Annexation Update July 8th, 2006

The Town of Fishers has joined Carmel in their appeal to the Indiana State Supreme Court on their failed annexation of Southwest Clay. Attorneys for Carmel bypassed the Court of Appeals and went straight to the State Supreme Court in an emergency motion. The Town of Fishers, Muncie, Pendleton and Anderson all accompanied Carmel as ‘”friends of the court’” (or “amici curiae”) since these proceedings will have a direct impact on their annexations.

This is good news for Geist residents affected by the Fishers annexation. The ‘”road map’” that Fishers attorney Doug Church keeps assuring everyone that came from the Judge Hughes verdict in the Southwest Clay trial is a map of a dead end road. If this decision is upheld by the State Supreme Court, Fishers will have to retool their annexation plans and look for voluntary annexations versus forced annexations.

For Geist residents, our best defense is changing the annexation laws in Indiana for good. A new town council in Fishers, a successful remonstration, or an apology letter from Scott Faultless himself will never guarantee that Fishers will back off their annexation attempts. Repealing the annexation laws statewide, a hot topic not just in Indiana but nationally, will once and for all get the Fishers’ monkey off our back. I

n the meantime, you may have seen the media frenzy around the four-color flyer that the Town of Fishers mailed out to all of their residents (estimated to be over 30,000). While Geist neighborhoods receive letters inviting them to meet with Fishers to talk about ‘”how a unification of Fishers would benefit and affect you and your neighborhood’”, Fishers residents receive a brochure stating ‘”your tax dollars are supporting Geist residents’”. You don’t win over a lot of minds and hearts by sending out flyers telling Fishers residents that Geist residents are ‘”single-minded’” and ‘”don’t want to pay more taxes without a consideration of the significant benefits they are receiving’”.

The mystery to me is this: Why mail 30,000 flyers out to Fishers residents unaffected by the annexation? There are only two parties to this forced annexation. On one side, you have the seven town council members that can pass the resolution to forcibly annex Geist. The Town of Fishers has a lot of employees, a Town Manager, and others that are supportive, but they can’t vote on the resolution, only the seven town council members can. On the other side you have 2,050 parcel owners that have been carved up into four arbitrary areas. These are the folks that have to pay to defend themselves against an annexation with their own money, sign petitions, and be accused by a neighboring town that they are freeloaders.

So, why send this ‘”call to arms’” to Fishers residents? They don’t have a dog in this fight, nor do they benefit if Geist is annexed. Asking Fishers residents to ‘”contribute to the dialogue and discussion’” is pointless and a waste of their time. What’s next, selling torches at the Fishers Town Hall?

If the flyer was good for anything, it was a good reminder to Fishers residents that the town council is more concerned with their public image during a stalled annexation than it is with the pressing school overcrowding issues, the impending 5% property tax increase, or the ‘”swiss cheese’” in their own backyard. Remember, until Faultless annexed his 140′ wide strip of land in the Valleys at Geist, there were only a few parcels of Fishers property east of Olio Road. There were a lot of homes at Geist Reservoir before Fishers was ever incorporated.