FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 2, 2022

Contact: Jorge Fernandez

jorgefernandez@candidatefernandez.com



JORGE FERNANDEZ ANNOUNCES RUN FOR ALLEN COUNTY COMMISSIONER

FORT WAYNE, IN, January 2, 2022 – With redistricting for county maps being complete, Jorge Fernandez is announcing he will be running for County Commissioner this year. All Allen County Commissioners are elected by entire county, but he will be seeking what is called the District 3 seat.

Jorge Fernandez is an educator. He has worked as a teacher in several Indiana public school districts. He has experience working in middle school and high school settings and tutoring students of many ages up to the college level. He graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in Chemistry Education from Taylor University and has lived in Allen County since graduation.

Jorge Fernandez released the following goals if elected:

• Transparency -- I want to make sure that county offices do a better job with communicating with what occurs in county government. I want to have more scrutiny with the contracts awarded on the county-level.  I want an investigation into whether the county failed to follow state law regarding uploading the Quality Correctional Care Contract to Indiana Gateway. This would include finding out whether there are any copies of the 2016 contract that can be obtained, and trying to handle services in-house or rebidding contract depending on if that makes sense. In November, it was reported that the way this contract was handled was a key reason in the Allen County Sheriff’s Department having a significant depletion of its balance in an important account.
• Support working families -– County commissioners should be modeling being a responsible employer. The county commissioners made a good step in 2019 announcing a paid family leave policy. I would go further. I would want to introduce a measure for county employees to be able to collectively bargain if they are not already. I would also like to do work within the confines of state law to create a responsible bidder ordinance encouraging contractors to maintain at least those standards for their work. I also want to raise the Allen County poll worker base pay to $240 for the 12 hours from $85  county commissioners have currently set (source: https://allencountyinvoters.gov/poll-worker-information/ ), and I would try to allow poll workers to work a half-day instead. Recruiting poll workers has become a major challenge for various reasons and raising the pay seems to be a small step that can be done to help.
• Reduce Tax Increment Financing (TIF) –- While the Allen County Redevelopment Commission with majority of voting members appointed by the county commissioners seems to have been going the opposite way by seeking to expand Tax Increment Financing (TIF) use, I would encourage the opposite. TIFs have been redirecting property tax funds that would otherwise go to local school districts for years and at the very least if we don’t phase out TIF use, we should at least create pass-throughs so that money that would have otherwise gone to school districts is not redirected.

• Support public health including the Allen County Health department -- I would not try to resist the requirement to either get tested or vaccinated for COVID-19 from White House if it were to become applicable to county employees. I would not support looking for appointees to Allen County Board of Health that seek to remove the current county health officer. I am proudly vaccinated for COVID-19, and encourage others to do the same. I remember as a child that a Christian school I attended made me get various vaccinations; there weren’t protests at the time. I am thankful they required it.
• Criminal justice reform -- I would want to reduce inmate population in Allen County by redirecting nonviolent criminals away from jail. I don’t want to build a bigger jail but depending on policy at the beginning of 2023 it might be the most humane option on table. The conundrum is that the amount of people in local prisons is dependent on state legislators (policy), judges (sentencing discretion), and county prosecutor (criminal charging discretion). Somewhat the sheriff and county as well if they are given latitude to divert to alternative programs. The people that would have to decide whether to build and fund a new jail are county commissioners (facilities and other property) and county council (funding). So these are two different sets of people in general.
• Public solid waste collection and disposal – I would want to do a study to see whether having a countywide in-house solid waste collection and disposal would make sense. If it does, I would want to try to partner with City of Fort Wayne to replace current services with a countywide public waste collection and disposal service.  I would try to make sure this included countywide recycling including businesses that currently are forced to hire they own recycling contractor if they wish to recycle.
• Environmentally conscious planning -- I would encourage zoning that focused on urban infill rather than paving over arable land. At the same time, I do want to facilitate use of existing infrastructure like Airport and make sure there is enough affordable housing. I would try to acquire and use grants available that encourage renewable energy use in county and lowering county government’s carbon footprint.

Jorge ​Fernandez will be seeking the Democratic nomination for Allen County Commissioner.

IN THE NEWS
Wane.com 15 News

TEACHER ANNOUNCES BID FOR ALLEN COUNTY COMMISSIONER SEAT


FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Allen County teacher Jorge Fernandez has announced a bid for county commissioner.

Fernandez announced Sunday plans to seek the District 3 seat as a Democrat. District 3 is primarily in southwest Allen County.

In a campaign announcement, Fernandez said his goals include transparency, supporting working families, reducing TIF use, supporting public health, criminal justice reform, public solid waste collection and disposal, and environmentally conscious planning.
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