Encouraging news about Harrison Square

This morning I sent an email to all of the members of City Council who have a public email address, The Mayor, The Deputy Mayor, and The City Controller.

I once again requested all of the information I have been asking for...

I sent the email around 9:30 AM today.

I also called The Mayor, The Deputy Mayor, and The City Controller's office and left messages regarding my request for information.

Pat Roller's office called me back around 2:30 PM today and told me that all of the information I requested will be posted on the City website by 5 PM today.

I am impressed that four City councilmen, all who tend to support The Harrison Square Project, made a specific point during last nights meeting of telling The Mayor's office that they need to release more information to the public. These City Councilmen were Tom Didier, Glyn Hines, Tom Hayhurst, and Sam Talarico. If you believe the JG, all four of these Councilmen currently favor the project; however, each specifically mentioned that The City needed to get more information to the public. Glyn Hines repeatedly said that the information needs to be made available on the Fort Wayne website.

I strongly believe that The Mayor's office has handled the informational aspects of this Project horribly. Everything has been held too closely and the City has rebuffed requests for information and have refused to provide information that they have promised to provide.

I feel that if The Mayor's office had handled this better that there would be a little less opposition to the project.

I feel that I would have opposed this project even if the Mayor's office distributed the information as they should have; however, I think there are other people who might have been more open to the Harrison Square Project if the City had been more forthright.

Below is a copy of the information I requested in this mornings email:

1. All financial projections involved with The Harrison Square Project.

2. The calculation you used to determine the public vs private financing of the project with the amount you used for each component. For example, what costs did you include for land acquisition, demolition, site preparation, etc.

3. All written documents provided to you by the Hotel Developer in response to the formal RFP that are associated with and including forms A1, A2, A3, and A4.

4. The “Crowe” report that was prepared for the City entitled “Economic and Fiscal Impacts of the Proposed Harrison Square Project.” This report prepared by “Crowe” refers to another report entitled “City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Downtown Community Revitalization Enhancement District, Consultants Report.” The “Crow” report gets many of its assumptions from this report and I cannot analyze “Crowe’s” report until I review the report they used for many of their assumptions.

5. A copy of the information packet provided to City Council for last nights meeting.

I am looking forward to seeing what is posted by 5 PM...

Mike Sylvester