Thursday, August 27, 2009

Fishers City vs Town -Petition Comments

Fishers Indiana, town or city?

Many of you living in the Geist area will remember when we tried to form our own city only to be stopped by Fishers and the courts. While doing research on becoming a City I also looked into how come Fishers was still listed as a town and I found out any town in Indiana can remain a town forever. No population requirement, no size requirement, etc. Indianapolis could even be a town.

To change from a town to a city it would take a vote by the citizens of the community to convert. But how do I get it on the ballot for people to vote? I found all I needed was so many signatures based on how many people had voted for the Secretary of State and that came to around 1500 voters living in Fishers. So far I alone have collected about 1000 signatures and others are now collecting more. It has been very interesting do this with comments from some people. These are great on both sides of the fence. One of my favorite places to meet with people is the Fishers Farmers Market on Saturday morning. If is not 90 degrees or raining the odds are you can see me getting signatures and talking to people.

Part of the fun is hearing what people say or their questions. So here are some of the statements, questions, and comments:

When I first started to collect signatures I had to explain what was this all about. This past Saturday I had three people just grab my clip board and sign without having to say a word.

Here we go:

I though Fishers was a city.

What’s the difference?

I won’t sign because you will get this on the ballot and the people around here will approve a city.

I would love to sign but I work for the town and they ….

Two Fishers Policemen- “What are you doing?” I said “Getting signatures on a petition that you should sign but won’t to place on the ballot the question of town versus city in accordance with my rights as protected under the Constitution of the United States.” After their surprise look, they just left.

Will this raise my taxes?

Will this lower my taxes?

Will this mean get a real Mayor?

Will we still have a town manager?

Will we get rid of the town council?

Will we keep the town council?

Does this mean we get rid of Mayor Church?

What’s voting at large?

Will we still have our sister city?

Will this change the fire and police?

Will this mean we get smoke free restaurants?

I have watched what the Council is doing and I don’t like the way they are acting. They should have placed this on the ballot when you started instead of telling us everything is perfect.

I live in Geist can I sign? (Yes we will be submitting this after the annexation takes place.)

I live in Geist can I vote on this?

Who is my district representative?

Do we currently have district representatives?

I live in Chicago can I sign? (Sorry but I would consider it if you bring dead relatives and Mayor Daly along.)

Will this change the way we vote for council?

I like the way things are.

What is a storm water fee?

Will a City have trash pick up?

I have lived here over 30 years and …

When will this be on the ballot?

What is the main change this will bring?

Will a City cause even more development?

Will a City mean more controlled development?

I never know whom to complaint to in this town, will that change with a city?

Will this change the Fishers Schools? (Many were surprised to find out Fishers does not have a town school system)

Do you know where the bathroom is?

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Sarah 2 Weeks gone and over ridden.

It’s hard to believe but Sarah Palin while governor of Alaska turned down 28 million dollars of federal money for energy-efficiency. Sarah is gone, its been two weeks since she quit, and the people of Alaska have saner legislators that have over ridden her old veto on those funds. It gets even better, Sarah turned it down because as she put it, accepting the money would force Alaska to adopt new building codes.

First as it turns out no need to change any building codes and second if the codes were such that homes built were not energy efficient what is so wrong with that.

In fact we need to raise our codes in Indiana. Indiana is another one of those states led by politicians that feel that government should not tell people what to do. I do agree, but some most people have no clue about energy efficiency and then it becomes governments place to help the citizen with codes that force homebuilders and developers to meet certain standards. I am willing to bet 99% of the people have no clue as the R value needed in their home or even what an R value is. OK, go Google R Value.

Once again Sarah has shown me how dangerous she is.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Never in Indiana

Just for info, South Carolina is having another of their tax free holidays (on everything) even saves $300 on buying a car (max tax on a car in South Carolina) or most likely 8.5% on buying anything.

Would Indiana ever do something like this. NEVER. You see Indiana is an anti- citizen state. Mitch would never adopt a consumer friendly action such as this. But Mitch you should, as it would help out your business buddies. They could sell products and make money, get things moving again, maybe even put a few more people to work. I know its a hard concept to envision but it does help.

Oh Mitch by the way did you notice in SC the max tax on a car purchase is $300.00. I didn't think so.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Gerrymandering in Fishers Part II

The wheels have started to turn, the maps are on the desks, the question where to draw the crooked lines so Charlie’s replacement can be appointed.

Rumor has it Charlie White will be resigning soon; he is going to run for Secretary of State and will not have time for the Town Council. Rumor also has it that his replacement is Mike Colby and therefore the district lines must be redrawn. Congratulations Mike on winning an election Fishers style.

Of course its all legal and both parties are guilty of this game. Should it be legal of course not, will it ever change, I doubt it.

By the way, Friday I will be going to the State Fair and one of my favorite things is to go to the pig barn, I am always looking for the famous pork barrel. Meet me for lunch at the Dairy Barn. If you are selling anything fried, sorry no sale.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Gerrymandering Fishers and Hamilton County Style

Guess what is starting to rear its ugly head once again. Gerrymandering is coming once again to Fishers and to Indiana voting districts.

Wikipedia defines it as follows:

“Gerrymandering is a form of boundary delimitation (redistricting) in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral advantage. Gerrymandering may be used to help or hinder particular constituents, such as members of a political, racial, linguistic, religious or class group.”

In Fishers it’s a way of life to protect those in office. When Scott moved to a new home the Town Council, in the dead of the night, annexed his property and then included it in his district so he would not lose his political office, next came Eileen moving to a new home and guess what they did? Oh let see you guessed they moved the district boundaries. Well, you are 100% correct. Why is this coming up again? Some rumored changes are coming to the Town Council. Charlie is going to run for Secretary of State so the Council or Republican Party will name a replacement, they may have to move boundaries for whoever this newly selected person. Others on the council may be leaving and just watch district lines fly all over the place, next comes Geist, oh what to do about Geist. I am willing to bet Scott’s single house lot is not is the same district as everyone else in Geist, you see he would never get elected from District that contains voters from Geist. Or split up Geist into many small sections attached to other districts to remove the impact of these voters. This would be very true if the voters convert Fishers into a City where voters select their representatives from their own district. You mean they don’t do that now. No, not in Fishers. All district representatives are elected town wide. Can’t get defeated that way. No wonder no one votes in the Fishers elections.

Or keep all of Geist in one district so they could only get one Council member and the other could keep them in check. Funny how that works in Fishers. It’s time to sweep clean the entire Town Council.

Next comes other areas in Hamilton County, I have heard that Kathy Richardson is busy at work redrawing county lines, after all Kathy is the Elections head of the county, she is also the one I ran against in the last election, you know the one who ran her own election. Maybe she will gerrymander my home up I-69 to Forth Wayne. You know I would not be surprised. Let’s see I live on a corner lot, so up the boundary would run in the street up Olio Road to Route 238 and then onto I-69 to Exit 6 it would make the District 100 miles long, but who cares. I would then be in District 83. I would not be surprised. Would you be?