Fort Wayne mayoral race finally gets serious
Hughes' plan for Public Safety AcademySome will call it a bold vision for correcting past mistakes. Others will dismiss it as a baldly political attempt to rewrite history.
Future events will cast the deciding vote, but whatever the ultimate verdict, Republican mayoral candidate Paula Hughes' pledge to breathe new vitality into the city's $27 million Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana will have at least marked a welcome return to seriousness in a campaign too often marred by pettiness on both sides.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday in front of the 133,000-square-foot facility on the former Southtown Mall site, Hughes and others essentially accused her Nov. 8 opponent, Mayor Tom Henry, of short-circuiting a promising start when he exerted city control over the academy not long after taking office in 2008. Hughes said that decision is costing Fort Wayne taxpayers more than $700,000 in annual subsidies, and insisted the private sector would be willing to help if only someone would ask. should guide last month of campaign
That kind of “public-private partnership” was in place when the academy opened, local businessman and former academy Foundation Chairman Pete Eshelman added, “But that vision was decimated.”
Languishing somewhere between boondoggle and showpiece, the academy's potential has always exceeded its pocketbook. That was, in fact, the stated justification for the city's decision to assert control in the first place, which reportedly precipitated the resignations of Eshelman and Executive Director Brent Johnson nearly four years ago. Now Eshelman is back, agreeing with Hughes' assertion that, recession or no recession, “there is money out there for things people are passionate about.”
That's hardly a given, of course, which is why City Controller Pat Roller in 2008 predicted a deficit of $800,000 in 2009 and $1 million in 2010. “The problem was, I just didn't know (what was happening financially) and we wanted to bring the accounting in-house because the city is responsible,” she explained.
Nor is it accurate to imply that current Director Bernie Beier is not seeking private donations. He is, telling me in 2009 that he hoped to be generating $500,000 in contributions within just a few years.
It's even a little unfair to criticize the Henry administration's subsidies, since Hughes said she would not be in a hurry to eliminate them if that meant closing the academy.
But as I said, whether the academy's original public-private governance structure failed or was simply not given a chance to succeed is, for now, almost irrelevant. What matters is that Hughes has committed herself to correcting one of the more unfortunate episodes in city government's recent history, which should exert pressure on Henry to do likewise.
Envisioned as a largely self-funded training center for federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies and as a centerpiece of south-side redevelopment, the academy has, clearly, never lived up to that vision. Ironically, Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries – who stood with Hughes and Eshelman on Wednesday – explained some of the reason for that three years ago when he wondered why he should pay to rent space “even though we already have a classroom and most agencies have a place for training.” Unless new deep pockets can assure the facility's free use, that problem will remain.
Hughes said Wednesday she hasn't tried to create a network of potential donors – “I have to win the campaign first,” she correctly stated – but if her decision to focus the spotlight on a too-often-ignored potential gem produces the desired results regardless of who wins next month, she will have done the community a favor. And if she does become the city's next mayor and can tap donors that have eluded Henry and Beier to date, all the better.
Better still would be if Wednesday's news conference induces both candidates to stop the silly name calling – neither is a tax-and-spend liberal, no matter what the ads say – and spend the campaign's final month debating equally legitimate issues in an equally serious way.
That way, voters can hold the ultimate victor accountable for what is or isn't accomplished, thereby providing equally serious and legitimate fodder for the next election.
Future events will cast the deciding vote, but whatever the ultimate verdict, Republican mayoral candidate Paula Hughes' pledge to breathe new vitality into the city's $27 million Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana will have at least marked a welcome return to seriousness in a campaign too often marred by pettiness on both sides.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday in front of the 133,000-square-foot facility on the former Southtown Mall site, Hughes and others essentially accused her Nov. 8 opponent, Mayor Tom Henry, of short-circuiting a promising start when he exerted city control over the academy not long after taking office in 2008. Hughes said that decision is costing Fort Wayne taxpayers more than $700,000 in annual subsidies, and insisted the private sector would be willing to help if only someone would ask. should guide last month of campaign
That kind of “public-private partnership” was in place when the academy opened, local businessman and former academy Foundation Chairman Pete Eshelman added, “But that vision was decimated.”
Languishing somewhere between boondoggle and showpiece, the academy's potential has always exceeded its pocketbook. That was, in fact, the stated justification for the city's decision to assert control in the first place, which reportedly precipitated the resignations of Eshelman and Executive Director Brent Johnson nearly four years ago. Now Eshelman is back, agreeing with Hughes' assertion that, recession or no recession, “there is money out there for things people are passionate about.”
That's hardly a given, of course, which is why City Controller Pat Roller in 2008 predicted a deficit of $800,000 in 2009 and $1 million in 2010. “The problem was, I just didn't know (what was happening financially) and we wanted to bring the accounting in-house because the city is responsible,” she explained.
Nor is it accurate to imply that current Director Bernie Beier is not seeking private donations. He is, telling me in 2009 that he hoped to be generating $500,000 in contributions within just a few years.
It's even a little unfair to criticize the Henry administration's subsidies, since Hughes said she would not be in a hurry to eliminate them if that meant closing the academy.
But as I said, whether the academy's original public-private governance structure failed or was simply not given a chance to succeed is, for now, almost irrelevant. What matters is that Hughes has committed herself to correcting one of the more unfortunate episodes in city government's recent history, which should exert pressure on Henry to do likewise.
Envisioned as a largely self-funded training center for federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies and as a centerpiece of south-side redevelopment, the academy has, clearly, never lived up to that vision. Ironically, Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries – who stood with Hughes and Eshelman on Wednesday – explained some of the reason for that three years ago when he wondered why he should pay to rent space “even though we already have a classroom and most agencies have a place for training.” Unless new deep pockets can assure the facility's free use, that problem will remain.
Hughes said Wednesday she hasn't tried to create a network of potential donors – “I have to win the campaign first,” she correctly stated – but if her decision to focus the spotlight on a too-often-ignored potential gem produces the desired results regardless of who wins next month, she will have done the community a favor. And if she does become the city's next mayor and can tap donors that have eluded Henry and Beier to date, all the better.
Better still would be if Wednesday's news conference induces both candidates to stop the silly name calling – neither is a tax-and-spend liberal, no matter what the ads say – and spend the campaign's final month debating equally legitimate issues in an equally serious way.
That way, voters can hold the ultimate victor accountable for what is or isn't accomplished, thereby providing equally serious and legitimate fodder for the next election.
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