Maybe you don't care. So be it. But if you do...
We were present at the premier campaign event of the 2007 mayoral campaign, the serial debate between the mayoral candidates of each primary party. Other witnesses will attest in affirmation that our current mayor voluntarily expressed his intention to make two-way streets in the downtown area his No. 1 priority.
We take campaign promises seriously here at NA Shadow Council.
With the exception of the prescient purchase of the Baptist Tabernacle on 4th Street, and the possible survival of the workplace smoking ban, we can't identify an appreciable accomplishment by this administration from January to date. Forgive us...the intensive yard-waste cleanup of July-August is appreciated. Thanks, Mickey.
In the meantime, with global warming intensifying, we have streets that need mowing, God forbid. The code enforcement officer is barred from enforcing city ordinances at commercial properties, leading to at least one "Felix Unger" to community standards and basic health standards.
We're waiting. Is this England incarnation "more of the same," or is it truly an administration that seeks to make us proud?
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
No Council Member Left Behind
We're not fans of the NCLB Act so rigidly administered by our anti-education President, but in the spirit of the Bush era and in honor of the start of the new school year, let's evaluate the performance of District 5's self-declared Democrat Diane McCartin-Benedetti, perhaps the only person remaining in the 21st Century who still bears a grudge against Muhammad Ali, for her first 8 months of service.
We understand that D5 has enlisted at least one lobbyist to advocate for "easy grading," but we aren't prepared to relegate DMB to the short bus just yet. She should, for the time being at least, despite the urgings of the her "press" agent, be evaluated on the same basis as we would evaluate the rest of her colleagues.
Mrs. Benedetti may well be a nice person. We don't have any objective evidence to the contrary. So this interim "grading" has nothing to do with her personality. Rather, it is about her performance, as demonstrated in her votes and her contributions to city council debate.
When the shadow began this blog, one aspect of the reportage was intended to be a vote by vote comparison. This is not that. Considering that this has been a passive legislative year and that the current council hasn't even passed a budget, the data set is too small to be meaningful, although it is fair to say that the simulated voting record of S5 diverges from that of D5.
We aren't, today, evaluating the strengths or weaknesses of the reasoning demonstrated in debate, either. Suffice it to say that it is not the member's strong point.
So how can we best evaluate the council member?
It's our blog, so we've chosen to use one of Thursday night's invisible votes, an appropriations ordinance sponsored by Mrs. McCartin-Benedetti.
It went unnoticed because the room emptied out promptly after the passage of the "New Albany Smoke-Free Air Act." (By the way, so long everybody. We'll be watching the real work of the council on your behalf while you go back to ignoring it.)
The ordinance proposed is styled "A-08-05," and appropriates $250,000 from the city's "Riverboat" fund for less than specific purposes. The council engaged in serious debate, albeit in the presence of a precious few observers. Whether all or just a portion of the appropriation is ultimately spent, it represents a non-budgeted expenditure and requires both council passage on three readings, but also a sign-off from the state DLGF. Because it is supplemental, it takes significantly longer to "deliver" the money into the controller's...er...control.
A principled debate ensued, led, remarkably, by Mr. Price (D3, no discernable party affiliation). While the administration and the council have definite plans for the expenditure of $60K of that money, the remaining $190K is being appropriated with no certain intention.
Although the ordinance passed on first reading, it passed only narrowly. And though the debate was brief, and though the inevitable grandstandng was delivered from the usual suspects, it was actually promising and revealing.
What it revealed about D5 is something we'd suspected, but only now feel comfortable in reporting.
Mrs. B has been co-opted. Whatever it is that the administration has planned for this money, Diane McCartin-Benedetti is their agent in place on the council. We understand that D5 is working hard to educate herself about the job she finds herself elected to. We further understand that she is a frequent "student" at the knee of city controller Kay Garry.
We also believe she has unwittingly (a bad quality in a sovereignly elected official) become a pawn in another edition of New Albany's complex and opaque game of "cups and balls."
That is the behind-the-scenes legerdemain of magically "finding" funds to further the administration's aims whether the council is aware of it or not.
Make no mistake, the brief debate on this supplemental appropriation was remarkable. Gonder, Gahan, Price, and Coffey objected to the "blank check" approach. Messer, Caesar, McLaughlin, Zurschmiede, and D5 saw no problem with it.
I suspect that each had a different reason for supporting or opposing the request on first reading. Some were asserting a prerogative and using a procedural argument to say "we won't make it easy" for the mayor. It was, in a sense, a way to say "don't keep us in the dark." Of course, Price is locked into a permanent, unreasoning "no on spending" stance, but the other three "nay" votes clearly had a pointed reason for voting that way.
Mrs. B was unable and unwilling to give any argument for why she put the measure forward; nor would she justify it; neither would she consent to an amendment in the amount.
We surmise, with confidence, that D5 has so fallen under the influence of her mentor, Mrs. Garry, that if Kay (who, remember, works for the mayor) says this is the way to do it, Diane does it.
That's simply unacceptable in an independently elected representative. You can't blame Mrs. Garry. You can't blame Doug England or Carl Malysz. But you can, and we will, blame D5 for uncritically forwarding what can be called a "fast break" and then being unable or unwilling to defend it.
Diane McCartin-Benedetti has shown no progress during her eight-month tenure. While social promotion may be tenable for some other council members, D5, for the good of the city, for the good of the 5th District, and for her own good, should be held back, and pending improvement or lack thereof over the next four months, could be considered for assignment to the special ed class along with D3 Mr. Price.
What delays this assignment is the earnest, if less than astute "hiring" by D5 of a press agent. It shows a certain amount of cunning and understanding on her part. Unfortunately for her, exposing her lapses in performance is not the exclusive purview of the papers.
Here's one way for D5 to advance to the next level: Introduce and fight for an ordinance that draws equal legislative districts. And introduce it NOW. It is, inarguably, a duty mandated by the legislature (not to mention The Constitution of the United States), an integral part of her sworn oath of office, and an act that if declined, constitutes statutory failure to perform the duties of office, forfeiture of office and remuneration therefor.
We understand that D5 has enlisted at least one lobbyist to advocate for "easy grading," but we aren't prepared to relegate DMB to the short bus just yet. She should, for the time being at least, despite the urgings of the her "press" agent, be evaluated on the same basis as we would evaluate the rest of her colleagues.
Mrs. Benedetti may well be a nice person. We don't have any objective evidence to the contrary. So this interim "grading" has nothing to do with her personality. Rather, it is about her performance, as demonstrated in her votes and her contributions to city council debate.
When the shadow began this blog, one aspect of the reportage was intended to be a vote by vote comparison. This is not that. Considering that this has been a passive legislative year and that the current council hasn't even passed a budget, the data set is too small to be meaningful, although it is fair to say that the simulated voting record of S5 diverges from that of D5.
We aren't, today, evaluating the strengths or weaknesses of the reasoning demonstrated in debate, either. Suffice it to say that it is not the member's strong point.
So how can we best evaluate the council member?
It's our blog, so we've chosen to use one of Thursday night's invisible votes, an appropriations ordinance sponsored by Mrs. McCartin-Benedetti.
It went unnoticed because the room emptied out promptly after the passage of the "New Albany Smoke-Free Air Act." (By the way, so long everybody. We'll be watching the real work of the council on your behalf while you go back to ignoring it.)
The ordinance proposed is styled "A-08-05," and appropriates $250,000 from the city's "Riverboat" fund for less than specific purposes. The council engaged in serious debate, albeit in the presence of a precious few observers. Whether all or just a portion of the appropriation is ultimately spent, it represents a non-budgeted expenditure and requires both council passage on three readings, but also a sign-off from the state DLGF. Because it is supplemental, it takes significantly longer to "deliver" the money into the controller's...er...control.
A principled debate ensued, led, remarkably, by Mr. Price (D3, no discernable party affiliation). While the administration and the council have definite plans for the expenditure of $60K of that money, the remaining $190K is being appropriated with no certain intention.
Although the ordinance passed on first reading, it passed only narrowly. And though the debate was brief, and though the inevitable grandstandng was delivered from the usual suspects, it was actually promising and revealing.
What it revealed about D5 is something we'd suspected, but only now feel comfortable in reporting.
Mrs. B has been co-opted. Whatever it is that the administration has planned for this money, Diane McCartin-Benedetti is their agent in place on the council. We understand that D5 is working hard to educate herself about the job she finds herself elected to. We further understand that she is a frequent "student" at the knee of city controller Kay Garry.
We also believe she has unwittingly (a bad quality in a sovereignly elected official) become a pawn in another edition of New Albany's complex and opaque game of "cups and balls."
That is the behind-the-scenes legerdemain of magically "finding" funds to further the administration's aims whether the council is aware of it or not.
Make no mistake, the brief debate on this supplemental appropriation was remarkable. Gonder, Gahan, Price, and Coffey objected to the "blank check" approach. Messer, Caesar, McLaughlin, Zurschmiede, and D5 saw no problem with it.
I suspect that each had a different reason for supporting or opposing the request on first reading. Some were asserting a prerogative and using a procedural argument to say "we won't make it easy" for the mayor. It was, in a sense, a way to say "don't keep us in the dark." Of course, Price is locked into a permanent, unreasoning "no on spending" stance, but the other three "nay" votes clearly had a pointed reason for voting that way.
Mrs. B was unable and unwilling to give any argument for why she put the measure forward; nor would she justify it; neither would she consent to an amendment in the amount.
We surmise, with confidence, that D5 has so fallen under the influence of her mentor, Mrs. Garry, that if Kay (who, remember, works for the mayor) says this is the way to do it, Diane does it.
That's simply unacceptable in an independently elected representative. You can't blame Mrs. Garry. You can't blame Doug England or Carl Malysz. But you can, and we will, blame D5 for uncritically forwarding what can be called a "fast break" and then being unable or unwilling to defend it.
Diane McCartin-Benedetti has shown no progress during her eight-month tenure. While social promotion may be tenable for some other council members, D5, for the good of the city, for the good of the 5th District, and for her own good, should be held back, and pending improvement or lack thereof over the next four months, could be considered for assignment to the special ed class along with D3 Mr. Price.
What delays this assignment is the earnest, if less than astute "hiring" by D5 of a press agent. It shows a certain amount of cunning and understanding on her part. Unfortunately for her, exposing her lapses in performance is not the exclusive purview of the papers.
Here's one way for D5 to advance to the next level: Introduce and fight for an ordinance that draws equal legislative districts. And introduce it NOW. It is, inarguably, a duty mandated by the legislature (not to mention The Constitution of the United States), an integral part of her sworn oath of office, and an act that if declined, constitutes statutory failure to perform the duties of office, forfeiture of office and remuneration therefor.
Roger Baylor for President?
Apparently, Roger's temerity in challenging the gavel of Jeff Gahan has generated a groundswell of netroots support in less than 24 hours. View this news report.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Surrealism on the Ohio
Hard to believe it has been more than two weeks since we posted here. In some respects, the laxity was generated by statements confided in us that we determined were not fodder for blogging. Although these confidences inform our understanding, we believe it would be imprudent to relate them here.
We told a gathering today that we believed that the end of the world was a provable fact...and that New Albany was simply a test market.
We (by this I mean those masochist idealists who continue to use the bi-monthly city council meetings the way the Polar Bear Society uses Lake Michigan in January) will, assuredly, witness the zeroth degree of shame demonstrated by the council on this coming evening. Enormous energies will be expended, perhaps to no effect, over an amorphous issue that finds an embittered and embattled minority up in arms. And yet, history marches onward.
In our household, we marvel at the passion and the heedless illogic displayed by the opponents of a workplace smoking ban in New Albany. On first reading, a majority of the city council approved a comprehensive ban that would take effect some time shortly after Thanksgiving, given two more affirmative votes on Thursday night.
Admittedly, passage of the ordinance would be an occasion of thanks giving, in our view. For those of us who do not smoke, dining out is a completely positive experience when done in a restaurant where smoking is prohibited.
Yes, I can eat at home. Yes, I can eat at national chain restaurants that, on the issue of smoking, "get it," even if that is an educated and calculated bottom-line decision. But why should I be discouraged from frequenting the independent restaurants and pubs I would prefer to visit and give my custom?
Yes, it's our choice. If we want to eat at Studio's or The New Albanian Pub or Federal Hill Cafe, we may. We must, of course, consume our share of second-hand smoke to do so, but it is our choice.
According to The Tribune, 57% of New Albanians over the age of 18 favor a ban on workplace smoking, as reported by an "unscientific" poll. A more rigorous scientific poll says 68% of New Albanians favor it. We favor it.
But we simply don't understand the passion this "issue" evokes.
We wrote recently at salon.com about how we believe that incalculable damage will be done to our local economy by refraining from passing this ordinance; can you imagine how backward would be the city who was the last in the nation to prohibit smoking in the workplace?
We are puzzled by that this ordinance has become, in essence, a ban on bar and restaurant smoking. But it has. And while we don't discriminate against quality establishments that allow smoking, we prefer, strenuously, those who vigorously prohibit it. And so do most of those who smoke.
At last, we come to the quality of the arguments in opposition to the ordinance.
One prolific blog commenter continues to harp on the "professionalism" (they're paid) of public health advocates, noting that the fact that they are paid to create a healthy environment somehow diminishes the quality of their arguments...that the funding for same comes from tobacco taxes and legitimate judicial settlements...It reminds us of those, like Sen. James Inhofe, who bandy about the idea that global warming is some nefarious conspiracy of ultra-liberal, hate-America cabal.
Facts are facts. Fabricated evidence isn't legitimate. Peer-reviewed studies of epidemiological data make the anti-smoking evidence undebatable. Period. Ad hominem attacks don't make the facts different.
On and on it can go, and assuredly will when the council passes a comprehensive ban on Thursday.
There will be, as there has been, interminable gum-flapping, afterward. It's kinda fun. But we can't summon the passion for the argument. We'd love to visit certain establishments more often without becoming an involuntary smoker. We applaud our representatives for legislating on the issue and would welcome a comprehensive ban.
We guarantee you that we are capable of addressing the many, many "arguments" put forward, but enough is enough. Masturbating doesn't produce progeny. And blogging doesn't produce changed minds.
That doesn't mean we will stop. Blogging, that is.
Why, Friday morning, the debate will be either 1) Why it would be foolish or wise of Mayor Doug England to veto/sign the ordinance, or 2) Why it was foolish of the council to exempt "private" clubs or public bars from the ordinance.
You see, there's plenty of time.
As an aside, we'll note that H.L. Mencken got great mileage out of ridiculing those who debated the demonstrable evidence of science and sought to legislate against it, to, in fact, attempt to hold back the tide of facts. He did not end up on the side of specious, tortured arguments. The curmudgeon did not end up on the wrong side of history.
And as a second aside, no longer does anyone rally to the idea that we may, on our private property, conduct any enterprise we wish without government regulation. It might be lucrative...it might be key to our survival...to use our property for the provision of full-body massage to release. But it ain't allowed, either by law or by zoning ordinance. We can't conduct chemical reclamation of precious metals from computer circuit boards under existing zoning ordinances, either. We can't sell merchandise without providing at least 10 off-street parking spaces.
How is that different from legislating that we can't serve alcoholic beverages or eggs and bacon where workers OR patrons are subjected to second-hand smoke?
Where were all the civil libertarians this year when the state of Indiana decided that they would determine your choice of what books you would buy? We didn't see Steve Price stepping up to challenge that "freedom of choice," which is, inarguably, much more critical to civilization than the "right" to smoke in a bar.
Where were all the civil libertarians over the past six years when the city council intentionally decided that the constitutional principle of equal representation was of no consequence?
Frankly, we say "Felix Unger" to all of you "civil libertarians" who have decided that this is the issue where you will take your stands.
We told a gathering today that we believed that the end of the world was a provable fact...and that New Albany was simply a test market.
We (by this I mean those masochist idealists who continue to use the bi-monthly city council meetings the way the Polar Bear Society uses Lake Michigan in January) will, assuredly, witness the zeroth degree of shame demonstrated by the council on this coming evening. Enormous energies will be expended, perhaps to no effect, over an amorphous issue that finds an embittered and embattled minority up in arms. And yet, history marches onward.
