Incorporation

Judge Nation ruled that Fishers’ first reading of the annexation ordinances on September 17th preempted the incorporation filings of East and West Geist, forcing incorporators to put their plans to form Indiana’s newest towns on ice.

“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?

The hearing that was rescheduled from November 26th has been set for Thursday, December 13th in the Hamilton County Superior Court #1 at 5:00 pm. The hearing is scheduled for :90 minutes. Judge Nation is deciding whether or not Fishers’ first reading preempts the incorporation filings by the Towns of Geist. A ruling is expected before the December 19th hearing at the Fishers Town Hall at 4:00 pm.

Lawyers for the Town of Fishers and the Towns of Geist squared off in Hamilton County Superior Court Judge Nation’s chambers for an hour before emerging with an agreement to delay the Judge’s ruling, postponing the Hamilton County Commissioner’s hearing initially scheduled for next Thursday.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/WXo3lLt2ul8" width="300" height="250" wmode="transparent" /]All parties agreed to a phone conference call tomorrow to update the Judge on the timing of the rescheduled hearing, which both sides agreed would be the week prior to the December 19th public hearing on the forced annexation ordinances by the Town of Fishers.

At stake, the claim of who made the first move in the incorporation of the unincorporated areas around Geist. Fishers claims to have introduced their three ordinances to forcibly annex Geist at their September 17th town council meeting. Geist residents, led by members of the Geist United Opposition, filed petitions to form the Town of East and West Geist on September 21st. It’s up to Judge Nation to decide if in fact Fishers has trumped Geist, forcing them to fight the annexation next spring or if Geist can move forward in their incorporation efforts.

Members of the Geist United Opposition continue to solicit Towns of East and West Geist petitions from property owners. These petitions will give Judge Nation a sense of the “will of the people” while also giving those homeowners unsure of incorporation a chance to ask questions of block captains gathering signatures.

We can fight and win and not be forcibly annexed by the Fishers Town Council.

But, fighting is expensive and good lawyers don’t come cheap!

On Saturday, December 1st, the GUO Block Captains will be making the rounds and asking for contributions.

Because we have been successfully fighting against forced annexation for two years, we have saved every Geist homeowner an average of just over $2,000 so far.  That’s, on average, $2,000 you haven’t had to send to Fishers to fund their boondoggles.

If everyone gave 10% of what they’ve already saved–$200—we’re well funded for the fight.

If you’ve given—thank you!  If you haven’t, please do. (click here)

Ask your neighbors if they’ve contributed—we’re all in this fight together and we should all contribute to the cause and not let our neighbors carry the burden.

See you Saturday.

Mitch Makes It All Go Away?

Does the governor’s tax plan make all of this moot? 

So far, there are now three or four tax plans being bandied about the state legislature.  Hopefully, something positive in terms of property tax relief will occur this legislative session.  The end product though, is anybody’s guess.

Nonetheless, it’s pretty likely that the state will either increase other taxes or establish new taxes to make up for the loss of property tax revenues.  And, it all can’t go to business; that would particularly hurt smaller cities and towns that don’t have a large number of large businesses to carry the burden.

Whatever they do, you can bet that if we’re annexed our taxes paid to Fishers will be substantially higher.

For example, if the state provides for a local income tax:  if annexed, we’d be paying income taxes to Fishers at whatever rate they establish to make up for the over $2.4 million in lost property tax revenues from Geist (that’s $2.4 million year one of annexation, it goes up after that to over $3 million by year five).

Under this example, if we incorporate into our own towns, the income tax rate would be much lower (just like the property tax rate is much lower) because we have a good tax base and we don’t need to pay for all of the issues caused by out-of-control growth and grand schemes.

So, will whatever the state legislature comes up with make annexation moot?  Not very likely.

Over 400 people turned out for the Geist United Opposition Property Owners’ Meeting (held this last Thursday, November 7th, at the HSE High School cafeteria) to hear more about annexation and the incorporation of the Towns of East & West Geist, and to ask questions.

