Official’s opening year: Mayor Kitchell reflects on first year in office, looks forward to 2017

Dec. 28--Logansport Mayor Dave Kitchell's first year in office is almost in the books and he said it's gone quickly.

"It's going much faster than I thought it would but it's been fun because every day is something different," he said.

Looking back on the past 12 months, the Democratic mayor reflected on the new officials leading city departments and fiscal challenges. Next year, he said, will come with annexation plans and a focus on historic structures.

Building a team

"I think what I'm most proud of is people were willing to help and they were ready to put the election behind them and say, 'Let's get to work and roll up our sleeves and get something done," Kitchell said. "The big thing I think is attitude... I think there's a can-do spirit here again that we can get a lot of things done."

The 2015 city election resulted in victories for a Democratic clerk-treasurer along with six new Democrats for city council and one Republican incumbent. Kitchell appointed to his team a deputy mayor, cemetery sexton, police chief, fire chief, city attorney, LMU attorney, administrative assistant, street commissioner and cemetery sexton.

"It's not a top-down thing, it's more like a partnership thing with the city administration," Kitchell said. "I've been fortunate to have people that I've appointed that I wanted to be able to appoint and not have to hover over them all the time... I wanted to be able to appoint people that could get the job done and really wanted to be passionate about that particular department."

Financial hurdles

Shortly after taking office, the new city administration enlisted financial advice from H.J. Umbaugh & Associates, which warned of a need to stem a trend of outspending revenues and make up for losses incurred by tax caps.

Administration members set out to tighten the belt by implementing spending guidelines, refinancing a bond, redirecting tax increment financing funds back to city coffers, locking in cheaper fuel agreements for municipal vehicles and changing city employees' health insurance provider.

"We basically did all this without raising fees or taxes, which is pretty hard to do," Kitchell said. "...We've squeezed as much as we can possibly squeeze."

Another fiscal challenge lies with Logansport Municipal Utilities, Kitchell said.

The operating cash balance for LMU's electric department dropped from more than $2.4 million to about $33,000 in the first 10 months of 2016.

"Suffice it to say the challenge is going to be that we have to get the utilities back to break even or profitability again for the long term and to be able to build our own systems out," Kitchell said.

He went on to refer to his campaign message of "accountability, integrity and community."

"Nobody expects accountability to mean you're going to lose money every single year," he said. "It's like a coach saying you don't want to be held accountable by the ownership if you have a losing season every year. Sooner or later something has to give."

In 2016 Kitchell replaced all three mayoral appointments on the city's utility service board, two before their terms were up.

That spurred criticism Kitchell was compromising the board's independence, but he disagrees. He says such influence is warranted when the city is a large utilities customer and because of utility rates' role in economic development -- an important municipal responsibility.

"I think the relationship between the utilities and the city has been symbiotic over the years and yet there's a sense that they want to be in a parallel universe," Kitchell said. "...Unfortunately it's kind of the thing now where instead of being ships side by side, we're kind of on a tandem bicycle."

He added he hopes for a continuing dialogue between the the utility service board, city council, himself and the city's utilities consultant.

2017 and beyond

Earlier this year Kitchell announced intentions to seek annexing areas southwest and north of the city. It would boost the city's assessed value while providing services and lower utility rates for the potential new residents, according to Kitchell.

There's still plenty of data that needs to be collected and provided and feedback to be solicited before city council can vote on such a decision, however.

"Annexation is a complicated thing and it scares people and that's why we're going to go very carefully on this next phase next year with annexation because we want them to know up front... what the impact's going to be for them on their utility bills, on their property taxes," he said.

Delays continue to postpone a revamped city website, Kitchell said, but he hopes for it to be completed soon.

One feature he wants the new website to offer is part of a project Gray & Pape Heritage Management has been doing for Logansport. The city hired the firm earlier this year to inventory the city's historic structures. Kitchell intends to make that data available on the city's website.

He said visitors will be able to browse information on a structure's architecture, whether it qualifies for the National Register of Historic Places, whether it's for sale and other information. It will also include a map pinpointing all of the historic structures throughout the city, he said.

"You're going to be able to add intrinsic value by being able to say it's a historic property," Kitchell said.

That's going to encourage owners to take care of and invest in such properties, he continued, adding that will improve property values, which affect the city's assessed valuation.

Kitchell said expanding local housing assistance, tackling more blight elimination, helping the local Habitat for Humanity get its next project and getting signage and lighting on the Hoosier Heartland Highway are other items on his agenda for 2017.

"I think it's going to be a good year," he said. "I'm optimistic about it. If we can just keep doing what we're doing and going the direction we're going, I think we'll be all right."

Reach Mitchell Kirk at mitchell.kirk@pharostribune.com or 574-732-5130

___

(c)2016 the Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Ind.)

Visit the Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Ind.) at www.pharostribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.