GARY -- It's unanimous, so far.  The Indiana Distressed Unit Appeals Board (IDUAB) has received more than 30 letters, mostly from Gary residents.  They all are opposed to a state bailout for the city in 2009.  The opposition is based on the belief Mayor Rudy Clay has mismanaged the city's money and that there is too much fat in Gary's $63 million budget.

One critic simply mailed a page from a phone book listing all city departments with an unsigned, handwritten note:  "Has Gary 'cut to the bone' as Mayor Clay claims?  No!  No!  No!  Obviously not!!"

No letters received by the board, as of this week, have supported the city's petition.  "We haven't asked the public to write any letters,"Clay said.

Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed board said Gary must show it has done all it can to help itself before it will qualify for "special treatment."  The Gary residents say that burden hasn't been met.  "If the city is in a bind for cash, why do they continue to loan city vehicles with city gasoline to city police, city police reserves, city judge, and a host of other city employees for use in their private lives?" Bill Coward wrote in his letter.

Clay issued an order earlier this year that Gary's gas pumps should only be used by police officers and firefighters, but records released months later show other employees continued using the pumps.  Coward said that news, along with the price of gas, inspired him to write his letter to the appeals board.  "I'm a little bitter when I see waste like that," Coward said.

The Miller Citizens Corp. is publicly opposing Gary's petition.  Most of the letters received by the board contain Miller addresses.  Kathy Long, who listed an address in the 100 block of North Hancock, wrote, "Please don't bail this city out.  Let them declare bankruptcy and put them in a position to rebuild, not continue to carve out golden eggs from a half dead golden goose."

Residents of neighboring communities are also sharing their thoughts.  "For decades the city of Gary has been an example of all that can go wrong in America when apathy reigns supreme over justice, freedom, and moral and ethical governance," Brice Johnson of Highland wrote.

Asked about the public commentary, Clay questioned the authors' motives.  "Evidently they don't want Gary people to have access to this American dream here," Clay said.  "It's nothing new, though," Clay said.  "People have been pounding on Gary for years and years and years."

Gary is scheduled to make its case to the appeals board Jan. 5 in Indianapolis.

TO PREVIEW GARY'S APPEAL: The appeal can be found at www.in.gov/dlgf/7175.htm
TO COMMENT IN WRITING: Written comments can be submitted to srusso@sba.in.gov
or the Indiana Office of Management and Budget, 200 W. Washington St. #212, Indianapolis, IN 46204

GARY-- Gary Schools Board members voted Friday to put Superintendent Mary Steele-Agee on administrative leave for the remaining six months of her contract, thus giving her a long winter break.  The decision came after several weeks of discussion in executive sessions.  Board members had little debate before voting 6-1 to place Steele on administrative leave until her contract expires in July.  Steele-Agee did not attend the board meeting Friday and could not be reached for comment.

Board President Nellie Moore said, "The board has to move forward in a cohesive manner, and that requires communication with the superintendent.  We did not feel that was being done as it should have."

Moore declined to discuss specific reasons Agee was removed.  "Those get into personnel matters, and I will not discuss them," Moore said.

Board member Barbara Leek was the sole vote against the move.  She did not support having to pay the balance of Steele's $125,000 contract.

GARY -- Mayor Rudy Clay and Majestic Star Casino have reached detente on the contentious issue of infrastructure improvements near his Buffington Harbor property, according to casino owner Don Barden.  Barden said he met with Clay this week, and the mayor agreed to build an access ramp from Cline Avenue to the gaming facility.  Barden said, no time line was discussed.

Clay did not return messages seeking comment about the sit-down with Barden, despite numerous phone calls to his office over two days.  However, city spokeswoman Lalosa Burns confirmed the meeting took place.  "The city has always been committed to the infrastructure improvements," she stated.  "The mayor informed Mr. Barden we remain committed to build it when the time is right."

The Dec. 12 issue of the Post-Tribune ran two stories reporting the shootings of three young men in Gary; one of the victims was killed.

On the next page was an ad, running the entire length of the page, for guns as stocking stuffers!

GARY -- New records show a failed attempt to cut the paychecks of Gary's public safety employees cost the city a total of $25,000 in 2008.  To help the city get past a $13 million budget shortfall, Mayor Rudy Clay proposed the cuts in July as a cost-cutting measure.

Gary's Fraternal Order of Police and Firefighters Local 359 each took the city to court.  The city was defended by attorneys Donald Levinson, Shana Levinson and Gilbert King.

In each case the judges ruled for the unions, citing state law that grants exclusive authority for reducing public safety employees' paychecks to the City Council.  Gary's City Council never voted to approve the pay cuts.