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.

There will be a hearing before the Fishers Planning Committee on Tuesday, October 30th at 6:30 in the cafeteria at Fishers High School. This committee is responsible for making a recommendation to the County Commissioners regarding the incorporation of East and West Geist. All of the local media will be there, and a good showing is important! Each side, the opponents and proponents of the new towns, have been given one hour to speak. The Fishers Town Council will most likely be speaking on behalf of the opponents. While all of the proponents will not be given the opportunity to speak, it would be helpful to have a thought out comment for the media if you are approached. If you would like to share your thoughts with the Fishers Planning Commission regarding incorporation, they are accepting comments at apc@fishers.in.us

Since there are many meetings/hearings over the next 2 months, the GUO thought it might be helpful to list them for you…

Tuesday, 10/30 at 6 p.m. Fishers High School Cafeteria

Hearing before Fishers Planning Commission regarding incorporation

Wednesday, 11/7 at 7 p.m. HSE High School Cafeteria

GUO Geist Community Meeting to discuss annexation and incorporation

Tuesday, 12/4 at 6 p.m. Hamilton County Judicial Center in Noblesville

Hamilton County Commissioner’s Public Hearing regarding incorporation

Wednesday, 12/19 at 4 p.m. Fishers Town Hall

Public Hearing regarding annexation

We realize that this is quite few meetings- especially around the holidays! We know that Fishers very likely planned to have all of the activity came to a head at the busiest time of the year to help keep interest and attention at its lowest possible level. GUO hopes that Fishers will not succeed. PLEASE plan on attending meetings to demonstrate Geist residents’ interest in this very important issue!!

Today, the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the Hamilton County Superior Court ruling and gave the City of Carmel to go ahead to forcibly annex Home Place.Home Place had challenged Carmel on its fiscal plan; basically saying the City did not specifically cite the methods and means of how it would finance services to Home Place.  Carmel claimed that it had sufficient resources to provide the services.  In light of the state Supreme Court ruling in favor of Carmel over Southwest Clay, in which the court essentially said that the fiscal plan can be amended from time-to-time by the City to reflect negotiations with property owners, the Court of Appeals ruling in favor of Carmel.

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.

You can now download the fiscal plans prepared by Financial Solutions Group, Inc.

Incorporation Plan EAST Geist (PDF Download)

Incorporation Plan WEST Geist (PDF Download)

Listen to both sides of the fire protection discussion for the new Towns of Geist. On one side you have Stu Easley, Fishers Town Council member from last Friday’s press conference at the Hamilton County courthouse. On the other side you have Chief Blackwell with the Castleton Volunteer Fire Department. Watch the video and come to your own conclusion.

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Many of you were unable to take time off yesterday to sit in on the Hamilton County Commissioners meeting where the two petitions from Geist were accepted by a unanimous vote. This video covers the testimony by Rachel Quade and Allan Yackey (attorney representing Geist homeowners wishing to incorporate) as well as the rebuttal by Fishers Town Council member Art Levine.

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Let the legal battle begin.On one side you have the frustrated Fishers Town Council that has been talking about annexing Geist for almost two years with nothing more than a verbal ordinance from Monday night to show for it.

On the other side you have an excited group of Geist homeowners that finally have a proposal on the table other than Fishers’ “take it or leave it” offer.

This morning at the Hamilton County Courthouse, Geist United Opposition leaders presented their 273 petitions from area homeowners along with a financial plan, certified survey of the area to be incorporated, a letter of intent from the Castleton Fire Department to provide fire protection, and a petition to the Hamilton County Commissioners stating their intent to form the Towns of East and West Geist.

Since Fishers annexed the lake bottom earlier last year, the East and West shores of Geist lack contiguity and therefore two towns must be formed. They will work together with an inter-government contract to provide services for the entire area.

Around 10:00 am, representatives from the Town of Fishers appeared with a letter stating that the Hamilton County Commissioners had no jurisdiction in this matter since they had already started the proceedings to annex the area.