In our household, we marvel at the passion and the heedless illogic displayed by the opponents of a workplace smoking ban in New Albany. On first reading, a majority of the city council approved a comprehensive ban that would take effect some time shortly after Thanksgiving, given two more affirmative votes on Thursday night.
Admittedly, passage of the ordinance would be an occasion of thanks giving, in our view. For those of us who do not smoke, dining out is a completely positive experience when done in a restaurant where smoking is prohibited.
Yes, I can eat at home. Yes, I can eat at national chain restaurants that, on the issue of smoking, "get it," even if that is an educated and calculated bottom-line decision. But why should I be discouraged from frequenting the independent restaurants and pubs I would prefer to visit and give my custom?
Yes, it's our choice. If we want to eat at Studio's or The New Albanian Pub or Federal Hill Cafe, we may. We must, of course, consume our share of second-hand smoke to do so, but it is our choice.
According to The Tribune, 57% of New Albanians over the age of 18 favor a ban on workplace smoking, as reported by an "unscientific" poll. A more rigorous scientific poll says 68% of New Albanians favor it. We favor it.
But we simply don't understand the passion this "issue" evokes.
We wrote recently at salon.com about how we believe that incalculable damage will be done to our local economy by refraining from passing this ordinance; can you imagine how backward would be the city who was the last in the nation to prohibit smoking in the workplace?
We are puzzled by that this ordinance has become, in essence, a ban on bar and restaurant smoking. But it has. And while we don't discriminate against quality establishments that allow smoking, we prefer, strenuously, those who vigorously prohibit it. And so do most of those who smoke.
At last, we come to the quality of the arguments in opposition to the ordinance.
One prolific blog commenter continues to harp on the "professionalism" (they're paid) of public health advocates, noting that the fact that they are paid to create a healthy environment somehow diminishes the quality of their arguments...that the funding for same comes from tobacco taxes and legitimate judicial settlements...It reminds us of those, like Sen. James Inhofe, who bandy about the idea that global warming is some nefarious conspiracy of ultra-liberal, hate-America cabal.
Facts are facts. Fabricated evidence isn't legitimate. Peer-reviewed studies of epidemiological data make the anti-smoking evidence undebatable. Period. Ad hominem attacks don't make the facts different.
On and on it can go, and assuredly will when the council passes a comprehensive ban on Thursday.
There will be, as there has been, interminable gum-flapping, afterward. It's kinda fun. But we can't summon the passion for the argument. We'd love to visit certain establishments more often without becoming an involuntary smoker. We applaud our representatives for legislating on the issue and would welcome a comprehensive ban.
We guarantee you that we are capable of addressing the many, many "arguments" put forward, but enough is enough. Masturbating doesn't produce progeny. And blogging doesn't produce changed minds.
That doesn't mean we will stop. Blogging, that is.
Why, Friday morning, the debate will be either 1) Why it would be foolish or wise of Mayor Doug England to veto/sign the ordinance, or 2) Why it was foolish of the council to exempt "private" clubs or public bars from the ordinance.
You see, there's plenty of time.
As an aside, we'll note that H.L. Mencken got great mileage out of ridiculing those who debated the demonstrable evidence of science and sought to legislate against it, to, in fact, attempt to hold back the tide of facts. He did not end up on the side of specious, tortured arguments. The curmudgeon did not end up on the wrong side of history.
And as a second aside, no longer does anyone rally to the idea that we may, on our private property, conduct any enterprise we wish without government regulation. It might be lucrative...it might be key to our survival...to use our property for the provision of full-body massage to release. But it ain't allowed, either by law or by zoning ordinance. We can't conduct chemical reclamation of precious metals from computer circuit boards under existing zoning ordinances, either. We can't sell merchandise without providing at least 10 off-street parking spaces.
How is that different from legislating that we can't serve alcoholic beverages or eggs and bacon where workers OR patrons are subjected to second-hand smoke?
Where were all the civil libertarians this year when the state of Indiana decided that they would determine your choice of what books you would buy? We didn't see Steve Price stepping up to challenge that "freedom of choice," which is, inarguably, much more critical to civilization than the "right" to smoke in a bar.
Where were all the civil libertarians over the past six years when the city council intentionally decided that the constitutional principle of equal representation was of no consequence?
Frankly, we say "Felix Unger" to all of you "civil libertarians" who have decided that this is the issue where you will take your stands.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Quick Hits from Monday Night
Monday's City Council meeting was remarkable. For the record, the early work session saw a promising rollout of the city's plans for a comprehensive remake of ordinance enforcement, with a focus on rental housing inspections.
It seems clear that the council as a whole has adopted the progressive mantra that rental properties are BUSINESSES and should be appropriately registered and regulated.
But the big news from the evening was the passage (on first reading) of an almost-complete ban on smoking in the workplace.
As a political feat, Jeff Gahan's accomplishment is worthy of remark. Putative sponsor Bob Caesar (D2) put forward an exhaustively comprehensive ban on workplace smoking that earned the "aye" votes of Dan Coffey (D1), Pat McLaughlin (D4), John Gonder (At-large), and president Jeff Gahan (D6). If that majority holds 17 days from now, only Mayor Doug England's veto would prevent New Albany from joining the vanguard of the future in making its commercial and retail establishments smoke-free.
Thanks to New Albany Now for early returns. D5 voted no.
It seems clear that the council as a whole has adopted the progressive mantra that rental properties are BUSINESSES and should be appropriately registered and regulated.
But the big news from the evening was the passage (on first reading) of an almost-complete ban on smoking in the workplace.
As a political feat, Jeff Gahan's accomplishment is worthy of remark. Putative sponsor Bob Caesar (D2) put forward an exhaustively comprehensive ban on workplace smoking that earned the "aye" votes of Dan Coffey (D1), Pat McLaughlin (D4), John Gonder (At-large), and president Jeff Gahan (D6). If that majority holds 17 days from now, only Mayor Doug England's veto would prevent New Albany from joining the vanguard of the future in making its commercial and retail establishments smoke-free.
Thanks to New Albany Now for early returns. D5 voted no.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Our Money's Worth?
The debate is put into sharp contrast in Wednesday's editions of The Tribune, and we encourage you to read the entire piece by Daniel Suddeath, the rookie reporter charged by his editors with covering the city government and political affairs. You can read it here.
There is much to be astonished by in the necessarily cursory coverage of three hours of preliminary budget wrangling. We are apparently supposed to be assuaged by the supposedly unexpected and "unmanageable by human ingenuity" increases in fuel costs and overtime expenditures. Sorry, we're not buying it. There is no excuse. Overtime is, for the most part, a function of the tendency of the appropriating and taxing body (the city council) to shy away from doing anything to repair the structural deficiencies, i.e. understaffing of the public safety functions of government, the one inarguable duty of the city and the equally indisputable top expectation of New Albany's residents.
But our job is to shadow this council, so we'll restrict our commentary to the council's budget.
The sharp contrast came during debate over the salaries of council members.
Echoing a previous refrain summoned up during debate over the still-unfinished redistricting, D5 Diane McCartin Benedetti (hey, we're not the ones who tried to draw attention to the maiden name) repeated the Bushtastic line that "it's hard...it's hard work" in advocating for a raise for council. She said, according to Suddeath's reporting, that higher salaries were necessary to induce more qualified residents to step forward to serve on the city legislature.
We can't begin to agree more with Mrs. B that the council needs more qualified people. But we strongly disagree with the contention that raising their pay will result in a "better" council.
CM At-Large Jack Messer, not a wealthy man by any means, countered with a firm but gentle rebuke, saying [council candidates] shouldn’t be running for office for the money, again according to Suddeath. "Let's face it," he said Tuesday, "we chose to be here."
We don't advocate for the lowest common denominator - you know, someone like the anonymous trogblogger who complained he/she hadn't read anything in the paper about the budget hearings. For our money, you can't get much lower or common than some of the current council members, particularly those who were elected from unconstitutionally aligned districts.
For these illegitimate occupants of office to draw $11,500 ($12,700 for gang leader Jeff Gahan) is remarkable in light of their nonperformance and malfeasance in office.
So let's engage in a little University of Chicago economics. Let's institute zero-based budgeting with our public finances and zero out council salaries and try to establish a fair recompense for the services rendered.
Before we outline our proposal let us say that we believe the salary set for New Albany's full-time mayor continues to be embarrassingly below par. So this proposal is most definitely not about the city's executive compensation.
New Albany is decades away from the kind of financial prosperity that would justify paying our part-time legislators the kind of money that would serve as an incentive for someone to divert time from career and family in exchange for cash.
In fact, the salary this city pays its legislators is just enough to attract otherwise unemployable people to seek the job. City council should not be a jobs program for the unemployable. A subsistence salary large enough to supplement the lives of a two-income family allows nonentities, the feeble-minded, superannuaries, and apparatchiks to pocket just enough to cover their bar tabs, their manicures, and their toy drives. In short, the salary now attracts the least qualified while discouraging the qualified.
Since we are extremely unlikely to ever raise the salary to a point where the qualified will clamor to obtain the office because of the attractive remuneration, why not drop the salary to a level that purports to cover expenses only.
How about $300 a month? What about $30 an hour?
We invite you to pick a number. Explain your reasoning, if you like. But certainly, discuss among yourselves.
Zero the salaries out. $30 an hour is about what we pay the average full-time cop. It's far more than we pay most other full-time city workers.
Let's test Diane McCartin Benedetti's thesis for the next three years and see if we get better performance or worse performance from the council. Then let's zero it out for 2012 and let a newly-elected council establish its own salary for their next three years.
Sound fair to you?
There is much to be astonished by in the necessarily cursory coverage of three hours of preliminary budget wrangling. We are apparently supposed to be assuaged by the supposedly unexpected and "unmanageable by human ingenuity" increases in fuel costs and overtime expenditures. Sorry, we're not buying it. There is no excuse. Overtime is, for the most part, a function of the tendency of the appropriating and taxing body (the city council) to shy away from doing anything to repair the structural deficiencies, i.e. understaffing of the public safety functions of government, the one inarguable duty of the city and the equally indisputable top expectation of New Albany's residents.
But our job is to shadow this council, so we'll restrict our commentary to the council's budget.
The sharp contrast came during debate over the salaries of council members.
Echoing a previous refrain summoned up during debate over the still-unfinished redistricting, D5 Diane McCartin Benedetti (hey, we're not the ones who tried to draw attention to the maiden name) repeated the Bushtastic line that "it's hard...it's hard work" in advocating for a raise for council. She said, according to Suddeath's reporting, that higher salaries were necessary to induce more qualified residents to step forward to serve on the city legislature.
We can't begin to agree more with Mrs. B that the council needs more qualified people. But we strongly disagree with the contention that raising their pay will result in a "better" council.
CM At-Large Jack Messer, not a wealthy man by any means, countered with a firm but gentle rebuke, saying [council candidates] shouldn’t be running for office for the money, again according to Suddeath. "Let's face it," he said Tuesday, "we chose to be here."
We don't advocate for the lowest common denominator - you know, someone like the anonymous trogblogger who complained he/she hadn't read anything in the paper about the budget hearings. For our money, you can't get much lower or common than some of the current council members, particularly those who were elected from unconstitutionally aligned districts.
For these illegitimate occupants of office to draw $11,500 ($12,700 for gang leader Jeff Gahan) is remarkable in light of their nonperformance and malfeasance in office.
So let's engage in a little University of Chicago economics. Let's institute zero-based budgeting with our public finances and zero out council salaries and try to establish a fair recompense for the services rendered.
Before we outline our proposal let us say that we believe the salary set for New Albany's full-time mayor continues to be embarrassingly below par. So this proposal is most definitely not about the city's executive compensation.
New Albany is decades away from the kind of financial prosperity that would justify paying our part-time legislators the kind of money that would serve as an incentive for someone to divert time from career and family in exchange for cash.
In fact, the salary this city pays its legislators is just enough to attract otherwise unemployable people to seek the job. City council should not be a jobs program for the unemployable. A subsistence salary large enough to supplement the lives of a two-income family allows nonentities, the feeble-minded, superannuaries, and apparatchiks to pocket just enough to cover their bar tabs, their manicures, and their toy drives. In short, the salary now attracts the least qualified while discouraging the qualified.
Since we are extremely unlikely to ever raise the salary to a point where the qualified will clamor to obtain the office because of the attractive remuneration, why not drop the salary to a level that purports to cover expenses only.
How about $300 a month? What about $30 an hour?
We invite you to pick a number. Explain your reasoning, if you like. But certainly, discuss among yourselves.
Zero the salaries out. $30 an hour is about what we pay the average full-time cop. It's far more than we pay most other full-time city workers.
Let's test Diane McCartin Benedetti's thesis for the next three years and see if we get better performance or worse performance from the council. Then let's zero it out for 2012 and let a newly-elected council establish its own salary for their next three years.
Sound fair to you?
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Going Nuclear?
The following was provided to NA Shadow Council by a supporter of the lawless, rogue city council headed up by Jeff Gahan. We don't know why.
But is there any doubt that the council majority has put their jobs in jeopardy by refusing or neglecting to perform the official duties pertaining to [their] office[s]?
The way we read the statute below, there are only a few requirements to achieve a proper redistricting within about 30 days.
1. A person, any person...
2. accuses...
3. in writing...
3. and swears an oath...
4. and presents it to a circuit court...
5. alleging that Gahan, McCartin Benedetti, Coffey, McLaughlin, and Price...
6. are refusing or neglecting to perform official duties pertaining to their offices.
There remain only a few questions. Are the council members obligated to redraw legislative districts as and official duty of their offices? Yes. Have they refused or neglected to do so? Obviously. Will the stalwarts of equal representation choose the "nuclear" option and seek to have the rogue council members removed? Will the Republican prosecutor take it on his own motion to do the same?
IC 5-8-1-35
Verification of accusation; citing party; hearing; judgment
Sec. 35. (a) When an accusation in writing, verified by the oath of any person, is presented to a circuit court, alleging that any officer within the jurisdiction of the court has been guilty of:
(1) charging and collecting illegal fees for services rendered or to be rendered in his office;
(2) refusing or neglecting to perform the official duties pertaining to his office; or
(3) violating IC 36-6-4-17 (b) if the officer is the executive of a township; the court must cite the party charged to appear before the court at any time not more than ten (10) nor less than five (5) days from the time the accusation was presented, and on that day or some other subsequent day not more than twenty (20) days from the time the accusation was presented must proceed to hear, in a summary manner, the accusation and evidence offered in support of the same, and the answer and evidence offered by the party accused.
(b) If after the hearing under subsection (a) it appears that the charge is sustained, the court must do the following:
(1) Enter a decree that the party accused be deprived of his office.
(2) Enter a judgment as follows:
(A) For five hundred dollars ($500) in favor of the prosecuting officer.
(B) For costs as are allowed in civil cases.
(C) For the amount of money that was paid to the officer in compensation from the day when the accusation was filed under this section to the day when judgment is entered in favor of the public entity paying the compensation to the officer.
(c) In an action under this section, a court may award reasonable attorney's fees, court costs, and other reasonable expenses of litigation to the accused officer if:
(1) the officer prevails; and
(2) the court finds that the accusation is frivolous or vexatious.
But is there any doubt that the council majority has put their jobs in jeopardy by refusing or neglecting to perform the official duties pertaining to [their] office[s]?
The way we read the statute below, there are only a few requirements to achieve a proper redistricting within about 30 days.
1. A person, any person...
2. accuses...
3. in writing...
3. and swears an oath...
4. and presents it to a circuit court...
5. alleging that Gahan, McCartin Benedetti, Coffey, McLaughlin, and Price...
6. are refusing or neglecting to perform official duties pertaining to their offices.
There remain only a few questions. Are the council members obligated to redraw legislative districts as and official duty of their offices? Yes. Have they refused or neglected to do so? Obviously. Will the stalwarts of equal representation choose the "nuclear" option and seek to have the rogue council members removed? Will the Republican prosecutor take it on his own motion to do the same?
