By Jim Sack

Early in last night’s council meeting, after a bit of early formalities and the shifting in chairs, Council President Tom Smith announced to the assembled dozens of citizens and the multitudes at home via streaming video the presence in the room of the Mayor of the City of Fort Wayne, the Honorable Thomas Henry. The mayor, with his bright smile and friendly manner, strode forward and took a seat at the table. Judging by the surrounding smiles he was most welcome and genuinely well received. His comments were about cooperation, the friendlier tone on council during deliberations, his open door to all council members and a enthusiasm to work with council to confront the challenges our government faces in maintaining Fort Wayne’s position as the envy of every other city and town in the state. Council members all nodded and smiled. They noted steps the administration had already taken to work in harmony.

And that spirit of cooperation was most evident as deliberations ensured on a stack of ordinances, hearings and resolutions tackled by council in their committee session and the following regular session. Of the forty-one votes taken last night all but two, passed 9 to 0. Consensus, unanimity, cooperation. Just what the mayor was hoping for, the goal of council after four tedious and testy years of rancor. Of the two bills that failed to pass unanimously one measure was kicked back to the administration, “held” unanimously, 9-0, while the other suffered only an abstention due to a potential conflict of interest: Russ Jehl abstained on a development matter. Wise.

On the matter of a development on the far north side, the one “held” 9-0, a multi-family housing project for seniors, allowed council to flexed its new-found muscle. (Remember, council is has a Republican super majority and of the three Democrats hardly one is a staunch defender of the administration.) The proposal, brought down to the table with a do-pass recommendation by the plan commission, was generally criticized by Councilmen John Shoaff, Tom Didier, Russ Jehl and others. Mr. Shoaff rued the lack of aesthetics, Messrs. Jehl and Didier wanted a traffic light and supported Mr. Shoaff. All felt that there was much more work to be done to protect surrounding neighborhoods and get out ahead of future traffic jams. The city representative said repeatedly that her office found no problems and that the engineers thought it just fine. She added the plan commission has signed off unanimously. Shoaff does not care for plans lead by engineers. He wants more green space, more amenities and more consideration for people. The comment that walks and driveways were one in the same sent the project back to the drawing board for a bit more tweeking.” Mr. Shoaff warned that he was again a member of the plan commission and this sort of plan would not pass his muster once he takes his seat. Mr. Jehl proposed a hold of two weeks. His first foray into the unknown was supported nine-naught by his colleagues.

Count on Mr. Shoaff to push over and over again to force developers to higher standards of “livability,” whatever that may mean. Mr. Shoaff believes that aesthetics of a development should come first and that engineers then should figure out how to run wires, plumbing, sidewalks and the like, not the reverse. For decades traffic engineering has led development in Fort Wayne and the city shows that certain pocket-protector look, according to architect Shoaff. Mr. Shoaff will now push for the “city in a garden” look on future development and has the full backing of his eight colleagues.

Collaboration and cooperation were in order through every comment and discussion, especially during the time at the end of the meeting when council members speak to issues or events that are dear to their hearts. President Tom Smith started the discussion in tandem with his friend, Councilman Shoaff. The both spoke clearly about their anger over the surprise revelation that the city must now spend another $900,000 or so to repair elevators in Citizen’s Square. Smith asked why this fundamental problem was not discovered during the inspection of the building that preceded the purchase last year. He asked who was responsible and whether the city was covered in some way for the unpleasant surprise? Mr. Shoaff then expressed anger at what he saw was an end run to pay for the anticipated costs – rather than come to council with the funding request, the administration has chosen to seek funds through the Redevelopment Commission where the administration has a loyal majority. Shoaff said the Redevelopment Commission is a creature of city council and suggested a harder look at their staffing and dealings. He is still angry over the flawed ball park contract, the entire Harrison Square complex process, the gift of land to the boss of a member of the commission, and a dozen other RDC doings. Last year he tried to fire the director, Greg Leatherman, in a roundabout way.

Then John Crawford let fly in his very understated way. He reminded council of its here-to-fore failed effort to clamp down on pay-to-play where contractors toss extravagant campaign contributions to the incumbent, in this case the very Mayor who had been so warmly welcomed at the beginning of the meeting, in exchange for big contracts. He voiced kudos for a News Sentinel report on the matter that came a few months after Dan Turkette, the owner of this blog, opened the discussion with a lengthy analysis of suspicious donations to Mayor Henry’s campaign. Mr. Crawford all but defined kick-back, graft and corruption in his gently presented homily. “lead us not into temptation…” He noted that on the agenda last night were contracts let to some of the out-of-state contractors who had may well have violated election laws. “I will ask the election board to look in to this,” he politely said.

Councilmen Smith, Shoaff and Crawford all but called for subpoenas. Smith wants members of the administration to come down to explain who knew what and when concerning cost overruns. His question is how could something so fundamental to a building as an elevator system be overlooked by city inspectors? Where was the due diligence? Who screwed up? Did the seller hide the flaw? The mayor had better have snappy answers or this will drag on and on and on, perhaps end up in court. Mr. Shoaff, in his turn, is determined that the administration will not avoid fessing up and accepting guilt. He will fight against Mayor Henry using the Redevelopment Commission, as has been done in the past, as a cover for failure. No sweeping this under the carpet. And, Mr. Crawford will quietly walk over to the election board and file a complaint that will do more than all the angry diatribes last year achieved. He will also offer an ordinance to attack campaign funding corruption.

While the entire evening was convivial, collaborative, genial, friendly, one big smile-fest, the chickens are certainly coming home to roost. Now, let’s see who catches bird-flu.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 at 11:27 am and is filed under City & County Government, Fort Wayne. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.