Jim Howard to Address the CBC on 12/5/2011

Just a note to let you know that Jim Howard, past Director of Purchasing for the City of Fort Wayne will be addressing the Conservative Breakfast Club tomorrow morning at 7:30 in the Window Garden Cafe on the 13th floor of One Summit Square building.  You can buy your breakfast or just come to comunicate!  We alway finish prior to 8:45.

How non-elected commissions spend tax funds

At this afternoon’s Redevelopment Commission meeting we were again able to watch a non-elected group spend lots of property tax funds for purposes with very questionable authority and/or economic justification -  (and, if you attended this meeting, you were left in the dark on just how much they spent since only the commission members and a few city employees had copies of the resolutions!):

Resolution 2011-19 - This was approved to spend $150,000 of Centenial Industrial Park Urban Renewal Area TIF dollars for changing 123 street lights over to LED lighting.  The cost savings in electricity expense was estimated at $7000 per year for the 123 lights as compared with the existing system. The city engineer was asked two questions before the vote: 1) What would the cost have been to replace the lights with standard sodium vapor lighting units?  He didn’t have the data and 2) What would be the dollar savings in replacement of  burned-out sodium-vapor lamps as compared to the cost to replace the LED lamps?  Again, he did not have the answer.  A Redevelopment employee stated that the “pay-back” period for the $150,000 would be 6 years. So that’s $150,000 less 6 times the $7000 ($42,000) or $108,000 remaining to be saved over this same 6 years - or $108,000 per year.  Even if the city’s cost is $50.00 per hour - that would mean 360 hours per year for the 123 light fixtures - or 3 hours per year per fixture!   But, a non-elected commission spending other peoples money could care less about any cost-saving payback, I guess.

Resolutions 2011-20,21,22 and 23  were approved, with all of them being paid with our commision’s favorite “slush-funds” the Economic Development Area’s TIF dollars.  Remenber, each EDA with a TIF district was formed to, “allow the development of an area that the city declared ‘could not be developed without the fiscal help of property taxes generated by this specific development over a 50 year (later a 30 year) period’”  The douments establishing this “area-in-need-of-development” listed the planned development of what became, for example, “Apple Glen and Jefferson Pointe shopping centers”.  As it turned out for this area, due to the private developers planning, very little funding was required for the infrastructure improvments over that paid for by them.  So, at the present time, this Jefferson/Illinois Road TIF is generating over $ 3,500,000 per year, accumulating in the city fund # 317 and will begin generation of additional dollrs per year as the new Courtyard Hotel begins to pay property taxes.  Three times now, the Redevelopment Commission has expanded this Jefferson/Illinois Road EDA so it would have a place to spend these large amounts of cash!  The alternate , per Indiana Code, would have been for the commission to declare the project “complete” and to return any future property tax revenue to the normal property tax levy principals - our Fort Wayne Community Schools, operating funds for city government (Police and Fire Department costs), et al.  2011-20 was approved for replacement of pedestrian and traffic lighting at the Jefferson rail underpass just west of the intersection with West Main Street.  2011-21 was approved for the replacement of the dead Ash trees with other species - at a cost of $19,110 for the Washington Center/Coldwater Road TIF area and about the same in the Jefferson/IUllinois Road area.   2011-22 was approved to ratify and approve acquisition costs for 15 properties on the West side of Ewing Street across from Parkview Field and including the property at the Southwest corner of Jefferson and Ewing.  The purchase of these was approved at a special meeting of the commission on June 23 of this year.  All of these now belong to the city and are no longer on the property tax roles.  The city has no plans for these properties.  2011-23 was approved to ratify and approve expenditures related to demolition of the existing buildings on the above properties.   I question, again, how these properies can be purchased with TIF dollars since they are located OUTSIDE the latest Jefferson/Ilinois Road EDA.  Greg Leatherman will again use the justification, “these parcels of land are “serving” the EDA” - which is a long stretch of his imagination!!!