IC 5-8-1-35
Verification of accusation; citing party; hearing; judgment
Sec. 35. (a) When an accusation in writing, verified by the oath of any person, is presented to a circuit court, alleging that any officer within the jurisdiction of the court has been guilty of:
(1) charging and collecting illegal fees for services rendered or to be rendered in his office;
(2) refusing or neglecting to perform the official duties pertaining to his office; or
(3) violating IC 36-6-4-17 (b) if the officer is the executive of a township; the court must cite the party charged to appear before the court at any time not more than ten (10) nor less than five (5) days from the time the accusation was presented, and on that day or some other subsequent day not more than twenty (20) days from the time the accusation was presented must proceed to hear, in a summary manner, the accusation and evidence offered in support of the same, and the answer and evidence offered by the party accused.
(b) If after the hearing under subsection (a) it appears that the charge is sustained, the court must do the following:
(1) Enter a decree that the party accused be deprived of his office.
(2) Enter a judgment as follows:
(A) For five hundred dollars ($500) in favor of the prosecuting officer.
(B) For costs as are allowed in civil cases.
(C) For the amount of money that was paid to the officer in compensation from the day when the accusation was filed under this section to the day when judgment is entered in favor of the public entity paying the compensation to the officer.
(c) In an action under this section, a court may award reasonable attorney's fees, court costs, and other reasonable expenses of litigation to the accused officer if:
(1) the officer prevails; and
(2) the court finds that the accusation is frivolous or vexatious.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Why Does Gahan Want the Court to Redistrict?
While the public mostly ignores redistricting, politicians know in the marrow
of their bones how much redistricting matters. - Behind Closed Doors: The Recurring Plague of Redistricting and the Politics of Geography, Steven Hill.
...and that's the truth. How the lines are drawn is critical, and political. Which makes it all the more peculiar that Jeff Gahan and his colleagues in the majority continue to take the incredible risk that New Albany's City Council district lines will be drawn by someone other than elected officials.
Yet that is what they risk, and continue to risk.
One theory put forward is that if the council were to pass an ordinance redrawing the districts to comply with the actual population shifts between 1990 and 2000 it would be an admission that the districts from which they were elected were illegitimate, making their elections illegitimate, and causing their offices to be declared vacant.
As a matter of course, Democratic Party officials would appoint them to serve out the unexpired terms for the new districts. But the sitting members would have to reside in the newly drawn districts. Since it would be impossible to draw logical and lawful districts that would protect every currently voting member, someone would be permanently removed and replaced.
The special committee of disinterested council members and residents, none of whom took into consideration the residence locations of currently voting members and none of whom sought to protect the currently voting members, demonstrated conclusively that a lawful redistricting would not be able to protect all members. Population shifts make it impossible to do so.
Anyone who wants to prove or disprove it can obtain the committee report, which contains the verified population numbers for each and every census block in New Albany. Pick a corner, pick an edge, and then aggregate a population totaling 6,325 and stop. Then move on to the adjacent geography (the next district) and do the same.
When you are finished (many, many hours later), go to the city's Web site and locate the residences of the six people currently voting on the council and see for yourself how it is not possible to redraw the council districts without creating districts that contain two or more voting members.
What is certain is that a lawful redistricting will be done. Only Gahan, McCartin Benedetti, Price, Coffey, and McLaughlin want the districts to be drawn by someone other than the council. If that were not true, they would pass a lawful district plan immediately and remove forever the possibility that a Federal District Court judge would invite competing plans.
Steven Hill is senior analyst for the Center for Voting and Democracy
of their bones how much redistricting matters. - Behind Closed Doors: The Recurring Plague of Redistricting and the Politics of Geography, Steven Hill.
...and that's the truth. How the lines are drawn is critical, and political. Which makes it all the more peculiar that Jeff Gahan and his colleagues in the majority continue to take the incredible risk that New Albany's City Council district lines will be drawn by someone other than elected officials.
Yet that is what they risk, and continue to risk.
One theory put forward is that if the council were to pass an ordinance redrawing the districts to comply with the actual population shifts between 1990 and 2000 it would be an admission that the districts from which they were elected were illegitimate, making their elections illegitimate, and causing their offices to be declared vacant.
As a matter of course, Democratic Party officials would appoint them to serve out the unexpired terms for the new districts. But the sitting members would have to reside in the newly drawn districts. Since it would be impossible to draw logical and lawful districts that would protect every currently voting member, someone would be permanently removed and replaced.
The special committee of disinterested council members and residents, none of whom took into consideration the residence locations of currently voting members and none of whom sought to protect the currently voting members, demonstrated conclusively that a lawful redistricting would not be able to protect all members. Population shifts make it impossible to do so.
Anyone who wants to prove or disprove it can obtain the committee report, which contains the verified population numbers for each and every census block in New Albany. Pick a corner, pick an edge, and then aggregate a population totaling 6,325 and stop. Then move on to the adjacent geography (the next district) and do the same.
When you are finished (many, many hours later), go to the city's Web site and locate the residences of the six people currently voting on the council and see for yourself how it is not possible to redraw the council districts without creating districts that contain two or more voting members.
What is certain is that a lawful redistricting will be done. Only Gahan, McCartin Benedetti, Price, Coffey, and McLaughlin want the districts to be drawn by someone other than the council. If that were not true, they would pass a lawful district plan immediately and remove forever the possibility that a Federal District Court judge would invite competing plans.
Steven Hill is senior analyst for the Center for Voting and Democracy
Rogue City Blues
Cuddle up a little closer, oh lovely mine
Cuddle up and be my little clinging vine
Like to feel your cheeks so rosy
Like to make you comfy cozy
Cuz I love from head to toesy
Lovely mine.
What a lovefest! Over the weekend I had an opportunity to listen to the last city council meeting. Looks like council has circled the wagons to protect each other instead of the people's equal rights.
It's hard to believe there is anyone remaining in this city who does not know that New Albany is the sole remaining holdout to the principle of equal representation. But after 26 months (and counting), the city council continues to stand four-square for unequal representation, as evidenced by their continued refusal to correct the situation with council district boundaries.
Cuddle up and be my little clinging vine
Like to feel your cheeks so rosy
Like to make you comfy cozy
Cuz I love from head to toesy
Lovely mine.
What a lovefest! Over the weekend I had an opportunity to listen to the last city council meeting. Looks like council has circled the wagons to protect each other instead of the people's equal rights.
It's hard to believe there is anyone remaining in this city who does not know that New Albany is the sole remaining holdout to the principle of equal representation. But after 26 months (and counting), the city council continues to stand four-square for unequal representation, as evidenced by their continued refusal to correct the situation with council district boundaries.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
We Couldn't Say It Better
May we refer you onward to the new blog associated with New Albany Now, at newalbanynow.blogspot.com?
We had the privilege of listening (at our leisure) to the complete coverage of last Thursday's meeting of the New Albany City Council. After hearing it, we share the outrage of the blogger.
We had the privilege of listening (at our leisure) to the complete coverage of last Thursday's meeting of the New Albany City Council. After hearing it, we share the outrage of the blogger.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Johnny, Johnny, Johnny...
Someone ought to step up and defend you against the slanders. And it ought to be someone who knows you well. Good luck on finding that defender. Guess you're on your own. We know what that's like. Kind of tough to be defending yourself for trying to uphold the law. Even when you disavow it. Kind of like Mission Impossible.
D5 seemed to enjoy herself at Thursday's meeting, giggling and grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Wonder if it will be that much fun when she finally faces the fact that she has to draw equal council districts? With Steve Price, Dan Coffey, Pat McLaughlin, and Jeff Gahan there to help you, it sounds like Mission Impossible II.
Speaking of Price, not a peep was heard from him about how the council simply had to draw new districts on Thursday night. What happened, Steve? Lost your passion?
And Pat McLaughlin seems to have lost that enthusiasm he once had when he said "I wish I could run against Steve Price."
D5 seemed to enjoy herself at Thursday's meeting, giggling and grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Wonder if it will be that much fun when she finally faces the fact that she has to draw equal council districts? With Steve Price, Dan Coffey, Pat McLaughlin, and Jeff Gahan there to help you, it sounds like Mission Impossible II.
Speaking of Price, not a peep was heard from him about how the council simply had to draw new districts on Thursday night. What happened, Steve? Lost your passion?
And Pat McLaughlin seems to have lost that enthusiasm he once had when he said "I wish I could run against Steve Price."
OK, Don't Miss THIS!
Sorry I said "Don't Miss This," because I did miss it. The Thursday night New Albany Now show never happened. But I'm told it will run on Friday evening, with callers invited. I think I'll call in. How about you?
Calling Out the Coward(s)
I'm calling you out, coward. I suggest the middle lane of East Spring Street, halfway between your place and mine.
Your handicaps, your phobias, your manias, your financial straits are no reason you can't face the music.
You are a lying coward. You pick the time.
Wonder how many will show up?
Your handicaps, your phobias, your manias, your financial straits are no reason you can't face the music.
You are a lying coward. You pick the time.
Wonder how many will show up?
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Don't Miss This
New Albany Now will have coverage of the New Albany City Council Thursday (7/17/08) at 11 p.m. We won't be able to attend the meeting, so we look forward to listening to the show and being one of the first to find out what happened. Here's a link to the show site (We hope it works. We got it from the site). And we subscribe to the show blog
http://newalbanynow.blogspot.com/.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Bon Voyage, Randy Stumler
The Tribune reports tonight that Floyd County Democratic Party Chairman and Floyd County Councilman Randy Stumler has resigned both posts to take an overseas employment opportunity.
Read the story at http://www.newsandtribune.com/local/local_story_196171221.html.
Best wishes to all the Stumlers in The Azores. No, really, it's not a joke.
Read the story at http://www.newsandtribune.com/local/local_story_196171221.html.
Best wishes to all the Stumlers in The Azores. No, really, it's not a joke.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
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.
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.
OMG, That's So on Point!
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
And Shirley Baird still includes Dan Coffey in her inventory of "beloveds" without a hint of irony? Shirl, we ha(d) such hopes for you.
Welcome New Readers!
Disingenuous - [dis-in-jen-yoo-uhs] Adjective.
1. Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating: "an ambitious, disingenuous, philistine, and hypocritical operator, who ... exemplified ... the most disagreeable traits of his time" (David Cannadine).
2. Pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated; faux-naïf.
3. Usage Problem Unaware or uninformed; naive.
credit American Heritage Dictionary, Dictionary.com
Usage Note: The meaning of disingenuous has been shifting about lately, as if people were unsure of its proper meaning. Generally, it means "insincere" and often seems to be a synonym of cynical or calculating. Not surprisingly, the word is used often in political contexts, as in It is both insensitive and disingenuous for the White House to describe its aid package and the proposal to eliminate the federal payment as "tough love." This use of the word is accepted by 94 percent of the Usage Panel...
1. Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating: "an ambitious, disingenuous, philistine, and hypocritical operator, who ... exemplified ... the most disagreeable traits of his time" (David Cannadine).
2. Pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated; faux-naïf.
3. Usage Problem Unaware or uninformed; naive.
credit American Heritage Dictionary, Dictionary.com
Usage Note: The meaning of disingenuous has been shifting about lately, as if people were unsure of its proper meaning. Generally, it means "insincere" and often seems to be a synonym of cynical or calculating. Not surprisingly, the word is used often in political contexts, as in It is both insensitive and disingenuous for the White House to describe its aid package and the proposal to eliminate the federal payment as "tough love." This use of the word is accepted by 94 percent of the Usage Panel...
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
There seems to be a move to muzzle, if not throttle, the free expression of New Albanians. According to one report, the "beloved" city council (at least its leadership and its lockstep majority) have decided that any citizen critical of their policy positions, votes, or demonstrated behavior will be shunned and labeled as being "too political."
Specifically, anyone who expresses opposition to them is disqualified from expressing an opinion. Unless you are signed on to their upcoming political campaign team, all information, opinion, or statements of fact are declared and are by definition, unsound, invalid, and downright evil.
Oh, and this stance is being taken by Democrats. Apparently, unless you voted for them and continue to support them without question, anything you have to say goes unheard. And certainly un-listened-to.
Taking a side on an issue has now become a political crime. And based on recent performance, siding with The Constitution is one of those "New Albany Political Crimes."
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
New Voice on the Air?
We received news late tonight that New Albany is going to be served by an online public affairs radio show called New Albany Now. Starting tonight (we don't know the regularity of their schedule), the online radio show begins its schedule of Webcasts.
It's apparently a call-in show instead of just a podcasted blog. If you're on the Web, you can click a button to join the conversation. If you're away from your computer, you can call a number (347) 539-5928. In a world of cell phones and cheap long distance, calling a national number shouldn't impose too much of a hardship. As a caller, you can listen to the show, too, so long as your connection is maintained.
We understand that if you miss the live broadcast, an archive will be available, so all the shows will be available for later reference. Here's a link:
This sounds like it could be a dramatic development in the coverage of public affairs. We got word about this from Randy Smith at Destinations Booksellers. He's going to be hosting the early shows, but he leaves open the possibility that other show hosts may soon join him. Destinations Booksellers is going to be underwriting some of the early costs of producing this show and receiving on-air mentions in exchange. Randy's other business, Flood Crest Press, will probably also be a sponsor. For now, we don't know of any other sponsors, but Randy says it will be a non-profit undertaking that actively seeks individual, organizational, and business sponsorships, all of whom would receive mention on the air.
Randy isn't able to tell us yet if there will be an ability to take the show out of the "studio," but it's hard not to be enthusiastic about the idea of live broadcasts of some local public meetings. Can you imagine if The New Albanian and Bluegill were able to supplement their blog by audio of the city council meetings?
Who will be listening? Who knows? We think it's a great idea, and we encourage our readers to take the time to call in to ask questions or express their opinions.
It's apparently a call-in show instead of just a podcasted blog. If you're on the Web, you can click a button to join the conversation. If you're away from your computer, you can call a number (347) 539-5928. In a world of cell phones and cheap long distance, calling a national number shouldn't impose too much of a hardship. As a caller, you can listen to the show, too, so long as your connection is maintained.
We understand that if you miss the live broadcast, an archive will be available, so all the shows will be available for later reference. Here's a link:
This sounds like it could be a dramatic development in the coverage of public affairs. We got word about this from Randy Smith at Destinations Booksellers. He's going to be hosting the early shows, but he leaves open the possibility that other show hosts may soon join him. Destinations Booksellers is going to be underwriting some of the early costs of producing this show and receiving on-air mentions in exchange. Randy's other business, Flood Crest Press, will probably also be a sponsor. For now, we don't know of any other sponsors, but Randy says it will be a non-profit undertaking that actively seeks individual, organizational, and business sponsorships, all of whom would receive mention on the air.
Randy isn't able to tell us yet if there will be an ability to take the show out of the "studio," but it's hard not to be enthusiastic about the idea of live broadcasts of some local public meetings. Can you imagine if The New Albanian and Bluegill were able to supplement their blog by audio of the city council meetings?
Who will be listening? Who knows? We think it's a great idea, and we encourage our readers to take the time to call in to ask questions or express their opinions.
Friday, June 27, 2008
One Man's Propaganda vs Another's Truth
Sometimes you have to count the votes. If you can find a way to count the votes before the deadline, you can plan accordingly.
It's always interesting to hear dueling propaganda machines in contest. Mugabe and Tsvangirai duke it out in Zimbabwe, but "The Robert" has already counted the votes. The bulls and the bears contend on Wall Street, but a 380-point drop in the market is sure to drive more dollars toward "armchair investors" in foreclosed housing units...and we all know where that leads.
The New York Times reported yesterday that rising fuel costs were making exurbanists into extinctionists, with McMansion prices falling at about twice the rate of housing in urban centers with walkable neighborhoods.
Jeb Bush and George Bush are at odds, and J.E.B.'s successor, Charlie Crist, scuttles Florida's perennial obstinance toward offshore drilling in hopes it will win him the nod as John McCain's running mate in 2008.
Take a proper gander at the propaganda you hear in New Albany during the next 90 days. The side that can count the votes before the deadline has the advantage.
