With last Sunday being the first day of summer, Monday’s June 22nd, 2026 Valparaiso City Council meeting was the first city meeting of summer and things got a bit heated. The meeting went for over an hour and a half with one Ordinance on the agenda and one item of other
business. The heated debate surrounded background details to the rezoning ordinance on the agenda and accusations of a conflict of interest concerning Bill Oeding, retired City Administrator.
Ordinance No. 13, 2026 got the summer started and was up for second reading, public hearing, and final vote. The Ordinance rezones a little under 5 acres at the southeast corner of Cumberland Dr. and Bullseye Lake Rd. from Business Park to Urban Residential. The land was gifted by Urschel Development to Paradise Community Homes, a local housing nonprofit for attainable single family housing. Last council meeting at the first reading the issue was a fence the YMCA, another local nonprofit desired between their property’s outdoor pavilion with tee-ball fields and the proposed row of homes’ backyards that will border it. Bill Oeding who is also CEO of Paradise Community Homes (PCH) said in this council meeting’s presentation that there is a proposed Memorandum Of Understanding submitted to the YMCA Board for PCH to give the YMCA 17,500$ to cover a landscaping buffer between the properties.
Councilwoman Emilie Hunt after questioning Bill Oeding on infrastructure financing said “The amount of funding that Paradise Homes has received from the city, 500,000 of that came from LIT (Local Income Tax) funds and another 600,000 came from the RDC (Redevelopment Commission).” This, while Bill Oeding was City Administrator before he retired and CEO of Paradise Community Homes led Councilwoman Hunt to ask after Councilwoman Reed’s point of order concerning relevance to the rezoning. “I would like to know if there was a conflict of interest in the funding of this nonprofit. I think that is necessary information and I think the public should be aware of how this nonprofit or any nonprofit is funded with their local income tax.” Mayor Costas after talking about how he is the one who compiles and signs the city’s budget, addressing the term “conflict of interest” said. “First of all this is a nonprofit, Mr. Oeding doesn’t take a salary, has no pecuniary benefit whatsoever from this, has put countless hours of his own time to do something that I think we all see as a laudable goal. To call it a conflict of interest, I think is an affront to what he is doing.”
Councilwoman Hunt continued. “I think it’s relevant to point out that Paradise Homes received five times more than any other nonprofit in 2026.” Hunt then described the process where the Board of Works approved that 2026 budget which the Mayor and Bill Oeding were both members of. Mayor Costas again responded by describing how he, lawfully as Mayor, decides how to “use those funds for a public purpose that we all agreed to is an important public purpose.” There was further debate about the LIT budget and when it was made available finally ending with the Mayor having to gavel an argument between Councilwoman Hunt and Bill Oeding over Hunt saying Oeding told her he wrote the budget that included PCH and Oeding saying he never said that, he assists the Mayor in writing them.
After his gaveling the Mayor opened up the public hearing. There were five citizens who spoke, four were in favor and one was neutral on the project and mainly concerned with child safety at the YMCA’s outdoor park area. Councilman Peter Anderson recused himself from the vote because he is a member of the YMCA Board of Directors. Councilman Jack Pupillo said he was concerned with the funding from LIT and asked Oeding if he had ever looked into residential TIF areas. Pupillo said residential TIFs are a fairly new concept and could help fund infrastructure for future projects.
Councilwoman Hunt after clarifying her support of PCH’s (Paradise Community Homes) mission made a motion to table this ordinance because as she said “ I would like a better understanding of the process that occurred in choosing which nonprofits received LIT funding last year. I would like a better understanding of our state law because we did not get a legal opinion on a potential conflict of interest, and I would like to see a signed agreement between the YMCA and Paradise Community Homes.” This motion was seconded by Councilwoman Kapitan and failed to pass 4 to 2 with Hunt and Kapitan being the sole votes in favor. There was then a motion to adopt the ordinance and a 5 to 1 vote in favor with Hunt being the sole no vote.
There was a downtown liquor license report given by the city attorney. One available license as is with two more possibly being returned from restaurant closure. From Liaison reports, with Independence Day coming up fireworks are permitted June 29th from 5pm till 2 hours after sunset, 10am till midnight on July 4th, July 5th through 9th back to 5pm till 2 hours after dusk. There was one public comment, with the same topic as last meeting.
The next City Council meeting is Monday, July 13th 6pm at city hall. There are also a lot of events coming up for the 250th Independence Day July 4th celebration. Some are, July 2nd Classic Cars & BBQ downtown at Central Park Plaza 5 to 8pm; July 3rd America 250 Concert at Central Park Plaza 5:30pm pre-show 7 main stage with Jonny James. And, July 4th will be held at Urschel field, Valparaiso St. & Vale Park Rd.; 5pm food trucks and music with Nashville Electric; and 9:15pm Grand Firework Display.
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Susie Young Baxter, CEO, has published PanoramaNOW Magazine for 31 years. Her hobbies are Camping, Boating, Hiking, Nature, Gardening and Outdoor Activities. She is an Artist, Graphic Designer, an Avid Seamstress, Dabbles in Homemade Crafts and Landscaping. Since her Father was a Health Teacher, she also likes homeopathic Health Solutions. Since blogging started over 10 years ago, PanoramaNow has been added to Newsbreak – a national news affiliate.
