Jan
5
Feds Ask Mayor Clay To Step Down As GSD Admin & Taxes Could Still Rise
Filed Under COIT, Gary, Gary Indiana, Gary Sanitary District, Income Tax, Lake County Council, corruption, federal investigations, government waste, political machines, property tax crisis, tax revolt, taxes
Higher fees might be the result of mismanagement of funds at the Gary Sanitary District and the Lake County Council is still talking about the premature declaration of death of the proposed Lake County income tax needed to continue business as usual.
Gary Mayor Rudy Clay refuses to quit his job as special administrator at the Gary Sanitary District, despite requests from the U.S. Attorney’s office that the mayor do so because of allegations of mismanagement of funds, reports the Post-Tribune.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has asked Mayor Rudy Clay to resign as special administrator of the Gary Sanitary District alleging mismanagement of funds, a city attorney said Friday.
Hamilton Carmouche, the attorney for the Gary Sanitary District and corporation counsel for the city of Gary, said Clay has refused the request from Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Ault.
Meanwhile, Carmouche said the district is likely to raise its rates for the first time in about five years. He said it probably should have happened sooner, but he said Ault put additional pressure on the commissioners.
The Post-Tribune reports “the city borrowed about $11 million from the sanitary district to cover operating expenses” in 2006.
The news of the U.S. Attorney’s Office investigation another case of mismanagement of funds within a Lake County governmental unit comes right at the time that the Lake County Council is talking about the need to “regroup” because a proposal to raise taxes was defeated by voter opposition. Councilman Will Smith’s departure — he was a key tax proponent despite his own personal opposition to taxes which resulted in a conviction — also hurt the proponents of higher Lake County taxes.
Writes Bill Dolan in the Northwest Indiana Times:
Former Councilman Will Smith Jr. worked behind the scenes last fall to pass the tax following his conviction on a federal tax fraud charge. Smith resigned last week after the tax failed. His sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday, although Smith is asking for a delay.
It’s just too bad that people didn’t see the need to sacrifice some of their hard earned money in the form of higher property taxes and a brand new income tax so that government officials and their kids can have several lucrative government jobs and money to spread around to their cronies.
It’s selfishness!
Shame on you, anti-tax protesters asking local government to cut back at a time when it is obvious that the only people who think there is waste and abuse of taxpayers’ funds are those folks at the U.S. Attorney’s Office with all of their investigations and such.
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4 Responses to “Feds Ask Mayor Clay To Step Down As GSD Admin & Taxes Could Still Rise”
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Chris, I just had this same conversation last nite. Gary is an embarassment to all of Northwest Indiana. But I do wonder who they are really after?
Are they really just trying to get Rudy the hoodlum Clay to resign from the Sanitary District? Why? Sure he lies to the citizens of Gary by pretending he’s not making much money as Mayor, and then pocketing another big salary, but so did the previous mayors. I’d love to see double jobbing go away under a truth in compensation bill at the state level.
But, who are they really after here?
Taking Clay down would be a huge undertaking. He is the Democrat county chairman, after all.
You know, I MIGHT have to blog about this!
Hi Steve,
I should have stopped in sooner than today — I took a little break from blogging because it was so nice yesterday and got a bunch of comments!
I wonder if Buzz is on the right track. Of course, the feds have been all over Gary’s government, so this might just be more of the same.
Hi Buzz,
You might be onto something there. Of course, it could be like I said in my response to Steve that this is just a continuation of all of the other investigations that have been going on in Lake County.
It will be interesting to see what happens.