“The Town (of Fishers) sent letters out to everyone giving them until today to respond to their offer they mailed out on September 11^th,” said Allan Yackey, attorney for the new Towns of Geist. “Estoppel is the issue here. You give me an offer and a date of September 21^st and I relied on it, you are stuck with it.”

After the press conference on the south courthouse steps, Fishers Town Council member Stuart Easley spoke to the cameras with his views of this latest move. He pointed to the choice that Geist residents now have between the world class services being provided by the Town of Fishers versus what he deemed “another delay tactic by the Geist United Opposition.”

I assure you Mr. Easley, this is not a delay tactic. The others might have been, but this isn’t.

From the beginning, the Geist United Opposition has opposed “Forced Annexation.” Look at the yellow signs, go to the SayNOtoFishers.com website, or watch me on television in my bright yellow T-shirt.

Over the last two years, we’ve all received a two-year doctorate degree in civics and local government. After the Southwest Clay vs. Carmel case, the consensus amongst most people close to the issue was unanimous: We need to be incorporated. The State of Indiana does not look at unincorporated land surrounded by towns and cities favorably. Either way, our taxes are going to go up. At question is whether you want to pay that tax money to a neighboring town and trust that they will give you the services you need or do you just keep the money for yourself and create your own town?

Up until now, the only option for Geist residents has been the forced annexation bid by the Town of Fishers. Their choices were to join Fishers, or go down fighting. Today, thanks to a group of GUO and Geist residents, there now is a second option on the table: Form two new towns and have your ‘own’ town.

For the last four months, a core group consisting of Rachel Quade, Joe Weingarten, Kirk Bidwell, David Wyser, and Mike Fisher has been working on a subcommittee of the GUO to research the process, financial implications, and long-term viability of forming a town to fend off annexation for good.

Forming a new town is not easy, and arguably harder than just being annexed. According to Indiana law (IC 36-5-1), you must provide, among other things, proof of how you will provide fire protection for your new town (or towns in our case). Currently, Fall Creek Township has a contract with the Fishers Fire Department to provide fire protection to the unincorporated areas around Geist. You can’t just go to Wal-Mart and buy fire protection, and as we found out, this is a political football that the group worked long and hard to resolve.

Discussions led by Joe Weingarten and Mike Fisher netted an anxious and willing fire department in Castleton that wrote a letter of intent to provide fire protection to the new towns. Currently Castleton Fire Department is a volunteer fire department under contract with Lawrence Township Fire Department. With the consolidation of fire in Indianapolis eminent, Castleton Fire Department officials will be looking for a new home.

Geist is anxious to have them move in.

Once this major hurdle was overcome, organizers felt confident that public services would not suffer under a new town and set their sites on the financial impact.

Indiana financial consultant Greg Guerrettaz was retained to do a preliminary assessment as to the tax implications of incorporation. Everyone believed that if the tax rate was the same or higher, incorporation would most likely not be a viable option for residents. Initial study numbers came back slightly lower than Fisher’s current tax rate, low enough for the GUO to approve the full study project.

At the conclusion of the research and financial planning needed for incorporation, Guerrettaz concluded that the property tax rate of the new Towns of Geist would be approximately 20% less than that of Fishers.

With fire protection in hand and a financial report showing a lower tax rate with no loss of public services, incorporation organizers steamed forward to draft the petitions and ultimately get 273 signatures in less than 24 hours from excited homeowners.

Next Monday at 2:00 pm, incorporation leaders are meeting with the Hamilton County Commissioners to formally declare their intent to become the Towns of Geist. This is an open meeting, but not a public hearing. Feel free to come and show your support of the new towns, but be forewarned that there will be no forum to discuss the issues at this meeting.

A special thanks to all those who have played such a huge part in getting us this far. Months ago, the dream of forming our own Towns of Geist seemed impossible. Thanks to the hard work of Rachel, Joe, Mike, David, and Kirk, this dream became a reality.

