Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Future constituents favored

Councilmen spend outside their districts, on areas they will represent next election

By Dan Stockman
December 17, 2006

Politicians have long used the benefits of holding office – and government purse strings – to get re-elected.

Thanks to redistricting to accommodate the 27,000 new Fort Wayne residents who came with the annexation of much of Aboite Township, an additional 41,000 city residents will find themselves in new City Council districts. The changes mean incumbent councilmen will have new voters to woo.

The City Council approved the new map in July, to ensure it was in place by November so anyone whose district changed can run for office in 2007. But councilmen said at the time that the map would take effect immediately, giving 41,000 people a new councilman for whom they never had a chance to vote.

Experts say the law is clear: The map takes effect with the start of the new term in office, Jan. 1, 2008.

“When council members are elected, they are elected to serve a certain group of people for a four-year time period,” said Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics. Changing a map doesn’t change that.

But four of the six district councilmen – from both political parties – are acting as if the new map is in force now and proposing projects in the areas they don’t represent until after the next election.

They propose using county development income tax money to install new streetlights or sidewalks in areas they’re going to be campaigning in for the first time, even though the projects are outside their current districts. If all the proposals are approved and built, taxpayers will have spent $185,600 that will directly benefit councilmen’s campaign efforts in new areas.

For example, the 3rd District currently does not include Andrew Street between Spring and Huffman. But in the next term, under the new map, it will. Tom Didier, the Republican who currently represents the 3rd District, has proposed spending $14,600 to install new curbs along Andrew. If approved, the project would be built next summer, and completed by the fall – just as Didier is stumping for votes in the area.

As Didier knocks on doors in the neighborhood, he can point out that although voters may not be familiar with him, they can thank him for the new curbs along their street – an accomplishment no challenger will be able to match.

“That’s one of the advantages of being in office,” Downs said. “And one advantage of being a sitting council member is spending CEDIT money.”

Didier said the $26,600 he proposes spending for two projects in areas he hopes to represent came about because of initial confusion over redistricting and an effort to help out another councilman.

The neighborhoods in question are currently represented by Tom Hayhurst, D-4th, but under the new map most of Hayhurst’s district will shift to cover Aboite Township. Didier said he initially thought the redistricting took effect immediately. He said that after he learned that was not the case, he told Hayhurst he would help him out and earmark some money for those areas so Hayhurst could concentrate on his new constituents in Aboite.

In any event, he said, it was not an attempt to use tax money to get re-elected.

“I’m going to do where the need is needed,” Didier said. “I really don’t play favoritisms.”

The projects will be paid for by the county economic development tax, a 1 percent income tax Allen County residents pay. The state distributes the money based on population; last year, Fort Wayne received about $16 million. The money is technically spent by the mayor, but in Fort Wayne the mayor lets each district councilman decide how to spend $450,000 a year, and the three at-large councilmen get a combined $450,000. Their proposed projects for next year were announced Wednesday.

The projects at this point are only proposals. They will be reviewed by city staff to ensure they meet the goals of the program, are feasible, and don’t interfere with other city projects – for example, repaving a street the year before new water lines are planned. And because the money is technically the mayor’s to spend, Graham Richard must sign off on the projects. That process occurs over the winter so projects can be bid in the spring and built over the summer.

Richard said he was unaware councilmen were proposing projects in areas they hope to represent and will look into it.

“I have some concern about that approach,” Richard said. “I want to understand whether the projects were recommended or requested by the incumbent councilman.”

Richard said he understands councilmen often collaborate on projects and wants to look at all the possibilities before he makes a judgment. At face value, however, the proposals raise concern.

“It’s probably not the best practice,” Richard said. “It’s a question I’ll be asking them.”

Councilman Don Schmidt, R-2nd, said he argued for a standard policy: Either everyone limits his CEDIT projects to his current district or everyone operates under the new boundaries.

But no policy was set, and after some started looking outside their borders, “I kind of got pushed along with that,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt wants to spend $27,000 on concrete street repairs on Vance Avenue west of Crescent Avenue. His district currently ends at Crescent but will continue west under the new map. He is also proposing $25,000 for the pond at Lakeside Park. Both are immediately adjacent to his current district, but outside the boundary.

Schmidt said if one councilman didn’t do the projects, another would, so it all comes out in the wash.

“If it doesn’t get done from one pot, it comes out of another,” Schmidt said.

On the other hand, the name attached to a project can be important.

“Once you go outside your district, the only reason to do that would be getting your name out,” he said. “That’s obviously the motivation for it.”

The proposals cross party lines: Tim Pape, D-5th, doesn’t represent Scott Avenue between Thompson and Broadway but is proposing a $70,000 project there. The proposal is contingent on neighbors petitioning for it in a process in which they would pay for a percentage of the cost. If the petition does not go through, the Scott Avenue project would be swapped with a project on Dinnen Avenue, which is currently in the 5th District, though neighbors would have to petition for that, too. He also wants to spend $10,000 for recreational improvements in the Wildwood Park area and $7,500 to nominate it to the National Register of Historic Places. Wildwood Park is now in the 4th District but will be in the 5th under the new map.

Although it is true that spending in areas soon to be within the district could be looked at as politically motivated, Pape said, arguing the same could be said for spending within current districts.

“We all have plenty of projects in the rest of our district you can already say that on,” Pape said. “When officials from other areas hear about how we do it, they view it as sort of legalized graft.”
Glynn Hines, D-6th, said he proposed spending $19,500 on sidewalks in the 3900 block of Warsaw Street because he now represents that area. In fact, that area is in the 5th District but will be in the 6th in 2008. Hines said that regardless of what others say, his understanding is that the redistricting took effect as soon as the council voted on it this summer.

“Those maps were changed,” Hines said.

Downs said maps are approved early only to allow potential candidates to establish residency. You can’t take away someone’s representation with a simple vote of the City Council.

“The law is very clear – they do not serve the new areas. They serve the old areas,” Downs said.

Hines said regardless of whose name is on the project, it needs to be done.

“Those recommendations come in from the neighborhood associations, and whether Tim Pape would have done it or I would have done it, it would get done,” he said.

The combined $185,600 councilmen propose spending is small compared with the total amount of CEDIT money spent and almost invisible in the city’s $200 million budget. But it is tax money, being spent in what could be an attempt to help re-election campaigns.

Downs said city leaders have allowed this to happen.

“One of the problems here is there’s not a real clear policy for how district councilmen are spending their money,” Downs said. “However, you should be asking councilmen why they’re spending outside their district.”

Jeremy Straughn, a Purdue University political sociologist, said challengers running for office might do exactly that. Although the incumbent is pointing to the spending as a good thing, a challenger might ask voters whether that’s the kind of representative they want.

“Whoever they’re running against might make the opposite case: Here’s someone spending tax money on people they don’t represent yet,” Straughn said.

Straughn’s expertise is in political behavior, and he studies perceptions of voting and citizenship. He said the jury is still out on whether pork barrel spending really works.

“There’s certainly a widespread belief that, in general, earmarks are very important in getting representatives in a district elected,” he said, “But that has not yet been tested scientifically.”