Sleight of Hand

I wouldn't go so far as to call it disturbing, but the England administration slid easily into the saddle Monday night with ease when the council approved a "transfer of funds" to accommodate Doug England's management objectives.

Having turned out every change purse in the City-County Building (and a few outside it), England and his team created a new reality in New Albany.

Converting this "contractual" dollar, that legislative revision, another dollop of federal money there, the administration recreated city government in one swell foop.

We now have two deputy mayors. DM Carl Malysz heads up community development and executive functions. DM John Wilcox captains city operations. Matt Denison will be deputy director of operations. That's three men stepping into the shoes of the departed Anthony B. Toran, former city director of operations.

With Adam Dickey and Paul Wheatley long-departed to, respectively, federal and construction interest posts, that freed up a dollar or two. A nip into permissible CDBG funds created another new position, designated as a "concentrated codes enforcement officer."

But what was bemusing was the ease with which the controller and the taller of the two DM's translated John Rosenbarger's "new" post. Now permitted to use TIF money to pay salaries, the city will now fund the redevelopment public works coordinator with incremental tax funds outside the general fund.

But wait. The Malysz/Wilcox/Denison/CCEO-to-be-named quartet are the new positions. The newfound money wasn't found to pay John Rosenbarger. It was found in order to pay the two deputy mayors et al. Yet not a word of protest was heard. D5's Benedetti asked innocently who would fill this new post and whether it had a job description.

So John Rosenbarger, career city employee, is now the "new" hire. The England campaign team gets paid with John R's salary, while John R gets paid with "new" money.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. George and Aldous would have applauded.