Goldner Campaign Takes to the Street

Karen Goldner, 2nd District Council Candidate, issued a press release today detailing the progress of her grassroots campaign effort. According to the release, Karen has walked half of the 2nd district precincts - that is impressive and shows how dedicated and serious she is about unseating longtime incumbent Don Schmidt. It's a tough district for a Democrat but I don't believe any recent candidate has taken on the task like Karen has. Regardless of party affiliation and/or ideology it's the tireless efforts of people like Karen Goldner that breathes life into local politics. Congrats to Karen and her campaign.

GOLDNER HALFWAY THROUGH THE 2ND DISTRICT
Hears that voters want change

For Release August 1, 2007

Fort Wayne, IN---Second District City Council Candidate Karen Goldner announced today that she has walked door-to-door in one half of the precincts in the council district, which stretches from the confluence of the St. Joseph and Maumee Rivers downtown to the city’s northern and northeastern boundaries.

“Many voters are frustrated and want change,” said Goldner. “Talking to people at their doorstep, I have heard over and over again how they feel that the City Council needs to be more responsive to their concerns. People have different opinions about different issues facing our community, but the constant theme is that people want to be heard.”

Goldner has walked in 19 of the 38 precincts that comprise the 2nd District, including neighborhoods from Northside to Tanbark and Pine Valley. She has spoken with well over 1,000 people during these neighborhood walks.

“The greatest thing about running for office is the opportunity to meet so many people and hear their hopes and their concerns for Fort Wayne,” said Goldner. “If I am given the opportunity to serve the people of the 2nd District, I will continue walking neighborhoods and listening to our residents.”

Goldner plans to continue walking the district through the fall, with the goal of reaching every part of the 2nd District by late October.

Karen Goldner Announces Candidacy for City Council

Fort Wayne, IN. Feb. 7:

Karen Goldner today announced her candidacy for Fort Wayne City Council, Second District. Speaking to a group of supporters at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, Goldner said, “Throughout my career, in public and private sector positions and in scores of volunteer activities, I have shown my dedication to taking on challenges and solving problems. I have established a track record of working to make Fort Wayne a place we can all be proud to call home – a track record of doing rather than just talking.”

Goldner, 43, has over twenty years of experience in economic and neighborhood development. “I believe that our city needs leadership with the kind of experience that I have,” Goldner said. “I have front-line experience helping businesses grow and prosper, hands-on experience helping workers improve their education and getting better jobs, and the community experience of making our neighborhoods safe havens and places that nurture the next generation. I know how to get things done. I know how to listen and then act. I believe in working hard and working together to make things happen.”

Goldner’s priorities will be focusing City Council’s attention on attracting and retaining quality jobs, protecting and supporting neighborhoods, encouraging fiscally responsible downtown development, and keeping property taxes as low as possible. “I know that tax dollars are our dollars, and that government’s first order of business is to make smart decisions, careful decisions, with our money,” said Goldner.

For more information about Goldner and her campaign, please refer to www.CitizensForGoldner.com

Note: The Innovation Center facility may be used by organizations and people
who are supportive of the Innovation Center’s entrepreneurial purposes and
mission subject to its policies. The Innovation Center is a community-based, nonprofit organization that is non-partisan and as such does not endorse specific
candidates for public office.

More on this story from The Fort Wayne Reader:

FIRST IN SECOND - “The First Choice for the Second District” gets Political Animal’s nod for the catchiest political slogan in some time. Credit it to Karen Goldner. The Democrat is kicking off her campaign to unseat looooooonnnnng time second district City Councilman Don Schmidt. Schmidt, a Republican, has been a member of city council since time began. An old-school conservative who remains sharp as a tack, Schmidt has faced minimal opposition in recent years. However, Goldner could change that. Widely viewed as intelligent, passionate and well-connected by observers on both sides of the political aisle, Goldner served as the city’s director of economic development and worked successfully under both Democrat and Republican administrations. Currently, she leads economic development initiatives for influential local businessman Don Willis’ AdVenture Fund.

