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Fishers has spent over $500,000 in legal, accounting, public relations, and consulting fees to Fishers taxpayers since July of last year. Over 60% of those fees have been paid to Church, Church, Hittle & Antrim, the legal counsel of record for the Town of Fishers which has accounted for $345,580 in fees in the last eight months alone.
Going through public accounts payable ledgers available through the Town of Fishers website from July 16, 2007 through February 18, 2008, Town Council documents show following professional expenditures associated with the forced annexation of over 2,000 Geist property owners:
| Annexation Expense since 7/2007 |
Amount |
|
| Barnes & Thornburg | $84,580 | |
| Bingham McHale, LLP | $24,619 | |
| Bose, McKinney & Evans | $8,136 | |
| Church, Church, Hittle & Antrim | $345,580 | |
| O.W. Krohn & Associates (accounting, financial plans) | $21,548 | |
| Sease, Gerig & Associates (public relations) | $33,103 | |
| Wabash Scientific (consulting) | $42,357 | |
| Total | $559,923 |
During this time frame, the Town of Fishers had to thwart the incorporation efforts of Geist residents looking to form the Towns of East and West Geist (zoning board hearing, Hamilton County court decision on “first in time”), redraft the ordinances to annex the three areas around Geist, host a public hearing, and then host a public “docu-drama” at the January 22nd Town Council meeting where the three ordinances were finally passed.
Keep in mind, this annexation fight has been going on since November of 2005 (or 28 months) and this is the bill for only the last 8 of those. Additional charges have been incurred for printing services and postage to send out certified letters and “Fire Sale” propaganda pieces. Those figures in the grand scheme of things are immaterial and total less than $15,000 since last summer. One also has to consider the additional cost and lost resource time from the Town of Fishers staffers that support the Town Council’s efforts.
As a disclaimer, most of the invoices totaled above were earmarked in the memo field as “Geist Annexation” direct expenses which are unmistakably annexation expenses. Other expenses were excessively high during this time period as compared to other months preceding the annexation ordinances announcement in November of 2006. Figures above represent a best effort estimate of fees directly associated with the Geist annexation ordinances.
Also of note, Barnes & Thornburg has been hired as a lobbyist for the Town of Fishers for the last few years. Their retainer is $5,000 per month for “Federal Lobbying” and $1,500 a month for “State Lobbying.” In this legislative session which began on January 3rd, Barnes & Thornburg has invoiced the Town of Fishers for $12,000 against their “Retainer” which implies that they are working hard at the local level to squelch SB 114 now in the House of Representatives.
Geist United Opposition volunteers and block captains are currently collecting signatures on a remonstrance petition which will put Fishers back into court as early as May. Expect these legal fees, accounting fees, public relations fees, and expert witness fees such as Wabash Scientific to push this total to over $1 million by the end of summer. Despite the seemingly endless amounts of money that the Fishers Town Council is willing to spend on the gamble that they can forcibly annex Geist residents, the Geist residents have had to raise their own money to fight a local government intent on forcing their will on them.
As a side note, the legal loophole that Senate Bill 114 is seeking to close in the Indiana House of Representatives was created back in 1999 by the Indiana legislature (IC 36-4-3) to save Fort Wayne from bankruptcy. The City of Fort Wayne had extended sewers, water service, fire protection, police, and street maintenance to suburbs around Fort Wayne but were unable to levy their local taxes on them. Legislators acted quickly to institute a way for the City of Fort Wayne to forcibly annex a contiguous area if they were providing all these services to the residents (IC 36-4-3-13).
Fast forward to today, cities and towns around the state of Indiana are using this law to forcibly annex areas around their municipalities to expand their tax base which is compounded with County Option Income Tax (COIT) moneys from the State.
Let’s hope that SB 114 will get passed with the January 1st effective date before either side in this annexation debate spends another dollar in court.
No wonder Doug Church keeps fighting for FISHERS and wants to have this go on and on. Maybe we should call the Annexation Battle the Doug Church retirement fund.
Next I hope the citizens of Fishers start asking questions. Do you all remember last year how they had to expand Town Hall, they were out of room, etc. Funny how now they are not building the expansion, they had to have, is it because they are wasting all their money on lawyers. Too bad they don’t allow recall elections in Indiana.
Tom Britt,
Why do you have anything to do with the annexation of Fishers and Geist. You live in Lawrenc and it’s in Marion County of which doesn’t have anything to do with merger..