Constitutional issues are in flux, of course. Five men say you have an unalterable right to own and use a gun, which ought to make the remarkable Yalanda Parrish's lawyers happy. But no judge in most people's lifetimes has upheld the constitutionality of unequal legislative districts. That's a 100% vote count, all on one side of the ledger. Plan accordingly.
Speaking of public officials who don't, here's another vote count reported to NA Shadow Council. Pro - 85, Con - 13. Plan accordingly.
It's always interesting to hear dueling propaganda machines in contest. Mugabe and Tsvangirai duke it out in Zimbabwe, but "The Robert" has already counted the votes. The bulls and the bears contend on Wall Street, but a 380-point drop in the market is sure to drive more dollars toward "armchair investors" in foreclosed housing units...and we all know where that leads.
The New York Times reported yesterday that rising fuel costs were making exurbanists into extinctionists, with McMansion prices falling at about twice the rate of housing in urban centers with walkable neighborhoods.
Jeb Bush and George Bush are at odds, and J.E.B.'s successor, Charlie Crist, scuttles Florida's perennial obstinance toward offshore drilling in hopes it will win him the nod as John McCain's running mate in 2008.
Take a proper gander at the propaganda you hear in New Albany during the next 90 days. The side that can count the votes before the deadline has the advantage.
Constitutional issues are in flux, of course. Five men say you have an unalterable right to own and use a gun, which ought to make the remarkable Yalanda Parrish's lawyers happy. But no judge in most people's lifetimes has upheld the constitutionality of unequal legislative districts. That's a 100% vote count, all on one side of the ledger. Plan accordingly.
Speaking of public officials who don't, here's another vote count reported to NA Shadow Council. Pro - 85, Con - 13. Plan accordingly.
What a Week!
Our favorite books blog posted this today and we thought we’d share it with you.
(partial) Quote of the day:
…Ayn Rand, who is to traditionally female attributes like empathy and interpersonal relationships what Grover Norquist is to functioning government…Salon Magazine
(Rand was the author of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem, We the Living, and The Virtues of Selfishness. Her philosophy of “objectivism” preached that self-interest was the only virtue and that altruism was both non-productive and a sham. Alan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve Bank, is probably her most famous acolyte.)
If you've been paying attention, you knew that this week would be, if not pivotal, at least seminal in fulfilling the aspirations of our city's residents (including, by the way, them people).
There is so much happening on both sides of the struggle for New Albany's future that it could be a full-time job chronicling it. In the public, private, artistic, commercial, and philanthropic worlds, the last week of June 2008 may be remembered as "the little bang" from which our future evolved.
Marcia Nedland and Eileen Flanagan, nationally recognized experts in the resuscitation of cities, made a deep impression on more than 100 avid believers in progress. Apparently, New Albany stacks up pretty well when compared to other American cities...in its potential and in the spirit of those who are its stakeholders.
The urban core has seen a flare, and it's not an emergency flare, but a beacon that hope is on the way. The business community downtown experienced its expected two steps forward, one step back brand of progress. But it is progress, and measurable at that.
The Carnegie Center for Art and History heard very good news about the extent of its community support and its endowment campaign. The YMCA announced the launch of its membership drive, pounding the nail into the coffin of those who continue to treat its impending debut as if it were the eruption of Mount St. Helens, sending residents fleeing toward Birdseye and other points where progress is a "furrin" word.
Dramatic developments in the fight for electoral fairness should come to light in the next fortnight. The Redevelopment Commission authorized the sale of $2 million in bonds, partially to support the match for $983K in federal largesse toward the Ohio River Greenway project. And there even may be news on changes in the lineup of the City of New Albany's payroll.
For now, let us leave you with this query regarding headliner B.J. Thomas and the advertisements for the Independence Day Eve celebration, brought to you by Doug England and others...well, mostly by you, who probably didn't know that $35,000 in tax money was being expended to entertain us. When we read the item about Mr. Thomas (performer of Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head), we also read that he was known for having recorded I Can't Stop Believing and Hooked on a Feeling.
Are we addled, or are those last two the same song, or not?
Speaking of the July 3 cityfest, will you be there on site? We've heard rumors that it will be covered live by an emerging media organization. Could Cary Stemle, formerly of LEO, have built an organization already? If anyone has more information about this, please share it with us, won't you?
July 3 is, for those of you who slept through class, actually Independents Day, which makes it somewhat ironic that the Democrats will conduct the exercises. July 4 is Independence Day, which commemorates the Declaration of Independence promulgated 232 years ago next week.
(partial) Quote of the day:
…Ayn Rand, who is to traditionally female attributes like empathy and interpersonal relationships what Grover Norquist is to functioning government…Salon Magazine
(Rand was the author of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Anthem, We the Living, and The Virtues of Selfishness. Her philosophy of “objectivism” preached that self-interest was the only virtue and that altruism was both non-productive and a sham. Alan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve Bank, is probably her most famous acolyte.)
If you've been paying attention, you knew that this week would be, if not pivotal, at least seminal in fulfilling the aspirations of our city's residents (including, by the way, them people).
There is so much happening on both sides of the struggle for New Albany's future that it could be a full-time job chronicling it. In the public, private, artistic, commercial, and philanthropic worlds, the last week of June 2008 may be remembered as "the little bang" from which our future evolved.
Marcia Nedland and Eileen Flanagan, nationally recognized experts in the resuscitation of cities, made a deep impression on more than 100 avid believers in progress. Apparently, New Albany stacks up pretty well when compared to other American cities...in its potential and in the spirit of those who are its stakeholders.
The urban core has seen a flare, and it's not an emergency flare, but a beacon that hope is on the way. The business community downtown experienced its expected two steps forward, one step back brand of progress. But it is progress, and measurable at that.
The Carnegie Center for Art and History heard very good news about the extent of its community support and its endowment campaign. The YMCA announced the launch of its membership drive, pounding the nail into the coffin of those who continue to treat its impending debut as if it were the eruption of Mount St. Helens, sending residents fleeing toward Birdseye and other points where progress is a "furrin" word.
Dramatic developments in the fight for electoral fairness should come to light in the next fortnight. The Redevelopment Commission authorized the sale of $2 million in bonds, partially to support the match for $983K in federal largesse toward the Ohio River Greenway project. And there even may be news on changes in the lineup of the City of New Albany's payroll.
For now, let us leave you with this query regarding headliner B.J. Thomas and the advertisements for the Independence Day Eve celebration, brought to you by Doug England and others...well, mostly by you, who probably didn't know that $35,000 in tax money was being expended to entertain us. When we read the item about Mr. Thomas (performer of Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head), we also read that he was known for having recorded I Can't Stop Believing and Hooked on a Feeling.
Are we addled, or are those last two the same song, or not?
Speaking of the July 3 cityfest, will you be there on site? We've heard rumors that it will be covered live by an emerging media organization. Could Cary Stemle, formerly of LEO, have built an organization already? If anyone has more information about this, please share it with us, won't you?
July 3 is, for those of you who slept through class, actually Independents Day, which makes it somewhat ironic that the Democrats will conduct the exercises. July 4 is Independence Day, which commemorates the Declaration of Independence promulgated 232 years ago next week.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Oh, yes, we got trouble here, we got big, big trouble
As measured by end results, Thursday's last meeting of June went, frankly, swimmingly.
The Divine Mr. Mac and his sprawltastic C'Town Road strip mall, last-gasp at legitimacy, pump-and-dump development went down to ignominious defeat. Even sibling D5, D. M-B, could not find the intestinal fortitude to be the sole remaining promoter of this unpopular PUDD request, which has been rejected by city officials on what seems to be 43 consecutive times.
Even the invincible residents of the Lafayette Drive neighborhood could not have expected D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti to switch her vote to oppose her brother, "The Gary," and his mediocre attempt at restoring his flagging financial fortunes.
Mr. Coffey, esteemed by more than a dozen Westenders and the council member of the longest tenure of all current council members, was rebuffed in his attempt to dictate an ill-advised zoning change in a ten-block area near to his house.
I do not doubt that his constituents fear that persons with more resources and visions might transform their neighborhood (and increase their property values) by making the isolated triangle of historic homes a potential target for constructive redevelopment.
"The 'Jack' is back" is the headline you should (but won't) see in today's issues of The Tribune. Mr. Messer, the presumptive favorite for the mayor's office in 2012, decided that five months of silence was enough. Backed by facts instead of innuendo, and insisting on proper procedure instead of demagoguery, pointed out that the targeted area consisted primarily of rental housing units. Further, he elicited expert testimony that the ill-considered Coffey resolution would, in all likelihood, depress local property values. Instead of protecting and preserving homeownership and value, the Coffey proposal would do injury to the interests of that area's homeowners.
We will admit that we have zero confidence in either the efficacy or the legitimacy of D1 Dan Coffey. His contradictory and incoherent defense of his proposal lent no additional confidence. At once, Mr. Coffey insisted that his resolution would have no effect and that its passage was essential to the protection of his near-neighbors.
Due in no small part to the inartful, inarticulate drafting of his proposal (evidence of the unprincipled, weak mind behind the effort), the council soundly rejected the resolution. Mr. Caesar presented anecdotal but persuasive evidence that muddled, ad-hoc legislation such as Coffey's could have serious, unintended consequences. Thankfully, the measure was rejected and the attentions of the Plan Commission will not be diverted.
P.S. We suppose you had to be there, but the pull-quote of the night goes, once again, to D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti. Det. Fudd, who spoke in favor of accepting $193K from the feds, was distracted from his purpose by the handsome D5, who wanted to know how the acceptance of an integrated automated fingerprint identification system might tax the resources of the police department, and specifically Det. Fudd, when he was the go-to guy in the region for fingerprint IDs.
Perhaps we would have been better served to self-medicate before Thursday night's meeting, as did at least one compatriot, but we couldn't help but read double entendre into Ms. Benedetti's remarks. Commiseratingly, D5 remarked of the sole resource for this critical NAPD resource, "There's only so much manpower you can give!?
We're unwilling (and woefully uninformed) to evaluate Det. Fudd's man power. But we are willing to agree that there is only so much of it that he can give.
We pray that other online sources will capture more of the tenor of the night. July's first meeting promises to be more compelling and critical.
For now, we'll say good night.
The Divine Mr. Mac and his sprawltastic C'Town Road strip mall, last-gasp at legitimacy, pump-and-dump development went down to ignominious defeat. Even sibling D5, D. M-B, could not find the intestinal fortitude to be the sole remaining promoter of this unpopular PUDD request, which has been rejected by city officials on what seems to be 43 consecutive times.
Even the invincible residents of the Lafayette Drive neighborhood could not have expected D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti to switch her vote to oppose her brother, "The Gary," and his mediocre attempt at restoring his flagging financial fortunes.
Mr. Coffey, esteemed by more than a dozen Westenders and the council member of the longest tenure of all current council members, was rebuffed in his attempt to dictate an ill-advised zoning change in a ten-block area near to his house.
I do not doubt that his constituents fear that persons with more resources and visions might transform their neighborhood (and increase their property values) by making the isolated triangle of historic homes a potential target for constructive redevelopment.
"The 'Jack' is back" is the headline you should (but won't) see in today's issues of The Tribune. Mr. Messer, the presumptive favorite for the mayor's office in 2012, decided that five months of silence was enough. Backed by facts instead of innuendo, and insisting on proper procedure instead of demagoguery, pointed out that the targeted area consisted primarily of rental housing units. Further, he elicited expert testimony that the ill-considered Coffey resolution would, in all likelihood, depress local property values. Instead of protecting and preserving homeownership and value, the Coffey proposal would do injury to the interests of that area's homeowners.
We will admit that we have zero confidence in either the efficacy or the legitimacy of D1 Dan Coffey. His contradictory and incoherent defense of his proposal lent no additional confidence. At once, Mr. Coffey insisted that his resolution would have no effect and that its passage was essential to the protection of his near-neighbors.
Due in no small part to the inartful, inarticulate drafting of his proposal (evidence of the unprincipled, weak mind behind the effort), the council soundly rejected the resolution. Mr. Caesar presented anecdotal but persuasive evidence that muddled, ad-hoc legislation such as Coffey's could have serious, unintended consequences. Thankfully, the measure was rejected and the attentions of the Plan Commission will not be diverted.
P.S. We suppose you had to be there, but the pull-quote of the night goes, once again, to D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti. Det. Fudd, who spoke in favor of accepting $193K from the feds, was distracted from his purpose by the handsome D5, who wanted to know how the acceptance of an integrated automated fingerprint identification system might tax the resources of the police department, and specifically Det. Fudd, when he was the go-to guy in the region for fingerprint IDs.
Perhaps we would have been better served to self-medicate before Thursday night's meeting, as did at least one compatriot, but we couldn't help but read double entendre into Ms. Benedetti's remarks. Commiseratingly, D5 remarked of the sole resource for this critical NAPD resource, "There's only so much manpower you can give!?
We're unwilling (and woefully uninformed) to evaluate Det. Fudd's man power. But we are willing to agree that there is only so much of it that he can give.
We pray that other online sources will capture more of the tenor of the night. July's first meeting promises to be more compelling and critical.
For now, we'll say good night.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Step Right Up...Have They Got a Plan for You!
This came in over the transom. We're not sure what to make of it, but we'll share it with you and let you draw your own conclusions.
Noted city revitalization specialist and budget guru Harold Hill has offered the City of New Albany a novel idea for keeping its sewer rates lower than would otherwise be required.
During a closed-door meeting with selected members of the city's legislative body, Hill touted his program for subsidizing sanitary waste removal costs. Sources who attended the meeting, but who declined to be identified for this story on the grounds that they fear retribution, tell NA Shadow Council that an unidentified number of council members were very receptive to what is being called the "Hill Plan."
Hill credits Meredith Wilson, CEO of MM Enterprises, the Iowa-based consulting firm, for devising the plan, but it is Hill who has made his living by shopping the program in cities throughout the Midwest.
The program to save the sewers will require several weeks of intensive educational sessions for the council before it can be put into effect. Without public interest, says Hill, the counterintuitive proposal would easily become law."
Only if the public's attention can be diverted can it succeed," said Hill. "Otherwise, there is trouble right here" in New Albany. "With a capital T," he finished, according to the sources.
He suggested that public entertainment might do the trick. "Maybe music. Maybe fireworks. $35,000 in tax money ought to do it," he said.
Under the plan, the average worker in New Albany would direct that one-third of the income taxes he or she pays to the city be diverted to pay sewer charges. The average worker would voluntarily instruct the city to take $56 each year for the "Hill Plan." It is not known if this would be done as an affirmative payroll check-off or if the employee could opt out of the plan and leave the taxes in the city's EDIT fund. The EDIT is New Albany's most effective tool for economic development and revitalization.
In exchange, the sewer board, operators of the city-owned utility, would receive $875,000 each year to keep the rates artificially low. New Albany's sewer rates are among the lowest in the region already, but have been rising over the past 120 years, leading to fears on the part of some former and current council members that residents just might stop urinating and defecating, leading to a host of public health problems.
The accounting firm of Crowe Chizek provided an analysis last year that showed that such a subsidy would save the average ratepayer about $15 a year.When asked how he could persuade the residents of New Albany to divert $56 a year in precious resources in exchange for the modest sum of $15 a year, Hill said "Trust me!"
"Industries will flock to New Albany and your near-neighbors will love you," continued Hill. "Commercial businesses, profligate water users, and almost any industrial facility will be receiving the rest of that money. Plus, those who live outside the city and pay no EDIT taxes to New Albany will receive a reduction in their bills of $27.50, or 150% of what New Albanians would receive in subsidies."Critics of the plan insist that the people of New Albany will not accept a plan that, on its face, starves the city of much-needed resources intended to, among other things, repair long-neglected city streets and other infrastructure.
To that, Hill replied "Don't tell them."
Noted city revitalization specialist and budget guru Harold Hill has offered the City of New Albany a novel idea for keeping its sewer rates lower than would otherwise be required.
During a closed-door meeting with selected members of the city's legislative body, Hill touted his program for subsidizing sanitary waste removal costs. Sources who attended the meeting, but who declined to be identified for this story on the grounds that they fear retribution, tell NA Shadow Council that an unidentified number of council members were very receptive to what is being called the "Hill Plan."
