CONTROL BOARD SAYS NO TO NEW HIGH SCHOOL

By a vote of 6-3, the School Property Tax Control Board voted to reject the School City of Hammond's plan for a new Hammond high school.

The control board's nonbinding decision now goes to Cheryl Musgrave, the DLGF Commissioner for a final decision. Should Musgrave veto the project, voters would have the opportunity to approve the new high school by way of a referendum.

Four members of Team Hammond Taxpayers' Group made the trip down to Indianapolis to attend the control board hearing. Team Hammond would not attack the need nor the location or consolidation; their focus would be that the past performance of the SCH did not justify building a new school.

During Jim Premeske's presentation, he emphasized the degree to which the SCH adjusted their statements to support any position they might take: i.e. "...we need new schools because enrollment is increasing" or four years earlier "...with a declining enrollment we must...add schools." Example: justifying a new Maywood because it was too close to Wallace (four blocks), then building the new Maywood two blocks from Wallace. Jim also addressed Hammond's penchant for abandoning buildings prematurely (Orchard Drive), often bearing a demolition expense after half (or less) of its useful life. Jim then addressed the two $21 million schools built consecutively about one mile apart, while schools built to the same design were built for $11 million and $14 million elsewhere. Lake County's exclusion from the statewide property tax relief implementation schedule (and why), Hammond's declining population, and the negative impact of TIFs on property tax revenues were also covered by Premeske's presentation.

Jim Sheehan's presentation followed next. He explained the deception inherent in the SCH's financial package; that as much as $400 million was unaccounted for in their required legal advertisement and how the school board was misleading citizens into thinking their property taxes would not increase. Sheehan explained how the SCH had established a sham "multi-building school corporation" holding entity to avoid the limitations of Article 13 of the Indiana Constitution. The sham corporation bonds, builds, then leases buildings to SCH to avoid financial regulation by the state. SCH's debt limit is not more thn $52 million while their existing (pre-Hammond High/Gavit) debt is $362.7 million. During cross examination, it was discovered that to win approval the new debt had been backloaded: practically no principal would be paid in the early years of the debt, with a huge increase occurring during the last ten years of the bond.

The last Team Hammond presenter was George Janiec. He cited Hammond's unsatisfactory academic performance and the fact that existing statistics showed negligible improvement among students in Hammond's newer schools. He challenged the SCH's assertion that no additional construction was in Hammond's future by addressing the age and enrollment limitations of the Depression-era George Rogers Clark MS/HS, which will be nearly 100 years old when the largest volume of the proposed debt would be hitting the taxpayers. Much of SCH's justification hinged on a specific wheelchair bound student. George questioned why this would now be of immediate importance when the federal ADA mandated such compliance 16 years ago. George closed with an impassioned plea that the decision for additional debt belonged with the citizens; not with the five school board members and not with the out-of-town administrators, educators and consultants who would not be paying the bills.

Members of the property tax control board said although they sympathized with the need for a new high school, they objected not only to the $106.6 million cost of the construction project but also the estimated $60 to $70 million in interest costs over the life of the 20 year bonds.

Another sticking point with some of the board members was the fact that the bond payments would be backloaded. SCH would pay nothing in 2008 and 2009 according to the proposed financing scheduling giving taxpayers the false security their property taxes would not increase.
However, in 2010 annual payments would jump to $5.3 million and in 2020, payments would balloon to $13.9 million.

While we may have won the battle, the war is far from over. The final decision now rests with Cheryl Musgrave, DLGF Commissioner. Write, call, email or fax Ms. Musgrave at the DLGF in Indianapolis and let her know you oppose this building project. She has six months in which to make her decision.

TEAM HAMMOND LEADER EXONERATED

It's been a little over 2 weeks since the County Board of Elections exonerated one of Team Hammond's leaders, Jim Premeske, of vote fraud.

Premeske had been the target of a smear campaign by Dave Woerpel and Steve Fowler, both ardent supporters of Mayor McDermott. In addition to the vote fraud complaint, it was insinuated that Premeske had two homestead exemptions and was scamming taxpayers.

However by a vote of 4-1, the Election Board found Premeske innocent of the charge. The lone dissenting vote was cast by Alfonso Salinas Sr., father of Hammond City Councilman Alfonso Salinas Jr. His vote did not come as a surprise to Team Hammond members who believed the vote was politically motivated.

The original complaint stated Premeske should not be voting in Hammond because he lives in Schererville and does not reside at the Blaine Avenue address. Allegations were made that not a drop of water had been going into the house for several years and neighbors had said they seldom saw Jim at the home.

