Granny believes in giving credit where credit is due, and after enough municipal silent films to make Charlie Chaplin file an open records request, audible government is a genuine step forward.
2 Gold Stars just for you guys! 
At this May 18th North Vernon Redevelopment Commission meeting, the board moved through the usual business: minutes, claims, financial updates, TIF revenue capture, ABC grants and loans, and a few redevelopment odds and ends. And for once, the public could mostly hear what was being said. Tiny miracle. Mark the calendar.
The claims came in at $28,945.04, with some additional items tied to London Witte Group and the golf course. There was at least one good question asked about whether the golf course-related spending was staying on budget, especially after a claim around $34,000 for bar tables caught attention. The answer seemed to be that things were being watched and that everything was covered except asphalt, but Granny will say this plainly: when golf course spending keeps popping up, asking “are we on budget?” is not nitpicking. That is called basic public oversight.
Then came the financial report, where it was stated that there is still about $2.2 million in bond funds needing to be spent “as soon as possible,” because apparently there is a penalty issue tied to not spending it. The money was discussed as being for Walnut Street and parks, with some expected to go toward the quarry project and playground-related work.
Then came the little procedural eyebrow-raiser.
It was clarified that the bond money belongs to the RDA, not the RDC, and that this had been part of an audit comment: this board should not be approving expenditures made by bond funds owned by the RDA.
Granny’s translation:
“Y’all may have done it this way before, but the auditors apparently noticed, and now everybody needs to quit treating public boards like interchangeable casserole dishes.” Are adverse audits at all discussed with everyone involved?
The board also handled the annual resolution to capture 100% of TIF revenues, which they said must be done by June 15 to avoid an automatic 5% pass-through of incremental assessment. That resolution appeared to be numbered 2026-02.
The ABC program then came up. Two accessibility grants of up to $10,000 were recommended: one for the hotel parking lot/accessibility work and one for the radio station’s wiring relocation/building project.
Two loans were also recommended: up to $50,000 for Handcrafted by Hamilton, connected to the old Plain Dealer & Sun building, and up to $75,000 for Iron Benders for windows, doors, energy efficiency, and keeping the building historically appropriate.
There was some discussion about whether approving the loans before the loan committee finalized terms was the correct process. Eventually, the motion was framed as approval to move forward, with terms to be worked out by the loan committee. The understanding stated was a 10-year, zero-interest loan structure.
Granny’s note:
That is exactly the kind of discussion that should happen in public. Because public money handouts moving into private businesses needs a clean trail, clear terms, and fewer “well that’s how we did it last time” explanations.
Toward the end, there was also what they described as good news on the Marx building, with an insurance company apparently accepting responsibility for cleanup problems. The hope is that the cleanup will include the ground, and they seemed optimistic the city could own the property within about 60 days and maybe have cleanup handled by the end of the year.
So, overall?
The microphone worked.
Questions were asked.
Money was discussed.
Audit concerns peeked their little head out from behind the curtain.
And Granny did not have to read lips like she was decoding a hostage video from City Hall.
That is progress.
But Granny’s commentary remains this:
When a public board has to be reminded that one authority owns the bond money and another board maybe should not be approving those expenditures, that is not a tiny bookkeeping hiccup. That is the sort of thing that deserves daylight, plain language, and fewer “we’ve always done it that way” vibes.
Because “we’ve always done it that way” is not a policy.
