Acting Fort Wayne City Clerk And Other Employees Resign After New Video Of Illegal Campaigning Emerges

The same former Fort Wayne City Clerk who resigned his job earlier this fall after he became disenchanted by the long-time City Clerk Sandy Kennedy's blatant, illegal campaign activities in her city office and covertly videotaped Kennedy's actions has struck again with newly-released video, which has already led to the abrupt resignation of the acting city clerk, Angela Davis, and several other employees of the office. Davis took control of the office following Kennedy's abrupt resignation after the release of the first video, citing health reasons for her resignation. Davis is still on the ballot as the Democratic candidate for that office next Tuesday.

The newly-released video released by former parking enforcement supervisor Colin Keeney captures Davis and other employees utilizing a confidential police database known as Spillman to search contact information for potential campaign donors. Part of the video released by Keeney shows Davis running a campaign meeting in the office during work hours, including drafting campaign letters on her work computer. Mayor Tom Henry, who is under fire for doing nothing about the problems in the city clerk's office when they were first brought to his attention, called the actions of Davis and her employees "inexcusable." Patty Stahlhut, who also serves as Davis' campaign treasurer, was among the employees resigning from the office late Thursday after learning of the latest video's release.

UPDATE: Fort Wayne's Public Safety Director, who is also running for the city council, seems to think there won't be any criminal investigation of Davis' misuse of the police database for political purposes because she resigned.

That database being used in the video is called Spillman, Public Safety Director Rusty York confirmed Friday. It contains records of every interaction people have with the police department, including if they were a witness to or the victim of a crime, he said. The database also includes officer notes regarding anything of interest regarding an individual.

“In a subsequent encounter, officers would be able to check that information,” York said. 

York is the Democratic candidate for the City Council District 4 seat. 

The city clerk’s office had access to information including names, dates of birth, recent addresses and contact information, York said, as well as incident reports filed under those names. York said the official use for that information was for administration of violations to the city’s false alarm ordinance. The ordinance assesses fines for false alarms that require a response by the Fort Wayne Fire Department.

Keeney said between Davis and Stahlhut, the latter was the only one who had official access to the database.

York said that in light of the video released Friday, that access has since been restricted. 

Improper use of the database isn’t unheard of, York said, noting that the city has terminated people across various departments for using Spillman for personal use. York said he can think of at least two incidents within the past two years when employees were fired for that activity. 

There won’t be a criminal investigation into Davis’ and Stahlhut’s use of Spillman because no laws were broken, York said. No one in the city clerk’s office had access to individuals’ state or federal records, driver’s license information or registration information, he said. 

“It’s a city policy violation, inappropriate use of the Spillman system,” he said. “And it’s a moot point because that person has resigned.”

Apparently the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Indiana only investigates public corruption in Lake County. Or that must be how George Van Til sees it from his prison cell right now.