Hill credits Meredith Wilson, CEO of MM Enterprises, the Iowa-based consulting firm, for devising the plan, but it is Hill who has made his living by shopping the program in cities throughout the Midwest.
The program to save the sewers will require several weeks of intensive educational sessions for the council before it can be put into effect. Without public interest, says Hill, the counterintuitive proposal would easily become law."
Only if the public's attention can be diverted can it succeed," said Hill. "Otherwise, there is trouble right here" in New Albany. "With a capital T," he finished, according to the sources.
He suggested that public entertainment might do the trick. "Maybe music. Maybe fireworks. $35,000 in tax money ought to do it," he said.
Under the plan, the average worker in New Albany would direct that one-third of the income taxes he or she pays to the city be diverted to pay sewer charges. The average worker would voluntarily instruct the city to take $56 each year for the "Hill Plan." It is not known if this would be done as an affirmative payroll check-off or if the employee could opt out of the plan and leave the taxes in the city's EDIT fund. The EDIT is New Albany's most effective tool for economic development and revitalization.
In exchange, the sewer board, operators of the city-owned utility, would receive $875,000 each year to keep the rates artificially low. New Albany's sewer rates are among the lowest in the region already, but have been rising over the past 120 years, leading to fears on the part of some former and current council members that residents just might stop urinating and defecating, leading to a host of public health problems.
The accounting firm of Crowe Chizek provided an analysis last year that showed that such a subsidy would save the average ratepayer about $15 a year.When asked how he could persuade the residents of New Albany to divert $56 a year in precious resources in exchange for the modest sum of $15 a year, Hill said "Trust me!"
"Industries will flock to New Albany and your near-neighbors will love you," continued Hill. "Commercial businesses, profligate water users, and almost any industrial facility will be receiving the rest of that money. Plus, those who live outside the city and pay no EDIT taxes to New Albany will receive a reduction in their bills of $27.50, or 150% of what New Albanians would receive in subsidies."Critics of the plan insist that the people of New Albany will not accept a plan that, on its face, starves the city of much-needed resources intended to, among other things, repair long-neglected city streets and other infrastructure.
To that, Hill replied "Don't tell them."
At Root, This is Our Goal
Your host here at NA Shadow Council will admit to having a deep sense of foreboding about impending public policy decisions in New Albany. By the time you read this, you will undoubtedly have heard about how the "English Restoration" is in full retreat with the barbarians hot on their heels. Nothing less than the future solvency of the city is at stake this month. This city's ability to grab onto the tow-rope of progress now appears to be thwarted by naked appeals to ignorance.
The council members who will tonight sound the death knell for New Albany's near-term future would not prevail if the residents of New Albany could pause long enough to think about the consequences. It is not unreasonable to believe that even this council might, if they would just pause, recognize the insanity of their actions.
The England administration does not escape blame here, either. Faced with resistance and sabotage, the mayor and his minions have elected to hoard their political capital. We are sure they will claim that discretion is the better part of valor or wisdom or some other such self-serving nonsense. Instead of marshaling support and fighting for what is right, the England administration caved. Instead of taking their message to the people, they cowered. Instead of expending their political capital on an issue it was banked for, they huddle and count their coin.
Those who hail the virtues of "comity" and "cooperation" only abdicate when they let a desire for "comity" prevent them from using their best judgment on behalf of their constituents. Leadership is not the result of elections. It is the result of actions. The character of leaders is revealed by their actions, not their positions.
A correspondent sent us a missive alerting us to an October book titled Becoming Good Ancestors. We won't tell you about the book. But the title motivated us to take keyboard in hand with this last-minute plea.
Remember June 19, 2008. Tell your friends, your family, and your neighbors. Witness the carnage yourself at tonight's city council meeting, if you will.
As a matter of fact, by stripping New Albany's income tax revenues to "save" ratepayers from a sewer rate increase, a council majority is handing your tax dollars to businesses and outsiders who don't even pay taxes. Why, we ask, should that be treated as some type of "salvation?"
In a rational world, that would be labeled as corruption of the most heinous degree. For a council member to, without explanation, vote to hand over city tax revenues to pay the operating expenses (not even the investment, but the operating expenses) of the city's largest industrial concerns, to pay the household expenses of Floyd Countians who don't live in or pay taxes to New Albany, provokes only two possible explanations - absolute drooling imbecility, or felony solicitation of bribery.
Absolute drooling imbecility is not a bar to retaining (or attaining, apparently) public office in this city. But conviction of a felony is grounds for removal and incarceration. If Republican prosecutor Keith Henderson won't convene a grand jury to gather evidence (and he won't), would someone please tell me what number to call to motivate a political corruption investigation?
The citizens of the Iroquois Confederacy, among other Native American tribes, aspired to conduct all their public policy with an eye to the seventh generation; that would be their sons' sons' sons' sons' sons' sons and likewise so on down the matrilineal line of daughters.
The tribe of New Albanians (at least their elected representatives) seems to have trouble looking as far forward as the seventh generation of a fruit fly. And the responsibility, ultimately, lies on the tribe, not the representatives. Unless and until the tribe renounces the short-sightedness of the people they elect, then it will be their legacy that is besmirched and their memories cursed by future generations.
At root, then, this is our goal...to become better ancestors.
The council members who will tonight sound the death knell for New Albany's near-term future would not prevail if the residents of New Albany could pause long enough to think about the consequences. It is not unreasonable to believe that even this council might, if they would just pause, recognize the insanity of their actions.
The England administration does not escape blame here, either. Faced with resistance and sabotage, the mayor and his minions have elected to hoard their political capital. We are sure they will claim that discretion is the better part of valor or wisdom or some other such self-serving nonsense. Instead of marshaling support and fighting for what is right, the England administration caved. Instead of taking their message to the people, they cowered. Instead of expending their political capital on an issue it was banked for, they huddle and count their coin.
Those who hail the virtues of "comity" and "cooperation" only abdicate when they let a desire for "comity" prevent them from using their best judgment on behalf of their constituents. Leadership is not the result of elections. It is the result of actions. The character of leaders is revealed by their actions, not their positions.
A correspondent sent us a missive alerting us to an October book titled Becoming Good Ancestors. We won't tell you about the book. But the title motivated us to take keyboard in hand with this last-minute plea.
Remember June 19, 2008. Tell your friends, your family, and your neighbors. Witness the carnage yourself at tonight's city council meeting, if you will.
As a matter of fact, by stripping New Albany's income tax revenues to "save" ratepayers from a sewer rate increase, a council majority is handing your tax dollars to businesses and outsiders who don't even pay taxes. Why, we ask, should that be treated as some type of "salvation?"
In a rational world, that would be labeled as corruption of the most heinous degree. For a council member to, without explanation, vote to hand over city tax revenues to pay the operating expenses (not even the investment, but the operating expenses) of the city's largest industrial concerns, to pay the household expenses of Floyd Countians who don't live in or pay taxes to New Albany, provokes only two possible explanations - absolute drooling imbecility, or felony solicitation of bribery.
Absolute drooling imbecility is not a bar to retaining (or attaining, apparently) public office in this city. But conviction of a felony is grounds for removal and incarceration. If Republican prosecutor Keith Henderson won't convene a grand jury to gather evidence (and he won't), would someone please tell me what number to call to motivate a political corruption investigation?
The citizens of the Iroquois Confederacy, among other Native American tribes, aspired to conduct all their public policy with an eye to the seventh generation; that would be their sons' sons' sons' sons' sons' sons and likewise so on down the matrilineal line of daughters.
The tribe of New Albanians (at least their elected representatives) seems to have trouble looking as far forward as the seventh generation of a fruit fly. And the responsibility, ultimately, lies on the tribe, not the representatives. Unless and until the tribe renounces the short-sightedness of the people they elect, then it will be their legacy that is besmirched and their memories cursed by future generations.
At root, then, this is our goal...to become better ancestors.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Logical Conclusions
New Albany, the municipality, receives about $18 million each year in revenues (maybe more, maybe less) in property tax receipts and income tax receipts.
By all logical interpretation, the current regime (administrative or legislative) desires to use at least a portion of those revenues to prop up the sewer utility.
Why not, then, go all the way?
Let's divert 100% of taxes to keeping sewer rates artificially low. Let's abandon 100% of city services. Building inspection? Zero it out. Police protection? Zero it out? Fire protection? Forget about it.
By the logic of the Coffey-Price-Benedetti coalition, we should expend ALL of our tax monies on sewers. After all, we can't ask people of limited incomes (especially when we are doing everything in our power to keep those incomes limited) to pay a rational rate for sewer services.
Now, if you were to ask ANY resident if he/she/they would like to have free sewer service, he/she/they would undoubtedly say "Yes."
But what if the "cost" of such an election were the diminution of ALL city services?
Our current situation is no different except in degree. ANY attempt to divert tax revenues to prop up the checking accounts of sewer users is only a difference of degree.
The principle is the same. Should we use city tax revenues to subsidize any sewer rates for any ratepayers?
No. And any city council member who believes so should be removed. Immediately. That not being possible, then he or she should be removed no later than 2011.
Can we survive until then?
By all logical interpretation, the current regime (administrative or legislative) desires to use at least a portion of those revenues to prop up the sewer utility.
Why not, then, go all the way?
Let's divert 100% of taxes to keeping sewer rates artificially low. Let's abandon 100% of city services. Building inspection? Zero it out. Police protection? Zero it out? Fire protection? Forget about it.
By the logic of the Coffey-Price-Benedetti coalition, we should expend ALL of our tax monies on sewers. After all, we can't ask people of limited incomes (especially when we are doing everything in our power to keep those incomes limited) to pay a rational rate for sewer services.
Now, if you were to ask ANY resident if he/she/they would like to have free sewer service, he/she/they would undoubtedly say "Yes."
But what if the "cost" of such an election were the diminution of ALL city services?
Our current situation is no different except in degree. ANY attempt to divert tax revenues to prop up the checking accounts of sewer users is only a difference of degree.
The principle is the same. Should we use city tax revenues to subsidize any sewer rates for any ratepayers?
No. And any city council member who believes so should be removed. Immediately. That not being possible, then he or she should be removed no later than 2011.
Can we survive until then?
Dump It in the Sewers!
There is a rational solution to making our sewer utility permanently viable.
But demagoguery is blocking it. By appealing to the least common denominator in the populace, the regrettably naive and ignorant (ignorant=unknowledgeable, which is not to say that they are stupid, just gullible and susceptible to the machinations of politicians who prosper at their expense), the entrenched regressive majority of the council is both pandering and insulting the constituency it purports to represent.
Mrs. Shirley Baird today took keyboard in hand to praise Mr. Coffey and Mrs. Benedetti in their attempt to stifle a homeownership study, evidencing her support in the pages of The Tribune. I, for one, believe that Mrs. Baird would be a much better representative for the former 1st District than the incumbent, but we cannot help but be deterred in supporting her ambitions when we see her lending her own support to these two.
Claiming to be in support of the downtrodden, the proverbial "fixed income" minority, these two are prepared to squander the city's resources on behalf of our municipalitiy's most profligate users of water, and accordingly, sewer services.
If, in fact, they (Coffey, Benedetti, Price, and unnamed other members of council) desire to protect the interests of those of limited income, they should be honest enough to propose direct subsidies to those deserving residents of our fair city.
Instead, they propose to boost the checking accounts of industrial and commercial users of our sewer system by depleting the limited resources of the EDIT tax fund. With admitted, imprecision, the EDIT funds available each year to the city measure about $2 million. Of that sum, the Coffey-Benedetti Cotillion propose to subsidize the Wal-Marts, the SamTecs, the Pillsburys, even the Destinations Booksellerses with EDIT tax funds so as to make their sewer bills lower.
In addition, they propose to deplete the city's EDIT fund resources by artificially lowering the sewer bills of non-residents, those whose EDIT taxes, if they pay them, are paid into another jurisdiction's coffers.
Why not, shadowna5 asks, make the sewer utility self-sustaining? If, as the Coffey-Benedetti Cotillion claims, they want to "keep sewer rates low" so as to "protect" the least among us, they would propose direct subsidies to those "least among us."
Our sewer utility should be self-sustaining and self-supporting. If, as a policy, our representatives wish to "protect" the most vulnerable, they should appropriate funds directly from EDIT funds to subsidize those ratepayers.
Instead, with transparent pandering objectives, they propose to deplete critical municipal resources (EDIT funds) to give handouts to corporate and commercial entities, the ratepayers who are exerting the greatest pressure on our sewer treatment resources, all in the name of "protecting" an indefinable class of amorphous residents.
Why, we ask, should the most profligate users of our water/sewer resources be rewarded at the expense of the city as a whole?
Worth much further examination, and as yet unexamined in public discourse, is the fact that non-residents, who do not pay EDIT taxes to the city, would be rewarded from the resources of the EDIT fund and would see their sewer rates kept artificially low at the expense of New Albany taxpayers.
We choose to believe, for the moment, that our representatives just don't understand the consequences of diverting EDIT funds to sewer subidies. Any other interpretation requires a belief in either abject corruption or in irredeemable stupidity.
And yet, as this is written, it seems a foregone conclusion that the Coffey-Benedetti coalition intend to divert precious city resources to the most intensive users of the sewer utilty. By keeping sewer rates low by using tax resources, they are saying that it is a city priority to strip voters of dollars in order to give them to business interests.
Who's crazy? Us or them?
But demagoguery is blocking it. By appealing to the least common denominator in the populace, the regrettably naive and ignorant (ignorant=unknowledgeable, which is not to say that they are stupid, just gullible and susceptible to the machinations of politicians who prosper at their expense), the entrenched regressive majority of the council is both pandering and insulting the constituency it purports to represent.
Mrs. Shirley Baird today took keyboard in hand to praise Mr. Coffey and Mrs. Benedetti in their attempt to stifle a homeownership study, evidencing her support in the pages of The Tribune. I, for one, believe that Mrs. Baird would be a much better representative for the former 1st District than the incumbent, but we cannot help but be deterred in supporting her ambitions when we see her lending her own support to these two.
Claiming to be in support of the downtrodden, the proverbial "fixed income" minority, these two are prepared to squander the city's resources on behalf of our municipalitiy's most profligate users of water, and accordingly, sewer services.
If, in fact, they (Coffey, Benedetti, Price, and unnamed other members of council) desire to protect the interests of those of limited income, they should be honest enough to propose direct subsidies to those deserving residents of our fair city.
Instead, they propose to boost the checking accounts of industrial and commercial users of our sewer system by depleting the limited resources of the EDIT tax fund. With admitted, imprecision, the EDIT funds available each year to the city measure about $2 million. Of that sum, the Coffey-Benedetti Cotillion propose to subsidize the Wal-Marts, the SamTecs, the Pillsburys, even the Destinations Booksellerses with EDIT tax funds so as to make their sewer bills lower.
In addition, they propose to deplete the city's EDIT fund resources by artificially lowering the sewer bills of non-residents, those whose EDIT taxes, if they pay them, are paid into another jurisdiction's coffers.
Why not, shadowna5 asks, make the sewer utility self-sustaining? If, as the Coffey-Benedetti Cotillion claims, they want to "keep sewer rates low" so as to "protect" the least among us, they would propose direct subsidies to those "least among us."
Our sewer utility should be self-sustaining and self-supporting. If, as a policy, our representatives wish to "protect" the most vulnerable, they should appropriate funds directly from EDIT funds to subsidize those ratepayers.
Instead, with transparent pandering objectives, they propose to deplete critical municipal resources (EDIT funds) to give handouts to corporate and commercial entities, the ratepayers who are exerting the greatest pressure on our sewer treatment resources, all in the name of "protecting" an indefinable class of amorphous residents.
Why, we ask, should the most profligate users of our water/sewer resources be rewarded at the expense of the city as a whole?
Worth much further examination, and as yet unexamined in public discourse, is the fact that non-residents, who do not pay EDIT taxes to the city, would be rewarded from the resources of the EDIT fund and would see their sewer rates kept artificially low at the expense of New Albany taxpayers.