Fishers Resident…
If you look into the header, it’s called “atGeist.com” which is a big lake strattling both Lawrence (with an “e”) and unincorporated fall creek township/Fishers. People out here associate themselves with Geist, not Fishers.
The people of future W Geist and E Geist should have someone that lives in the effected area. YOU DO NOT PAY TAXES IN HAMILTON COUNTY!
Tom provides a great service to the Geist residents and it is his business. As long as this is a reasonably free society and embraces the concepts of free enterprise, Tom is not only welcome to provide the website but encouraged to do so. Too bad a bunch of mis-informed and mal-adjusted people take pot shots at people standing up for their constitutional rights.
Carmel, FORCED ANNEXATION is not a “merger”, it is a hostile takeover. And, Olio……..Why do people that oppose Forced Annexation have to live in the area that is affected ? There are people within Fishers city limits that think it is wrong and have used “atGeist.com” to say so. Just because Tom Britt lives in the part of Geist that isn’t fighting annexation doesn’t mean he can’t let his opinions be known and support his neighbors. It seems to me that the more informed a community becomes; the better off they are to make decisions. Fishers is spending thousands of dollars on mailers with the Fishers Town Councils “version” of the story. Tom Britt is offering a service to his community and neighbors. “atGeist.com” is a vehicle to get the other side of the story out to the people of Geist.
You don’t get it! He has a ok website but he doesn’t live in the area that is going to be in the ANNEXATION plan…He goes on Comcast and thinks he’s the mayor of the future East and West Geist.
We get why doen’t Mr Carmel? You do not have to live in an unicorporated area to be against forced annexations. Just like you don’t have to be a victim of rape to be against rape.
I agree with Olio and Carmel! If you live in Lawrence you can’t say one thing about it! Geist is a boundary North of that!
hey JQFR, you either have three personalities or don’t think I’m smart enough to know that you are posting using three different names (Carmel, OLIO, and now One that lives in the area). Find something else to do.
Nice try Britt.
See any similarity in these posts of yours? FYI, an IP address is the network you are coming from. click here
I agree with Tom’s right, but even more his responsibility. We have clashed and I have called him about it before. But, regardless he can and should preform this service.
So lay off who should be or should not be involved.
A lot of people have been wondering what these numbers would add up to being. Thank you for taking the time to research this. The people I know who live in Fishers have kind of stayed on the sidelines with this issue. The Town Council hasn’t really had to answer to their voters for their expenses regarding this forced annexation. This report may change that.
When Zionsville tried to forcibly annex the unincorporated parts of Boone County, the remonstrators gathered the necessary signatures. After learning that the remonstrators had hit their numbers, Zionsville decided the best thing for the community was to not fight this out in court due to the expense and ill will it could bring the town of Zionsville. Somehow I doubt the Fishers Town Council will be as “magnanimous”.
Tom for the IP address issue. You can be on the same IP address on a network.
WOW, I do like that part about the “future East and West Geist”. Has a nice ring to it. But, Carmel, you seem to have the same mentality as the Fishers Town Council. (I wonder?)
Fishers Town Council….. If you don’t live in our town, you shouldn’t be driving on “our” roads, that you didn’t pay for.
Carmel…… If you don’t live in the proposed annexation part of Geist, you shouldn’t be stating your opinions on Forced Annexation.
Now I get it! We should all be Separatists, don’t help out our neighbors, mind our own business, and stop fighting for what we believe in when it doesn’t involve us.
WHAT????????????
Isn’t that the IP address of the has-to-be-expanded-oh-wait-a-minute-here’s-some-space Fisher’s Town Hall?
You’ll be happy to know that I’ve blocked his IP so he can’t post here anymore. FYI, Carmel, One that Lives in Fishers, and OLIO were all the same person that posts all day on topix.net under JQFR. He won’t be posting here unless he goes to another network provider or the library.
Anybody spun the idea to make Fall Creek Rd. a toll road by the bridge to offset the E. W. Geist property taxes when we become incorporated.? (automated IPASS) Of’ course the people of Geist would be exempt.
Thanks to who ever did the great work on the Fisher expenses of Annexation. Nice work !
Greg
Just saw were Drozda just resigned from the State Senate. He was one of the sponsors for the annexation issue. Does this change anyhting?
I am planning to move either to Geist or Fishers. Can some one suggest pros and cons, if I have to choose one out of these two?
Geist vs Fishers