Karen Goldner Releases Buy Fort Wayne Plan

Fort Wayne's 2nd District City Council Democratic nominee Karen Goldner released a plan today that would help ensure that our local tax dollars stay local. Readers of this blog will know that I'm a big proponent of this concept and I addressed the city council on this very topic during the Harrison Square public hearing. I am absolutely thrilled that Goldner takes this seriously and I would encourage everyone to put pressure on their candidate/councilman of choice to support Karen's plan:

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The plan includes the following components:

• A “Buy Fort Wayne” preference would be included in commodity purchases, ranging from 1-5% based on the size of the purchase.

• All professional services or “RFP” contracts handled by the Purchasing Department would be scored on a 100-point scale. Bidders would be given points for their experience and quality and their price. In addition, bidders would be given points for whether they were a business located in Fort Wayne, Allen County, or the region. Bidders from outside of the region could earn points by subcontracting a significant amount of their work to a local company.

• The Purchasing Department would be required to maintain a registry of companies which express interest in selling to the City. This registry would be consulted as bids or Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) are issued by the Department.

• For large contracts of $100,000 or more, the Purchasing Department would hold a pre-bid conference where prospective bidders could meet prospective sub-contractors and the details of the project would be explained.

“Fort Wayne spends millions of dollars every year in buying the goods and services it needs to operate and serve our citizens,” said Goldner. “I believe that the City’s dollars are best spent in supporting local businesses whenever possible. That recycles more of our tax dollars into jobs and income for workers and businesses in our city and our region, which is good for everyone.”

This is the best idea I've seen from any candidate to date. Kudos to Karen Goldner...

Karen Goldner On 2nd District Infrastructure Needs

The topic of neighborhood infrastructure came up at last night's city council meeting with councilmen Didier and Hayhurst suggesting that part of the $40 Million City Light Fund lease should be used to address infrastructure concerns within our neighborhoods...

“NO STREET LEFT BEHIND”
Goldner commits to greater neighborhood involvement in 2nd District infrastructure
For immediate release August 29, 2007

Fort Wayne, IN---Together with residents of Renfrew Drive in northeast Fort Wayne, 2nd District Council Candidate Karen Goldner pledged to make sure that funds designated for neighborhood infrastructure improvements are targeted to the areas of greatest need in north/northeast Fort Wayne.
“Renfrew Drive is in as bad a condition as any in the 2nd District. Despite the neighborhood requesting resurfacing several years ago, nothing has been done,” said Goldner. “At the other end of the district, sidewalks in Lakeside are so grown over with grass and weeds that residents in wheelchairs cannot use them, but these needs are also ignored.”
“At one time the 2nd District was relatively new,” said Goldner. “However, over the past thirty years there has been considerable decay in neighborhood infrastructure, and it is long past time to address it.”
Goldner added that streets in the Parkview Addition off of St. Joe Center Road, several streets in Pine Valley, and Tanbark Lane are other trouble spots in the district. These and other areas have been identified during Goldner’s extensive neighborhood walking campaign and talking with neighborhood leaders.
“One of the roles of the District Councilperson is to be an outspoken advocate for the district and its neighborhoods,” said Goldner. “If elected, I pledge to be the advocate that we need.”

Karen Goldner Wins JG Endorsement

I'm sure most of you already saw that Karen Goldner got the JG endorsement but I wanted to post about it nonetheless:

Voters in the 2nd District can’t go wrong no matter which of the major party candidates they select for City Council. Nine-term incumbent Don Schmidt has a long track record as a fiscal watchdog. Democratic challenger Karen Goldner is a former high-ranking city official well acquainted with city government and especially knowledgeable about economic development.

While either candidate would represent the district well, we give the edge to Goldner.

I think this is the most interesting race to watch. Karen has run what appears to be an extremely effective campaign combining grassroots (knocking on every door) and traditional (impressive fundraising) campaign methods. Meanwhile the old-school analysts seem to think this won't make a nickel's worth of difference but I'm not so sure. Personally, I think this will be the only competitive district race come election night.

