From the Journal Gazette

The director of the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana said he resigned because of concerns that Mayor Tom Henry was trying to exert too much control over what was to be an autonomous entity.

Brent Johnson resigned from the director’s position April 30, less than a year after being called the perfect fit for the job by former Mayor Graham Richard. Half of the academy’s four-person board also resigned recently.

Johnson said Tuesday he was proud of his role in getting the 132,000-square-foot, $26 million center open last fall. After Henry won election, Johnson said negotiations over how the board would oversee the academy stalled.

“At some point it was decided it was going to be under the control of the city,” he said. “Quite frankly, that’s just not the vision I saw.”

Here’s an interesting tidbit I bet most people don’t know. Graham Richard’s personal office is located in the academy. I wonder if he’s paying rent?

Rachel Blakeman, Henry spokeswoman, said the mayor was disappointed by Johnson’s resignation. She said the focus of the academy will continue to be regional, but she said the financial bookkeeping of the academy was moved into the city controller’s office in an effort to cut costs. The move allowed the city to eliminate a position at the academy, saving between $55,000 and $60,000 a year.

Well, they had to do something to pay for the $95,000 they gave Richard’s High Performance Government Network Corp. Speaking of Blakeman and Henry, Tom Wyss is also not happy with them.

From the News Sentinel

For years it has been touted as a center for the region, but the former executive director and foundation chairman of the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana have now resigned amid fears Mayor Tom Henry’s administration will allow the city to control the nearly $27 million facility instead of a group that would ensure its independence.

That perception has also angered a state senator who heavily backed the project and helped sell it to state legislators.

“What I’m seeing, I don’t like,” said Sen. Thomas J. Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, a ranking member of the senate’s appropriations committee that has a say in where state money goes. “The thing that really bothers me is if we lose track of what the intent of that building is, we’ll probably lose funding from the state.”

Is King Henry failing at providing an open and transparent government? Why the power grab for the Academy?

Brent Johnson, the former executive director of the academy, resigned last week after the resignation of Peter Eshelman, the former chairman of the Public Safety Foundation of Northeast Indiana, a nonprofit organization that had been involved in fundraising efforts but was set to assume certain managerial aspects of the academy to keep it truly regional and truly independent.

[...]

“I think they are very much focused on the Fort Wayne police and fire departments,” said Johnson of the Henry administration. “They want to run (the academy) as a city building.”

Eshelman says Henry told the administration flat-out before he resigned that the academy would be managed as a division of Fort Wayne. Another member of the foundation, Joseph Ruffolo, resigned last month but declined to comment as to why.

By the way, Joe Ruffolo is Graham Richard’s former business partner.

[...]

The previous city council had approved a letter of intent to expand the role of the academy’s foundation, ultimately taking over management of the facility, Eshelman said. The letter of intent, signed by Richard, was to turn into a contract. When a new mayor and city council took office, a decision on the contract languished.

“The wheels of bureaucracy did a great job here of getting in the way of something moving really fast,” Eshelman said.

Wyss had been one of the academy’s biggest supporters and worked diligently with Richard, a Democrat, to get the facility built. If not used as intended, Wyss said, it could cost the facility roughly $1 million a year in state money.

“If the mission has changed, the funding source will also change,” he said. “Once the budget committee hears about this, they’ll want answers.”

Disappointed that Henry had not contacted him, Wyss said he was “at a loss” as to what was actually going on. He said he had previously taken a lot of heat from mayors in the surrounding area, having to assure them the facility would not turn into a “Fort Wayne” operation.

But as of late afternoon Monday, he still had not heard from Henry.

“Somebody better start giving us answers,” he said.

I wouldn’t hold my breath Tom. I’m three-weeks in waiting on a return call from Ozzie Mitson.

So, if I read this correctly, Henry’s power-grab could cost the city $1 million. That’s okay, he’ll just raise our taxes.

Oh the drama – AWB

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