Twelve Questions

This thought is not original to the shadow, but it is the legitimate question of the day.

If someone works to ensure that an election is illegal and is then "voted" into "government" as a result of that illegal election, are they actually empowered to wield authority?

That gem came through the keyboard of the always precise bluegill, one of the geniuses at NA Confidential.

Not one, but two city councils have now been seated illegally. No matter how many people voted for the six members elected from districts, their entitlement to hold office is under a severe cloud.

The president of the council intends for a third election to be held. That intention will be thwarted, but his intention to thwart The Constitution severely erodes his personal legitimacy and is evidence of a severe erosion in the man's credibility.

Others, elected and otherwise, are screaming "politics," as if representative government isn't about politics. But when the game is rigged, it's not representative government. It's a banana republic where power has been seized by an undemocratic gang of thugs.

Now, more than one of the scofflaws will claim that he or she merely became a candidate under the ground rules as they were at the time(s) they ran. But the game is still rigged. Personal political survival is not a justification for continuing to allow it to be so.

FIRST: Is the council obligated to redistrict? Yes. Indiana state law requires it.
SECOND: Has the council redrawn the boundaries? No. The districts today are the same as they were in 1992.
THIRD: What does the County Commission have to do with this? Nothing. They are not empowered to say or do anything with regard to the legislative districts of a city of the second class.
FOURTH: How about the County Clerk? Nope. The council does have to give the clerk ten days notice in certain instances and does have to implement elections based on the districts, but the clerk otherwise has nothing to say about it.
FIFTH: Who can redraw the districts? The council, and the council alone.
SIXTH: What if they don't? Or what if they draw illegal districts? Someone must ask a court to order it done.
SEVENTH: Does it matter? According to the U.S. Supreme Court, it does.
EIGHTH: What will happen if someone sues? The court will order the council to draw legal districts.
NINTH: What if the council refuses to draw legal districts? They could appeal the order, and lose, and appeal the order, and lose. Then they could be fined or jailed if they continue to refuse.
TENTH: Who would pay the fine? Probably the taxpayers.
ELEVENTH: If they go to jail, how would they get out? They wouldn't until they agree to draw legal districts.
TWELFTH: What if they agree to do it, but don't? They will go to jail again. See ELEVENTH question.

Any other discussion is irrelevant. These are the questions and the only questions.

The motives of interested parties are irrelevant. The personal desires of the voters are irrelevant. Manufactured "concerns" are irrelevant. Where a sitting council member lives is irrelevant.

When you hear or read discussions that don't deal with those twelve questions, you're listening to or reading hypocritical, insincere, ignorant claptrap. Any discussion that doesn't address those twelve questions directly is politically driven. The speaker or writer is either defending the thugs or is poisoned by hatred toward anyone who seeks to drive the discussion back to those twelve questions. That includes sitting council members, the council president, and their defenders.

We have a Constitution, we have a statute. City council does not have the option to do nothing. You may wish it were not the case, but the law is crystal clear.

It ain't over.

"Now batting, in the leadoff spot..."

It's 2008 now from Chicago almost to Denver. The New Albany City Council has been in office for about an hour, and so far, they've done nothing!

There is a contingent within the narrow confines of the six (unequal) districts of New Albany that consider that a plus. Shadow5 is at work. Why isn't the new mayor and council?

Seriously, there is plenty that can be done in just the next 31 days to move New Albany forward, to build a legacy for the "seventh generation," and to make our city a magnet for innovators, creators, and inclusive cohabitants, whether newcomers or members of Hoosier Heritage families.

Although I wasn't born here (an impediment in the minds of some), I had the good taste to set my hat for New Albany's best and brightest, coincidentally descended from New Albanians that preceded even the Scribner brothers.

Couldn't WE, the new and the old, agree that our children deserve a city to be proud of?

Project One for the new mayor and council: Clean up our streets, put an end to street flooding, and create through enforcement a regime where lawfulness replaces the current lawlessness on our streets.

Has there ever been a city where traffic laws were less obeyed? Has there ever been a city where the system says "anything goes" when it comes to stop signs, traffic signals, and freakin' parking on the sidewalks? This council, especially District 5 council member Diane Benedetti, needs to make a comprehensive study of traffic patterns, vehicular compliance with basic laws we all were required to know before being licensed, etc.

Which streets in your neighborhood ought to have "one side of the street only" parking? Which intersections in your neighborhood are the most dangerous? Which streets, designed as neighborhood streets, are being forced by oblivious traffic planners and scofflaw drivers into being arterial thoroughfares? And on which streets in your neighborhood are the speed limits routinely disregarded?

Are these to be ignored? Shouldn't you pick up the phone and call the city, your council member, the Board of Public Works and Safety, the mayor?

I have my targets. How about you?