By Jim Sack

The party-line concerning the elevators went something like this: we had them inspected, were told they were good for three or so more years, moved on to other things, were surprised when people got stuck between floors after move-in, found money that would not require council approval and here we are. Sorry, should have given you a heads up.

It was the inaugural Fifth Tuesday hearing and it was well worth the price of admission. I doubt, however, that anyone left the chambers last night satisfied with either questions or answers.

To set the scene, most months have four Tuesdays when the Common Council of the City of Fort Wayne does its work. Once quarterly a month has a fifth Tuesday and over time this “extra” Tuesday has been taken off by council. They have done that for no real reason such as a prevalence of sun spots on all fifth Tuesdays or a need to fly home to the meet with constituents, it is just boys’ night off. Council, in fact, operates on a three night rotation where a bill is introduced on the first Tuesday, debated or discussed the second Tuesday and then disposed of the third Tuesday. Given there are 52 weeks there is only one Tuesday that would cause confusion, not four, but things being things the fifth Tuesday has become time away from the rigors of talking.

Tom Smith, the new council president, decided last month to pick up the pace a bit and put the fifth Tuesday back in play and rename it 5TH TUESDAY. Council was redecorated to give the appearance of a Roman Forum and everyone wore gold-trimmed togas. It is now a special mark on the calendar, so soon there will be 5TH TUESDAY lore, memorabilia and letterhead to promote the night, perhaps reserved seating, perhaps a CD. Mr. Smith wants to give the night stature over the mundane business of buying salt and asphalt, so he sees it as a forum to discuss special topics. So it was last night. Last night’s proceedings were more along the lines of the Watergate Hearings than high discussion among solons.

Most folk know about the new city hall. Most know it was a heck of a fight to convince council to open the purse to buy the $7 million building. The price tag, with repairs and such, increased to around $19 million which led to more and more fights.

Then, after purchase and renovation, citizens started complaining the elevators were holding them captive. Seems a cellphone can get a signal in a fifty-year old elevator shaft. During one EMS run, woman on gurney, monitors beeping, the van waiting outside with lights ablaze, a lift became embarrassingly and dangerously stuck between floors for six to seven minutes. “Life and death,” bemoaned Councilman Marty Bender. It became painfully evident to the administration they had to fix the six building elevators, all of them, at a cost of $900,000. How to pay for the mess, became job one.

So, instead of “splaining” to council and asking them for an appropriation the administration went to the Redevelopment Commission and that’s when the real trouble started. To put it simply, asking the much more compliant, much friendlier commission, which has three mayoral appointees and only two councilmatic appointees, and which is staffed by the administration, looked like an end run, or sweeping the problem under the rug. Council has high profile and loves to grab headlines, the commission holds meetings in a closet and tries to keep the tone hushed. It seemed like “let’s see if we can get away with this one…” So, the commission voted the cash from their own pocket money, but somebody told the press and questions, innuendo, charges, counter-charges, more innuendo and base motives were raised or attributed to the action. The matter didn’t go away, it festered.

Last night council and the administration tried to get it all on the table.

Mr. Smith opened the questioning with a “did you know about this before the election” point blank question; that meaning, did you hide this from the community so as to protect the mayor? Controller Pat Roller chose not to answer the question, but instead went through a lengthy recitation of the purchase of the building, its funding and gardening in Indiana. Eyes glazed and rolled. Assault blunted. One has to guess that was the idea. Tactic One-A in political debate is not to answer the question posed, but to answer what you would have wished that question to have been. Something like, “Controller Roller, would you tell us why the administration should be fast-tracked toward canonization?” Of course!

Greg Leatherman, the director of the Redevelopment Commission, which found the petty cash, eventually came to the table to recite a bit of history about TIF money. TIF is Tax Incremental Financing, and within a TIF district property tax dollars are diverted from the general fund to use on intra-district economic development. It is money that would otherwise go to the general fund and pay for schools and libraries and buses, not to mention airports and sewers, but has been used to pay for ballparks and parking garages that are believed to increase the tax base. TIF. Mr. Leatherman cited a dozen examples of where TIF dollars had been used for purposes very similar to elevator repair. That line of discussion rather faded away. Yesterday was the formerly embattled Mr. Leatherman’s best day since his wedding. (See celebratory stories of the Harrison. His baby, in many ways.)

Finally, Mrs. Roller and architect Cory Miller, who handled much of the “due diligence,” noted that the State of Indiana inspected and passed the elevators and that experts had told the administration to budget for ongoing maintenance while setting aside cash for eventual major repairs within three to four years. Mr. Miller and Mrs. Roller said they accepted those findings and moved on to other problems. In hindsight, they said, yup, they should have sought additional inspections, yup, they should have realized that the building being fallow for years might have had an adverse effect, but that with so many other things on the plate during this “once in a century” move that a nut-by-greasy-bolt inspection was not done.

In the end, council agreed the elevators had to be repaired, that the source of funds was acceptable and accepted the oft repeated mea culpas and apologies offered by the controller. Heads will not roll.

The administration did, however, know that the elevators were in dire straights before the election. Hmmm. The administration also cast doubt on their recent pledge to be more open and cooperative with council. (Hard to regain lost trust.)

While securing funds from the Redevelopment Commission enjoyed precedent it blew up in the Henry Administration’s face. Mrs. Roller said the approach taken was a mistake. Perhaps it was a teachable moment. Perhaps.

So, Mr. Smith should be commended. He kept most of his herd on topic last night, the meeting was polite, but probing. It was a smart start to a new “tradition” and should serve as a warning to this executive: should the nascent “tradition” set down roots, this administration or any future administration that tries an end-run will attract double the attention and yield many more headlines than simply upfront “splainin’.”

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 8:58 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.