GARY -- In the petition it submitted this week to the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeals Board, the City of Gary paints a "dismal picture" of "doom" and "fiscal devastation" for city and county residents.  According to the report, Gary would be forced to lay off 71 police and 74 firefighters next year, and about 800 other employees by 2010, when the state's new property tax caps take effect in 2009.

As they say, "the numbers do not lie."  With regard to the Gary Public Schools what the numbers show are not good!  The figures shout out that Gary is not getting a return on its precious education dollars.

Gary has consitently (for the last decade and a half), paid its teachers considerably more than the average teacher salary for the state.  Of course, a portion of that might rightly be viewed as hazardous duty pay; an inducement to take on teaching in the Steel City.  Here are the salary figures: 

TEACHER AVERAGE SALARIES (Indiana/Gary)

Year                    Avg. State         Avg. Gary      +/- St.
                           Salary               Salary          Avg.

2007-2008           $48,508           $56,089          + 16%
2006-2007            47,832             54,710           + 14%
2005-2006            47,255             52,433           + 11%
2004-2005            46,591             51,405           + 10%
2003-2004            45,791             49,903           +   9%
2002-2003            44,966             48,607           +   8%
2001-2002            44,030             47,324           +   7.5%
2000-2001            43,311             45,510           +   5%
1999-2000            41,850             44,629           +   6.6%
1998-1999            41,159             44,008           +   7%
1997-1998            39,749             42,963           +   7.4%
1996-1997            38,845             40,662           +   5%
1995-1996            37,675             39,743           +   5.5%
1994-1995            36,785             37,904           +   3%
1993-1994            35,711             36,485           +   2%

The return on these above average teacher salary expenditures is capable of being measured in a number of ways.  Any such measure, to have any validity, must look at the results obtained, in terms of educating children.  In other words, what bang is Gary getting for the buck?

This lackluster ranking comes from Self magazine and is due to a number of factors.  They include woamen's eating habits, obesity rates and low rates for preventive health screenings.

Last year, out of 100 cities, Gary was named the unhealthiest place.  This year that distinction goes to Detroit, but Gary only moves up one slot to No. 99.

The title for healthiest city goes to Bethesda, Maryland.

GARY -- Four years after his right to the business expired, the manager of Gary's public golf course continued to sell golf accessories to the city's customers, pocketing an unknown amount of profit along the way.

Saying that his South Gleason Golf Course Pro Shop sales turned only a meager profit, John Lowe refused a request Monday to allow a public review of his pro shop records.  "It's not public informationand I don't have a contract with the Park Department," Lowe said.  "Not that it's a dark secret or anything, but I'm not going to throw open my books if I don't have to.  I buy the merchandise, I sell it, I pay my taxes, and that's it," Lowe said.

A Post-Tribune inquiry into the golf course's finances revealed Lowe's enterprise.  That, in turn, triggered an executive session of the Park Board last month to discuss "alleged misconduct."  Park officials are unable to produce either financial records for the pro shop, or a valid contract for Lowe.

Lowe secured a Park Department contract in 1991 to rent golf carts to Gleason customers and operate a pro shop at the golf course.  Under its terms, Lowe was required to pay $325 a year in return for the rights to the pro shop.  That contract expired in December 2004.  Lowe said he stopped making payments then "because I don't have a contract."

The Knight Foundation and Gallup Consulting have just published their Soul of the Community research.  The purpose of the study was to understand what drives "engagement" or commitment to community and how each of Knight's communities ranked on "community citizen engagement" or CCE.

Several findings stand out. Aesthetics are a key driver of CCE in every age group.  In fact, it is the only attibute that ranks among the top three attributes among all age groups.  Aesthetics, in this survey, was defined as "parks, playgrounds and trails" and "physical beauty of the place."

Social offerings and openness most influenced 25-44 year olds.  Students were more influenced by economy and education.  But aesthetics ranked third for both, and second with all age groups.  (Social offerings -- or vibrant nightlife, good place to meet people and others care about each other -- and openness -- good place for older people, race and ethnic minorities, families with kids, gays and lesbians, and talented college grads -- ranked first and third, respectively, with all age groups.)

Interestingly, social capital and involvement rank lowest among all age groups, with safety not much higher.

Leadership, defined as leaders share my views and leadership of elected officials, ranks in the middle of all attributes among all age groups.  In other words, it's not unimportant to driving engagement, but it is by no means a priority factor.

CCE is a combination of loyalty and passion factors.  Levers that influence engagement or CCE are openness, social capital, involvement and community offerings (the category where aesthetics and social offerings fall).

