Posts Tagged “Karen Goldner”

By Jim Sack

It was what was missing that proved most interesting last night at city council.

First, the ordinance concerning the new yellow-topped recycling bins was withdrawn to be reintroduced another time. The city could not find a local bank to loan the money to buy the carts, $2.7 million. The project is designed to pay over time for the upfront costs through your water bill. The upfront costs, however, are substantial and the city prefers to borrow. Unfortunately, those pesky banks, the ones that won’t loan a farthing to their formerly best customers, had real qualms about loaning such a huge amount to such a questionable entity as the city. Perhaps the city’s finances are in worse condition than anyone has told us. The city will go, hat in hand, again to the fat cats to scrounge the cost and represent the ordinance at a later time. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Glynn Hines woke everyone up at the end of a moribund council meeting: net year is election year and we may want to move the budget process up. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Fire Hydrants? $2,9 million? Well, that’s what Mitch Harper wanted to cut last night from the city budget and it passed, to almost everybody’s surprise, even for Mitch a bit.

More than four hours after a rejuvenated Marty Bender gaveled down the meeting and turned the budget hearings and process over to Finance Chairman Tom Smith the process of cutting the mayor’s budget was still ambling along. Council members, the media, guests, citizens, employees were all a bit slap happy when it came to the matter of Fire Hydrants. It was one of 24 proposed budget cuts voted on in last night’s Marathon session. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

The Marty Factor was in play last night for most interchanges between council and city, council and council. That factor being a renewed gentleness at the table in light of the recent reminder of the fragility of life in the person of Marty Bender, council president.

City Clerk Sandy Kennedy who is very close to Marty Bender told people that he is coming around and probably watching council proceedings from his hospital bed which prompted a call from Council Vice President Mitch Harper for a round of applause for Bender from all gathered in the room last night. The recognition from the table and the audience of some 30 folk, a large crowd by regular council standards, was heart felt and prolonged. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Last nights extraordinary city council meeting stated on a somber note: City Clerk Sandy Kennedy, tears in her eyes, told a few of us before the meeting that Marty Bender, council president, had suffered a seizure during dinner with his daughter and was hospitalized. She was quite distraught.

A subdued Mitch Harper, council vice president, eased into the president’s chair and quietly started the meeting with comments on Mr. Bender’s situation and his wishes that President Bender would quickly recover. He then gaveled open the rare Thursday session to resume oversight of the mayor’s proposed budget, focusing last night on use of CEDIT dollars, the County Economic Development Income Tax, a $19 million stream of revenue for the city. Controller Pat Roller parsed the pile of money: some goes to maintenance of the parks, much to debt service, some to the Board of Works and over $4 million to Economic Development, the department chaired by John Urbahns who was on hand last night, passing out notepaper to one forgetful reporter and cough lozenges to a coughing writer as he awaited his turn at the table. Nice guy. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Budget time again, that annual process of setting priorities and stretching pennies, has begun, Councilman Tom Smith in charge.

The administration, in the person of the chief financial officer, the controller, presented a slide show to preface the discussions and debates. It was a overview of revenues and expenses and how they have changed over the past ten to twenty years. In short, most of the city’s expenses are in personnel costs, (78%) and most of the revenue still comes (74%) from property taxes, although, as Controller Pat Roller bragged, the city over the years has developed new streams of revenue to “diversify” government resources, unlike other cities that are in much worse financial shape than Fort Wayne. She introduced a budget that is essentially flat for a city, she noted, that is physically some 38% larger than ten years ago and has 35% more roads to pave and repave and repave than years past. The number of city employees is down and costs are contained, she smiled. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Bingo.

Saturday, in the News-Sentinel Kevin Leininger pretty much nailed the issue of Harrison Square. It is worth the $.50 at a news stand near you to read what he has to say. Buy the paper. It keeps a smart voice in business. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Greg Leatherman gave quite a performance last night at council. The head of Fort Wayne Redevelopment spoke powerfully and without hesitation. He recounted a short history of the Harrison Square project and how it has come, mostly, to fruition. Leatherman, flanked to his left by Fort Wayne Corporate Attorney Tim Haffner, said that four-fifths of the massive project has produced jobs, tax revenue, new activity downtown, jobs again and a spirit of community. He lamented the failure of developers Barry Realty/Hardball, BHB, to complete the condo-retail portion of the project, but said his office, Redevelopment, has constantly monitored their efforts and progress, and feels they are making a good faith effort. He was a veritable bundle of good news and optimism. Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday night I watched Liz Brown with some admiration.  During testimony by three different individuals on three different matters Mrs. Brown asked simple and clear questions to which the witness answered in circuitous ways, some, perhaps, either not quite understanding the question, or choosing rather to quickly side step the point of the question to provide a defense rather than a response.  Mrs. Brown asked the questions again quietly, and politely.  She took her time and got rather interesting answers, albeit, not necessarily to the question posed.  Her examination of the witnesses clearly helped enlighten her fellow council members. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

It was the type of city council meeting that Mitch Harper should like: short, concise, low-keyed.

On the committee session agenda were two, just two measures to consider: declaration of an economic revitalization area, and a “prior-approval” to get work started early on street repairs in Crestwood Colony. Council members seemed to struggle to find questions to ask on both matters. Both matters whizzed to votes and acceptance.

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By Jim Sack

There is just something about the way that she relates to people at council that suggests she learned all her life’s lessons from a course in Perry Mason cross examinations. She is just hard unnecessarily on people when kindness or a neutral approach would work just as well.

Last night, at council, is a case in point.

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