Now settle in for a horse race to see who can either annex or incorporate Geist first. Fishers will try to delay Geist residents from forming their own town, Geist will push forward now to get the approvals from Indianapolis and Lawrence. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Hopefully, the will of the people will win out, not the will of the lawyers.

So far, the Town of Fishers (TOF) has met with (or tried to met with) about 14 Geist Area neighborhoods—one or more members of the GUO has been at each meeting. Some of the meetings have been well attended—especially if the neighborhood is on septic—while others were not attended by anyone at all (other than the GUO).

The net of TOF’s presentation is an “inducement” to encourage homeowners to be voluntarily annexed. The inducement is:

1. The annexation would not be effective until 12/31/08.
2. Homeowners would not begin paying increased property taxes until 2010, based on the 2009 assessment (which is the law).
3. The Town would abate a portion of the higher property taxes over a three year period—the abatement percentages are defined by state law:
a. 75% discount year 1 (2010)
b. 50% discount year 2 (2011)
c. 25% discount year 3 (2012)
d. Full fare beginning year 4 (2013)
4. For those on well and septic that want water/sewer connections, the deal basically includes 30 year interest free financing of the cost of doing so, along with some other benefits.

They are saying that our property taxes would go up 16.45%. They dispute our estimate of a 20% – 22% increase, but those numbers were obtained from TOF back in November 2005 when several Geist property owners asked the Town what their individual tax increase would be—so, these are their numbers. Keep in mind also that originally TOF claimed our taxes would only go up 14.68%.

Regardless, using TOF figures handed out at their presentations, if your house is valued at $500,000 then your tax increase will be $1,010 per year—a jump from $6,139 to $7,149—year after year (assuming you get all of the homestead and tax replacement credits available). For a million dollar home, taxes go up $2,127 per year: that’s over $21,000 in ten years excluding any tax rate increases by Fishers, Hamilton County, Fall Creek Township, and HSE.

With the exception of providing interest free financing for water/sewer connections for those currently on septic, thus far TOF has offered nothing else in exchange for higher taxes.

Voluntary vs. Involuntary and the Numbers

It is our understanding that the Town plans to mail their proposal for “voluntary” annexation to all Geist Area homeowners early in September. We believe that the proposal will be a recap of the tax abatement offer (outlined above), and perhaps one or two offerings such as a new firehouse. The mailing may or may not contain a pre-annexation agreement for you to consider signing.

If it does contain a pre-annexation agreement and if it is patterned after the pre-annexation agreements offered to those considering water/sewer hookups, it is not an agreement to be voluntarily annexed, but rather an agreement to not remonstrate against annexation.

What does that mean? Under law, to be voluntarily annexed 51% of the property owners of the area wishing to be annexed must petition the Town Council requesting annexation. That means a majority of the people want to be annexed.

We don’t think they will seek voluntary annexation as outlined under the law, but rather re-introduce the forced annexation ordinances, and if they have enough homeowners who have signed “pre-annexation” agreements then the forced annexation cannot be fought.

A supermajority is needed to legally fight a forced annexation: 65% of the property owners must sign a petition against the annexation. But, if TOF can get 36% of Geist property owners to sign a pre-annexation agreement, then it will not be possible for the rest to remonstrate as the 65% threshold cannot be met. Pretty good strategy on their part, wouldn’t you say?

So what’s the risk? TOF would like you to think that annexation is inevitable and you are better off taking their tax abatement deal now than risk paying 100% of the additional taxes once the forced annexation goes through.

But, check it out: using TOF numbers they say that if your home is worth $500,000 you will save $1,514 in reduced taxes over the first three years of annexation. After that (beginning in 2013) you will pay an additional $1,010 each year—given that the average length of time one keeps the same home is 7 years, that’s $7,070.

If we fight the forced annexation—our attorney has said that if we get the 65% we will get to court and our case against forced annexation is highly defensible—it could take several years before the case is resolved and you could save more money by fighting annexation than by taking the deal.