Then, in other business, Leatherman asked for and received approval to spend up to $80,000 to make the property sold to The New Harrison LLC for The Harrison complex “Build-Ready”.  This will involve digging and hauling 5000 to 6000 cubic yards of dirt, clay, sand, et al out of the pit that will become the underground parking garage for The Harrison. So this is another amount that taxpayers are being charged for the privilege of allowing “The New Harrison LLC” to build a building that will be owned by them - even though about one half of it’s cost is being paid with public funds!

And then finally, Leatherman stated, for about the 50th time, that the project is “A GO” (even though the New Market tax credits have not yet been sold). I guess we can assume that the addional $80,000 will be added to the $200,000 cap on the city’s cost if the Harrison is not built within the time-frame called out in the The New Harrison LLC agreement.

We are getting deeper and deeper and deeper into this thing  - And what does the Fort Wayne Corporate entity get in return? 

                                               NOTHING!

 

Fort Wayne City Elections 2011

The City elections are done and over.  I have to imagine the vast majority of us are glad that they are over.  The 2011 election was the nastiest local election I can remember.  Several Democrats ran negative campaigns as did Republican Paula Hughes.  The two major candidates for Mayor both ran despicable campaigns.

In an earlier post I discussed which six candidates would win of the six positions I could vote for.  I was right about all six winners and except for the Clerk’s race my breakdown of the votes was very close.

I voted for three of the six winning candidates.

There are several surprising takes from this election:

  1. I am still shocked that Mayor Henry ran a campaign that was so distasteful, negative and dishonest.
  2. I am also surprised that several Democrats ran negative ads.
  3. The most surprising take for me is turnout.  Up until the 2007 election turnout for City races has been between 36% and 42% which is terrible.  In 2007, at least partially due to the indictment of Matt Kelty, turnout was a dismal 33%.  This year turnout was only 26%.  This truly saddens me and means our elected officials are being selected by a smaller and smaller group of people.
  4. I was also surprised that Mr. Shoaff barely retained his at large seat.  He was almost beat by Friestroffer.  I truly thought Shoaff would come in second place fairly easily rather then barely in third place.

There are a couple of encouraging things from the 2011 City elections:

  1. They are over.
  2. The voting totals clearly show that a large number of voters did not vote entirely along party lines and I am glad to see it.  Further I hope this trend continues.  It is absurd to think that all of the members of any one party are always the best candidates in the race.
I hope that our elected officials start doing a better job for the citizens of Fort Wayne.
Mike

Democrats locally using automated robocalls

I did some research on political robocalls today.  Indiana has a law that bans automated political robocalls unless there is an introduction by a live operator who gets permission to start the automated message.  There is a fine of up to $5000 for violating this rule.

Last year the three Indiana political parties agreed not to use automated political robocalls.

In September of 2011 Indiana’s ban on robocalls was overturned; basically the court said that Federal law trumps state law and so Indiana’s ban was overturned.  Indiana’s Attorney General is appealing the ruling.

Yesterday the Tom Henry campaign engaged in a large robocall campaign.  The robocalls that I heard were a recorded message from Mayor Henry supporting Karen Goldner and Sandy Kennedy.   

When I originally heard the robocall I thought that the robocall was illegal.  When I researched the matter today I found out about the Court case in late September of 2011 that overturned the Indiana law.

I dislike robocalls; however, based on today’s research I think they are now legal as long as they are done from out of state…

Mike

Get out and vote today!

I hope everyone who reads this blog and is eligible to vote goes out and votes today!  Voting is important and we need Americans to learn more about the myriad of problems that exist in this country and to select the best of the candidates that are available to represent them!

I will be voting this afternoon.

Please let us know what you see when you go to the polls today!

Mike

Who I am voting for on Tuesday and why

I have decided who I am voting for this coming Tuesday and why I am voting for them.