We choose to believe, for the moment, that our representatives just don't understand the consequences of diverting EDIT funds to sewer subidies. Any other interpretation requires a belief in either abject corruption or in irredeemable stupidity.
And yet, as this is written, it seems a foregone conclusion that the Coffey-Benedetti coalition intend to divert precious city resources to the most intensive users of the sewer utilty. By keeping sewer rates low by using tax resources, they are saying that it is a city priority to strip voters of dollars in order to give them to business interests.
Who's crazy? Us or them?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
A June Week of Consequence
Almost no one will take notice of it, but the June and July convocations (canonical prayer and religious pledge included) of the Common Council for the City of New Albany are destined to be determinative ones.
Tomorrow, we hope to bring you our very best arguments for a progressive future (and one that seems doomed, based on today's report by Daniel Suddeath in The Tribune).
But today, we want to merely set the stage.
Stealing from a book promotion, we found this snippet:
Global warming.
50 million Americans uninsured.
Massive budget deficits.
Failing public schools.
A tarnished national image.
These are not policy failures.
Actually, these crises are the inevitable result of the policies we've chosen. Today's policies were designed to treat our dependence on oil as a given, our basic health as a luxury, an inadequate education as a privilege, and our children's wealth as our own.
A "donut" economy with regard to downtown commerce.
Streets that exact an enormous financial toll on New Albany drivers.
A confusing array of nonsensical traffic patterns that encourage speedway behavior and that discourage commercial traffic.
A diminishing commitment to community and, in particular, community schools.
A dependent and debilitated sewer utility inadequate to meet the community's needs and unable to support itself from its own revenues.
Policies that encourage criminal enterprises to migrate into New Albany.
Policies that discourage home ownership and allow irresponsible absentee house owners to prosper.
A defensive, insular, survival response on the part of residents whereby they "hunker down" and try to survive all of the above.
We know it's a revolutionary proposition, but we would propose that ALL of the above abominable results are the inevitable result of the policies we've chosen.
This IS the challenge we face. This IS our defining moment.
When 2011 rolls around, we must be ready to replace those who endorse the policies that are designed to destroy our common weal. When 2011 rolls around, we must have rallied a majority who reject both the policies and the inevitable results those policies have created.
One thing we do know. D5 is not part of the solution.
Check back tomorrow.
Our illustrious Sewer Board, purportedly not under the direction of our current chief executive, is prepared to continue a policy designed to further degrade New Albany, and by extension, the prosperity of all New Albanians. Quelle horror!
Tomorrow, we hope to bring you our very best arguments for a progressive future (and one that seems doomed, based on today's report by Daniel Suddeath in The Tribune).
But today, we want to merely set the stage.
Stealing from a book promotion, we found this snippet:
Global warming.
50 million Americans uninsured.
Massive budget deficits.
Failing public schools.
A tarnished national image.
These are not policy failures.
Actually, these crises are the inevitable result of the policies we've chosen. Today's policies were designed to treat our dependence on oil as a given, our basic health as a luxury, an inadequate education as a privilege, and our children's wealth as our own.
A "donut" economy with regard to downtown commerce.
Streets that exact an enormous financial toll on New Albany drivers.
A confusing array of nonsensical traffic patterns that encourage speedway behavior and that discourage commercial traffic.
A diminishing commitment to community and, in particular, community schools.
A dependent and debilitated sewer utility inadequate to meet the community's needs and unable to support itself from its own revenues.
Policies that encourage criminal enterprises to migrate into New Albany.
Policies that discourage home ownership and allow irresponsible absentee house owners to prosper.
A defensive, insular, survival response on the part of residents whereby they "hunker down" and try to survive all of the above.
We know it's a revolutionary proposition, but we would propose that ALL of the above abominable results are the inevitable result of the policies we've chosen.
This IS the challenge we face. This IS our defining moment.
When 2011 rolls around, we must be ready to replace those who endorse the policies that are designed to destroy our common weal. When 2011 rolls around, we must have rallied a majority who reject both the policies and the inevitable results those policies have created.
One thing we do know. D5 is not part of the solution.
Check back tomorrow.
Our illustrious Sewer Board, purportedly not under the direction of our current chief executive, is prepared to continue a policy designed to further degrade New Albany, and by extension, the prosperity of all New Albanians. Quelle horror!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Fable of Al and Benny
Al and Benny were twins. Al, the firstborn, was, as are all eldest children, driven to achieve. Benny...not so much.
Their parents encouraged the boys to be "successful."
Benny whose goal was to achieve nothing, succeeded, and thus earned the approval of his parents.
Al sought to achieve something, so he had the harder task. But he knew that if he kept on trying, his parents would approve of what Al believed was true success. He believed that someday there would be a new Al/Benny dynamic where the achievement of something would be valued more highly than the achievement of nothing...
...to be continued.
Their parents encouraged the boys to be "successful."
Benny whose goal was to achieve nothing, succeeded, and thus earned the approval of his parents.
Al sought to achieve something, so he had the harder task. But he knew that if he kept on trying, his parents would approve of what Al believed was true success. He believed that someday there would be a new Al/Benny dynamic where the achievement of something would be valued more highly than the achievement of nothing...
...to be continued.
Eye on Tomorrow
If you read nothing else this week, please chow down on this story by John Gilderbloom and Matt Hanka in the May issue of Louisville magazine.
Reinventing Louisville. Please know that this link ONLY takes you to the main page. Click on past issues and seek out page 48-49 and zoom UP to be able to read it. (Could the interface BE any more difficult?) Bet it was free!
Among other inspiring snippets in this illuminating piece is this:
Two-way streets should be at the heart of a city's downtown development strategy. Neighborhoods become more sustainable, livable and prosperous with two-way streets. Conversions to two-way have already happened in more than 100 cities around the United States. Cities such as Chicago, Dallas and Minneapolis are reverting to two-way streets, which have resulted in larger influxes of upwardly mobile residents. So far, Louisville has not made proper use of this planning tool to save and enhance our downtown neighborhoods. As the traffic slows, bike lanes are put in and sidewalks are widened, the surrounding landscape becomes more livable and desirable.
Gilderbloom and Hanka are with U of L's Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods.
Any guesses what shadowna5 might want to share with council on June 19th? Of course, that would be during "non-agenda" items. This is New Albany, after all. How could such a prescient vision be on the "agenda?"
Reinventing Louisville. Please know that this link ONLY takes you to the main page. Click on past issues and seek out page 48-49 and zoom UP to be able to read it. (Could the interface BE any more difficult?) Bet it was free!
Among other inspiring snippets in this illuminating piece is this:
Two-way streets should be at the heart of a city's downtown development strategy. Neighborhoods become more sustainable, livable and prosperous with two-way streets. Conversions to two-way have already happened in more than 100 cities around the United States. Cities such as Chicago, Dallas and Minneapolis are reverting to two-way streets, which have resulted in larger influxes of upwardly mobile residents. So far, Louisville has not made proper use of this planning tool to save and enhance our downtown neighborhoods. As the traffic slows, bike lanes are put in and sidewalks are widened, the surrounding landscape becomes more livable and desirable.
Gilderbloom and Hanka are with U of L's Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods.
Any guesses what shadowna5 might want to share with council on June 19th? Of course, that would be during "non-agenda" items. This is New Albany, after all. How could such a prescient vision be on the "agenda?"
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Congratulations, NA Confidential
Allow us to use this space to offer high praise and commendation to the staff of NA Confidential, New Albany's preeminent blog.
250,000 visitors is a major accomplishment for a blog so locally specific. Former and future residents from around the country read NA Confidential to keep up with the atmosphere. Some even use it to help them decide to come and join us in the struggle for progress.
Roger Baylor and Jeff Gillenwater provide a hybrid that New Albany cannot do without. With humor and intelligence, they steer the conversations around here and put the spotlight on issues of culture, government, and commerce.
In the best of all possible worlds, culture, government, and commerce would be one and the same thing, and outlets like NA Confidential are helping us move toward a day when our community, our businesses, and our neighborhoods become allies in a common objective.
Congratulations, guys. You deserve it. When that counter trips past the quarter-million mark later this month, we want to say we were the first to say "Well Done!"
250,000 visitors is a major accomplishment for a blog so locally specific. Former and future residents from around the country read NA Confidential to keep up with the atmosphere. Some even use it to help them decide to come and join us in the struggle for progress.
Roger Baylor and Jeff Gillenwater provide a hybrid that New Albany cannot do without. With humor and intelligence, they steer the conversations around here and put the spotlight on issues of culture, government, and commerce.
In the best of all possible worlds, culture, government, and commerce would be one and the same thing, and outlets like NA Confidential are helping us move toward a day when our community, our businesses, and our neighborhoods become allies in a common objective.
Congratulations, guys. You deserve it. When that counter trips past the quarter-million mark later this month, we want to say we were the first to say "Well Done!"
Triskadekaphobia: We're For It
One local blogger coined the appelation of "Open Air Museum of Superstition and Ignorance" for our fair city. It couldn't be more appropriate, then, that Friday the 13th approaches, a day when triskadekaphobia (fear of the number 13) reaches its pinnacle.
For once, the progressive movement in New Albany needs to cultivate, foster, and nurture a fear of the number 13. But unlike the forces of regress, we aren't trying to grow an unreasoned fear.
For 13 is how many times more expensive it is to the taxpayers of this city to use edit funds to subsidize sewer rates. It takes more than $13 in EDIT money to knock $1 off the sewer rate. That's right.
The council members plotting to arrest a coming sewer rate increase talk loudly and often about how they are looking out for nickels and dimes, how they are watching the corporate purse, but their plan is exactly the opposite of financial prudence.
Instead of investing our tax money into projects that will save us money (New Albany's atrocious roads cost the average driver $800 a year more than residents of the average American city - $800 in lower mileage from misaligned wheels, damaged tires, and wholesale destruction of the working and resale value of our cars), they want to spend it on recurring individual rate-payer expenses. To some extent, sewer rates can be elastic. Yes, there is a minimum charge. We've often spoken in favor of keeping the minimum charge low (thus giving a boost to those who use the least water) and making up the difference in higher rates.
But no, that would actually accomplish something. That would actually protect the proverbial "fixed-income" resident from unwelcome added expenses.
However, it's worse than that. While robbing the city coffers to try to fool the voters, while robbing New Albany of any hope of having its sewer utility operate on its own without tax subsidies, and while stripping the city of any ability to invest in infrastructure, this crazy plan will take money from New Albany taxpayers and transfer it directly to the biggest users of the system.
That's right. This plan removes incentives to conserve water, especially for businesses (who don't pay EDIT taxes), since the taxpayer will pick up part of the bill.
It's ironic that when anyone proposes actual targeted investments to give incentives to business practices, types of businesses, or specific locations, the hidebound council members howl "corporate welfare." And yet, their plan is an enormous piece of corporate and business pork.
If we had more respect for their ability to ratiocinate, we'd suspect they are in the pocket of big businesses. But we presume that they just don't see it, and since the only people speaking up about it are THEM people, they feel certain they can proceed with this foolish plan.
They've done it before and it looks like they're going to try to do it again.
There's another set of sewer ratepayers who will be sharing in this subsidy, too. The several thousand ratepayers who live outside the city (and who do not pay EDIT taxes into the city) who will receive 150% of the subsidy city residents would "receive."
Now one can argue that they shouldn't be paying 150% of what we do. But if this plan goes through, they'll be getting 150% of the discount, too.
We'd estimate that when it comes to comparing the typical residence in New Albany versus those in the fringe and those in Georgetown, 40% of the subsidy to residences will be going to people who don't pay EDIT taxes.
Drop the subsidy now. Stop diverting our investable tax money (originally designed for economic development purposes) to prop up the checking accounts of businesses and ratepayers outside the city.
Stop trying to fool the people that you are looking out for their best interests. Just stop.
If you truly want to help the poorest among us to deal with rising costs of living, propose a subsidy directly to those taxpayers. Craft a solution and gather the support for direct subsidies to specific ratepayers. At least then the debate will be honest.
For once, the progressive movement in New Albany needs to cultivate, foster, and nurture a fear of the number 13. But unlike the forces of regress, we aren't trying to grow an unreasoned fear.
For 13 is how many times more expensive it is to the taxpayers of this city to use edit funds to subsidize sewer rates. It takes more than $13 in EDIT money to knock $1 off the sewer rate. That's right.
The council members plotting to arrest a coming sewer rate increase talk loudly and often about how they are looking out for nickels and dimes, how they are watching the corporate purse, but their plan is exactly the opposite of financial prudence.
Instead of investing our tax money into projects that will save us money (New Albany's atrocious roads cost the average driver $800 a year more than residents of the average American city - $800 in lower mileage from misaligned wheels, damaged tires, and wholesale destruction of the working and resale value of our cars), they want to spend it on recurring individual rate-payer expenses. To some extent, sewer rates can be elastic. Yes, there is a minimum charge. We've often spoken in favor of keeping the minimum charge low (thus giving a boost to those who use the least water) and making up the difference in higher rates.
But no, that would actually accomplish something. That would actually protect the proverbial "fixed-income" resident from unwelcome added expenses.
However, it's worse than that. While robbing the city coffers to try to fool the voters, while robbing New Albany of any hope of having its sewer utility operate on its own without tax subsidies, and while stripping the city of any ability to invest in infrastructure, this crazy plan will take money from New Albany taxpayers and transfer it directly to the biggest users of the system.
That's right. This plan removes incentives to conserve water, especially for businesses (who don't pay EDIT taxes), since the taxpayer will pick up part of the bill.
It's ironic that when anyone proposes actual targeted investments to give incentives to business practices, types of businesses, or specific locations, the hidebound council members howl "corporate welfare." And yet, their plan is an enormous piece of corporate and business pork.
If we had more respect for their ability to ratiocinate, we'd suspect they are in the pocket of big businesses. But we presume that they just don't see it, and since the only people speaking up about it are THEM people, they feel certain they can proceed with this foolish plan.
They've done it before and it looks like they're going to try to do it again.
There's another set of sewer ratepayers who will be sharing in this subsidy, too. The several thousand ratepayers who live outside the city (and who do not pay EDIT taxes into the city) who will receive 150% of the subsidy city residents would "receive."
Now one can argue that they shouldn't be paying 150% of what we do. But if this plan goes through, they'll be getting 150% of the discount, too.
We'd estimate that when it comes to comparing the typical residence in New Albany versus those in the fringe and those in Georgetown, 40% of the subsidy to residences will be going to people who don't pay EDIT taxes.
Drop the subsidy now. Stop diverting our investable tax money (originally designed for economic development purposes) to prop up the checking accounts of businesses and ratepayers outside the city.
Stop trying to fool the people that you are looking out for their best interests. Just stop.
If you truly want to help the poorest among us to deal with rising costs of living, propose a subsidy directly to those taxpayers. Craft a solution and gather the support for direct subsidies to specific ratepayers. At least then the debate will be honest.
Habits of Thought are Death to Truth
The ideological struggle for the future of New Albany continues unabated. On one side are advocates for a better New Albany who believe change is in order. On the other side are people who believe everything is just fine the way it is and who fear change.
Change can be a good thing. When change involves risk, a certain level of concern is justified. But when failing to change is dead-certain to bring fearful consequences, it makes no sense to hunker down and try to wait out the apocalypse.
One might forgive members of the general public for cowering fearfully in the dark. But the same response from elected officials is unacceptable, if only because they control the light switch while we pay the electric bill.
Our goal here is to push back the darkness. This week, the darkness is tax subsidies for sewers. Next week it will be something else.
Although we can't verify that it is original (and we doubt it is), we were struck by the words Rivka Galchen put into a character's head in his recent novel, Atmospheric Disturbances.
Change can be a good thing. When change involves risk, a certain level of concern is justified. But when failing to change is dead-certain to bring fearful consequences, it makes no sense to hunker down and try to wait out the apocalypse.
One might forgive members of the general public for cowering fearfully in the dark. But the same response from elected officials is unacceptable, if only because they control the light switch while we pay the electric bill.
Our goal here is to push back the darkness. This week, the darkness is tax subsidies for sewers. Next week it will be something else.