[Keep in mind that property taxes are paid in arrears, which is why if the “voluntary” annexation is effective 12/31/08, property taxes would be assessed in 2009 and become payable in 2010.]

If we fight the annexation, assuming it would take three years to pass the ordinances, file the remonstration, and go through a court hearing (including the inevitable appeal), the economics would be:

Again, assuming a three year process: (1) if “voluntary” annexation goes through you would pay an additional $2524 in property taxes between now and 2013 (on a $500,000 home, using TOF figures); (2) if we fight annexation a lose, you would still save $504 over the pre-annexation offer; and, (3) fighting annexation and winning—a likely scenario—you would save $2524, plus $1010 per year each year thereafter.

Under the law, even if the Town Council introduces the forced annexation ordinances at their September 17^th meeting, they still have to hold a public hearing no earlier than 60 days after that and cannot adopt the ordinances for another 30 days after the public hearing. This would take the timeline to about December 17^th just to pass the ordinances.

Then we have 90 days to collect petitions and file our remonstrance; that takes the timeline to about March 17, 2008. Then a hearing has to be scheduled and held, the ruling made, and the inevitable appeal by the Town to occur. This could easily push the timeline out to sometime in 2010 before resolution. The above table conservatively assumes, if TOF prevails, annexation at the end of 2010 and tax payments beginning 2012 for taxes assessed in 2011. Each year added on to this would save you another $1010.

If Geist prevails—and there is every reason to believe that we would—then there are no new taxes as TOF cannot try to annex us again for 4 years.

Moreover, the state Senate has formed a study committee to review state annexation laws. Fighting annexation now gives the legislature time to perhaps fix current annexation law and, perhaps, end all of this silliness once and for all.

Lastly, don’t forget that the proposed tax increase by Fishers of 16.45% may or may not hold up long term—if it’s higher, your savings in fighting forced annexation will be higher, as well; this is on top of the huge tax increases we just got hit with; likely, as Fishers annexes more territory the Township will have to increase taxes to make up for the short-fall; and, HSE may need to raise taxes as well as more and more people move into Fishers.

As many of you have heard the State Supreme Court issued its ruling on Wednesday, June 27th regarding the SW Clay vs. City of Carmel appeal.

What is very important here is that this ruling in no way harms our case against the Town of Fishers! Nor does it help the Town in its pursuit of usurping our property.

The Fishers Town Council held off on its pursuit of forcibly annexing the Geist Area pending this ruling because no one really knew what the court might do. For example, the court might have addressed points in annexation law that would make it much more difficult for a city or town to annex territory. If the court had done so—which it did not—then Fishers and other municipalities might have had to change their tactics.

In fact the good news is that since the Town had to wait, we’ve enjoyed another year (plus) of not paying higher taxes to Fishers and are even more prepared to fight this forced annexation attempt than ever before.

Despite all of the hoopla bandied about in the press, the ruling really came down to two elements: (1) a municipality has the right to modify the fiscal plan after the annexation ordinance is adopted; (2) SW Clay did not meet the test of having 65% of the property owners of record remonstrate against the annexation.

Because of this second point, the court ruled in favor of Carmel.

The court did not rule on other points of annexation law nor did a “roadmap” of how to proceed really come out of the ruling.

As you may recall, when Carmel first attempted to annex SW Clay a remonstrance group called No Ordinance for Annexation (or NOAX) was formed. After NOAX secured the needed number of remonstrators (65% of the property owners) to fight the annexation, it then negotiated a settlement deal with Carmel and, for certain concessions like tax abatements, it agreed not to pursue the fight against forced annexation. Part of the result of these negotiations was that Carmel revised its fiscal plan to provide services to the area to be annexed and adopted an amended annexation ordinance.

However, others in SW Clay said that NOAX did not represent their interests and continued on with the fight. One of their arguments was that the law did not allow a municipality to change its fiscal plan and, as such, the NOAX deal essentially didn’t count. The court ruled otherwise saying that both the property owners and municipality have the right to negotiate a settlement, if they want to, and amend the fiscal plan accordingly after the annexation ordinance had already been adopted.