The race for Fort Wayne Mayor has been negative and dishonest from both major candidates.  In the race for Fort Wayne Mayor I will be voting against Mayor Tom Henry.  His recent onslaught of negative campaign ads has really turned me off, as has the fact that he now wants the City to buy the north river property.  Further he is allowing the Occupy Fort Wayne protesters to use city facilities in violation of the current rules and he is allowing them to stay for free when other groups have to pay. So I will be voting for Paula Hughes.  I predict Henry will win with 50%, Hughes with 48%, and the Independent with 2%.

The race for City Clerk has also been painful to watch.  The Democrat incumbent Sandy Kennedy has been in office for 28 years.  She does not seem to like new technology and she promised to step down from the office four years ago at a public event.  She has recently sent some very negative campaign mailers as well.  On the other side is Zach Bonahoom.  Zach is inexperienced and has made two very ill advised statements.  I will be voting against Sandy Kennedy; she has been in office far too long and we need a fresh face.  I will be voting for Zach Bonahoom.  I think Kennedy will win with 60% of the vote.

The 2nd District Council Race is an easy one to analyze.  I voted for Karen Goldner four years ago because I wanted to see a long term incumbent unseated and because I like Karen Goldner.  Karen is running a negative campaign and that really saddens me.  On the other hand I have met Russ Jehl and I even contributed $100 to his campaign.  I think Russ will do a better job than Karen and I truly think Russ will be a good member of City Council.  I will vote for Russ Jehl.  I predict Russ Jehl will win 53% to 47%.

The at-large race has been painful to watch.  The quality of the candidates is sub-par.  My main desire is to see Marty Bender defeated.  He has proved to be a very poor member of City Council.  He votes on his own pay raises and refuses to recuse himself from votes he clearly should recuse himself from.

My first vote goes to John Shoaff.  He is a good member of City Council and I personally feel that he is one of the best Democrats around.  My second vote goes to John Crawford.  John Crawford is smart and often votes for smaller government.  I was very disappointed with his votes on the smoking ban, Harrison Square, and the Public Safety Academy.  My third vote will go to Friestroffer.  I am voting for him and hoping he can beat Marty Bender.  So I am voting for Shoaff, Crawford, and Friestroffer.  I predict Shoaff, Crawford, and Bender will win this race.

So I am voting for a higher percentage of Republicans this year than last year.  I am voting for five Republicans and one Democrat.

I think turnout will be poor; I predict 36%…  I think the negative campaigning by Hughes and several Democrats will turn some voters off…

Who are you voting for and what are your predictions?

Mike

Tom Henry’s most recent excursion into negative campaigning

I have spent some time researching the three recent mailers I received accusing Paula Hughes of “not paying her taxes.”  These negative ads have made me decide that I am going to vote against Mayor Tom Henry.  I will be voting for Paula Hughes.

The recent ads smearing lying about Paula Hughes were paid for by the Indiana Democratic Party.  That being said the court documents mentioned in the mailer were posted on a website paid for by The Allen County Democratic Party.   Further the Henry campaign has directed people to the aforementioned website via press releases…

To understand this lie you have to know more about Indiana tangible business personal property taxes.  This is the WORST tax in Indiana and I was very disappointed our Republican state Legislature did not repeal this entire tax last year.  Hopefully they will repeal it this year.  I have wrote about this silly tax many times previously on this blog.

This tax is levied on business personal property.  My firm prepared 133 of these returns this year for our business clients.  So this is a topic I am well versed in since I prepared about 50 of them myself this year.

Each year businesses like mine pay this tax on desks, computers, phone systems, machinery, etc.  We pay sales tax when we buy the item; then we pay this stupid tax every year as well.  Even worse this tax is assessed one year in arrears.  Earlier this year we filed 2010 tangible business personal property tax returns for our clients.  They were due by May 15th, 2011.  Then the clients will get bills in early 2012 and will pay this tax in 2012…  So in 2012 they are paying the personal property tax on the equipment they owned in 2010.

