Posts Tagged “Liz Brown”

By Jim Sack

The matter in question, an ordinance approving a plan “to streamline business permitting in Allen County,” was discussed by an extraordinary gathering of both the Allen County Council and the Fort Wayne City Council and witnessed by most of the leaders of the Fort Wayne business community. The ordinance in question was outlined in a generally informative presentation and then passed during a meeting within the larger meeting by the Fort Wayne City Council. The remarkable performance played to a full house in the renowned Allen County Public Library under the cooperative batons of City Council Vice President John Shoaff and Darren Vogt, the County Council president. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Elissa McGauley was not happy. The economic development specialist for the Department of Economic Development, slumped in her chair, her face was not its normally bright, smiling self. In front of her, to the right, at the city council table, sat Tom Lewandowski and Cheryl Hitzemann, both of the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council, representing, as they said, “unemployed and anxiously employed” area workers.

They were systematically highlighting inconsistencies in the tax abatement program that Mrs. McGauley runs for the city. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Beans.

The Republicans at city council last night were anxious to get through the short agenda and onward to their bean dinner in the suburbs. The coming primary is foremost in their minds and judging by the recent haircuts and sartorial dress at council last night more than a few are girding for the last hectic week before the fates decide. The agenda was to a necessary distraction. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

So the big item on the agenda last night was a $30 million bond proposal to further clean our drinking water. One council member after another offered appreciation to the administration for the way in which the project was structured and for the recent briefings the administration gave to council members leading up to the committee vote.

The usual suspects who most often support the administration voiced their approval: Karen Goldner, Tim Pape and Glynn Hines. Even John Shoaff said it was wise and appropriate. Mr. Shoaff is usually to bonds as a mongoose is to cobras. He doesn’t like them for a variety of reasons, mostly the additional cost, but last night he express approval and appreciation of the project. Other council members around the table asked a few questions and made a few comments, but nothing unusual until Liz Brown, candidate for mayor in the Republican primary, and councilwoman-at-large, jumped in. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

The star of last night’s council meeting was a citizen, Phil Marx. It was a dose of reality after an evening of mud-wrestling.

What Mr. Marx vividly and dramatically detailed to council was a litany, a long-long litany, of the abuse he and his neighbors had long endured and against which they had fought and defeated in order to take back neighborhood from thugs. Mr. Marx read police statistics for just one street, his, that were simply amazing -knifings, screw-driver to the head, shootings, assaults, false 911 calls, battery, vandalism…jeez, Louise. The list went on and on and on to the discomfort of all members of council and everyone in the audience. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

Scott Harrold and Elissa McGauley sat before council last night as an example of city-county economic development cooperation and left nearly everybody in the room scratching heads to try to understand the tangled and intricate proposal they had introduced.

Harrold and McGauley are both economic development specialists with the county and city, respectively. McGauley, who called Howard her “counterpart” at the county, works to help businesses gain tax abatements and to oversee their compliance with the promises they make to the community in exchange for your help.” (The tax breaks they receive means you will have to pick up a share of their abatements, and millions in tax “incentives” are handed out each year in the hope the company will 1) keep its promises, 2) create jobs and, 3) add to the economic viability of Fort Wayne and Allen County.) Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

There was no meeting of council last night, so members puttered in their various gardens, planting, weeding, dreaming of big harvests.

One such dreamer was council woman Liz Brown at work in a debate with Paula Hughes, former county council president, and Eric Doden, lawyer and businessman, over to whom we should next entrust leadership of the city. Among topics debated was how to use the Light Lease inheritance. In short, Mrs. Hughes wishes to pay off city debt, Mr. Doden wishes to invest it in business development and Mrs. Brown thinks it would be best used as an internal governmental fund to pay for “economic development” projects. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

It just came out of the blue. One punch after another. Mitch Harper stunned the council and its audience with a a series of angry questions that put an unsuspecting witness on the back of his seat and and an equally surprised audience looking at the floor in embarrassed silence. Because the attack was so un-Mitch-like it was all that more an abrupt reversal to a pleasant council start.

The matter was a janitorial contract for the new city hall, the ill-named Citizen’s Square, itself the subject of more than a few barbs as the night went on. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

One of the reasons I so enjoy observing city council in person is the high drama, even on an evening of low energy as was last night.

Again, as usual, Councilwoman Liz Brown, representative at-large and a candidate for the Republican nomination for mayor, played one of the lead dramatic roles, but the other was offered by a duo from the community, Central Labor Council President Tom Lewandowski, and labor researcher Cheryl Hitzemann. They were there to put council, the administration and businesses on notice, in a gentle, low-energy sort of way, concerning tax abatements. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

I just read mayoral candidate Eric Doden’s news release from a new conference held last week. If I may, here are a few thoughts.

