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Published: January 19, 2008 11:07 pm
Bennett administration taking reins of city
New faces settling in, preparing to help mayor lead Terre Haute
By Austin Arceo and Brian M. Boyce
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
While some people celebrated the new year on Jan. 1, a handful in Terre Haute were celebrating their new jobs.
Mayor Duke Bennett officially took office that day, with several of his appointed department heads already announced. A legal battle challenging his candidacy brewed in court until Dec. 21, when a local judge deemed Bennett able to take office. (The case is currently on appeal.) The mayor has said that the case limited his time to prepare for the office, including having all his department heads in place. But he was able to appoint several people to his administration.
By Dec. 31, he had announced that Public Affairs Director Darrel Zeck, city engineer Chuck Ennis, city controller Leslie Ellis, city attorney Chou-il Lee and Police Chief John Plasse came on board his administration.
Zeck was not available for an interview for this article.
Other positions, such as fire chief and superintendent of parks and recreation, currently are interim positions until a permanent replacement is named.
‘The perfect job’
A veteran engineer, Ennis also is no stranger to the Terre Haute political scene.
His father and grandfather busied themselves in local politics, and Ennis continued their streak, serving a term on the City Council during the 1990s.
“There is my thing right there, the certificate of election…,” Ennis said, referring to the framed document hanging on the wall of his new office that commemorated his election victory more than 10 years ago.
So perhaps it should be no surprise that Ennis joined Bennett’s administration.
“My wife likes to kid me about, that this was the perfect job because it involves engineering and politics both rolled into one,” Ennis said before chuckling, “and I can’t disagree with that.”
He emphasized that the job is involved with politics “in a good sense.”
“You’re doing people’s business,” Ennis said, “and that’s what politics really should be, is doing people’s business.”
Ennis on election night offered to help Bennett with his transition to the mayoral seat. After a few transitional meetings, Bennett asked him to come aboard.
“I had a good job at HNTB, and HNTB is a huge corporation, and I thought my position over there was fairly secure,” Ennis said. “I wasn’t really looking for a job.”
Ennis had to consider the position and its offerings, since it resulted in a “pretty significant pay cut” for him.
But the politics enthusiast accepted the full-time role.
His short-term goal in the office is to complete the projects under construction as soon as possible and then “to put the mayor’s stamp on the next round of projects.”
He also would like to do more design work in the city engineering office, which he said currently focuses on project management.
“We’ve got a lot of talent here,” he said. The department currently has 22 people, including three engineers, with several positions open, he said.
Ennis said Friday that the tenure of most city engineers is less than a few years, and that it’d be unusual for a city engineer to last more than a few terms.
“It’s not a position that I’ll probably retire from,” Ennis said earlier in the week, “but it’ll be fun. We’re going to have a good time while we’re here.”
From Cleveland to Terre Haute
Although Lee was raised a Hoosier, that doesn’t mean he embraces all Indiana icons fairly.
At least not when it comes to their Cleveland counterparts in sports.
“But when it comes to football, Browns fan first. I’ll root for the Colts every single time, as long as it doesn’t hurt the Browns…,” Lee said. “I’m a Cavaliers fan first. I root for the Pacers as long as it doesn’t hurt the Cavaliers, and I’m an Indians fan through and through.”
The new city attorney was born in the city on Lake Erie, but moved to Terre Haute at a young age when his father taught management information sciences at Indiana State University.
He grew up in Terre Haute and graduated from Terre Haute South Vigo High School, then went to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland for his bachelor’s degree. Eventually, he moved back to Terre Haute for economic reasons after he earned his law degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, and settled in Vigo County once he met his wife.
“I’m happy, and we’re happy,” Lee said. “We love Terre Haute.”
Lee has worked for several different law firms, including Wright, Shagley & Lowery and the Modesitt Law Office.
He enjoys politics, in general, but didn’t become involved in local political campaigns until he helped Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt win the seat in 2006.
Lee became involved in last fall’s mayoral race once Burke petitioned for a recount and challenged Bennett’s eligibility to take office.
Lee said that Bennett asked him to join the administration after Judge David Bolk’s ruling that deemed Bennett eligible to take office.
The new city attorney is working part-time in the office. He said that several of his predecessors worked a similar schedule, although city attorney Kendall Boyd had worked full-time during former Mayor Kevin Burke’s administration.
