Once again Fishers Pays off a Developer

OK Mayor Fadness said, “One of the things I hear the most from our Fishers residents is the desire for more local food and entertainment options.”

So here comes the “Yard” a private development by Thompson Thrift Retail group and low and behold a large chunk of money form the City of Fishers, much of it hidden of course from the citizens under various statements that most people don’t understand.

Here we go:

1.     The agreement includes waiver of Impact Fees.  Why?

2.     Economic Development Bonds to the tune of $7 million dollars. Why?

3.     TIF District – reduces tax collection over time and hurts the HSE School district.  Why?

4.     The city will lease two 1,500 sq ft buildings to be used as a culinary and / or restaurant accelerator. Why?

If this has such a great demand and is wanted by residents why is the City giving even one penny to the developer. If it were badly wanted wouldn’t the developers be happy to risk their own money to make a profit. Why is the City allowing any of this or is to insure that money flows into the re-election coffers of the city council members.  Give the developer money and expect payback later in donations to a campaign. By the way how many millions is this worth? Less government republicans seems to be in 100% and in lock step with this development. It seems that pay for play is at it again. The name Thompson appears on Mr. Fadness’s campaign contribution reports as well as many other contractors to the city.  I guess taxpayers don’t count.  Mr. Fadness you should return every penny from any one or business that has a contract with the city.  I know it is allowed in the State of Indiana but it is still not ethical.  By the way the same goes for many of the other City of Fishers Council members you should not accept any money from contractors or from the owners who are trying to hide they are paying you off. I know it does not in any way influence your vote on the council. Who are you kidding, not me.

Voters and taxpayers of the City of Fishers please remember this when the City elections come around in a few years if you don’t I will remind you.

Its time Kathy Richardson resign as Election Administrator or State Rep.

State Rep Kathy Richardson continues to run her own election and this may be the biggest case of potential election fraud in the State of Indiana. She is the “Election Administrator” of the Hamilton County and at the same time elected to the office of State Representative.  Isn’t it time she be made to pick one job and not run her own election.  Of course in Hamilton (one party) County no one see’s anything wrong with this. Then again in the one party state they will not find anything wrong with this.

Then she continues to have early voting in the courthouse so people can see her walking around from her office right across the hall from the voting.

Now lets take a look at early voting. Why did people have to stand in line for hours at the Carmel Library and Fishers City Hall? In some cases up to five hours. Why is the main early voting held in the Courthouse with the very limited parking and all kinds of security checks to get into he building?

Here are some easy solutions to the mess we had in early voting. First of all add extra voting machines at both the Library and City Hall. The machines were available, as they were not needed until election day for other locations. Easy to double or triple the number of machines at each location.  Or was the five-hour wait on purpose? Ms. Richardson can claim what a great job she did having early voting and ignore the lack of thinking on her part.  Or the time the machines failed at the Carmel Library and then turning away those people at Fishers when they arrived a few minutes late after being told to go to Fishers from Carmel.

The Courthouse had 18 machines and the other two only five.  Now my other question is why the Courthouse? Oh I know because it has always been done at the Courthouse and Ms. Richardson needs people to see her.  The County owns just blocks away Fairgrounds with big buildings and lots of parking. So way not use these facilities to hold early voting. It would reduce the amount of Sherriff Deputies needed to inspect every person entering the Courthouse, reduce the need to try and find a parking spot and just make life easier for the voters. Can’t make life easier for voters. Just make it look like your making it easier for voters. But then again it would reduce Ms. Richardson’s visibility to voters and she can’t have that.

Now back to Ms. Richardson. It is time she be forced to either resign from one of the two jobs that are in conflict. How can she be responsible for counting votes that determine if she wins or loses an election? How can she be responsible for the voting machines and to top it off machines that do not have any paper trail? She can’t and it is time the County Clerk and Commissioners step up to their responsibility to the voters and remove this out and out conflict of interest and potential for voter fraud.

"A candidate for elected office or a member of a candidate’s campaign finance committee may not serve as an appointed member of the board, a proxy for an appointed member of the board, or be employed by a county election board. The circuit court clerk may not serve as a member of a candidate’s campaign finance committee other than the clerk’s own candidate’s campaign finance committee."

(IC 3-6-5-3; IC 3-6-5.2-4.5; IC 3-6-5.4-4.5)

Hamilton County Republicans as a Group Refused to Debate

If you live and vote in Hamilton County you have to read this:

Pivotal local elections to determine the future of public safety projects

http://blogs.butler.edu/multimedia-journalism/2016/10/31/pivotal-local-elections-determine-future-public-safety-projects/

What’s worst it shows that the County Republican’s holding elected office have lied to the League of Women Voters about the debate. We heard the Republicans couldn’t come because there was a meeting and they had to go to it.  In this article “Dillinger said the republican candidates made a group decision not to attend the debate because they did not want to give the democrats the media attention that their participation in the event would have brought.” 

So here we have it an out and out lie by Mr. Dillinger and all the Republican candidates. Are these the people you want in office?

If you take the time to read the article you come away with a very bad impression of Mr. Dillinger and the rest of his crew. One of an ego that is beyond belief, one of we know best, one we have done this so long and so well no one else can do better.

