Posts Tagged “Rusty York”

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

Last night’s council meeting was so boring that a council member resorted to text messages to keep reporters awake.

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There were a couple of interesting exchanges last night at city council concerning travel. Council President Smith took Police Chief Rusty York to task over a recent trip of three officers and a mayoral aide to Gera, Germany, our sister city. Later, John Urbahns, director of the city’s planning departments, was asked why his travel budget showed an increase. Travel. Junkets? Useful?

Hmmm.

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City council is more interesting to me than any movie, any TV program, many social events. There is occasional drama, humor and pathos, not to mention combat. I am there defending my tax dollar and the character of my city. You should be, too.

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Update: As predicated, WANE has killed all the comments on their article.

It looks like someone from WANE decided it wasn’t right for Emily Marini to essentially “lift” a story from this site for their use, (see here).

They decided to delete it and post a new story.

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Update: Finally, one MSM outlet has picked up on the story we posted at 3:49 p.m. Not long after WANE accessed our web site and read about it, they reported this at 6:42 pm.

911 Comm. Dir. on administrative leave
Tina Taviano

Updated: Monday, 12 Oct 2009, 6:42 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 12 Oct 2009, 6:42 PM EDT

Emily Marini
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE)– – Fort Wayne’s 911 Communications Director has been placed on administrative leave.

Tina Taviano has held this position since January of last year. The position oversees the 911 call center, the radio shop and records division.

Taviano ran for sheriff against Ken Fries in 2006 on the democratic ticket and lost. The city is being very tight lipped as to why she’s been placed on leave, as well as for how long.

I guess we didn’t speak to anyone with “tight lips.” We were told she was fired, and we’re expecting her resignation tomorrow or Wednesday. Note the bold red portion of their story against the same below in our story. Hey WANE, you’re welcome!

End of update ~~

Tina Taviano, who ran an expensive, yet failed bid for sheriff in 2006 was suspended Friday from her position as Fort Wayne’s director of communication, which oversees the police 911 call center, radio shop and records division. She was appointed to the position in January, 2008.

While unofficial, we’re told by a source with the city she was terminated for sexual harassment as a result of a complaint filed with the City of Fort Wayne’s Metropolitan Human Relations Commission. Taviano is an admitted lesbian. Update: She was in fact terminated, but was given two days to turn in her resignation.

During Taviano’s campaign, she touted the fact she served over 7 years on the Mayor’s Commission against Domestic Violence, Sexual Harassment and Rape.

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