Fort Wayne City Councilman John Crawford (R-At-Large) wrote an op-ed piece for the News-Sentinel which appeared in Thursday’s edition.
It is reprinted here, with his permission:
There have been disturbing stories, corroborated with video, in the Oct. 10 News-Sentinel and the Oct. 11 Journal Gazette concerning the Fort Wayne city clerk’s office. These stories and accusations by former employees allege political campaign activities and coercion of employees to participate in political campaigns have occurred.
If the allegations prove to be true in subsequent investigations, these activities clearly violate the city’s ethics code for employees. It is against the city’s ethics code to “solicit, receive or give contributions or political support services for a candidate” or to “coerce or attempt to coerce contributions or service from subordinate employees in support of a political party or candidate for public office … . Or retaliate against, or reward, any employee for any political action or inaction.”
Again, If allegations prove to be true, these actions may also violate Indiana Code 35-44.1-1-3, which prohibits government employees from engaging in such activities which constitutes a Level 6 felony.
Fort Wayne City Ordinance 36.02 Political Contributions for Employment Benefits prohibits this type behavior, and violators can be “fined in an amount not more than $1,000.”
Deputy City Clerk Angie Davis testified before City Council on Tuesday to present the city clerk budget for 2016. She did not fully answer questions as to the nature and extent of time employees in the office spent on political activity.
As outlined in Executive Order 01-01 Municipal Code of Ethics, as head of the City Council I will file in writing a complaint to the Ethics Board and the city attorney for investigation of ethics violations by employees of the city clerk office and possible violation of City Ordinance 36.02.
We don’t know where these investigations will end up. However, if these alleged activities occurred, this reveals two things. If employees in this office had enough time during their work hours (while being paid to do real work for the citizens) to engage in political campaign work, then we have too many employees in that office. If these allegations are true, some people in this office need to be disciplined, demoted or terminated.
We should not rush to judgment until thorough investigations are completed. We do not want to prematurely conclude people are guilty or paint with a broad brush to insinuate that all people in the department are involved.
However, if we do need to adjust the number and roster of employees based on the facts, that will markedly change the budget required for that department. Our budget must be finished Oct. 27. I will propose to the City Council that we cut the city clerk’s budget by 75 percent. The cut funds would revert to the unallocated cash balance. This action would fund the department at its present level for three months.
At that point, we expect all the facts to be known.
We will have a new city clerk next year and a new mayoral term. The new clerk’s administration will have recommendations on a proposed organization of the department and the budget required for the remaining nine months of the year. The City Council can then review that knowing all the facts of the case.
The City Council can then reappropriate the correct amount of funds necessary to run the department for the remainder of the year.
City Council must take action. We should not fully fund a department for a full year until we know if improper or illegal activity has been occurring there. But we want to be fair and only take action once everything is investigated.
The proposed funding of the department for three months is both fair and allows us to take the exact correct action with full and complete knowledge of the facts.
The proposed 75 percent cut will be submitted Friday by our usual procedure. The full council will decide on this Oct. 27 at time of final passage of the budget.
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