I spent some time researching this and to the best of my knowledge here is what happened:

  1. On 9/7/2007 Fiess & Hughes Management LLC was formed with the Indiana Secretary of State. This company used the law office of Carson Boxberger (1400 One Summit Square) as their registered agent address; specifically an attorney named M. Randall Spencer.  It is likely that M. Randall Spencer prepared the paperwork necessary to create the LLC.  M. Randall Spencer has helped many local businesses setup a business in Indiana.  I have seen this name listed under many new business listings in the Greater Fort Wayne Business Newspaper.  They have a section listing new businesses…
  2. The name and address of an Indiana companies registered agent is important.  Each Indiana company is required to have a registered agent and an Indiana address.  This address is used by The Indiana Secretary of State for various items and by the state of Indiana in certain circumstances.  I advise a lot of clients when they start a new business and I do not recommend that a company that is based in Indiana use a 3rd party as a registered agent.  I prefer they use themselves and their own address if they live in Indiana (You will see why as you read this post).
  3. I have not been able to verify the exact ownership of the company.  The Hughes Campaign told me it was 10%.  Without having a company of additional paperwork I have been unable to confirm this.
  4. After the business closed the Allen County Assessor would have mailed them a notice telling them to file a personal property tax return.  This notice would have been sent to the address on the LLC formation paperwork; likely the address listed by the majority owner (Fiess); it may instead have been sent to the lawyers address depending on how he filled out the LLC formation paperwork.
  5. Eventually after not hearing back from the company the Allen County Assessor would create an estimate of what they think they company owed.  This estimate is always high in an effort to “convince” business owners to respond…
  6. Then after not hearing back concerning these notices the matter is turned over to the Court system.  A tax lien is generated.  In this case the tax lien was sent to the Carson Boxberger office attention M. Randall Spencer.  This is clearly noted in the court documents.
  7. Somehow Paula Hughes found out about the outstanding amount due and she paid it in full.
  8. In July of 2011 the registered agent address was changed to Amanda Fiess so future notices would go to an address on Landmark Drive per the Indiana Secretary of State website.

I am not an attorney and I do not play one on this blog.  I do not think that Paula Hughes, as a minority owner of a business, would in any way be responsible to pay this outstanding tax bill for a company that is closed.  Once again I am not an attorney and you would have to ask an attorney well versed in these matters to be certain.

This ad is despicable and I am very disappointed in Mayor Tom Henry.

There are several lies in these ads:

  1. In multiple ads it was stated the business in question went bankrupt.  That is a lie.  I cannot find any record of a bankruptcy filing.
  2. One ad says “She was taken to court for unpaid taxes on $15,800 of equipment after two years of refusing to pay her taxes.”  First off you can look at the court documents yourself. The court documents do not mention Paula Hughes, they instead mention a company that I believe she owned 10% of.  Secondly she did not refuse to pay these taxes; the notices were never sent to Paula Hughes and that is easily shown at the Business Services Division of the Indiana Secretary of State and the court documents previously linked to.
  3. My personal favorite is this lie “And Hughes didn’t pay her back taxes until after she decided to run for Mayor.”  This is the dumbest lie in the ad.  This lie refers to the court documents posted on the website paid for by the Indiana Democratic Party.  Per those posted documents a Certified Letter was sent to M. Randall Spencer at 1400 Summit Square and was received by Jenna Peters on 7/19/11 at 1400 Summit Square.  Then the lawyer representing the Court acknowledged the matter was closed on August 11th, 2011.  So per the court documents referenced in the ad and posted online by the Allen County Democratic Party the taxes were paid sometime between 7/19/11 and 8/11/11.  This is long after Paula Hughes won the primary and is a really dumb lie.

Tom Henry must be getting some very bad political advice…  I wonder of Mayor Henry can sleep at night?

Mike Sylvester, CPA

I will be voting for Paula Hughes for Mayor next Tuesday

John Kalb will be happy that I am voting for Paula Hughes.  The truth of the matter is I am not voting for Paula Hughes; I am voting against Mayor Henry.

I personally feel that Paula Hughes started the negative campaigning in this race.  That being said in the last week the Henry campaign has sank to new lows which I will discuss in a future post.

