WARSAW — Kyle Babcock, a local blogger, is upset about the city accepting anonymous donations for the Warsaw Alley Activation project. Mayor Joseph Thallemer addressed these concerns during the Warsaw Common Council meeting on Monday, June 5.

The project received 144 donations totaling $58,795. Out of this total, 16 people anonymously donated $2,150. These numbers were confirmed to Ink Free News by Mayor Joseph Thallemer. 

In an initial blog post, Babcock suggested that there were 54 anonymous donors and asked, “What are they hiding?” During the meeting, Justin Taylor, assistant city planner, explained that Babcock’s calculations were wrong because some corporate donors represented multiple people, bringing the donor total up.

It was explained that Indiana Code 5-14-3-4 b protects the disclosure of the names of donors who chose to remain anonymous. The site used to collect donations and the matching grant, Patronicity, allowed donors the choice to remain anonymous. All anonymous donations were made online through Patronicity.

“We take allegations of impropriety very seriously and would follow the public access laws that would require disclosures in such a case,” said Mayor Thallemer. “I would ask those who’ve accused the city of impropriety to give specific examples, if there are specific concerns we will act swiftly to disclose those names.”

It was made obvious that the council was speaking in regards to Babcock’s blog post when Warsaw City Attorney Mike Valentine began talking directly to him. Valentine became visibly upset about the allegations being made toward the city.

“If there’s an issue with that, I would suggest that they need to go to the Legislature,” said Valentine. “Rather than printing things that might not be accurate.”