Council members question mayor’s motives
A press conference scheduled by Jasper Mayor Terry Seitz revealed a disconnect between his office and the common council.
Seitz planned the meeting to reveal the city’s potential future use of economic development income tax funds but attending members of the common council questioned his motives.
During the presentation, Seitz leaned on a report completed by Umbaugh Associates to explain how the city’s growth and subsequent increase in EDIT income could support the projects he has championed.
He pointed out that the city received about $1.9 million annually in EDIT of which $625,000 was allotted for the repair of streets and sidewalks, $50,000 went to Dubois Strong, and $50,000 went to a strategic stormwater initiative to update the stormwater systems in the city.
The city has about $4.7 million in the EDIT fund now and during Seitz’ presentation, he indicated the plan completed by Umbaugh was designed to sustain a “healthy” EDIT fund while facilitating growth.
Besides the annual commitments, funds from EDIT are also allocated as matching funds for an 80-20 Indiana Department of Transportation grant necessary to complete a 2.7-mile connection between the Riverwalk and the St. Charles Street walking trail — about $500,000. It is also being used as part of the first phase of a proposed workforce housing development — Jasper Lofts — on Vine Street. According to Seitz, EDIT will likely be allocated for Phase II of that project as well as a planned senior housing development across the street, the Vine Street Lofts.
Four council members attended the press conference — Kevin Manley, Ray Howard, Randy Buchta, and Tom Schmidt — and three felt the need to confront the mayor on his reason for the conference so close to the election.
Kevin Manley (Republican) explained that the numbers indicated in the report were already known to the council. “This is not anything new to the council,” he said. “We have been doing this for years.”
“I am not sure why the timing was so important for this to happen today,” Manley continued. “We understand bonding. We discuss bonding when we make plans.”
Seitz said the points of the plan were important because the question had been raised as to how the city would pay for the improvement projects like the Downtown Master Plan and The Parklands.
“It is very difficult to run a city and look out three years and say we are going to have this amount of money,” Manley said.
Councilman Buchta (Democrat) asked Matt Eckerle, a representative from Umbaugh who assisted in the study, whether the city had just completed a similar study less about a year ago.
Eckerle stated they had.
“Gentleman, we have all acted like we don’t have money,” Seitz responded and added that the report indicated the city did have money.
Buchta said the council uses the money every year and is aware of how much is available when they make decisions on the budget annually.
Councilman Schmidt (Democrat) asked why the mayor made a point of having the press conference Monday rather than discussing the EDIT plan during an upcoming council meeting.
Seitz stated that the city had tried to schedule meetings with the council members but was unable to get enough members to attend to schedule a meeting. The council must have a quorum or majority of members to schedule a meeting. “We did say in the September council meeting we would try to do this before November,” he said. “So I decided to do it today to make sure that it gets out. I have great confidence that we can do the projects we have.”
After the press conference, Buchta told the Free Press he didn’t receive the Umbaugh study notification of the 11 a.m. meeting until Monday morning.
“I thought it was a campaign ploy,” Buchta said. “This is the same report Umbaugh did for us about a year ago. We have money, but we have to use it in the right way. We aren’t going to drain the EDIT fund. We are all open to the these projects, but we have no hard costs. We are waiting on solid numbers. For him to say we said we haven’t had any money is a lie. We know where the money is at. He has never brought us a balanced budget.”
This story has been updated. Due to a misunderstanding on the part of the reporter, it originally read that Buchta had not received notice of the meeting until Monday. He actually said he had not received the new report from Umbaugh until Monday morning.
[box border=”full”]Economic Development Income Tax funds are collected from employees paychecks throughout the county as a local option income tax. The funds are distributed to the county, city and incorporated towns. About $4.7 million was paid to those taxing entities in 2015 and Jasper received about $1.9 million. The use of those funds is unrestricted although when originally established, they were to be used for economic development. [/box]