The real question is will Karen's efforts lead to victory? If so, I think you're likely to see a wholesale change in the philosophy of future local campaigns. This litmus test, if for no other reason, makes this the race to watch...

Councilmember-Elect Karen Goldner Wrong on the Smoking Ban

Rachel Blakeman posted comments from Karen Goldner on the smoking ban and the possibility of rolling back the ordinance. I applaud Karen's interaction with the blogosphere and her willingness to discuss any issue with anyone - it's one of the many reasons she beat long-time incumbent Don Schmidt in the latest election. However, in general, I disagree with her on the smoking ban and specifically I disagree with several of her recent comments (shown in bold).

I agree that "going backward" is a poor sign, and I also believe that the entire discussion has had a high opportunity cost relative to what (in my opinion) Council should be working on, which is how to improve Fort Wayne's economic condition. Therefore, I am disappointed that the previous Council passed the extended ban in the first place.

Of course one could argue that a smoke-free Fort Wayne helps the city's economic condition. Improving public health certainly has direct financial benefits to the citizenry and its government. What certainly does not help economic development is to have the city council flip-flopping on local ordinances. Businesses will be more reluctant to invest in this community if they think our legislation is unstable. And I'm not sure I want the current council attempting to improve the city's economic condition. Of course if I were a baseball team owner or a Subway or McDonalds franchisee then I might feel differently.

Of course I do not question that smoking is very bad for everyone, and I agree that the national (and international) tide is moving toward comprehensive bans. Of course, you could say similar things about the effects of cars on our communities and our health (pollution, congestion, obesity).

These are poor analogies. Cars are an integral and critical part of most people's lives - the same cannot be said about smoking. Pollution is obviously a major concern and that's why it is heavily regulated. Obesity is an individual issue - the fat man standing next to me does not affect my health one iota.

What I do question is why Fort Wayne City Council needed to make the statement that it did, creating a very unlevel playing field, with (in my opinion) disregard for the impact on local businesses and their clientele. I support a broader ban that is statewide, because that would be both fairer to all businesses and also more effective.

First, the city did what was necessary to improve public health after the county commissioners failed to pass a comprehensive ordinance. The lack of such comprehensive ordinance in the county should be blamed for the unlevel playing field. Second, there is absolutely no publicly available evidence to support the idea that the smoking ban has harmed local business. While Goldner does not say this directly, it is often the core argument for rolling back the ban. This is something that is measurable if only the county would break out the food and beverage tax receipts for municipal businesses.

I am disappointed that Goldner takes a stance that is contrary to public health and the wishes of the citizenry. Her decision to roll back the ban would only erode whatever confidence the public might have left in the Fort Wayne city council

Goldner Calls for Consolidation

Saying that the time has come to act, 2nd District City Council candidate Karen Goldner today called for the City and County’s land use management departments to be combined:

"It is no secret that local businesses get frustrated with our land use and zoning functions," said Goldner. "Slow progress has been made, but we can wait no longer for further improvements. We need a dramatic change. We need to say to entrepreneurs that Fort Wayne and Allen County want their investment. We need to say that our community means business."

Goldner called for the combined City-County staff to continue to report to the Mayor of Fort Wayne and the Allen County Commissioners. "This is not uni-gov, but it will provide everyone who wants to invest anywhere in our community with a consistent set of principles and procedures that implement what was outlined in the recently adopted Plan-It Allen comprehensive plan. Plan-It Allen is a good start but we cannot afford to wait years for more progress to occur," said Goldner.

"Fort Wayne has lagged behind the nation in wages since the early 1980’s," she said. "Some of this is due to global or national circumstances beyond our control. But that is no excuse to ignore the fact that we have a land use management and zoning system that is confusing, discouraging, and too often viewed as arbitrary. A large part of these problems come from having two separate systems. We operate in a highly competitive world. Whether the business is new to Fort Wayne or one that is home grown, when we put up bureaucratic impediments to growth, we encourage that business to go elsewhere and to take its jobs, too. That must stop."