Based on the evidence presented, the court ruled that the NOAX deal was valid, and because of that, those property owners who had initially remonstrated against the annexation but then subsequently agreed with the NOAX settlement could no longer be counted as valid remonstrators; thus, SW Clay no longer had the required 65%. Without the required 65% there is no valid remonstrance under the law and Carmel wins.

If there is a roadmap in that for municipalities to follow for annexations, good luck in finding it. That said, now that the wait is over, no doubt Fishers will re-start its efforts and political spin game to annex the Geist Area. We’re ready!

We will easily get more than 65% of Geist Area property owners to sign a remonstrance petition and we are already organized to get those signatures; we have a solid legal fund in place and will collect even more to fight the good fight; and, there is no one empowered or willing to negotiate a settlement—Fishers will have to try to settle with each and every homeowner individually if they want to try to cut a deal.

More importantly, we have a strong basis in law to fight the forced annexation—a basis that was not touched by this ruling. WE ARE GOOD TO GO!

How much did your property taxes go up?

Due to the recent reassessment, the average property tax increase across the state is around 24%. Some in the Geist Area have experienced a 28% increase, while others have been a bit more fortunate.

Keep in mind that if the Town of Fishers prevails, our taxes will go up another 22% on top of what we just got smacked with!

The Power of Pooh!

The Town of Fishers is using its monopoly power over waste water treatment in southeastern Hamilton County to persuade certain neighborhoods in the Geist Area to agree to be annexed. The neighborhoods of Country Lane Estates, Forest Knoll, and Carefree Estates are at various stages of negotiation to be converted from well and septic service to sewer and city water service.

The Town has offered interest-free financing of the construction in exchange for the neighborhoods agreement to be annexed. These agreements were on the agenda of the Fishers Town Council this past Monday, June 18. The agreements for Country Lane and Forest Knoll were approved; the agreement for Carefree Estates was removed from the agenda. It’s not clear what the Council approval signifies. There was no discussion by the Council and no one in the audience asked to speak.

In the case of all three neighborhoods, the residents are waiting to see detailed cost estimates from the Town before they make a commitment.

Pricy Fire Protection

As you know, Fall Creek Township contracts with the Fishers Fire Department to provide fire and EMS services to the unincorporated areas of the Township (mostly the Geist Area), with the exception of a small section that is supported by Fortville.

And, as you may recall, last November the Township sold the Brooks School Road fire station to the Town of Fishers because the Township didn’t have the money to pay for the entire 2006 fire contract. Fishers paid $916,000 for the building of which $213,000 was applied against the then $1.8 million contract and the remainder was retained by the Township.

Part of the story according to the Township board was that they were trying to hold down taxes and basically ran out of money. Although the $703,000 gain was helpful, there is still some risk that Township taxes may go up. They also said that part of the problem was that new homes were going up faster than property-tax revenues to pay for the fire protection contract.

Here’s the rub, though: The Township has never entertained a competitive bid for fire and EMS services for the unincorporated areas of Fall Creek Township; they simply assume Fishers is giving them a good deal. But, Lawrence Township Fire Department is very interested in bidding to provide these services.

How do we know they are interested? Because, unlike our Township Trustee, we asked. And, from our initial discussions, Lawrence likely can provide the services for less money than Fishers.

Here’s another rub: Lawrence did say they would need a fire station located in the North/East section of the area (think around Olio and 104th) to ensure proper protection to that area. Of course, the Brooks School Road fire station would have worked, but the Township gave that away. But, the Township could float a bond and build a building with little to no impact on our taxes, especially if Lawrence’s services are less costly.

If you think that the Township should undertake a competitive bidding process, instead of simply giving the deal to Fishers—the current contract expires 12/31/07 and also can be terminated upon 60 days notice—contact your Township officials:

Terry Michael, Trustee
Jason Meyer, Board
Mike Reuter, Board
Dan Rieke, Board
317-841-3180

Remember, all of these folks are elected to office.

