City officials ended 2017 as contentiously as they began the year, but residents cheered the opening of an all-inclusive playground and watched buildings rise in the burgeoning downtown.
Mayor James Snyder and most of the seven-member City Council battled repeatedly, over Snyder’s then role as chairman of the Utility Services Board, over city budgets and over salaries for city employees.
Complaints about Snyder’s spending habits as head of the USB moved council members to criticize the mayor, who was indicted on public corruption charges in November 2016, and, eventually, vote to have the City Council become the USB board.
One of the conflicts with the mayor was an effort to strip him of his $30,000 salary as the utility’s administrator, but the council backed down from the effort after Snyder got the board to hire a high-profile law firm with offices in Chicago and Indianapolis.
That didn’t stop the council from taking over the board temporarily. That initial, voluntary stint, planned for two months, lasted through the remainder of the year, and, in November, the move led to another battle with Snyder.
The USB board moved to pay each member a $5,000 stipend as Snyder complained the board gave themselves a “raise,” while declining raises to the top brass at the police and fire departments.
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In June, the council and mayor argued over a 2017 city budget that normally would have been in place in January. Council budget committee members complained about the range of pay Snyder was, until then, able to pay his employees, accusing the mayor of using pay as political rewards.
Snyder accused the council of interfering in how he ran his administration.
Snyder’s legal woes and concerns over their effects on the city were two of the reasons two elected officials announced plans to run for mayor in 2019. Democrat Clerk-Treasurer Chris Stidham and City Councilman John Cannon, R-4th, formed exploratory committees to test the political waters.
If Snyder, whose trial is scheduled for June, is convicted and forced to immediately forfeit his seat, a caucus will be held to fill his spot until the general election in 2019. Stidham and Cannon both said it was important to get their names and visions for the city out much earlier.
The year brought a number of highlights for Portage residents.
Hundreds of children and their families attended the grand opening of Hannah’s Hope Playground. Developed by Hannah’s Hope, a non-profit formed to assist families with physically challenged children, the playground features special equipment that allows all children to play together.
The playground grew on a 17,000-square-foot parcel beneath the city’s water town and just south of the Promenade at Founders Square, a 14.5-acre, mixed use development valued at about $40 million.
Developed by Holladay Properties, the same firm that built the AmeriPlex at the Port in 2000 on the city’s north side, the Promenade has been a key part of building the city’s new downtown area, officials said.
Snyder, who called the multi-phase Promenade “the culmination of something special happening in the city,” will feature hundreds of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, retail stores, restaurants and even a pet spa, will draw millenials and empty-nesters alike, developers said.
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.