Chris Dunn, Executive Director of Allen County Youth Services doesn’t seem to think so as he heaped praise on Nelson Peters, who is opposed to Allen County employees paying 3 percent of their pay into their retirement plans. The state mandates it, but since 1988, the County has paid.

Of course with Dunn being a county employee, he would rush to support Peters, since it will help his monthly bottom line. In today’s paper, Dunn falsely writes:

Closed doors make for poor decisions

The latest decision by Steve Shine to call another closed-door meeting makes me want to change my party affiliation. The voters want a government that is transparent. I realize that some meetings do not have to be open to the public, but why is it necessary unless there is something to hide?

The last closed-door meeting at Republican Headquarters that I attended was enough to end my active involvement with the party. In that meeting the decision to support Matt Kelty for mayor was determined to be the direction of the party.

The party decided to back Kelty?  That’s news to the voters who picked Kelty in the Republican primary that year.

[...]

Thanks to Commissioner Nelson Peters for clearly expressing his thoughts and for the attempt at transparency.

CHRIS DUNN Churubusco

On August 23rd, the Journal Gazette falsely accused Allen County Republicans of meeting behind closed doors. Not true.

Also in today’s JG, a letter from Allen County Republican Chairman Steve Shine.

On Aug. 16, I invited members of the Allen County Council and the county commissioners to a political caucus. I personally delivered notice of this meeting to The Journal Gazette, not exactly the action of someone trying to cloak a meeting in secrecy. I called this meeting to settle personality conflicts that arose among members of the two bodies during recent budget talks – not, as the newspaper suggests, to settle matters of policy behind closed doors.

Indiana’s Open Door Law clearly allows for such a caucus. The newspaper’s contention that “officials could easily decide the (budget) issue in the caucus and simply cast a public vote later” is simply not true. The law does not allow that in a political caucus. It is my duty as chairman and as an attorney responsible for abiding by the law to make sure we conform to the permitted parameters of a caucus.

[...]

Rather than meddle in the affairs of a political party with which it clearly disagrees, perhaps The Journal Gazette should focus on changing state law’s loopholes that actually affect public policy. Perhaps it should work toward more access to single-executive offices, like that of the mayor, where discussions and decisions happen every day without the benefit of public scrutiny.

The Journal Gazette does not advocate for city department heads to boycott mayoral staff meetings, yet it insists that those I have invited should skip a legal and legitimate political caucus.

Then again, with the Journal Gazette being the PR machine behind the Henry administration, would you expect anything less?

Back to the retirement plans. It’s rare at most companies for employees not to contribute to their retirement plans. Everyone’s got to tighten their belts, so why not them?

No related posts.

It was nearly a love-fest at the co-location summit yesterday. First, Sheriff Ken Fries and Police Chief Rusty York all but held hands as they sang the praises of the other and endorsed the idea of co-location. Then the architects gave their upbeat overview of numbers concerning the final two options, Scheme A or Scheme B, surprisingly with not many dollars separating one from the other. Then the elected officials from Roy Buskirk to Paula Hughes voiced their approvals. In the end, co-location a la Scheme A, was agreed to: public safety in One Main and development and administration in 200 Berry. Unanimous! Only Paul Moss, who had served as devil’s advocate and more during the months of haggling, sounded like he wanted to vote “no.” Three county commissioners, one mayor, three members of city council and three members of county council all clasped hands and sang, as one cynic noted, Kumbaya. Paul had no option.

Now the motion, to co-mingle county and government functions, “for the good of citizens,” as Paula Hughes reminded everyone, moves to county council for its approval and to city council for a report. City council has already approved the funding, the mayor is on board, as are the county commissioners. Paul Moss, Roy Buskirk and Paula Hughes voted in favor, so unless the other members of county council manage to over-rule them the matter, for the moment, is done.

From the 30,000 foot level, as another councilman put it, the decision has been made. Now to the trenches.

During the negotiations the mayor promised a million dollars to help the county see his point of view. The question one councilman, John Shoaff, asked is where will that money come from? Whatever the source, and you know how tight, tight, tight the administration use to say their budgets were, the Mayor will have to send any appropriation down to council for approval. I will guess that Councilmen Harper, Shoaff and Smith will not make it easy. Tom Smith has already stated he will not appropriate a dollar more. It is also possible that a fourth and a fifth member of council may put themselves in play to trade a vote on the million for something they might hold dear, say a critical appointment to a sensitive board, for example.

You can also bet that in the not to distant future there will be a parking garage near 200 Berry.

You can also bet that unforeseen expenses will crop up. They always, always do. So, the mayor will have to come and ask again and again for a few hundred thousand or so to make things work. It is inevitable. But the inertia is now on the mayor’s side and it will be increasingly easy to find the money despite the tight, tight, tight budget, despite a year or two of dramatically reduced revenues on the horizon.

Mitch Harper may have set the tone. He said that the city county building has been a work in progress since it was opened with walls constantly moving to accommodate different office configurations. It will continue that way at a greater speed now that there is a “second” city hall in downtown. The money will be there.