While calling for an immediate merger of the departments, Goldner also stated that the City and County should move toward further consolidation of their land use regulatory activities by creating a single Area Plan Commission. In the meantime, the separate City and County Plan Commissions would remain. "We cannot wait," said Goldner. "Government is getting in the way of business, and when that happens our city loses. Merging staffs is just common sense, and I am committed to get it done."

The Biggest Upset In Fort Wayne History

Karen Goldner Wins!

Un-f'in-believable. What a night! Congratulations to Karen. That is how you run a campaign! She beat the streets, she knocked on every door, she talked to every single person that wanted to talk. Karen Goldner will make a great city councilmember. Karen has shown that Democrats can win anywhere in this state. What a night to be a Democrat in Fort Wayne!

Can Karen?

All eyes will undoubtedly be on the mayoral results. But I want to point readers to the 2nd district council race where Karen Goldner will be attempting to pull off the biggest upset in the history of Fort Wayne politics. She's attempting to unseat
Don Schmidt, a 9 term incumbant in heavy, heavy Republican district. The word is recent polling data showed her within striking distance so we shall see.

No matter what happens Karen has run the best campaign of any candidate this cycle and probably in recent memory. Win or lose Karen Goldner should be proud of her service to this city including the effort she put into her campaign...

Election Night Interview with Karen Goldner

We spoke with Karen shortly after hearing the news that she ousted 36 year incumbent Don Schmidt. Karen was obviously excited and ready to take on her new challenge as a Fort Wayne city councilmember...


Karen Goldner from FWL on Vimeo.

TIF Debate Reaches the Front Page

Ben Lanka has an excellent front page story discussing the use of TIF districts here in Fort Wayne. It's about time the local media started making people aware of these districts and how they affect the local community and the taxes we pay. I've been trying to publicize the negative impact these districts can have for quite some time:

Now here's the problem, the city is facing a tremendous amount of debt. The local school board is trying to raise our property taxes by a half-BILLION dollars. As these government expenditures continue to rise SOMEBODY has to pay for them. Unfortunately the properties inside these special tax districts won't contribute to the rising costs of city/county/school government. That means that everyone else has to continue to pay a larger share because the city is essentially removing more and more property from the tax paying population.

I also spoke against the continual expansion of the TIF at the city council's public hearing on Harrison Square - video of that speech can be found here.

I think the more people come to understand what the TIF district actually is, the more hesitant they will be to support it. I'd like to address one particular point in today's article. Karen Goldner, 2nd District Council candidate and reader of this blog, was interviewed for the story:

People can’t just look at the TIF numbers in a vacuum, said Karen Goldner of the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission. It may be easy to say without TIFs, people would see a 3 percent reduction in property taxes, but the issue is far more complicated

I certainly agree with Karen that it's a complicated issue. One of the complications is that you cannot just take the amount of property found in TIF districts (3% in Fort Wayne not including Harrison Square) and claim that property taxes are only affected by that amount. The reason is that these TIF districts are using a disproportional amount of services.

Just as an example, at places like Jefferson Pointe and Harrison Square there will need to be more police than your typical neighborhood due to the large crowds of people. These are resources that are being pulled away from the general taxpaying population. So one of two things must happen, either the taxpayers get less resources or they pay more for the same amount of resources. Note that this extra cost is above and beyond what is lost in property taxes alone.

I'm glad the community is now going to have this debate. Just because you CAN use the TIF district to pay for a pet project doesn't make it a wise choice. To be fair, I think that using the TIF for Harrison Square is more reasonable than using it for Jefferson Pointe. But either way I think we should stop the practice and let these current projects be the catalysts we were promised they would be...

Election Party Photos

I attended the election party with Brian and Scott Spaulding who are the creators of the Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball blog. Scott took over a hundred photos and I want to share some of them with everyone. Brian did the camera and editing work for a number of interviews we did throughout the night and I should have those up later today. So a big thank you to the Spaulding brothers for their efforts in capturing the best moments of last night's victory party.

