Transparency in Fishers?

Fishers government likes to talk about being "transparent".  If they are, and they should be, then it should be easy to find information on the town website about how the town is running, right? Well, not so much.  Just try to find financial information on TIFs (Tax Increment Financing), the tool used to pay the developers handouts to build private projects downtown.

I had a Facebook message debate the other day with Fishers Town Councilman Pete Peterson, who has disagreed with me about almost everything, to the point of incivility on his part more than once.  I kept pressing him for the financial details of the TIFs.  You would think, being a passionate supporter of this form of corporate welfare, that Peterson would be glad to provide that information freely, or at least tell me where it could be found, right?

No. Not at all.  In fact, Peterson refused to do so, and told me to use the Indiana Access to Public Records Act (which he kept calling by the wrong name, but I digress) to get this information.  So I have done so.  This morning (October 23), I went to Town Hall and presented that request for information in person.  Since I presented it in person, they have 24 hours to acknowledge my request. They must actually produce the records within a reasonable time.  Hopefully, this will be prior to Election Day, November 4th.

But why should we have to go through this process?  This is public information, produced by government employees that our taxes pay for.  This is OUR government, and financial information in particular should be easily accessible. But it isn't.  To be fair, there is a lot of documentary information available via the Fishers website, but it isn't exactly the easiest thing to use, and data is not easily organized and visible.  If elected to the City Council, I hope to work on making such information easier for citizens to access, as is their right.