Although we can't verify that it is original (and we doubt it is), we were struck by the words Rivka Galchen put into a character's head in his recent novel, Atmospheric Disturbances.
- "His response was neither random nor spontaneous; it was predetermined by his previous ideas about me; habits of thought are death to truth; I was outside of my habits; and he - he was wrong."
New Albany is being endangered. Not by "novelty lighters," as a recent council ordinance averred, but by habits of thought.
One of those habits of thought that should be recognizable is a belief by an influential faction on the city council that is so self-centric as to be bathetic. It involves the projection of one's own motives onto another. If a decision-maker looks at each choice as an opportunity for self-enrichment, then that decision-maker presumes that all others are making choices based on the same motives and motivations. That's very Darwinian, but hardly admirable.
A second habit of thought is that any proposal that is difficult to understand must have been created that way in order to confuse and thus exploit. Thus, when a decision-maker is presented with that difficult to understand idea, she becomes suspicious that she is being fooled. The habit of thought becomes a habit of action - that action being to say "no." It is foolish to think that "no" is always the safe choice, but we have a city council that certainly leans that way.
It's hard to credit the fact that a majority of this council, the second council in a row in which the voters essentially cleaned house and turned out half the members, could be steered by such habits of thought. But it is so.
Based on my reading of the tea leaves, this council is leaning toward a foolish plan to use tax dollars to subsidize sewer rates. If that is, in fact, the plan, I offer a serious alternative that ought to pass with just as little reference to the consensus view of reality.
On a council that pays regular homage to a "fixed magical belief" that they have special insights into public finance, this proposal ought to fly through three readings.
Instead of diverting $875,000 in EDIT funds to subsidize sewers (and sewer rates are based on water usage), let's divert it to pay for gasoline. Granted, many of the people who buy gas in New Albany don't pay EDIT taxes. But then many of the people who use sewers/water in New Albany don't pay EDIT taxes here. Gas prices are climbing rapidly and, let's face it, people are hurting. Under the Steve Price Plan, that's reason enough to spend tax dollars on it.
The proposal from Mr. Coffey that sewer rates be subsidized is a clear statement from him that he does not believe the sewer utility should be run like a business that supports itself. We have a number of industrial and commercial users of water that, as entities, pay no EDIT taxes, but use enormous amounts of water. The Coffey/Price plan would have you, the taxpayer, subsidizing their rates, too, but in the name of "the people."
From this vantage point, the only thing being done to the people by these two is to keep 'em in the dark.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Looking Backward
Hey, that would make a great book title. And it did. Edward Bellamy's utopian vision resides on most "must-read" lists, even though it was written in Victorian times.
Our point, however, is that the posts on this page were written in "reverse impression." The duty part of the reporting comes first on the page (date/time stamp), but came last in the writing.
Here is the legislation that moved Monday night, June 2, 2008:
"The Gary's" PUDD on Charlestown Road went down to defeat on first reading, 5-2, with little sis' and Sir Dan Coffey voting to approve.
A PUDD for the Silvercrest property was approved on first reading.
JTR Properties got approval for its planned unit development, first reading.
SDR Development and ICON Properties likewise gained approval from council on first reading.
Mr. Harshey's vacation of a utility easement was approved on final reading.
An emergency interfund transfer was authorized to meet payroll in the event tax receipts aren't, well, "receipted."
A half-million dollars was approved for paving.
"Novelty" lighters were (ineffectively) "regulated." Final reading and passage.
Most (7) tax abatement renewals were granted. One was delayed by council, one was delayed at petitioner's request.
At long last, and with no explanation for the perilous delay, the city's request to participate in federal CDBG revenue sharing was authorized.
Loop Island was declared, without objection, to be an insane area for economic development assistance.
Park East, Old Monon, State Street Garage, and Charlestown Road TIF districts were expanded. D3 Steve Price voted no on all of them. D1 Dan Coffey voted no on the one that might boost his own district's prospects.
A flawed "resolution" to rezone the West End was tabled without due process under the law, but will be back. Bet they won't vote on that, either.
We are promised yet another 6 p.m. work session before a future meeting. Can't argue with that. This council seems to need them, whether for education or grandstanding and general passive-aggressiveness.
Hey, did we scoop The Tribune?
Our point, however, is that the posts on this page were written in "reverse impression." The duty part of the reporting comes first on the page (date/time stamp), but came last in the writing.
Here is the legislation that moved Monday night, June 2, 2008:
"The Gary's" PUDD on Charlestown Road went down to defeat on first reading, 5-2, with little sis' and Sir Dan Coffey voting to approve.
A PUDD for the Silvercrest property was approved on first reading.
JTR Properties got approval for its planned unit development, first reading.
SDR Development and ICON Properties likewise gained approval from council on first reading.
Mr. Harshey's vacation of a utility easement was approved on final reading.
An emergency interfund transfer was authorized to meet payroll in the event tax receipts aren't, well, "receipted."
A half-million dollars was approved for paving.
"Novelty" lighters were (ineffectively) "regulated." Final reading and passage.
Most (7) tax abatement renewals were granted. One was delayed by council, one was delayed at petitioner's request.
At long last, and with no explanation for the perilous delay, the city's request to participate in federal CDBG revenue sharing was authorized.
Loop Island was declared, without objection, to be an insane area for economic development assistance.
Park East, Old Monon, State Street Garage, and Charlestown Road TIF districts were expanded. D3 Steve Price voted no on all of them. D1 Dan Coffey voted no on the one that might boost his own district's prospects.
A flawed "resolution" to rezone the West End was tabled without due process under the law, but will be back. Bet they won't vote on that, either.
We are promised yet another 6 p.m. work session before a future meeting. Can't argue with that. This council seems to need them, whether for education or grandstanding and general passive-aggressiveness.
Hey, did we scoop The Tribune?
Finally, Legislation of Substance!
Because of excused absences, D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti's ordinance "providing for restrictions on novelty lighters" reached the ultimate level of passage and, pending the signature of the Honorable Douglas B. England, becomes law within the next ten days.
What, you may ask, is a novelty lighter, and why is it the signal accomplishment of the incumbent city council? An otherwise nondescript lighter with an Indianapolis Colts horseshoe logo (or even the word "Colts") would surely qualify. I've never seen one, but a lighter shaped like a banana, or logoed with Warner Bros.' Yosemite Sam, or Marvel's Iron Man, or (the horror) a Budweiser logo, would be subject to this regulatory ordinance. I'll bet you could make the case that a neon-pink Bic lighter qualifies as a fem-specific "novelty" lighter. I can't even imagine what kind of lighters might be available at New Albany DVD. Oh, that's right, they're exempted from this ordinance! And how about our friends at the fireplace store? Don't you imagine they have a log-lighter shaped like a stick of wood? And if they don't, do you want to invest in our company making them?
Though the ordinance is arbitrarily vague and thus unconstitutional, what is a novelty lighter can be identified. What is not a novelty lighter, not so much.
To put the best face on it, Mrs. McCartin-Benedetti's ordinance is a public-spirited response to intelligence obtained from our fire safety officials. Such officers nationwide have spearheaded an effort to regulate what is described in the ordinance as "a grave threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of the City of New Albany" (citizens? I didn't get my New Albany passport. Did you?). Residents? Nah? Visitors? Unh-unh.
Furthermore, the council "finds that an emergency exists necessitating the immediate adoption" of the ordinance.
You know, the most recent local fire tragedy involved a young boy splashing cologne on himself, cologne that subsequently ignited when it came near to a heating coil. Do we now regulate cologne? May be.
In any event, we don't fault the motives and intent of D5. We do insist that D5 failed to cover herself in glory with this bastardized and doomed ordinance.
You can read the ordinance by chasing links elsewhere on this blog, but permit us to tell you how it reads in practice.
A retailer who sells, offers for sale, or gives or distributes any novelty lighter in New Albany must display them 48 inches off the floor. The retailer may not display them with "children's toys." In effect, that's it. Violation of the ordinance may result, on conviction (unlikely), in a fine of $250 for each violation and for each day of violation. One half of that fine would go toward fire prevention. The other half would go to the city's general fund. (By the way, that's a violation of state statute, too.)
Oh, yeah. The purchaser of the novelty lighter must have a photographic identification (what's that?). The retailer is not required to see it or ask for it. As the ordinance is written, the purchaser (5-year-old Billy Sue) would be subject to citation and fine.
I kid you not.
Great job, D5. How many hours of drafting and advocacy did you put into this one?
Not to be too specific, but all seven of the members in attendance voted "aye" on final reading. D'oh! Mmmmmm, donuuuts!
What, you may ask, is a novelty lighter, and why is it the signal accomplishment of the incumbent city council? An otherwise nondescript lighter with an Indianapolis Colts horseshoe logo (or even the word "Colts") would surely qualify. I've never seen one, but a lighter shaped like a banana, or logoed with Warner Bros.' Yosemite Sam, or Marvel's Iron Man, or (the horror) a Budweiser logo, would be subject to this regulatory ordinance. I'll bet you could make the case that a neon-pink Bic lighter qualifies as a fem-specific "novelty" lighter. I can't even imagine what kind of lighters might be available at New Albany DVD. Oh, that's right, they're exempted from this ordinance! And how about our friends at the fireplace store? Don't you imagine they have a log-lighter shaped like a stick of wood? And if they don't, do you want to invest in our company making them?
Though the ordinance is arbitrarily vague and thus unconstitutional, what is a novelty lighter can be identified. What is not a novelty lighter, not so much.
To put the best face on it, Mrs. McCartin-Benedetti's ordinance is a public-spirited response to intelligence obtained from our fire safety officials. Such officers nationwide have spearheaded an effort to regulate what is described in the ordinance as "a grave threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of the City of New Albany" (citizens? I didn't get my New Albany passport. Did you?). Residents? Nah? Visitors? Unh-unh.
Furthermore, the council "finds that an emergency exists necessitating the immediate adoption" of the ordinance.
You know, the most recent local fire tragedy involved a young boy splashing cologne on himself, cologne that subsequently ignited when it came near to a heating coil. Do we now regulate cologne? May be.
In any event, we don't fault the motives and intent of D5. We do insist that D5 failed to cover herself in glory with this bastardized and doomed ordinance.
You can read the ordinance by chasing links elsewhere on this blog, but permit us to tell you how it reads in practice.
A retailer who sells, offers for sale, or gives or distributes any novelty lighter in New Albany must display them 48 inches off the floor. The retailer may not display them with "children's toys." In effect, that's it. Violation of the ordinance may result, on conviction (unlikely), in a fine of $250 for each violation and for each day of violation. One half of that fine would go toward fire prevention. The other half would go to the city's general fund. (By the way, that's a violation of state statute, too.)
Oh, yeah. The purchaser of the novelty lighter must have a photographic identification (what's that?). The retailer is not required to see it or ask for it. As the ordinance is written, the purchaser (5-year-old Billy Sue) would be subject to citation and fine.
I kid you not.
Great job, D5. How many hours of drafting and advocacy did you put into this one?
Not to be too specific, but all seven of the members in attendance voted "aye" on final reading. D'oh! Mmmmmm, donuuuts!
I Dream of Effluent With the Light Brown...
We can dream, can't we?
The work sessions of the New Albany City Council are predictably scripted affairs, and although the public is grudgingly allowed to attend, this council has no interest in the participation of the public, despite the fact that at any given time, more members of the audience are up to speed on the issue at hand than are sitting among the knights of the squared tables. Want to advance this city? Get elected. Otherwise, sit down and shut up.
We're often baffled at how this council majority can delude itself into the belief that being elected, often without opposition and by a phenomenally small majority of its constituents, imbues them with a divine right and supreme judgment on all matters governmental.
But, they did manage to get on the public payroll in the accepted manner, and whether they earn their keep or not, they do get to make the final decisions.
But that doesn't mean we have to shut up.
If Monday's 6 p.m. work session presentation is to be believed, the England administration, the Sewer Board, and their financial advisers, Crowe Chizek and Company, LLC, have the golden ticket on a silver plate.
Perhaps for the first time in living memory, New Albany has an opportunity to make its sanitary sewer utility a self-sustaining entity. All municipal enterprises (and "enterprise" is, in this instance, a term of art) are intended to be self-sufficient. That is, they are required to support themselves from their own revenues and, from time to time, return surpluses to their owners, the cities who authorized, founded, and funded them.
New Albany's wise men seem to have skipped class during the semester they offered Public Finance and Fund Accounting 101. But maybe the dark ages of deteriorating sewers is coming to an end.
If the presentation is to be believed, a five-year program of physical plant improvements (none are optional and most are mandated by court order) can be funded by a manageable bond issue combined with a modest increase in rates. The rate increase is what you'll be hearing the most about, even though New Albany's rates will be, by far, the lowest for comparable cities in this region, even after an adjustment.
The most promising aspect of the plan is that a previously committed $875,000 of EDIT (economic development income tax) funds will be returned for more appropriate use by the city. Within five years, we are promised, the city will have a functioning sewage system and the financial stability to not only support itself, but to finance ongoing capital projects without any additional borrowing.
The minimum ratepayer, the proverbial granny on a fixed income (we have one in our family, too) would be looking at a bill increase of $2.20 per month ($26.40/year) on sewer charges. The average user would be facing a bill increase of $7.70 per month ($92.40/year). Compared to a gas fuel charge increase of $60 a month, that's not bad, especially when you recall that in New Albany we would still be paying at rates well below market price.
Yes, the administration could be lying. Crowe Chizek could be lying. But the risk seems nominal, particularly if we never again have to dwell on excreta and its treatment as the primary focus of our government.
We are hopeful that bluegill will again demonstrate why EDIT taxes are a pandering fool's method for pretending to serve the people.
By the way...heard any complaints about garbage service lately?
The work sessions of the New Albany City Council are predictably scripted affairs, and although the public is grudgingly allowed to attend, this council has no interest in the participation of the public, despite the fact that at any given time, more members of the audience are up to speed on the issue at hand than are sitting among the knights of the squared tables. Want to advance this city? Get elected. Otherwise, sit down and shut up.
We're often baffled at how this council majority can delude itself into the belief that being elected, often without opposition and by a phenomenally small majority of its constituents, imbues them with a divine right and supreme judgment on all matters governmental.
But, they did manage to get on the public payroll in the accepted manner, and whether they earn their keep or not, they do get to make the final decisions.
But that doesn't mean we have to shut up.
If Monday's 6 p.m. work session presentation is to be believed, the England administration, the Sewer Board, and their financial advisers, Crowe Chizek and Company, LLC, have the golden ticket on a silver plate.
Perhaps for the first time in living memory, New Albany has an opportunity to make its sanitary sewer utility a self-sustaining entity. All municipal enterprises (and "enterprise" is, in this instance, a term of art) are intended to be self-sufficient. That is, they are required to support themselves from their own revenues and, from time to time, return surpluses to their owners, the cities who authorized, founded, and funded them.
New Albany's wise men seem to have skipped class during the semester they offered Public Finance and Fund Accounting 101. But maybe the dark ages of deteriorating sewers is coming to an end.
If the presentation is to be believed, a five-year program of physical plant improvements (none are optional and most are mandated by court order) can be funded by a manageable bond issue combined with a modest increase in rates. The rate increase is what you'll be hearing the most about, even though New Albany's rates will be, by far, the lowest for comparable cities in this region, even after an adjustment.
The most promising aspect of the plan is that a previously committed $875,000 of EDIT (economic development income tax) funds will be returned for more appropriate use by the city. Within five years, we are promised, the city will have a functioning sewage system and the financial stability to not only support itself, but to finance ongoing capital projects without any additional borrowing.
The minimum ratepayer, the proverbial granny on a fixed income (we have one in our family, too) would be looking at a bill increase of $2.20 per month ($26.40/year) on sewer charges. The average user would be facing a bill increase of $7.70 per month ($92.40/year). Compared to a gas fuel charge increase of $60 a month, that's not bad, especially when you recall that in New Albany we would still be paying at rates well below market price.
Yes, the administration could be lying. Crowe Chizek could be lying. But the risk seems nominal, particularly if we never again have to dwell on excreta and its treatment as the primary focus of our government.