On first blush, the new layout with the police/sheriff ensconced between the Meeks Center and the Court House makes sense. Having the leadership and the development team on Berry also seems to make sense. It will save some people many steps. It should make for better communications between departments and lead to greater efficiencies. It should. Expect revisions to be made a number of times before the moving vans, which were not budgeted for, arrive. Should you care to know the mayor will have the prime offices on the forth floor. The commissioners will be down the hall. Council, both city and county, will be on the first floor…

So, the meeting ended with a round of applause for Cory Miller and Ron Dick, the two architects, from two competing firms, who collaborated to drag this concept of combining governments through the political minefield to safety, or near safety. There should also have been a strong round of applause for John Stafford who moderated, cajoled, negotiated, prodded, schmoozed and escorted the concept to fruition.

For the rest of us it is now our job to remind the politicians they are doing this to streamline local government, to make it more efficient and more user-friendly. You and I are the users. This should not be left to them, alone. The city’s web site has the full report.

But, we should appreciate what the have done. It has been a sloppy, awkward process, a bit of village democracy. Nelson Peters laughed at the end of the meeting, after the self congratulations had subsided, and said, “now on the healthcare.”

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At least with sausage making you can drink a nice German beer, say a Kostritzer from Gera, to dull the pain. There was no such option today. The meeting was comical at times, disappointing most of the time, disrespectful, inarticulate, confused, and oh yes, a mess.

The highly respected John Stafford chairs the task force and even as capable and articulate as he is the meeting got away from him quickly. The seating chart should have been a giveaway. One the left (literally, not figuratively) were Councilmen Tom Smith, Tim Pape and Mitch Harper. On the right (literally and figuratively) were County Council members Roy Buskirk, Paula Hughes and Paul Moss. In the middle (to their misfortune) were commissioners Linda Bloom and Nelson Peters, moderator Stafford and placed uncomfortably near Councilman Moss our fuming Mayor Tom Henry. (Bill Brown fortuitously had scheduled something else moons ago so he was spared the confusion and confrontation and pettiness.)

The seating chart demanded and got confrontation: in one corner, the city, on the other side the country, and the leadership stuck in the middle like so many puny referees, only Tom Henry decided to wade right into the middle.

Disrespectful can describe Mr. Pape, Mr. Moss, and Mr. Buskirk Mr. Pape started it by laughing at a comment by one of the County representatives. Moss took any number of personal shots at Mr. Pape. Mr. Buskirk gestured his applause when Mr. Pape said he was about to wrap up one of his many interminable soliloquies. Pape retaliated a number of times in Mr. Moss’ direction, by name. Disrespectful in all cases. Mr. Pape, wearing red, and Mr. Moss, dressed in various shades of mafia black, sparred for most of the two-hour marathon.

Befuddled is what comes to mind when describing the mayor. He could not seem to grasp a point early in the meeting that was presented and remade to him by three different people, each version an attempt to simplify the point so the mayor might final grasp it. He finally furled his brow and buried his nose in his notes. He never seemed to catch up. Later in meeting, when Councilman Mitch Harper offered the mayor a chance to show a measure of leadership the mayor fulminated into a tantrum about being dissed by others at the table. He verbally folded his arms over his chest and pouted, calling instead for postponement so tempers could cool. (His was the temper most frayed.) Then, trying to recover his leadership mantle again he threw the meeting into further confusion while thinking out loud whether he could spare a few thousand dollars after having offered millions at various stages of the meeting. The mayor, who should have been the biggest guy at the table looked more often like the smallest person in the group. During a vote on a key question only the mayor voted no, eight to one against him. He was clearly out of step with the group he had created.

Winners? Nelson Peters was very calm and offered humor. Paula Hughes tried to find common ground, even though her earlier quotes concerning mayoral offers were obviously hurtful to the mayor and part of the reason he was so testy. Linda Bloom barely spoke, but did add a few facts to clarify discussions. Silence was constructive.

And, oh yes, there were two architects who were there to explain co-location options to the assembled “leaders” and propose a way forward. Their comments were soon lost in the din.

So, finally, after two hours of snipes, hurt feelings, pouting and recriminations (Must See TV as one observer put it) the task force came to a decision: to pay the architects another $70,000 to “drill down” to a finer set of figures on moving various departments of city and county government to 200 East Berry/W&D’s/the Renaissance Building. And, they decided to find out exactly why the sheriff is not all that keen on being closer to the FWPD. (Drill Down. I hope I never again hear that overworked phrase.)

It was a mess. They barely, these leaders of our community, could arrive at decisions. The mayor almost took is ball and went home, just, just as consensus seemed to have been achieved. Pout. Aaaargh. Cooler heads prevailed.

Part of the blame goes to the format. The mayor and commissioners should be above all this petty bickering. Deputy Mayor Greg Purcell (oooops) and a chief of staff from the Commissioner, and reps from either council, should have hammered out the project. Sitting at the table the mayor should have leaned back in his chair and listened, instead he muddled things and embarrassed himself. One representative, other than Mr. Moss, would have been enough from the county, same from the city council. Just too many cooks and seated in a way that spelled, shouted, announced confrontation. Whoever designed the format, and I hope it was not the good and capable Mr. Stafford, should be sent to a group dynamics class.

I left the meeting and quickly went for a bratwurst and a beer, a Kostritzer from sister city Gera.

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