Fort Wayne City Council agreed to spend $550,000 to help the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana make ends meet this year, but several council members warned that the academy has to make rapid progress toward self-sufficiency.

Councilman Mitch Harper, R-4th, voted against providing the money, which comes from County Economic Development Income Tax funds. He said the academy already had fallen short of benchmarks that had been set for it. The other eight council members voted in favor of the funding, but Council President Tom Smith, R-1st, warned that CEDIT funding is getting tighter and tighter. Subsidies in the future are likely to shrink, he said.

Councilwoman Liz Brown, R-at large, and Councilman Tim Pape, D-5th, said the academy needs a solid marketing plan and a realistic budget that allows for marketing.

Helen Murray, president and chief operating officer of Indiana Michigan Power Co., is a member of the academy board. She told the board the academy's plan for diversifying its income sources calls for reducing the city subsidy by about $100,000 a year after 2010.