We are hopeful that bluegill will again demonstrate why EDIT taxes are a pandering fool's method for pretending to serve the people.
By the way...heard any complaints about garbage service lately?
Shall We Dance?
In New Albany's current longest-running melodrama, Gary "The Gary" McCartin returned once again to plead with the city council to overturn the recommendation of the Plan Commission and permit him to leverage a dime or two out of a piece of land on Charlestown Road across from the Kroger grocery and the Old Mill shopping complex.
By his own testimony, "The Gary" has taken ten bites of the apple on this development, which he hopes will be the start of his comeback after one or more of his ventures resorted to the protections of 11 U.S.C. It remains unanswered whether "The Gary" actually owns the parcel(s) under zoning review or if he merely holds an option that he intends to exercise when and if he is able to corral 5 votes from the New Albany City Council.
In a defensive, yet challenging 40-minute presentation, "The Gary" pleaded his case. The totally non-conflicted D5, Diane McCartin-Benedetti, engaged her sibling in a precious back and forth Q&A that warmed the cockles of everyone in the room who had cockles, whatever those are.
But the long, lingering kiss that was D5's interrogation was upstaged by the erotic dance staged by At-Large Council Member Jack Messer and the man who when called "arrogant" responded with the query, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"
Messer, whose clear intent was to find a win-win outcome, chose to speak publicly to "The Gary" in a way that was probably more appropriate for a private venue. Sensing an opportunity to score points, "The Gary" chose to whip-cast for trout, but the elusive Messer, pure in heart, simply continued to offer well-meant advice that would, presumably, allow "The Gary" to achieve his objective without creating another intransigent coterie of folks all too willing to tell you what they think of the Sprawlmeister.
So you think you can dance? I hear Brazil is lovely this time of year, and the Samba Endredo is pretty easy to learn.
By his own testimony, "The Gary" has taken ten bites of the apple on this development, which he hopes will be the start of his comeback after one or more of his ventures resorted to the protections of 11 U.S.C. It remains unanswered whether "The Gary" actually owns the parcel(s) under zoning review or if he merely holds an option that he intends to exercise when and if he is able to corral 5 votes from the New Albany City Council.
In a defensive, yet challenging 40-minute presentation, "The Gary" pleaded his case. The totally non-conflicted D5, Diane McCartin-Benedetti, engaged her sibling in a precious back and forth Q&A that warmed the cockles of everyone in the room who had cockles, whatever those are.
But the long, lingering kiss that was D5's interrogation was upstaged by the erotic dance staged by At-Large Council Member Jack Messer and the man who when called "arrogant" responded with the query, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"
Messer, whose clear intent was to find a win-win outcome, chose to speak publicly to "The Gary" in a way that was probably more appropriate for a private venue. Sensing an opportunity to score points, "The Gary" chose to whip-cast for trout, but the elusive Messer, pure in heart, simply continued to offer well-meant advice that would, presumably, allow "The Gary" to achieve his objective without creating another intransigent coterie of folks all too willing to tell you what they think of the Sprawlmeister.
So you think you can dance? I hear Brazil is lovely this time of year, and the Samba Endredo is pretty easy to learn.
Welcome to the 2008 Dummy Awards
The Grammy Awards honor the most outstanding music. The Emmy Awards spotlight the best in television. And Oscar stands proudly holding his sword when it comes time to recognize the best in movies.
The Razzies take another tack. They poke fun at the "worst" movies and performers, even if they are easy targets. The Darwin Awards honor those imbeciles who, through their actions, benefit humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool by killing themselves - in the most stupid of manners.
Welcome, then, to the nominating period for the New Albany Dummy Awards, or, The Dummies.
We acknowledge that one would have to a) be there, and b) have a pretty quick pen (or tape recorder) to participate in the nominations. But that doesn't prevent you from voting on the nominees.
The nominees from the June 2, 2008 showing of the New Albany Follies, otherwise known as the New Albany City Council:
A. In a screed urging the sewer board to put off the purchase of land for an expansion of the sewer treatment capacity of the city utility ($256K for 60 acres, btw): Why, in 20 years they'll probably have another way to dispose of waste. - Dan Coffey, D1
B. Demonstrating a remarkable lack of vision in supporting the illegal tabling of a declaratory resolution that would designate the New Albany Heritage Site called Loop Island as a targeted economic development area: Nobody in their right mind could vote to make Loop Island a[n economic development area] TIF district. - Dan Coffey, D1, making him a double nominee right out of the box. He seems to have lost the ability to throw his voice into D3.
C. Defending her ardent sponsorship and successful shepherding of a completely unenforceable "novelty lighter" ordinance: You should know that it was written by the city attorney, so if you have a problem with it, you should talk to him. - Diane McCartin-Benedetti, D5, failing to get the point that her ordinance alone earned her a Dummies nomination.
D. Losing control of his meeting to such an extent that the words "Dan's Butt Boy" were echoing around the room: "_______." - Jeff Gahan, D6, though failing to speak up when he should have has been appealed as outside the boundaries of the Dummy Awards guidelines*. The appeals committee will follow with a ruling, undoubtedly relying on written and lawfully passed rules.
*Dummy Awards are intended to grant appropriate recognition to the verbal utterances of actors and supporting actors appearing at least once in the awards year at a lawful gathering of the New Albany City Council or its committees. The awards committtee may, from time to time, authorize supplemental awards, including awards to qualified actors and supporting actors whose public utterances are otherwise captured for posterity. Nominations are accepted from the public when accompanied by appropriate verification. Dummy Awards have no cash value and may not be used in campaign literature without the express and written permission of NA Shadow Council.
The Razzies take another tack. They poke fun at the "worst" movies and performers, even if they are easy targets. The Darwin Awards honor those imbeciles who, through their actions, benefit humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool by killing themselves - in the most stupid of manners.
Welcome, then, to the nominating period for the New Albany Dummy Awards, or, The Dummies.
We acknowledge that one would have to a) be there, and b) have a pretty quick pen (or tape recorder) to participate in the nominations. But that doesn't prevent you from voting on the nominees.
The nominees from the June 2, 2008 showing of the New Albany Follies, otherwise known as the New Albany City Council:
A. In a screed urging the sewer board to put off the purchase of land for an expansion of the sewer treatment capacity of the city utility ($256K for 60 acres, btw): Why, in 20 years they'll probably have another way to dispose of waste. - Dan Coffey, D1
B. Demonstrating a remarkable lack of vision in supporting the illegal tabling of a declaratory resolution that would designate the New Albany Heritage Site called Loop Island as a targeted economic development area: Nobody in their right mind could vote to make Loop Island a[n economic development area] TIF district. - Dan Coffey, D1, making him a double nominee right out of the box. He seems to have lost the ability to throw his voice into D3.
C. Defending her ardent sponsorship and successful shepherding of a completely unenforceable "novelty lighter" ordinance: You should know that it was written by the city attorney, so if you have a problem with it, you should talk to him. - Diane McCartin-Benedetti, D5, failing to get the point that her ordinance alone earned her a Dummies nomination.
D. Losing control of his meeting to such an extent that the words "Dan's Butt Boy" were echoing around the room: "_______." - Jeff Gahan, D6, though failing to speak up when he should have has been appealed as outside the boundaries of the Dummy Awards guidelines*. The appeals committee will follow with a ruling, undoubtedly relying on written and lawfully passed rules.
*Dummy Awards are intended to grant appropriate recognition to the verbal utterances of actors and supporting actors appearing at least once in the awards year at a lawful gathering of the New Albany City Council or its committees. The awards committtee may, from time to time, authorize supplemental awards, including awards to qualified actors and supporting actors whose public utterances are otherwise captured for posterity. Nominations are accepted from the public when accompanied by appropriate verification. Dummy Awards have no cash value and may not be used in campaign literature without the express and written permission of NA Shadow Council.
Monday, June 2, 2008
What is the Plural of Doofus?
Monday Night at the Circus. This tears it.
What is the plural of doofus? Doofi? Doofae? Doofuses?
And who qualifies for that label? The buffoons parading their ignorance in the guise of democratic (and Democratic) government? Or the otherwise intelligent people who subject themselves to this farcical display?
Though we have ongoing differences with the Deputy Mayor, we have to say that he is earning every dime of his top-of-the-heap salary. Yes, a few uniformed officers take home more money, but Carl Malysz deserves the whole $85,000 budgeted for his position. But to know that, you kind of have to have been there on any of the several past meetings of the New Albany City Council.
Casting shade over the council, particularly over D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti, is our stated goal. And while some have dismissed us as exaggerators of the dismal state of representative government in New Albany, we have, in fact, been holding back substantially.
Frankly, it is foolish to continue to pretend that this council majority is not at war with all that is decent, holy, and right for New Albany. What little proof we have that some of these council members were elected with the help of, shall we say, the infirm, if not the deceased, is irrelevant. The task at election time is to save the city and it has become quite clear that the elections of last November did not do the trick.
So, we stop pretending. To treat with even minimum respect a council majority that despises everything we stand for is hypocrisy. Duty to posterity trumps any desire to be polite. So, from now on we call a fig a fig, and not a fruit-bearing and picturesque deciduous tree.
And boy, are these guys and gals dumb.
Not all of them, of course. Not all of the guys. But since all of them bear responsibility for council's errors and omissions, it's up to the not-dumb ones to eliminate or neutralize the influence of the dummies.
I will leave a little wiggle room. If they don't appreciate being called dumb, they can always adopt the other alternative --- evil...though one correspondent offers that possibility that they are both.
Whatever the label, there's no excuse for this degree of simpleness. And as time goes on, there will be no excuse for anyone to accept it as normative. Even in New Albany.
What is the plural of doofus? Doofi? Doofae? Doofuses?
And who qualifies for that label? The buffoons parading their ignorance in the guise of democratic (and Democratic) government? Or the otherwise intelligent people who subject themselves to this farcical display?
Though we have ongoing differences with the Deputy Mayor, we have to say that he is earning every dime of his top-of-the-heap salary. Yes, a few uniformed officers take home more money, but Carl Malysz deserves the whole $85,000 budgeted for his position. But to know that, you kind of have to have been there on any of the several past meetings of the New Albany City Council.
Casting shade over the council, particularly over D5 Diane McCartin-Benedetti, is our stated goal. And while some have dismissed us as exaggerators of the dismal state of representative government in New Albany, we have, in fact, been holding back substantially.
Frankly, it is foolish to continue to pretend that this council majority is not at war with all that is decent, holy, and right for New Albany. What little proof we have that some of these council members were elected with the help of, shall we say, the infirm, if not the deceased, is irrelevant. The task at election time is to save the city and it has become quite clear that the elections of last November did not do the trick.
So, we stop pretending. To treat with even minimum respect a council majority that despises everything we stand for is hypocrisy. Duty to posterity trumps any desire to be polite. So, from now on we call a fig a fig, and not a fruit-bearing and picturesque deciduous tree.
And boy, are these guys and gals dumb.
Not all of them, of course. Not all of the guys. But since all of them bear responsibility for council's errors and omissions, it's up to the not-dumb ones to eliminate or neutralize the influence of the dummies.
I will leave a little wiggle room. If they don't appreciate being called dumb, they can always adopt the other alternative --- evil...though one correspondent offers that possibility that they are both.
Whatever the label, there's no excuse for this degree of simpleness. And as time goes on, there will be no excuse for anyone to accept it as normative. Even in New Albany.
Sticking It Out
The remarkably literate James Fallows turns a nice phrase in the June Atlantic. Context, of course, is everything, but for those few who visit us, here are a few words of encouragement.
...we continually face a basic choice. Either we decide we can't stand the conditions, in which case we should leave...Or we decide that the openness, possibility, and importance of [this place] justify these and other discomforts, in which we should stop complaining, try to ignore what we don't like, and be grateful for the historic opportunity we have. We keep deciding to stay...
...we continually face a basic choice. Either we decide we can't stand the conditions, in which case we should leave...Or we decide that the openness, possibility, and importance of [this place] justify these and other discomforts, in which we should stop complaining, try to ignore what we don't like, and be grateful for the historic opportunity we have. We keep deciding to stay...
Inanities Abound Tonight
It ought to be a rollicking affair tonight with grandstanding galore.
We won't address the substance of two pieces of legislation before the council tonight, but we invite you to explore how inartfully they are drawn.
First up is Mr. Coffey's "resolution" to declare the blocks around his house as a permanent reserve for homeowners. Self-styled West Enders have held out gallantly ever since the Interstate highway condemnations separated them from downtown. The triangle of about 13 small blocks would, under this "resolution," be declared a no-man's land for business development. Take a look at the area on a satellite map below or at this link.
View Larger Map
But what is being presented as R-08-33 is a muddled petition, not a resolution, signed by 13 residents of the area to be preserved or hindered by a rezoning. It's doubtful anyone would object to a rezoning - except for those precise property owners now negotiating with a developer to sell their land for a mixed-use project that could well increase the value of the entire West End, enriching its residents and its property owners in more ways than one. But it would create, at least, a temporary impediment to one variety of "progress." I suppose a property owner could easily petition to have the zoning modified again by PUDD application, but this seems to be an awkward way to approach things. For your edification, here is the text of the agenda item:
After many years of rumor and confusion, the people living in said areas ask that a zoning change take place to protect our neighborhood. Boundaries are hereby described: West 4th Street west to west 10th Street and Falling Run Creek south to Main Street. This will not include the properties of: Main Street, or the properties between West 4th Street and West 5th Street. The new zoning will not affect existing businesses and allows their current zoning to be maintained. Proposed zoning will be RN1, Neighborhood Residential. This zoning is designated for higher-density single-family development and and two- family dwellings where approved through conditional use.
The signatures of 8 people are attached, including Mrs. Councilman Coffey, and five others have their names and addresses affixed.
Again, though there is no expectation that anyone will object tonight, it sure would be interesting to know what kinds of rumors and confusion prompted this eleventh-hour measure.
I'll let you read the "Novelty Lighter" ordinance for yourself. Mrs. McCartin-Benedetti has drafted/presented an more formal document, but it utterly fails as a piece of enforceable legislation. Once a citation is made under it, a first-year law student will be able to declaw the ordinance as it is currently written.
We won't address the substance of two pieces of legislation before the council tonight, but we invite you to explore how inartfully they are drawn.
First up is Mr. Coffey's "resolution" to declare the blocks around his house as a permanent reserve for homeowners. Self-styled West Enders have held out gallantly ever since the Interstate highway condemnations separated them from downtown. The triangle of about 13 small blocks would, under this "resolution," be declared a no-man's land for business development. Take a look at the area on a satellite map below or at this link.
View Larger Map
But what is being presented as R-08-33 is a muddled petition, not a resolution, signed by 13 residents of the area to be preserved or hindered by a rezoning. It's doubtful anyone would object to a rezoning - except for those precise property owners now negotiating with a developer to sell their land for a mixed-use project that could well increase the value of the entire West End, enriching its residents and its property owners in more ways than one. But it would create, at least, a temporary impediment to one variety of "progress." I suppose a property owner could easily petition to have the zoning modified again by PUDD application, but this seems to be an awkward way to approach things. For your edification, here is the text of the agenda item:
After many years of rumor and confusion, the people living in said areas ask that a zoning change take place to protect our neighborhood. Boundaries are hereby described: West 4th Street west to west 10th Street and Falling Run Creek south to Main Street. This will not include the properties of: Main Street, or the properties between West 4th Street and West 5th Street. The new zoning will not affect existing businesses and allows their current zoning to be maintained. Proposed zoning will be RN1, Neighborhood Residential. This zoning is designated for higher-density single-family development and and two- family dwellings where approved through conditional use.
The signatures of 8 people are attached, including Mrs. Councilman Coffey, and five others have their names and addresses affixed.
Again, though there is no expectation that anyone will object tonight, it sure would be interesting to know what kinds of rumors and confusion prompted this eleventh-hour measure.
I'll let you read the "Novelty Lighter" ordinance for yourself. Mrs. McCartin-Benedetti has drafted/presented an more formal document, but it utterly fails as a piece of enforceable legislation. Once a citation is made under it, a first-year law student will be able to declaw the ordinance as it is currently written.
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