At the first hearing in June, Jim provided board members with eleven annotated exhibits which included documentation of Hammond water bills paid, affidavits of neighbors attesting to the fact that Jim did reside at the Blaine Avenue address, documentation of agendas the Lake County Council mailed to Jim at the Blaine Avenue address since late 2004, a memorandum from the Auditor's office dispelling dual homestead exemptions, personal data provided to Dave Woerpel by the Elections Office in violation of IC 3-7-26.4-8, documentation that Schererville is the home office for James Walter Premeske Enterprises, Inc., and Indiana codes and statutes pertinent to the allegations.

Those codes include:

Indiana Code 3-5-2-42.5 (Residence) Residence means the place: 1) where a person has the person's true, fixed and permanent home and principal establishment; and 2) to which the person has, whenever absent, the intention of returning.

Indiana Code 3-5-5-14 (Establishment of voting residence separate from spouse) A married person who does not live in a household with the person's spouse may establish a separate residence from the residence of the person's spouse.

At the July 15 hearing, Election Board Attorney Fred Work stated that the burden of proof was upon the accusers and having failed to provide proof of any election law violations, Work recommended that the Election Board dismiss the charges against Premeske.

Later during the proceedings, Premeske commented on being the victim of unfounded accusations, the damage to one's reputation, and the attack on his liberties. Quoting Tip O'Neill, Jim stated, "All politics is local and the place for me to begin correcting government abuse is in Hammond, Indiana, right in Precinct 3-13."

WE'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE!

Lake County Surveyor George Van Til announced at a news conference on Thursday he will cut his 2009 budget by 16 percent.

Van Til intends to pare $429,382 from his current $2.1 million budget and eliminate two full-time and three part-time positions from his staff. He also called for other Lake County officials and unelected department heads to cut their budgets by at least 12 percent. Van Til also wants the Lake County Council to make further cuts as recommended by the Good Government Initiative.

After it was announced the Surveyor's office would be hiring five new employees despite a hiring freeze and the county facing a revenue shortfall of $15 million, Van Til claimed he did not know about the freeze. However, Lake County Council President Christine Cid wasn't buying it and chastised Van Til saying the budget cuts and hiring freeze were not something new.

Doesn't Van Til read the Times or Post-Tribune?

If Mr. Van Til was really interested in saving taxpayers money, he would suggest consolidating the Surveyor's office with the County Highway and Public Works Departments. He could also contract out work on an "as needed" basis which would result in substantial savings. Finally, he could eliminate such perks as take-home cars which have been used for personal use and filling up private vehicles at the county gas pumps.

Mr. Van Til's change of heart about cutting the Surveyor's budget was just to take the heat off him and make it look like he's one of the good guys in county government.

Yeah, and bears don't poop in the woods!

MAXIMUM SENTENCE FOR JEWELL HARRIS SR.

Jewell Harris Sr., former state lawmaker, was sentenced on Thursday to a maximum of six years in prison for his fraud convictions. Judge James Moody ordered Harris to self-report to the Oxford Prison Camp in Wisconsin on September 1. Harris is also to immediately pay the City of Gary $1.53 million in restitution.

At his trial in January, Harris was convicted of double-billing the City of Gary for work his hauling company did in 2001 during construction of the Steel Yard baseball stadium. Contractor Rieth-Riley also paid Harris' company for the same work during that time period.

On the stand Thursday, Harris argued the City of Gary was not the victim of double-billing. Rieth-Riley paid his company $91,000 for which the city also paid his company. Harris stated the IRS, Rieth-Riley officials and truck drivers in the case lied on the stand about actual work performed.

"I'm surprised that he would take the stand and try to controvert all the evidence at trial," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bernard Van Wormer said. "That tells me he's sorry he got caught, not sorry that he did it."

Defense attorney Kevin Milner said they will appeal both the conviction and the length of Harris' sentence.

IT'S THE ACCOUNTABILITY, STUPID

For release Aug. 6 and thereafter
by Craig Ladwig

The Associated Press headline screamed the news: “Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control.” The article suggested that someone, anyone, get control.

But our legislators are pumping out laws so fast they are hard pressed to even read them. The solution, rather than more control, is a renewal of the glue that holds a constitutional republic together — accountability.

The annual Gallup Annual Survey of Public Confidence in American Institutions found that the least-respected institution is Congress. No surprise there, but it’s worth noting that the rating is the lowest of any institution in the 35 years Gallup has been conducting its survey.

Congress is rated so low — only 12 percent of respondents with a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence — that it reflects what can only be utter public disdain. And the July Rasmussen Report found only nine percent responding that Congress was doing a “good” or “excellent” job.

