Another blue ribbon panel of movers and shakers is convened to tell us what we should do:
Keenly focused on building a stronger, more vibrant future for the people of Fort Wayne, Mayor Tom Henry today unveiled the framework for Legacy Fort Wayne, the community initiative to guide decision making about the Fort Wayne Community Trust and City Light Lease Settlement funds. He also named the co-chairs and members of the Legacy Fort Wayne Task Force that will direct the process, and outlined the community involvement component that will be a focal point of the work.
The announcement was held in the penthouse of Three Rivers Apartments offering both a fresh perspective on and a panoramic view of the city, the ultimate beneficiary of these funds. The monies at the heart of this effort will come from two sources: 1) the $39.2 million City Light Lease Settlement, reached by the City of Fort Wayne and Indiana Michigan Power (I&M); and 2) the approximately $36 million Fort Wayne Community Trust, established by the City 35-years ago using a portion of annual Light Lease payments.
The announcement goes on to say that the task force's work will be integrated with a "community involvement component" featuring a "broad range of communications and outreach methods, both traditional and digital." But the way these things usually work, the panel of usual suspects gets a lot more say than the average citizen.
There is one way to ensure citizen participation. As mention before here, if you add together the City Light settlement and trust fund amounts with the amount the city has in reserve, that's $100 million, which is a lot of money to get to play with. This is a city election year, so every candidate for mayor and City Council should be asked directly what exactly should be done with the money -- spend it, invest it, give it back to taxpayers, keep it for a rainy day, dedicate it to infrasstructure or economic development, what? Then residents can vote for their favorite candidates based in large part on the answers. So somebody should put that on their list of questions to ask.
Oh, wait. I can do that. Think I will.
