Council Call-In Show Moves To First Wednesday
I would definitely recommend watching this show. There is always a lot of frank discussion about a variety of topics.
Fort Wayne, Ind.—City Councilman Tom Smith, R-1st and Allen County Commissioner Nelson Peters begin a new monthly date for their regular “Council Call-in” show. Originally airing on the fourth Wednesday of each month, the elected officials can now be seen on their show on the first Wednesday of each month. The new date begins this Wednesday, August 6. The time is still 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. and airs on City TV, Comcast channel 58/Verizon channel 28.
To launch the new date, the co-hosts will welcome Rich Davis, new president of the Downtown Improvement District (DID). Mr. Davis was hired into his position in April of this year and brings plenty of experience with him. He came to Fort Wayne from Rhode Island where he had been Executive Director of a civic and economic revitalization organization. Previously, Mr. Davis held a variety of executive level positions in planning, development and marketing enterprises in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Davis holds degrees from Harvard and Pepperdine universities.
The gentlemen will discuss the current state of affairs at the DID as well as take a look at the future of the DID under Mr. Davis’s leadership.
Viewers wishing to ask a question regarding the DID may do so by calling 422.8708 during the one-hour live program.
Say Bye To The Best Block In All Of Downtown
What a depressing bit of news:
The city of Fort Wayne is starting the process of reorienting Calhoun Street to handle two-way traffic downtown. The proposal will allow north-south traffic between Washington Boulevard and Berry Street.
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the plan would widen the roadway from 24 feet to 34 feet.
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The anticipated cost for the project, using local funds, is $1.47 million.
We’re going to take the most pedestrian friendly and quaint block in all of downtown and gut it - Brilliant! We’ve been through this before so I’ll just quote from my previous post as the same arguments still apply:
A Couple Of Corrections/Clarifications
First, two people I respect have told me that my Tax Abatement Bamboozle post came off as insulting Elissa McGauley’s intelligence. After re-reading it I’m still not sure how that could be but just to set the record straight, I did NOT intend to insult her intelligence or honesty. The point I was trying to make was that she didn’t answer the question at hand - namely exactly what criteria in the state code was the city using to classify the Coldwater & Wallen property an abatement?
Second, I was contacted by commissioner Nelson Peters and he said that the post on banning BBQ was inaccurate. I told Peters that I was relying on a direct quotation from a front page story in the Journal Gazette for my post. Here’s the quote:
Allen County restaurants will likely no longer be allowed to start grilling ribs and other meats outdoors, although existing businesses can continue the practice.
The county commissioners Friday agreed to repeal part of the local health code that allowed restaurants to cook food outdoors for 10 days each month but grandfathered businesses that currently have permits.
That quote is pretty cut and dried but Peters claims that they did not agree to the repeal. In fact he said quite the opposite which was that they rejected any changes to the code. I’m not sure what’s going on here. While I disagree with the JG’s approach (or lack thereof) of presenting the anti-establishment viewpoint, I do believe they do a good job in getting the facts right.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens with this one…
Kalb & Garvin On Wallen & Coldwater Tax Abatement
John Kalb and Mark Garvin both spoke against the Wallen & Coldwater road tax abatement at last week’s city council public hearing. Both of them touched on points I raised with a previous post and I want to highlight their arguments. Both made effective arguments even if council didn’t agree.
Mark Garvin
John Kalb
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…
