The GUO and just about everyone else expected the Town Council to adopt the ordinances, despite the fact that doing so is clearly NOT the will of the people, despite the fact that it will now cost the taxpayers of Fishers even more money (hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars) to fight this in court—because the Geist property owners will take them to court, and despite the fact that even the state General Assembly is considering legislation that would make forced annexations illegal because such annexations are simply wrong.

We now have 90 days from the date the ordinances are published to obtain remonstration petitions from at least 65% of the property owners of each of the three Geist annexation areas! The clock has begun ticking.

This week the GUO will be mailing remonstration petitions to each of the property owners affected. When you receive your petition package please carefully follow the directions for signing and returning the signed petitions to the GUO. The signed petitions are due back to the GUO before February 4th.

Remember, our attorneys have said that we have a strong case against this forced annexation, but to present our case we must get to court. Under current Indiana law, the only way we can get to court is to file a remonstrance that includes petitions signed by at least 65% of the property owners of record. Every petition counts.

On a slightly humorous note, prior to the Council vote the Town Council had two lawyers and one consultant make presentations to the Council to explain (a) that the Town is fiscally sound, (b) Geist is leaching off the largess of the Town by using their services without paying for them, and (c) why Geist shouldn’t incorporate itself into its own towns.

The first two items are akin to you paying a beauty consultant to tell you how beautiful (or handsome) you are. “Here’s $10, please tell me how pretty I am.” The latter made no sense whatsoever. But, it would appear that the Town Council has money to burn to pay for a “feel good” session, not to mention that several other town attorneys were present at the meeting.

Sign the petitions and get them back promptly to the GUO—we will prevail!

Now is the time to donate!

Obviously, their Fishers Town Council has unlimited financial resources and would rather spend the taxpayers’ money on fighting Geist than doing good works for their citizens.

Unfortunately, the GUO does not have unlimited resources nor can we simply tax people to pay for legal costs. We are now looking at a protracted legal battle for sure, so please contribute to the legal fund.

You can donate online, or mail a check to GUO, P.O. Box 56023, Indianapolis, IN 46256. Thus far, we saved every Geist homeowner over two years’ worth of additional taxes. Moving this through the courts, if nothing else, could save at least another two years worth of additional taxes.

Using the Fishers Town Council projected tax increase of 16.45%:

If each homeowner gives at least 10% of what you’ve already saved, we will be well funded.

Nonetheless, plan to attend to voice your displeasure to the public and the media.  We need to make a significant noise to let the Council know that this action is wrong and we are ready for the battle.

The GUO will also be prepared with remonstration (anti-annexation) petitions for homeowners to sign immediately after the Council passes the ordinances.

This is also an excellent time to make a contribution to the legal defense fund.  We need money to win this in court.

Senate Bill 114 Passes Committee-Step One Win for Our Side

On Wednesday, January 16 the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee voted 6 – 4 to pass SB114 onto the full senate for review and vote.  The Committee vote was along party lines with the Republicans voting for and the Democrats voting against.

This bill, authored by Senators Drozda and Gard, significantly changes Indiana’s annexation law for the better.  In particular, the bill eliminates forced annexation in Indiana; the only way a municipality could annex a territory under this law is if the landowners agree.  If the municipality initiates the annexation, all of the property owners would have to consent to the annexation.

Now it is up to the Senate to pass the bill.  If the Senate passes the bill, then it’s on to the House for a vote.

A key provision of the bill, as currently written, is that it is retroactive to January 1, 2008.  It says that any involuntary annexation ordinance adopted between January 1st and July 1st, 2008 is void.  If passed into law with this provision in tact, it would stop the Fishers forced annexation of Geist.

As you can imagine, Stu Easley, Fishers Town Councilor-who testified against the bill at the Committee hearing; imagine that-complained long and loud to the press that this provision was targeted to Fishers.

But, the issue of forced annexation is a state-wide issue and there are many other communities in the state, such as Jeffersonville, who are fighting forced annexations.

The basis of the bill is to make the annexation process fair and equitable.  If that is the objective of the general assembly, then stopping all pending forced annexations now is the fair and equitable thing to do; it would not be fair to allow municipalities to proceed with forced annexations between now and the time the law would otherwise become effective(July 1, 2008).  That would also be an attempt to circumvent the intention of the general assembly.

That’s akin to telling your child they are misbehaving, but allowing them to continue to misbehave until some point in the future.  Common sense says that you stop the misbehavior now, even if the child got away with it in the past.