He said the office, which has three people excluding the city attorney, has the support staff to help with the workload. Lee also said that they would re-examine the situation if the work could not be done on a part-time basis.
“We’d really have to look at everything involved in that,” Lee said of potentially working in the office full-time.
Hitting the ground running
The beginning of the new year is busy for the city controller’s office, which prepares an annual financial report, tax documentation for workers on the city’s payroll and even readies for a state audit of the city’s records from the previous year.
It’s all part of the work awaiting the new city controller.
While the city controller’s staff remained in place since last year and has been working through the administration change, Ellis takes the full-time position just as the year-end work needs to be completed.
Ten people are in the office, including the controller, Ellis said.
A Clemson University graduate, Ellis is originally from Terre Haute, but moved to South Carolina because of her husband’s job. Shortly after she graduated from college, they were able to relocate to Terre Haute.
“I loved it. It’s beautiful,” she said of South Carolina. “Just too far away from home.”
She “always enjoyed math and numbers,” and thought that accounting would be a flexible profession that would have different avenues she could take in a career.
Referring to herself as a “bean counter,” she said that she hasn’t been involved with politics, though she knew Bennett.
Bennett contacted Ellis after the election and asked if she’d be interested in the position. After talking with her husband and taking time to consider it, she decided to accept the offer.
“I thought it would be a great opportunity to serve the community of Terre Haute,” Ellis said, “and sounded very interesting.”
In 1994, Ellis received her certified public accountant license, which then expired in 1997. But she kept up with the continuing professional education, a requirement to maintain a CPA license. She updated her license to be valid last week.
“… We have many departments that filter through the controller’s office for their financial needs,” Ellis said, “and it helps me to understand all the aspects from payroll to the accounts payable to the bond issues, everything that concerns the city’s finances.”
Bennett specifically wanted a CPA in the controller’s office.
“I just think it’s important,” Bennett said during a recent interview. “I’ve always felt like it’s a perfect role for a certified public accountant to be in this type of position, and so that’s what I was searching for when I selected her.”
Ellis said Thursday that she still is reviewing the city’s current financial standing.
New Police Chief
Terre Haute’s new chief of police said he wants to make the streets safer by getting the force more involved with the community.
He should know. He’s been walking these streets for 22 years.
“I enjoy helping people,” Plasse said, describing the sense of “satisfaction in helping someone who’s in a bad position.”
And the 44-year-old has spent half his life doing just that.
While running for mayor, Bennett pledged to the local police union members that he would select a new chief based on their support.
Plasse, who at the time was incoming president of the local Fraternal Order of Police, said he was asked to submit his resume to Bennett in December and then interviewed later that month.
Around New Year’s Eve, he was offered the position.
The Terre Haute North Vigo High School and Indiana State University alumnus accepted. Plasse now heads up a police force numbering 129 officers. The Police Department is budgeted for 136, and Plasse said he plans to bring in seven more officers.
“We’ve already brought back the Street Crimes Unit,” Plasse said Friday, noting his intent to get the force more involved with the city at a door-to-door level.
The once-disbanded Street Crimes Unit focuses police attention on individual streets and neighborhoods where high crime levels have been reported, he explained.
It’s a deep-penetration approach that not only catches criminals, but lets others know that police are around.
“We’ll have people out on walking patrols when the weather permits,” he said, adding that police presence on foot in high-crime neighborhoods should help tremendously.
And that’s how Plasse himself started out on the force — as a patrolman.
Right after graduating from Terre Haute North, Plasse planned on entering an apprenticeship to become an electrician, just like his father.
But the apprenticeship program was disbanded due to layoffs, and a friend who had just joined the force convinced him to check it out.
He hasn’t looked back.
For more than two decades, Plasse has served as a detective in both uniform and investigations. He’s worked on the Vigo County Drug Task Force, as well as serving as a lieutenant for the Street Crimes Unit.
This same time last year he was still on deployment overseas with the Army National Guard, from February 2006 to February 2007.
Plasse began his military career in the Army Reserves, and in total has 24 years of service.
The master sergeant is a senior chemical operations non-commissioned officer.
Plasse said he will continue to emphasize community outreach in his administration, and named drug usage as one of the biggest crime ingredients.
“That’s where it all starts,” he said.
Austin Arceo can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or austin.arceo@tribstar.com. Brian M. Boyce can be reached (812) 231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
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