The Mayor’s race has been disgusting and I am very disappointed in both campaigns…

As the readers of this blog know I am a CPA.  I own 1/3 of a Fort Wayne Public Accounting Firm that specializes in small businesses.  The Indiana Democratic Party sent three mailers to my house that are far worse than a negative campaign ad.  These ads are outright lies and are truly despicable…  Worse yet they were timed to come out so late that Paula Hughes could not respond with mailers setting the record straight…

I always thought Mark Souder was the most prolific negative campaigner in this area.  Several local Democratic candidates are running nasty and negative campaigns this cycle as is at least one Republican (Paula Hughes).  Mayor Henry has reached a new low in negative campaigning and should be ashamed of himself.  He has destroyed his reputation in the last three weeks…

Mike

What is Mayor Tom Henry thinking?

Earlier this week the Mayoral candidates had a televised debate.

In this debate Mayor Henry said he would support the City buying the North River Property (Where Omni Source used to) along the St. Mary’s river.  He said he did not want the City to develop the property; however, he wanted the city to own and control the property.

What is going on in the mind of Mayor Tom Henry?

Graham Richard the prior Democratic Mayor of Fort Wayne spent wasted $25,000 on an option that would have allowed the city to purchase the property for the inflated price of 4.3 million dollars. Mayor Tom Henry took office in January of 2008 and let the option expire in June of 2008.  There is no doubt that Mayor Graham Richard wanted the City of Fort Wayne to purchase the property; that is why he wasted $25,000 on the option.

There is a lot of speculation that there are environmental issues at the North River Property.  The City had an environmental study done and will not disclose the results so the public does not know the results.

Mayor Henry could have tried to purchase the property before the option expired in June of 2008. Further he could have tried to purchase it anytime since then.  Further any private buyer could have purchased the property as well.  No one has purchased the property.

As I have previously stated on this blog I was glad that Mayor Henry let the option expire and did not pursue purchasing this property.

So why has he changed his mind and announced it in a televised debate in the middle of a heated Mayoral race?

This makes no sense…

I swear that Mayor Henry is doing what he can to make me vote for Paula Hughes…

Mike Sylvester

Fort Wayne Mayor’s race, update

In a previous post I discussed the Fort Wayne Mayor’s race.  In my previous post I predicted Henry would beat Hughes by a margin of 52/47/1.  John Kalb and I have bet dinner on the outcome of this race.  I pay if Hughes wins, he pays if Henry wins.

In my previous post I said I was planning on voting against Paula Hughes; meaning I would vote for Tom Henry.

I have received several very negative adds from Mayor Henry attacking Paula Hughes in the last two weeks.  Some of his points are fair and some are not fair.

Neither candidate is willing to discuss the issues and both are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking each other.  This race has been painful to watch and helps demonstrate why the majority of Americans are sick of both politics and politicians.

Mayor Henry has done two things in the last two weeks that have made me change my mind.  I now currently plan on not voting for ANY Mayoral candidate.  I just cannot support any of them…

The first reason that I have now decided to not vote in this race is that the Henry campaign has recently ran a very negative campaign.  I just hate negative campaigns and I actually thought Mayor Henry was a better person then that.  The Hughes and Henry campaigns are as negative as ANY campaign that Mark Souder ever ran.  That is certainly not a compliment.

The second reason is Mayor Henry’s unreasonable decisions involving Occupy Fort Wayne.  He does have the authority to allow the protesters to violate the normal rules at the Rothschild Pavilion; however, he has trampled on the Headwaters Group Alliance Board and he has set a terrible precedent. By allowing the protesters to use the facilities for free he has set a dangerous precedent and his decision will cost the City of Fort Wayne money since the City of Fort Wayne will have to pay Headwaters Park for the expenses incurred by Occupy Fort Wayne.  Over time these expenses could become significant.

Over the winter if one of the Occupy Fort Wayne Protesters is injured that could really cost Fort Wayne taxpayers…

So on next Tuesday I will not be voting for any Mayoral candidate.

Mike Sylvester

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