Mayor Elect Tom Henry

Henry Campaign Manager Joe Fox

Tim Pape

Glynn Hines

Karen Goldner

Karen Goldner and Democratic Party Chairman Kevin Knuth

Sandy Kennedy

FWL Interviews John Shoaff

John Shoaff

FWL Interviews Tom Henry

Councilwoman Goldner Explains Vote To Table GPS

For those that might of missed it, councilwoman Karen Goldner is now a contributor to the Allen County Democratic Party blog. In her first substantive post she describes, in detail, why she chose to table the administration's request to put GPS in FWPD squad cars.

Goldner is taking advantage of the blogosphere in a way no other councilmember is and for that she should be commended. Welcome to the Fort Wayne blogosphere Karen!

2nd District Recount Finished

There were 13 ballot challenges made and two of them will likely change. However, of these two, one belonged to Goldner and one belonged to Schmidt so there will be no net effect from those. There is one additional vote that could potentially go for Schmidt because the machine read it as a no-vote. All other challenges are not likely to stick and even if they did there will not be enough votes for Schmidt to overtake Goldner.

It will soon be official - Karen Goldner will be the next 2nd District councilmember. Congrats to Karen (again)!

More coverage (including photos) from Roger McNett at OurDems

Campaign Finance Reports

I went down to the election board at noon and scoured through the campaign finance filings. I'm not going to bother posting every candidate's numbers but I'll include the ones that caught my eye.

Matt Kelty
Total - $313,575
Cash on Hand - 10,012.56

Ouch. Matt did better than the $200k I predicted but only has $10k left compared to Tom Henry's $300k. Several of the city council candidates have more cash on hand than Matt Kelty. Also, $45k of the amount raised is specifically earmarked for his legal defense fund. It's never good when 15% of your fundraising has to go towards criminal legal fees. Kelty did spend $45k on a TV media buy with a company called Strategic Media. I know some criticized Tom Henry for not using a local ad agency despite the fact that the one he chose is probably the premiere political ad agency in the country. So those critics should be equally dismayed that Strategic Media's address was listed in Ohio. There also seems to be some confusion about whether or not the Jehl's loaned Matt another $10k. I know Kevin Knuth was looking into this so I'll just wait and see what he comes up with.

UPDATE: I forgot to add that the Rost loan doesn't appear to be paid back as the Kelty campaign has over $100k in debt according to the latest filing

2nd District
Don Schmidt raised approximately $10k and has about $500 cash on hand. Meanwhile his opponent, Karen Goldner, raked in a huge amount of cash - $47k with $34k left. I knew Karen had been campaigning hard but this took me by surprise - nice work. Karen's run a constant grassroots campaign and also has a ton of cash to spend down the stretch. This will be an interesting race to watch.

At Large
No surprise that John Crawford raised big numbers - $143k. Crawford is known as an excellent fundraiser and the people trying to oust him had better be organized.

John Shoaff also reported an impressive $44k with $35k left. With that much money on hand we should see/hear a lot more from Shoaff down the stretch.

4th District
Chris Stewart raised an impressive $15k despite his late entry into the race which equals what his opponent Mitch Harper raised.

Libertarians
They raised some money with Doug Horner leading the way. I forgot to write his numbers down but I think it was around $2k. Libertarians Brightbill and Diaz showed $0 raised.

Harrison Square Welfare

The JG reports that the city will ask the Redevelopment Commission to add a new subsidy for the new Harrison Square hotel that is already heavily subsidized:

City officials plan to ask Grand Wayne Center to contribute $2.5 million over 10 years to help subsidize the almost $50 million hotel that is a part of the larger Harrison Square project.

Keep in mind that the city is already building them a parking garage as well as giving them the property they disgracefully took from Belmont Beverage through the use of eminent domain. But that's not enough.

