council for review.
The contract is with a firm loaded with former City Administration staff. And the contract was signed on the second to the last work day of the year and end of Mayor Graham Richards’s term, the day after the Purdue Bowl Game, and four days before Mayor Tom Henry’s inauguration.
Expectations ran high. All media were present with cameras set and ready for fireworks. Some expected Council Dems to toss the soft balls, and the Council Repubs to throw the curves. But it was the straight fastballs from both sides of the aisle that caused the City Officials the most trouble.
A High Performance Explanation
Note: See John B. Kalb’s post on the HPGN contract here
The Common Council heard “testimony”, in Councilman Mitch Harper’s words, about the High Performance Government Contract that was agreed to in the waning days of the Graham Richard administration.
The basic gist of the High Performance Government Network’s formation is that the City of Fort Wayne had reportedly honed its processes, procedures and altered its modus operandi into a lean, mean, green/black (belt) fighting machine over the 8 years of the Richard administration, reportedly saving about $3 million per year in that span. Two employees in particular, Ryan Chasey and Kate Love-Jacobson, were said to be particularly instrumental.
The rub, however, is that the two would be leaving the city. As the sensei of Sigma, Chasey and Kate-Jacobson were contracted through the HPGN to provide the City of Fort Wayne with $80,000 worth of specialized Network services for the City of Fort Wayne solely and with another $15,000 Fort Wayne would become a member of the Network.
