Gary Common Council officials deferred acting Tuesday on a pair of measures being studied in recent weeks.
One issue involved the awarding of a use variance for a towing company, whose owner is planning a move to Gary from Chicago.
Councilmen have said previously they like the operator and his proposal. But he wants to lease use of land in the 3700 block of Hayes Street for the business, and city officials contend the owner of that site is delinquent on property tax payments to the city.
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On Tuesday, Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said city officials have learned there may be issues related to bankruptcy proceedings involving the site. Councilwoman Mary Brown, D-3rd, asked for the issue to be deferred.
Freeman-Wilson said her staff will review the issue to determine the status of the land. She said that if a bankruptcy trustee is involved, then that person would have to sign off on any deal before the council could grant the change in zoning status.
Tremaine Hemingway, who wants to operate a tow company at the site, said council members gave him no advance warning that they would defer taking action.
He said, however, he still wants to work with city officials to come up with a way for him to operate a business in Gary, which in the past he has said is a priority because there have been instances where he lost customers from Gary and Indiana because they thought he was a Chicago-based towing company.
“I just want to have a business license to operate a tow company in Gary,” Hemingway said, adding he has not given any thought to other locations in the city. “All my focus is on Hayes Street.”
Also deferred on Tuesday was an ordinance that would require city employees hired since Nov. 1, 2016, to be Gary residents.
Brown said that an amended ordinance that would give the Common Council the authority to review, and reject, non-resident municipal employees came back to council members with a sentence missing.
“It’s not something that would drastically change the ordinance’s meaning or cause us to vote against it,” she said. “But we want to see an amended ordinance with the sentence restored.
“We don’t want to pass a flawed ordinance because of something this minor,” Brown said.
Both issues likely will come back to the full Common Council for review when they meet again Feb. 6.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.