First, Mr. Doden wrote: “As Mayor, all my actions will be focused toward implementing policies that retain, create and attract good-paying jobs to Fort Wayne, but that’s not enough,” Well, sure. In the early ’80s there was an economic development office in the city that busied itself answering business inquiries and sending out brochures. It was a start. Later, various entities, including the city and the Chamber of Commerce, decided to consolidate and expand that effort. Now, the Alliance and the Regional partnership compete aggressively, as they say, to present the best face possible for Fort Wayne, to prepare the ground, literally and figuratively, for new business and when a prospect is identified to create a package of incentives to bring that company to Fort Wayne. In short, what Mr. Doden proposes is already well underway with a long history.

In addition, his competitor, Councilwoman Liz Brown, has aggressively pushed both the Alliance and the Regional Partnership to more clearly show what they have done and not only their failures, as well as their few victories. “Wins,” they call them. But, to be sure, they are working away at it and well ahead of the above call to action. She long ago staked out the economic development ground as hers.

Mr. Doden adds: “In today’s global economy, a mayor must also be an aggressive advocate for the city to potential job creators around the globe.” True. As I remember, Tom Henry has been on one or two foreign trips for that very purpose. We also have sister cities in Japan, Germany and Poland that were, in part, designed to facilitate trade between Fort Wayne and those vibrant economies. Tom Henry has been a strong supporter of exactly that. Nothing new here in Mr. Doden’s call to action. The cavalry charged out long ago.

A lot of fluff follows in the news release about a “great place to do business,” and putting a sign on our front door that “Fort Wayne is open for business.” Do I hear an echo? Isn’t that about what everybody spouts off in an election years? It is nothing new.

Then, he adds that he will “create a one stop shipping experience for employers looking to relocate” here. I remember that was a campaign theme of Graham Richard in his 1980 gubernatorial bid and every candidate and mayor since. Certainly, Win Moses and Paul Helmke made that their themes and Graham was one of the first to so advocate. Nothing new here. I would add that is exactly what the Alliance is supposed to do and is funded to do: once a company has been identified as ready to expand here the Alliance is to “hold their hand” through the maze of county offices that manage business expansion, including the Building Department with its indifferent attitude toward customer service. Mr. Doden is simply well behind the curve here, as well.

Then, he writes, “If elected, I’ll ensure area economic development organizations will have a full and proactive partner in the Mayor’s office.” Specifically, Mr. Doden will work with local economic development organizations to implement a strategy of “identifying weak suppliers of established long-term companies who could be purchased by Fort Wayne investors and moved to Fort Wayne.” Huh? A little government intrusion into the market place, a merger and acquisitions department in city government? Sounds like more employees and a bigger city budget, and it sounds daffy. Private business purchasing departments shop every day for suppliers and supplies and if one company can’t deliver they go instantaneously somewhere else. In an economy that is hungry there are plenty of suppliers searching for buyers. Sounds just a tad like the sort of ‘socialism’ he would otherwise rail against, only a sort of corporate government style of socialism. There is a term for it.

Finally, he calls for reform of the city’s permitting process. Aaaargh. Currently, there is a task force well underway, chaired by the deputy mayor (not a fourth level bureaucrat) and involving city council members and private sector folk, to do just that. It has been underway for months. The deputy mayor calls it one of her priorities. I would add that much of the current permitting process is a collaboration of city and county and it is designed to protect the public through public hearings and timely notifications. Certainly, some businesses would prefer simply to waltz in, say “trust me” and saunter out with a permit, but it doesn’t work that way. Most of us want to know if someone else’s best intentions may cut our property value in half. But, there is room for reform and simplification and that is what the mayor’s task force is currently assessing. Catch up time for Mr. Doden.

Throughout the news release there are plenty of fine sounding phrases about being the city’s “Chief Marketing Officer,” and business will have a “proactive partner in the Mayor’s office,” but there is little specific about it and hardly anything that is not already being done.

It goes back to my basic complaint concerning the Doden candidacy: he is so new to the scene that he apparently is not aware of what is already being done. I would add that is hard to improve upon something you don’t understand.

By Jim Sack

The drowsy end of the two-hour meeting might have been the most interesting. Charles Eberhart from somewhere in Waynedale lumbered to the open mic. A few weeks back he had affably pushed Pickle Ball, a downsized version of tennis for geezers like me…and foggies like him. Last night he called into question, in an equally affable manner, that the city and the county had both hired the same guy to represent them in matters concerning co-location in the old and new city halls. Eberhart wondered how either entity could trust the negotiator to have their interests foremost. He noted that Ken Neumeister was that man and then quipped that Neumeister had boasted about how he had already saved the county more in the deal than the substantial amount they are paying him. Hmmm? At whose expense. Eberhart, a retired union man, added that such an arrangement would have been unthinkable in management-labor negotiations of his era. You could see eyes on council narrow as they considered the implications. Read the rest of this entry »