The thing I don't get is that THEY WERE THE SOLE BIDDER; if they didn't have the money to build the hotel then why didn't they just subtract $2.5 million from the bid? I know, I know, they thought certain money from the state would become available and it didn't - but guess what? That's called RISK and the city shouldn't be on the hook for the hotel developer's poor decisions.

There was another part of the article that caught my eye:

In the initial non-binding contract with the hotel developers, the city agreed to work with Grand Wayne’s board of directors to allow the new hotel to recoup some of the room tax charged to hotel guests. Leatherman said the hotel developers will no longer get a direct rebate of the room tax, but the city hopes to use the $2.5 million as additional incentives for the hotel.

I think the reason they can't get a direct rebate of the room tax is because IT'S AGAINST THE LAW. The following piece of legislation states the tax must be paid to the state.

IC 6-9-9-2 (c) The county fiscal body may adopt an ordinance to require that the tax be reported on forms approved by the county treasurer and that the tax shall be paid monthly to the county treasurer. If such an ordinance is adopted, the tax shall be paid to the county treasurer not more than twenty (20) days after the end of the month the tax is collected. If such an ordinance is not adopted, the tax shall be imposed, paid, and collected in exactly the same manner as the state gross retail tax is imposed, paid, and collected under IC 6-2.5.

IC 6-9-9-3 indicates that this money comes back from the state to the county's capital improvement board and can be used to promote tourism. Hopefully our resident member of the redevelopment commission, Karen Goldner, can help us understand how exactly the Redevelopment Commission fits into this. And, if Karen is so inclined, I think readers would be very interested to hear her opinion on the subsidy in general...

Ft.Wayne for Obama Rally

Join the Movement

Please join Allen County 4 Obama for an informational gathering. Meet local Obama supporters and learn how you can get involved. Change can’t happen without you! The event will be held at:

Downtown Library Branch

900 Library Plaza

Fort Wayne, IN 46802

February 27, 2008 at 7:15pm

hat tip: Karen Goldner

Karen Goldner Up by 13 Votes!

95% precincts in - We're on the verge of the greatest upset in Fort Wayne History

County Commissioners Should Choose Mike Sylvester (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Well nevermind. In my haste I made a poor assumption that Mike was just outside of the city limits but it turns out he's not. I should've know better but thanks to Karen Goldner for pointing out my oversight...

As required by state law (brought to the forefront by Mitch Harper) Ed Rousseau and Paul Shaffer are off the Fort Wayne-Allen County Convention and Tourism Authority board. State law requires members to be residents within the county but outside the city limits and both Shaffer and Rousseau do not meet this requirement.

Now the county commissioners need to replace them and I believe local blogger, and CPA, Mike Sylvester would make an excellent choice. I must apologize to Mike as he has no idea I'm writing this and I'm not sure if he even wants to be on the board. Mike is a fiscal conservative with a strong belief in open government. This particular board needs people with that ideology. In an editorial, the JG explains the importance of this particular board:

The county commissioners need to replace them with the best possible appointees – and do it as quickly as responsibly possible. The authority must soon decide on the city’s request to allocate $250,000 a year for 10 years to the Harrison Square project.

The convention and tourism authority’s most visible community role is in operating Grand Wayne Center. But the authority also serves as the local capital improvements board and, if a number of local officials have their way, could someday wield significant new power in approving and financing capital projects.

As a CPA Mike Sylvester is clearly qualified for this position. Mike should throw his hat in the ring and the County Commissioners should nominate him to serve this community...

Meet The City Election Candidates Tonight

Tonight is the Northwest Area Partnership candidate forum.

Time: 6 p.m. for meet & greet the candidates, 6:30 p.m. for forum

Place: Northridge Baptist Church, 1300 East Cook Road (remember, the bridge @ Clinton/Old Auburn/Cook is closed for recontruction)

You will hear from the candidates for Mayor, At-Large Council, and the 2nd and 3rd district Council.

Thanks to 2nd District candidate Karen Goldner for the heads up...