It is hardly comforting that the highest ranked institutions were the military at 71 percent and the police at 58 percent. Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal has a theory about this. He thinks it is because the military and the police are “self-reforming” institutions, both requiring self-discipline as a job requirement.

Democracy, clearly, has lost its ability to calm us.

All of this suggests that the American citizenry is poised for a historic turn — one toward those few remaining institutions it sees as accountable. And the turn will be made even if the institutions can offer accountability only through the discipline of a command structure. (Can it be an accident that self-government so often ends in “temporary” military or police rule?)

Locally, the Gallup findings seem applicable. Hoosiers are uncertain about their future. They have reason to doubt the self-discipline and the accountability of their legislatures, their chief executives, their city councils, their county councils and their judges.

Here are the talking points at our coffee table:

Indiana schools, libraries, museums, convention centers, music halls, sports stadiums, economic development districts and dozens of other appointed quasi-governmental units hold tight the hands of bonding attorneys and architectural firms who walk them through the arcane world of government finance in exchange for percentage fees.

In at least one Indiana city they want to put private businesses under the review of Neighborhood Code Enforcement. That makes two breathtaking assumptions: That the city’s inspectors would know more about maintaining a business than its owners; and that a business owned by, say, a politician's relative would not enjoy a certain advantage in the new scheme of things.

In every Indiana city there are appointed members of planning and zoning boards moving other people's property around as if playing Monopoly, accountable only to rules understood only by the most specialized law firms.

And finally, several national newspaper chains, one owning influential dailies in Indiana, announce they will outsource certain types of copy editing to India.

With things spinning so, maybe that’s where they think the Indianians live.

T. Craig Ladwig is editor of the Indiana Policy Review, a quarterly journal commissioning articles on state and municipal issues.

From Indiana Policy Review
Sunday, August 3, 2008

DID YOU KNOW....

A transparent government is an honest government. Here's how you can find out if local government agencies share information with you, the voter.

TRANSPARENCY CHECKLIST

A transparency checklist is a list of website transparency features that, ideally, voters and regular citizens in any part of the United States will be able to find when they visit the websites of counties, cities, school districts, and state agencies.

Sunshine Review believes that citizens are entitled to this information in order to effectively exercise their right to hold politicians and public officials accountable. (See No taxation without information.)

THE "MY GOVERNMENT WEBSITE" PROJECT

The The "My Government Website" Project is a project of Sunshine Review, the Sam Adams Alliance and people from all around the country to collaboratively determine the extent to which government-managed websites contain the information people need.

City websites
County websites
School district websites
State agency websites

RANKING TRANSPARENCY

While steps like the Freedom of Information Act have lead to a more open government the burden should fall on the state to make this information accessible to the public. Below are some of the topics which could be covered or expanded:

Budgets: The website should include the current budget. Bonus points if the website shows the budgets for previous years, and a graph showing increases or decreases over time to help citizens evaluate and understand trends in local government spending. The checkbook register and credit card receipts would also be welcome.

Open meeting laws should include notices about public meetings of its governing board, and minutes of past meetings. Also check for Meeting Agendas for future and/or past meetings.

Elected Officials should include names of elected officials, and their contact information, including email addresses. Also we should be able to see an elected official's voting record.

Administrative Officials should be listed on government websites. The website should include the names of key administrators, and their contact information, including e-mail addresses.

Ethics

Audits: The website should include regular audits of state agencies and departments, including the Governor and the Assembly; audit results posted online; scheduled financial audits posted online; and performance audits for state programs.

Contracts: The website should include rules governing contracts posted online; bids and contracts for purchases over $10,000 must be posted online; and vendor campaign contributions posted with contract.

Lobbying: If the unit of government belongs to any lobbying associations that it helps to fund by paying association or membership dues, that information should be disclosed on the government unit's website.

Public records: The website should include the name of the person who is in charge of fulfilling open records requests, along with contact information for that person.

Taxes: The website should include the central location for all tax information, including state "fees" such as drivers' licenses; Tax documents for all elected officials and each agency discloses all sources of revenue.

From Sunshine Review.org Monday, July 14, 2008

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR THE DLGF COMMISSIONER

If you do not support the construction of a new Hammond high school, please contact Cheryl Musgrave, the Commissioner of the DLGF, and voice your opposition. Her mailing address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address are listed below:

Agency: Department of Local Government Finance
Address: IGC-North, 100 N. Senate Avenue, Room N1058(B), Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: 317-232-3775
Fax: 317-232-8779
E-mail: cmusgrave@dlgf.in.gov

It's bond debt that drives up the cost of property taxes. The DLGF should say NO to the new high school until the school city pays off some of its construction debt.