You bet, this was coming all along.
Tom gives the brother of a pal $400,000 to build two homes up front, no bidding, and did a couple of city employees buy the home with 10 year tax abatements? Sweet.
Festival of the Lakes gets between $200,000 and $400,000.
Legal Clinic, some of Tom's best friends work @ the clinic, they get $600,000 a year.
Charter School has gotten over $3,000,000 since inception.
And is there a sweet heart deal with the Chicken Wing place being built at Oxbow Landing. Did Jr's brother Aaron handle the land acquisition? Is a McDermott part of the LLC who is to own the Wing Joint? Did City money fund some of the construction, land purchase?
And didn't Mike Opiner, making over $100,000 a year, take $32,000 during last election cycle, dump 32 dumpsters in his district plastering his yellow and black sign on the dumpsters one week before the City Elections? Yep. And because of Mike, didn' the rest of the city was punished, loosing the use of dumpsters for spring clean up? Yep.
We can go on and on for as many years as McDermott has been mayor.
Then you have the inordinate amount of money Tom spends litigating. I just love the Moreno case, a hispanic woman who had a code enforcement employee knock on her door with a employee of the city court who has a construction company. Da guy who has the construction company, makes an offer of $5,000 to repair a roof, and the next closes bid is 2.5x the amount. Along with the $5,000 payment appears to be an inducement to provide insurance, as if someone else does the job, the code enforcement personnel just might find something else.
Then you have the $200,000 it cost the city because Tom made some other disparaging remarks about hispanics and blacks....HUD stepped in and made Tom an offer, either pay the fine or go to court and have those wonderful disparaging remarks become public.... and this guy wants to be governor....
So Tom gets $4,000,000 to waste?
Hammond has got some financial problems and they are being buried in the budget.
Quote:
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/gaming-revenue-transfer-may-balance-hammond-budget/article_3a2909e0-96c6-5b46-87b5-af78e1d4e34b.htmlGaming revenue transfer may balance Hammond budget
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1 hour ago • Rob Earnshaw
rob.earnshaw@nwi.com, (219) 933-3241
HAMMOND | Department heads met before the City Council on Saturday for hearings on the $63.4 million budget proposal for 2015.
City Controller Heather Garay said the entire civil city sector has been asked to cut anywhere they can “and they have,†she said.
The council is expected vote on an ordinance Monday to
transfer nearly $4.5 million from gaming revenue to the city’s general fund. If passed, that along with other revenue sources the city is working toward would balance the budget.
“We will not be in the red,†Garay said. “We will be in the black.â€
Council members have been asked to contribute gaming revenue they receive into the general fund.
Councilman Homero "Chico" Hinojosa, D-6th, said the casino funds council members received for projects in their districts used to be $2.7 million. Last year it was $1.3 million. For 2015 it will be $500,000.
“No more money for major projects,†he said.Mayor Thomas
McDermott Jr. receives three times the amount of casino funds the council members do. Last year that total was $4 million. Garay said the mayor will receive the same $500,000 as the council members will in 2015.
Councilwoman Janet Venecz, D-at large, who as an at-large council member doesn’t receive gaming money for city projects, said 2015 is going to be a tight year. She said gaming revenue originally was not supposed to be used to shore up the budget.
“We’ve had to do that over the years because of the shortfall,†she said. “This cash cow is coming to an end.â€
Garay said the city is trying to
generate new revenue and
look at new revenue sources, so when the time comes it’s not as reliant on the gaming revenue to support the city’s civil sector.
Hinojosa questioned Garay over funds used for overtime pay for security provided by Hammond police during this year’s Festival of the Lakes.
At a council meeting in June, Hinojosa said a report he received stated Hammond police working security at the festival were paid for out of Henry Unit money — a fund to bolster patrols on the streets.
Garay said police have multiple overtime accounts to pull from but in 2014 she believes festival security pay was pulled from Henry Unit money.
In June Hammond Police Chief John Doughty told The Times that officers working the fest were paid from the regular police overtime account, about $40,000 for five days. He also said their presence at the fest does not affect manpower on the street.
“It’s one of my concerns — why are we using Henry Unit money to pay for police festival security,†Hinojosa said. “It should come out of festival money. If you make money, pay for it there. If you lost money, the mayor pays for it out of his funds.â€
The council will discuss the budget further during its meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall.
Looking for new revenue sources? What with most people in Hammond earing $35,000 a year, double digit unemployment.
It called living with in your means, Tom.
But then McDermott Building 4 over bicycle overpasses were really needed at a cost of over $6,000,000. Wasn't that project to repay certain individuals who contributed to his campaign chest?
It's like the pavers appearing all over town... Yea, Tom has the right priorities, it putting your money in his and his pal's back pocket.
Tom still needs to explain where $250,000 a year for 8 years in Snake Fest Parking fees disappeared.... if he did explain, a couple of people might be going to jail.
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