By the way: (1) The Township should allow Fishers Fire Department take care of the unincorporated areas (Swiss Cheese “holes”) that are well within the Town boundaries, of which there are many—why should we pay for fire protection for areas that Fishers doesn’t want to annex because there is no economic gain in doing so?; (2) Lawrence FD also has boats on Geist, so the lake would continue to be covered.

Incorporating Our Own Town—Update

The subgroup of GUO is continuing to investigate the feasibility of forming our own town. We have secured an agreement in principle with a nearby fire department to provide fire and EMS protection, and are working through the cost and tax implications of setting up and running a town.

By forming our own town we can permanently thwart future annexation attempts—even if Fishers loses this round, they are free to try again in four years.

We will provide a more complete update in the near future as we work through the numbers. Meanwhile, please share your thoughts below by posting a comment.

As we reported in our last report, a subgroup within GUO is continuing to investigate the feasibility of forming our own town as a means to permanently thwart annexation attempts and to better control our own destiny as a community.

Some of the activities we’ve recently undertaken include:

• Meeting with the Indiana Association of Cities & Towns; the Association is more than willing to help us with the overall process and has provided initial guidance.
• Meeting with nearby fire departments to discuss the provision of fire and EMS protection for the new town-how that would work and how much it might cost; those departments are most interested in providing these services.
• Hamilton County has agreed in principal to continue to provide police and road/street services through an inter-governmental agreement.
• Pulling together a budget-with the help of IAC&T, Hamilton County, and nearby towns-to determine the full financial cost of establishing and running a town, including the all important tax requirements (i.e., while preliminary estimates show that the property tax increase would be significantly less than if we were to be annexed by Fishers, we need to know much more precisely in order to determine whether forming a town would be in the best economic interests of our property owners).

It is important to note that this process is still in its initial stages and there are lots of questions yet to be answered, including what the precise boundaries of the town might be. As the details are worked out over the next few months, we will do our best to provide everyone with the information. If it continues to appear that this is a good idea (i.e., economically attractive and functionally feasible), we will hold a series of meetings with area property owners to answer questions and gain additional feedback.

The Geist United Opposition has been investigating two additional strategies to thwart the pending forced annexation by the Town of Fishers:

1. Legislative Change: A group of residents from around the state of Indiana, including Geist residents, worked together with state legislators to craft amendments to existing annexation laws. Spearheaded by Geist resident Rachel Quade, this group was able to get bills introduced to the Senate Committee on Local Government & Elections. Unfortunately, these bills never made it to the Senate floor for a vote. While we were optimistic that we could see statewide change in the current laws, we were also realistic knowing that this was a long shot and would never completely protect us from forced annexation.

2. Incorporating Our Own Town: A subgroup of the GUO Board has been investigating the possibility of incorporating the unincorporated areas around Geist into our own town. Like any option we have researched, we are keeping an open mind and trying to assess the pros and cons before we present this option to our residents. Preliminary data is promising, but there are hurdles to overcome.

First and foremost, we are working with several expert resources to determine the tax impact of forming our own town. Early discussions and research have shown that we would see a slight tax increase, but nowhere near the 20%+ we would see if the Town of Fishers annexed us. Controlling our own destiny, being able to vote for our own representation, and keeping our tax dollars right here in Geist is appealing to most residents to whom we have spoken.

Other key factors in the process include the provision of services such as roads and police (likely a continuation of the excellent county-provided services we currently enjoy), and assuring fire protection and EMS services. In recent weeks, the working group has made excellent progress defining how those services would be provided at a reasonable cost.

Based on phone polls we have done with some of our residents, this is definitely an avenue we want to continue to pursue. There are a lot of details that we have to address, and with the State Supreme Court ruling on the Southwest Clay vs. Carmel case imminent in the coming weeks, time is of the essence.

Please do not hesitate to offer your thoughts on the idea by posting comments below or directly e-mailing or calling any of the GUO board members. We will be sending you more information as we get it in the coming days.