Among Knight communities, the city with the lowest level of engagement is Gary, Indiana, followed closely by Detroit.  The community with the highest level of engagement is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with Biloxi, Mississippi, and Long Beach, California in second and third place.  The best-performing big cities are Palm Beach, Charlotte and St. Paul.

On Nov. 17, I had the displeasure of going to our local hospital in Gary.  The physician of one of my relatives sent them to receive a medical treatment.

On arrival at the emergency room, there were no wheelchairs.  So when you bring someone to the emergency room, you must spend a few minutes to find a wheelchair.

Upon entering the emergency room, I thought I had entered a room in some Third World country like Somalia or Zimbabwe.  Men, women and children with illnesses and injuries, waiting to be admitted and/or treated, were sitting, grouped in chairs.  Some people were bleeding, others groaning, a few had bandages or ice packs on their heads, listening for their name to be called by the receptionist.

Is this what we have come to in our city, where the citizens of Gary are nothing more than an inconvenience to the personnel who work there?  Who speaks for the person in that room who has no other choice but to wait four or five hours for treatment?  Who hears their cries of pain?  Maybe this is why many individuals in our city fall to the wayside and others give up.

The cement that glued the whole situation was when a hospital employee announced to waiting patients that it would take an additional four to five hours before they could be attended to because of some unknown events taking place.  We had been there four hours, and other patients had waited up to eight hours and now had to sit and wait even longer.  We left.

Maybe Gary is being punished because of the lack of caring about each other.  Or maybe the conditions of our city reflect the hopelessness that is found in many residents.  Maybe, just maybe, we've given up on a dream of a better city, which has now become a nightmare.

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[COMMENT GDY -]   Yet another feather in Rudy's cap!  While the city is being held hostage by criminals, what is Rudy doing?  He is laying off policemen and firefighters.

One transportation expert after another has told Northwest Indiana over the last year that the area is a potential mecca for an intermodal operation.

For instance:

Transportation and logistics expert Michael Gallis spoke to business, political and community leaders in Michigan City last December.  He spoke on issues at the heart of the debate over an intermodal facility in LaPorte County.  "You sit in the economic corridor linking the largest economic concentrations in the country," Gallis said referring to Chicago and the Northeast.

Intermodal, simply put, is the exchange between one mode of transportation and another — typically, from rail to truck.  Gallis added that trade across rail and highways is projected to double in the next 20 years, and there is no national strategy on how to deal with it.

Barbara Sloan, an analyst for Cambridge Systematics, a transportation consulting firm hired by the state to possibly bring an intermodal operation to Northwest Indiana, said in June that the country is quickly approaching the point of not being able to handle the amount of goods that need transportation.  Her final report will be out in January.

And Thomas Finkbiner, senior chairman of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver, told attendees at the annual Indiana Logistics Summit two weeks ago that there is enough traffic to justify an intermodal center in this area.

A proposal for an intermodal facility in LaPorte County a year or so ago was met with that seemingly fatal area affliction — Not in My Back Yard.

Will someone soon recognize that an intermodal facility provides jobs and tax revenue — two things we are sorely lacking in this area? Who is going to step up?

GARY -- Mayor Rudy Clay said Friday, city workers can expect to return to a five-day work week Dec. 8, ending nearly four months of 20 percent pay cuts.  Gary's four-day work week began in August, after the city discovered it was facing a $13 million budget shortfall.  Some civilian workers were forced to take the pay cut, but the police and firefighter unions took the city to court.  In each instance, the courts ruled in favor of the unions, reversing those pay cuts.

Ten rookie police officers who were placed on furlough have been told to report back to work the same day, and 13 furloughed firefighters expect to return to work a week later.  "We want everybody to have a Merry Christmas," Clay said, "including firefighters and including police."

Union leaders are approaching the news with skepticism.  Del Stout Gary Fraternal Order of Police President said although 10 furloughed police officers were told to report back to work, that doesn't mean they will be working.  "Until it happens, obviously we can't say for sure, Stout said."

The Service Employees International Union's Lorenzo Crowell said he was waiting to inform his members of the return to a five-day work week until the city submits something to him in writing.  "Oftentimes, they've told us stuff and it hasn't occurred."

GARY -- The curator of The DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, through its curator, on Thursday firmly denied knowing anything as to the whereabouts of two paintings missing from the Gary schools' collection.  "The paintings are not in our possession," Charles Bethea, the DuSable's director of curatorial services, said.

School officials have no record of them leaving their collection.  An appraiser said the missing paintings could be worth as much as $20,000 each.