This bill continues to need your support.  Please call and/or e-mail the state senators.  To e-mail, go to www.in.gov, click on the General Assembly link, click on the Legislators link, click on the How to Contact link, and click on each senator to e-mail.  Also, encourage your family and friends throughout the state to send their respective legislators a letter or e-mail. This is not just an Indianapolis-area problem, it affects residents in Pendleton, Anderson, Jeffersonville, Whitestown, Muncie and Morristown (near Shelbyville) who are all involved in hostile annexation.

Senator Beverly Gard represents most of the Geist area and is solidly behind this bill.  But, the rest of the senate needs to hear from the populace.

When you voice your support to the senators, please tell them that the retroactive provision of the bill is the fair and right thing to do.   The other guys (the municipalities) have not been playing fair for a long time, so making this bill retroactive only helps to somewhat even things out.

Don’t forget too that Fishers, Carmel, and some other cities and towns will no doubt be spending a lot of money on lawyers and lobbyists to try to stop this bill; we can only succeed if we continuously tell the legislators what we, the people, want.

As the Fishers Town Council prepares to vote on its annexation ordinances, it marks a new chapter in a saga that began more than two years ago when Town Council President Scott Faultless announced the town’s plans in November 2005. Days later, the Geist United Opposition formed and the fight was on. (Read Full Story)

“We have to focus on the annexation proceedings now,” said Rachel Quade with the Geist United Opposition. “Let’s show up in force next Wednesday night at the Fishers Town Hall and tell them what we think of their plans to forcibly annex us.”

If Fishers proceeds with the annexation proceedings, the areas of North, East and West Geist will have a chance to sign petitions remonstrating against the Town of Fishers for 90 days beginning in mid January. Each area will have to secure 65% of the residents’ signatures on a petition to get their day in court.

“After we win, we’ll pull the incorporation papers back out again and refile,” added Quade.

“The Board of Geist United Opposition sincerely appreciates the work everyone did gathering over 800 signatures on petitions for incorporation,” said Kirk Bidwell. “Clearly, the promise of incorporating our area into self-governing towns resonated with a lot of people. You can rightly say that you were part of making history in the Geist area.”

An important reminder:  the Fishers Town Council is holding the required public hearing on the Geist annexation next Wednesday, December 19th, 4:00pm, at the Fishers Town Hall.

All Geist residents should attend this meeting!  Plan to make a statement at the hearing as to why you are against this forced annexation.  It may be that:

• You are against paying significantly higher property taxes for services you don’t need, don’t want, and don’t use.
  • Even if the state changes the property tax system, Fishers will simply replace property taxes with another, higher tax (e.g., local income).
• You don’t like the idea of the Town Council-a governmental body that you did not elect and who does not represent you-forcing you into their town against your will and for no other reason than they want your money.
• You don’t like the way the Town Council conducts business:  spot annexations to ensure certain councilors can retain their council seats; uncontrolled growth that is stressing our schools and infrastructure; forcing people to sign agreements not to fight annexation (non-remonstration) in order to get building permits; and, making outrageous, retaliatory statements like our kids won’t be able to play in the SPORTS program or our sewers will be shut off if we fight annexation.

Tell all of your neighbors to attend!  Please help get the word out and call your neighbors and ask them to attend this meeting.  The date and time are certainly not convenient, but that would appear to be by design-after all, why wouldn’t the Town Council make it as difficult as possible?

Doug Church and Brian Babb, attorneys for the Town of Fishers, argued that the Fishers introduced the ordinances to annex three areas around Geist on September 17th at a regular town council meeting, thus claiming exclusive jurisdiction in the unincorporated areas around Geist. Incorporators for the towns of East and West Geist filed their petitions on September 21st and they were officially filed on September 24th.

Rob Schein and Brian Zaigar of Kreig DeVault argued that the Town of Fishers’ ordinances were not officially introduced until they were adopted on October 4th. They also pointed out that the September 17th first reading was not complete, there never was a second to the motion and therefore was not officially introduced.

Attorneys for Fishers are going to file additional documentation by 10:00 am tomorrow morning and Judge Nation will rule sometime before the December 19th town hall hearing.

All Geist residents should attend this meeting! Plan to make a statement at the hearing as to why you are against this forced annexation. It may be that:

• You are against paying significantly higher property taxes for services you don’t need, don’t want, and don’t use.

Even if the state changes the property tax system, Fishers will simply replace property taxes with another, higher tax (e.g., local income).

• You don’t like the idea of the Town Council—a governmental body that you did not elect and who does not represent you—forcing you into their town against your will and for no other reason than they want your money.

