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The city will provide its own bailout to the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana to keep the fledgling facility operational.
The Fort Wayne City Council voted 8-1 Tuesday to approve $550,000 in income tax revenue this year to the academy. This is on top of other revenue from the city for normal police and fire training. City Controller Pat Roller said the money was available because some money set aside for economic incentives was unused.
Helen Murray, who chairs the academy’s board, said the academy has gone through some difficult times, but the hope is public assistance will not be needed for the long term.
“It was supposed to end up being self-subsidizing,” she said.
The 132,000-square-foot, $26 million building behind Southtown Centre spent $230,000 more than it earned last year, its first full year in operation. The city budgeted an additional $550,000 subsidy to the academy next year, accounting for about half its total budget, although that will also need council approval.
The city last year took over the bookkeeping at the academy, prompting a dispute among the director, its board and Mayor Tom Henry. Brent Johnson, the academy’s original director, resigned April 30, 2008, just after half of the academy’s four-member board also quit.
The board has since grown to five members: Bluffton Mayor Ted Ellis; Kendallville Mayor Suzanne Handshoe; former state Sen. Robert Meeks of LaGrange; Michael Wartell, chancellor of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne; and Murray, president and chief operating officer of Indiana Michigan Power.
Bernie Beier, academy director, admitted he was unsure when the academy would wean off its public subsidy but said it now has a defined business plan to attract more revenue. The plan includes becoming state-certified to provide training to new police officers, attracting additional military contracts and starting training for how police and firefighters respond to disasters involving utilities such as electrical and gas lines.
Beier and Murray said one of the problems has been marketing the building. They said more efforts will be made but admitted current staff has no marketing experience.
Councilwoman Liz Brown, R-at large, said spreading the word was critical to increase the academy’s use.
“If no one knows about it, how are we going to possibly fill it and fund it?” she said.
Murray said she was hopeful the academy could reduce its subsidy by $100,000 each year moving forward. She said a newly active board would help promote the facility in different areas.
Councilman Mitch Harper, R-4th, was the lone dissenting vote to the subsidy, saying he had concerns about the lack of benchmarks set for the academy and whether it can ever become self-sustaining. He said asking for so much money was problematic, especially without a detailed plan for success.
“Someone needed to vote no,” he said.