The school board attorney sent a letter to the DuSable curator last month asking about the Charles Dawson paintings "Quadroon Madonna" and "Brother and Sister."  She wrote the letter after local art enthusiast Jim Nowacki told the board he found "Brother and Sister" hanging in the Chicago museum.  In its response to the school board letter, the DuSable curator wrote, "I don't know where he would have thought he saw those particular paintings.  We've never displayed anything like that."

GARY — Security personnel escorted City Council’s chief of staff from City Hall on Tuesday. Council President Ronier Scott, immediately prior to the forced removal, placed the chief of staff on paid leave for the rest of the year .

The post is held by Rachelle Morgan-Ceaser. It is among several that were cut from Gary’s 2009 budget in an effort to deal with a multi-million dollar shortfall. Scott cited those economic conditions in a letter notifying Morgan-Ceaser of his decision, but he didn’t explain how the city would financially benefit by putting him on paid leave. When asked to explain this decision, as well as the urgency of his removal from City Hall, Scott had no comment.

Now, some of Scott’s fellow council members are this apparently unilateral decision. At least one council member, Ragen Hatcher (D-at large), is publicly accusing the council president of retribution against an employee. She said, "It speaks to the unethical culture of our current administration and certain council members.

City finance records show that the council’s chief of staff is budgeted at $50,359.00 for 2008. In his letter, Scott also asked Morgan-Ceaser to turn over a city cell phone, credit card, car and laptop. Those items have yet to be surrendered.

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[COMMENT GDY -]  Another great government idea, pay staff to stay home.  That will certainly go a long way to save monies during a period of financial distress!  There has to be more than meets the eye here.  Stay tuned .... 

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay said his wife, Christine Clay, hasn't decided whether she'd like her role on the Genesis Convention Center's board of commissioners to become permanent.  Mayor Clay said in June that his wife had accepted the position on a "temporary" basis.  It was previously held by the late Roland "Bo" Watson.  He also said she would not receive a stipend.

"She's doing a great job," Mayor Clay said this week.  "I have not asked her to step down.  She hasn't said whether she wants it permanently or not yet."

However, the mayor said his wife is now being paid for the work she is doing.  According to a copy of the city's 2008 budget, board members are scheduled to receive $1,236 a year.

"It's really nothing," Mayor Clay said.

Rudy is a joke. The Sheraton is a joke. The downtown renewal effort is a joke. Rudy on the GSD Board is a joke. People of Gary wake up and smell the corruption !! Stand up and demand that Rudy be removed !! I know we could do better with anybody but him!!

Ed Yerga

There is nothing left to say. The corruption that exists in Gary begins at the top, and floats right on down. That means in order to get rid of it, the top must be eliminated. But the citizens of Gary don't. They keep right on voting the same kind of corrupt people into office. The citizens are asking for this kind of thing, so let them have it. There's no room to feel sorry for people who ask for it.

Shea
___________________

The Gary School Board will likely cut more than 50 teacher positions in order to trim $23 million from its 2009 budget by Dec. 1.

The extent of the cuts is deep: 57 teachers, 57 supervisory aides, most custodians from the buildings scheduled to be closed, 12 secretaries and five maintenance workers.  The district is also not filling several administrative positions.

School board president Nellie Moore said the cuts are severe, but there's not really a way around them.

Gary has one of the highest foreclosure rates in Indiana, at 18.1 percent.  Gary, has been tabbed to receive more than $13 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development money to address the problem.  Now it's up to officials to come up with plans that use the money effectively and where it can have the most impact.

WHILE GARY SINKS INTO BANKRUPTCY - USS THRIVES!
U.S. Steel Profit Triples
Post-Tribune staff and wire reports
[29 Oct 2008]

PITTSBURGH -- United States Steel Corp.'s quarterly profit more than tripled as higher prices led to record gains in its tubular and flat-rolled steel businesses, but the company warned Tuesday softening demand in North America and Europe will cut results for the rest of the year.

The Pittsburgh-based steel producer reported net income of $919 million, or $7.79 per share, in the third quarter, compared with $269 million, or $2.27 per share, a year earlier.  Profit was lowered by 67 cents per share because of charges for employee signing bonuses under a union labor agreement and environmental remediation.

"It's not surprising that it's a very large number," said local United Steelworkers District President Jim Robinson.  "The industry has had a very good couple of years.  It's a result of the hard work that we as steel workers did to fight successfully for the steel tariffs and drive the consolidation."

U.S. Steel Chief Executive John P. Surma said the company turned in the most profitable quarter in its history, but warned that fourth-quarter results will decline due to the volatile global economic climate.

Quarterly income from flat-rolled products soared to $835 million from $170 million a year earlier, boosted by higher prices.  Tubular income climbed to $420 million from $74 million on higher prices, partially offset by increased costs for semi-finished steel.