• You don’t like the way the Town Council conducts business: spot annexations to ensure certain councilors can retain their council seats; uncontrolled growth that is stressing our schools and infrastructure; forcing people to sign agreements not to fight annexation (non-remonstration) in order to get building permits; and, making outrageous, retaliatory statements like our kids won’t be able to play in the SPORTS program or our sewers will be shut off if we fight annexation.

Tell all of your neighbors to attend! Please help get the word out and call your neighbors and ask them to attend this meeting. The date and time are certainly not convenient, but that would appear to be by design—after all, why wouldn’t the Town Council make it as difficult as possible?

We will see you there on the 19th.

S.P.O.R.T.S.—more Fishers FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)

If you can’t win the hearts and minds of people by offering something tangible and of value, then you can always try to scare them by spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt. They won’t come along willingly, but you might scare them into bending to your will.

No doubt, you have heard that certain Fishers Town Councilors are saying that if Geist forms its own towns or is not annexed into Fishers that your kids will not be able to participate in the HSE SPORTS programs because some of those programs take place in Fishers’ parks; they say the Town will no longer allow non-Fishers kids in those parks, and one councilor has even said that he will use the police department to enforce that.

And they wonder why people don’t want to be under the thumb of their government.

Here are the facts:

• By its own ordinance, the Town of Fishers cites that any participant in SPORTS using their parks simply reside within the HSE School District. To quote:

As a condition of use of town athletic and sports fields by youth leagues sanctioned by S.P.O.R.T.S. which are given priority in scheduling and which are allowed to use the town’s athletic fields free of charge, the town requires that all participants in S.P.O.R.T.S. sanctioned youth recreational sports leagues shall reside within the Hamilton Southeastern School District (emphasis added).

• Further, from the same ordinance:

Notwithstanding the foregoing provision, it is the policy of the town that no child shall be denied the opportunity to participate in any sports league utilizing the playing fields owned by the town in violation of the Constitution of the United States of America or the Constitution of the State of Indiana (emphasis added).

• Even the mission statement of the SPORTS program includes all kids in the Hamilton Southeastern community:

S.P.O.R.T.S. (Southeastern Program of Recreational Team Sports) is a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing youth in the Hamilton Southeastern community with the opportunity to participate in recreational and competitive team sports that promote character development, leadership and physical fitness.

One might question how a town councilor can make threats that if carried out would violate their own ordinances. But then, it wouldn’t be the first time that a politician ignored an inconvenient truth.

Of course, the Town Council can always change its ordinances, but then (in addition to discriminating against kids from Geist, Noblesville, and other non-town areas), the people of Fishers may begin to question whether they want a town council that spends their time and the people’s money on childish retribution.

Point is: the threats are hollow.

While no one has seen this supposed letter, we do have a letter from Mike Hobbs stating that, in short, the “Lawrence Township Fire Department, in conjuction with the Castleton Volunteer Fire Department, is prepared and committed to providing fire protection services for the proposed Towns of Geist municipality.”

Download letter (PDF)

Also in attendance and on hand to answer questions were Steve Dillinger, Hamilton County Commissioner, Sheriff Doug Carter, HCSD, Lt. Kevin Fessel, HCSD, and Chief Michael Blackwell, Lawrence Township Fire Dept/Castleton Fire Dept., as well as our legal representatives Brian Zaiger, Rob Schein, and Nigel Riggins of Kreig Devault.

There was also a large contingent of fire fighters, including a fire truck and ambulance, from the Castleton Fire Department, slated to become the Geist Fire Department should incorporation go through. They were there to show their support, which included a $1,000 contribution to the GUO to fight forced annexation and achieve incorporation.

Our heartfelt thanks to the men and women of the Castleton Fire Department!

The presentations and discussion focused on three topics: current state of affairs regarding the Fishers Town Council’s latest forced annexation attempt of Geist; status of the incorporation of the Towns of East & West Geist, including a discussion of estimated tax rates and planned services; and, finances and the need for additional contributions (see next article).

A copy of the presentation materials is posted here. You can also post questions regarding either annexation or incorporation on the website and the GUO will do it’s best to post answers as quickly as possible. We will also post the questions and answers that came up during the meeting.

Overall, there was clear and strong support from all those in attendance to continue the fight against forced annexation and to move forward with incorporation. We very much appreciate everyone coming and your strong support.

“To fight for our right to be independent….

you need to say it with your checkbook” to quote Pete Peterson, president of the GUO.

We estimate that it will take at least $400,000 to beat the Fishers Town Council in court. Based on a review of the proposed fiscal plans put forth by the Fishers Town Council, the first year alone we will collectively pay them $2,437,178 in increased property taxes.