So no one can do better, no new ideas, only arrogance and a one party system that can be run without any checks and balances. Well lately they are having some fights even within their ranks, but not for the benefit of the people of the county but rather for themselves. 

Its is time to vote in a few if not all Democrats to cause a change in the good old boy network at the county level. What a shock to the system if they had to answer questions at a Council or Commissioner meeting in front of the public instead making all those deals in private.  Go to one of the meetings and watch and then try and tell anyone what happened. You can’t. Ask for complete copies of what they are going to vote for in advance, guess what they expect you to pay ten cents a page for the copies. Talk about a closed system to keep the public out. Its time to shut this down and the way to do it is with electing new people to the County Offices.

I am running for County Surveyor, the current surveyor has been in office since 1977. Its time for a change and a new look.

Joe Weingarten

Weingarten for Surveyor

From Down Under

The following is from a good friend in Australia, he did a great job of putting this in a very, I feel, correct and conceiving statement.

"Re Trump - the overwhelming majority of people down this way think the US is barking mad to even consider let alone vote in someone like Trump.  He is an over privileged bully with a supersized ego and no sense of diplomacy or international relations.  If he gets in the world will become a very dangerous place I fear!"

Collin Fuller

Oh my, six days to go of the never ending ads telling us what is wrong with the other guy and nothing about what the person running for office is going to do. Andy Mor, Ray Skillman and the only name you need to know (BTW- what’s his name) all look pretty good right now as far as TV ads go.

Shame, Shame, Shame on Susan Brooks

Shame, Shame, Shame on Susan Brooks

In today's mail is a postcard form Susan Brooks. It looks like a campaign ad, it’s all about the great work she does for veterans, or at least she claims that to you.

BUT, in the upper corner after the return address in small print it says, "This mailing was prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense."

Susan you should be ashamed at your self, you should pay back to the US Government the entire cost of this obvious political advertisement. It is not an update from Congresswomen Susan Brooks it is a pure and simple political ad from Susan Brooks, just a little over a week before the election.

To all the fiscal conservative voters, is this the type of representative you want in Congress? Wasting your tax dollars. Susan Brooks is using the system for her own gain.

Susan shame on you.

Jeff Hern time to Resign, Voters time to insure he is not elected.

As a candidate I understand the position of Rick McKinney and it rare that I would never agree with him on political matters, I have to agree with him concern the removal of his signs and the finding of Jeff Hern’s cell phone at the site of the missing sign.

One of the major problems on running for office is sign theft.  When I was running the City Yes campaign the Town of Fishers would remove signs and instead of placing them at the Town Hall dumpster where they claimed they would remove any signs in the right of way, etc. They put them in a barn at one of the town baseball fields and even many signs that were legal were removed. Of course I found out what they were doing and when they were mowing the fields I walked into the barn and removed lots and lots of our signs. The town was guilty of a crime but proving it would be almost impossible.  When I ran for office I always found my signs missing. I wish I had a trail camera watching some of the sites. Most candidate figure it is part of the dirty tricks of some of the other candidates or followers of the candidate.

Now back to Jeff Hern. He was not a follower of a candidate, who may not understand the rules, he is the candidate and knows better.  Can he ever be trusted again in public office.  No. Why did it take from April15th to this week for the special prosecutor to take so long to file charges?  Mr. McKinney said. "Citizens need to know whether or not they are electing a possible thief to a higher office than the one he currently holds."

While the charges are for one sign and the sign where the cell phone was found but we all remember three more of Rick’s signs went missing in the same manor.  Of course that must have been someone else who stole those signs and only Rick’s signs were stolen. I wonder who did that?

Back to a real question if Mr. Hern is convicted, he faces up to 1 year in jail and a maximum fine of $10,000. But the way this is going the odds are he will get a slap on the wrist. That would be wrong and a slap in the face to all candidates. Jeff Hern should resign from any office he holds or may hold.

In fact it is time for the voters to reject Mr. Hern and vote for one of the Democratic candidates to bring a check and balance to the county government.  Having government run by one party for so many years has lead to people like Jeff Hern in government where they think they can do as they please. 

Joe Weingarten

Approved  by Weingarten for Surveyor

Vote for Joe - More on Jeff Hern and Surveyor

I have been thinking about the Larry in Fishers article I posted yesterday on this blog. I have some more thoughts on the saga.

Jeff Hern running for Hamilton County Council may face a Misdemeanor Charge for stealing a campaign sign. Of course formal charges have not yet been filed and it will be after the election by the time anything is done. Funny how this has taken so long it was April when his cell phone was found next to where the sign was. It takes less time to investigate a murder. But come on Jeff isn't it time for you to resign from your current Township Post and not accept any vote for you. The holding of a public office is a public trust and you no longer have the public trust. Maybe it is time for the voters of Hamilton County to switch out parties and bring honest government to the people. When my opponent has been in office since 1977 does he think he answered to the public anymore. Doubtful. He takes it fully for granted. Time to change.

I am Joe Weingrten and I approve this message.
Weingarten For Surveyor