[This number is actually higher than the one we quoted before, which we had estimated based on the NAV, whereas this number is straight from their plan.]

Divided by 2000 homes, this an average $1,219 annual tax increase for each homeowner, not counting tax rate increases from the Town Council (which have been proposed already). In that the forced annexation process began in November, 2005, this works out to an average savings, thus far, of $2,438 per homeowner.

If each homeowner contributes less than 10% of the savings already realized, or $200, we will meet our estimated financial needs to fight this battle. Of course, if you want to give more, we’d be more than grateful—fundraising is a time consuming task and the faster we can reach our goal, the more time we’ll have to concentrate on the battle at hand.

Make no mistake, the Fishers Town Council is loaded for bear and is willing to spend any amount of their taxpayers’ money to try and get us. At the recent Plan Commission meeting, at which we presented our case for incorporation, they had 6 or 7 attorneys plus financial “experts” on hand to try and dispute our case. That’s a pretty hefty burn rate.

While we don’t need that many lawyers, we do need money for legal services (and we’ll certainly guard you money with much more frugality and much more consideration than the Fishers Town Council obviously does with its citizens’ money).

Click “Donate Now” on the www.SayNoToFishers.com website, or send a check to:

Geist United Opposition
P.O. Box 56023
Indianapolis, IN 46256

Thank you very much!

PS: If you have friends in Fishers, why not ask them what they think about their Town Council’s willingness to spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions of taxpayer dollars to forcibly annex Geist. Our fight is with the Town Council, not the good people of Fishers. If they think this is a complete waste of a lot of their money, perhaps they would be willing to call their town councilor and complain.

What does this mean for Geist?

Not much!  While challenging the veracity of Fishers’ fiscal plans for Geist is not out of the question, our case will be based on a different set of laws regarding the provision of services; that is, the law says if the territory to be annexed (Geist) already receives services from sources other than the municipality (Fishers), the annexation is not in the best interests of the property owners, and the financial impact will be substantial, then the annexation cannot go through.

We meet that test because we get services from the county and other providers, not Fishers.

Of course, the Fishers Town Council will jump up-and-down and shout in glee and claim that this ruling goes directly to the heart of the matter and further validates their right to annex anybody they want and Geist doesn’t stand a chance now.  They will also claim that they provide services to Geist because we use their roads and parks and so on.  But, we’re used to the Town Councilors stretching the truth beyond reason, so this new noise won’t really be new at all.

In an upcoming Friday Report we’ll outline the ridiculous fiscal plans the Fishers Town Council has prepared in anticipation that this ruling might have gone in favor of Home Place–the plans are full of “magnanimous” spending of millions of dollars for stuff we don’t need or want.  Stay tuned.

Even though we are proceeding down the incorporation track, we still must fight this forced annexation bid by the Town of Fishers.

The Geist United Opposition (GUO) was formed then to fight the forced annexation.  Through GUO’s efforts we delayed the original annexation and, in fact, got the original annexation ordinances withdrawn (although we knew it would only be for a short period).  If GUO hadn’t been formed, we’d all be singing the Fishers anthem by now and paying much higher property taxes.

Using tax numbers provided by the Town, we’ve saved Geist property tax payers over $2,209,000 in additional taxes each year that we’ve delayed the forced annexation.  That averages $1,105 per homeowner per year!

Despite how “magnanimous” the Town Council views itself (by offering to take our tax money and then give some small portion back for stuff we don’t need or want), the Game is On and the court battle is just a short time away.

Many of you have said that you will contribute money when the court battle is at hand, well, NOW IS THE TIME!

We are being forced to remonstrate against this annexation.  And, you can bet that when we win in the County Superior Court, the Fishers Town Council will appeal; when we win in Appellate Court, they will appeal to the state Supreme Court.  In its blind arrogance, the Fishers Town Council simply won’t stop until they’ve spent millions of their taxpayers’ money on this boondoggle.

Since they are forcing this action we are going to need several hundred thousand dollars for the legal battle (we’re a bit more careful with our money than the Town Council).  But, this is not a bad investment on our part.  If each homeowner simply gives about 18% of their first year average tax savings ($1,105)-which you’ve already saved thanks to the efforts of the GUO-or $200, that would go a long way to satisfying our projected legal funding needs.

So, please contribute today and contribute generously.  Many people have worked very long hours on your behalf to fight the good fight.  Now is the time to show your appreciation and your willingness to do your part.

Go to the “Donate Now” link to contribute online; or, send a check to:

Geist United Opposition
P.O. Box 56023
Indianapolis, IN 46256

Thank you very much!

GAME ON!