When the Mayor's Away...

It didn't compare to the days of yesteryear, but the City Council put on one of its better shows to date on Thursday night.

In one instance, a divided council failed to settle a zoning matter of some importance, with the excuse given that the deadline for action remains more than 30 days off.

In another, the council declined to take up a $5,000 tax abatement for a regional company that is currently paying more than $10,000 in income taxes to Jeffersontown, Ky. and far more than $10,000 to Metro Louisville. This from a company with 100 employees (at least a fifth of whom are Floyd County residents) that promises to increase its payroll by another 20. Good jobs? It's reasonable to assume that these new employees alone would make at least $50,000 a year. Oh, and all they want is a $5,000 first-year abatement of taxes on an industrial park building that has been vacant for at least five years.

The most intriguing legislative action of the evening was the unanimous rubber-stamping of a Floyd County ordinance raising the annual restaurant permit fee. Even the smallest food service establishment (something like the breakfast bar at the Hampton Inn) would now be required to pay $125 each year to remain in business. Inspections that result in violations and that require repeat visits could cause those small establishments to be "fined" half of that again.

Consulting the 2002 economic census data, New Albany has about 140 establishments that you would ordinarily consider to be subject to health department food regulation. Restaurants, bars, convenience stores, groceries, bars, bakeries, confectionaries and ice cream shops that you and I would all want to be inspected. Then, of course, the Health Department has to guard us against food poisoning at fall's Harvest Homecoming! and similar temporary vending opportunities.

Like you, I suspect, I wondered why in the world the city council would even be addressing an ordinance regulating food services when it is a Floyd County Health Department function. A cursory investigation indicates that within the incorporated limits of New Albany, the city has exclusive and dominant jurisdiction unless it explicitly delegates it to the county. I can't verify that, but I have no reason to doubt that.

The city council rapidly ratified the county's new ordinance - unanimously and without debate. The Pride of the 3rd District indicated his wish that restaurant inspection fees be used to fund city mosquito abatement efforts. The health department majordomo replied that he wanted the city to pay for same. D4 added his two cents, making it clear that he wasn't going to be happy if the county health department didn't do something in his home district, and soon.

Shadow5's question is this: What in tarnation do restaurant permit fees have to do with skeeter abatement?

But more seriously, how does the health department justify imposing a minimum $125 annual fee for restaurant inspections. Fees should have a rational basis to the cost of the service rendered, a service rendered primarily to the public, but also to the dining establishments.

What I can't figure out is the rationality of this fee increase. Combined with a recent sales tax increase that is decimating our local economy, not to mention a property tax "relief" program that dumps the cost of government onto businesses at a ratio of three to one, it seems clear that Indiana, Floyd County, and New Albany are bound and determined to drive business away, making New Albany nothing more than a bedroom for a vital and growing Louisville.

If you guys want that, keep supporting current policies. Then see how easy it is to fight crime, pave the streets, and pick up the garbage on residential taxes alone. Spend your consumer taxes across the river, 'cuz the Mitch Daniels program is explicitly one that says to businesses, "Go away!"

Mr. Robert Caesar, tyro council member representing the 2nd District, had his finest moment in espousing his reasons for opposing the wrecking of the existing zoning along the light-industrial zone north of Mt. Tabor Road. His logical stance for maintaining the integrity of that zone, supported by the negative recommendation of the Plan Commission, carried the day, although a third reading on approval/denial of a PUD district remains on the docket.

THIS is what's so great about watching the sausage-making that is city government. Jack Messer (CM At-Large), a man for whom we have the greatest respect, has judged the current zoning to be unreasonable. Mr. Caesar, for whom we have held great hopes, believes otherwise. Dan Coffey, with whom we can reliably be counted on to disagree, actually deferred to the strong recommendation of city staff in voting to deny the rezoning. And D5, Diane McCartin-Benedetti, citing no rationale, said throw the zoning to the wind and let a struggling pawn shop set up on a backwater road a few hundred feet from appropriate commercially zoned land.

Mr. Price, the suspect D3, chairs the council committee on tax abatements (quelle surprise) and is blocking the tax abatement for "vacant" building purchases recently authorized by Indiana statute. Having learned that givebacks were legal, he instructed Deputy Mayor Carl Malysz to develop a full-blown program for "voluntary" contributions in exchange for abatements before the next council meeting (May 8? May 12?).

Mr. Malysz, as diplomatically as he could, said it was his greatest hope that such a feat were possible, and, dejectedly, sat down.

Will greed derail the recruitment of the employer of 100+ tradespeople?

The Future is Now

It has apparently become acceptable to treat politics as trivia, or its equivalent, sports. What a revolting development.

In sports it is reasonable to think that each team is giving its best, and that all the competitors are working toward a singular goal - victory. While we might be critical of a team's performance, or a single player's ability to execute the play, we never question their intention and desire to win.

In politics, it is a mistake to think that when issues and personalities clash, everyone is acting with the same basic set of good intentions.

And when a neighbor or relative tells us they simply don't care about sports, we rarely make an issue of it. As much as we might enjoy playing or watching amateur, college, or professional sports, we would never demand or expect that everyone share our enthusiasms.

Far too many of us treat government in the same way we treat sports. Too many of us consider politics and government as irrelevant to our lives in much the same way that curling or rugby are to the vast majority on this planet.

A friend of mine insists that a refusal to get involved in "politics" is both immoral and illogical. He says it's immoral to sit on the sidelines and watch while harm is done and illogical to blissfully pay taxes without demanding accountability and responsible government.

Cattle farmers rarely give money to PETA. 21st Century conservatives rarely donate to the ACLU. Jews don't support the Klan, and Tony Stewart fans don't buy Jeff Gordon merchandise.

So why do ordinarily sensible people abdicate their rights to self-government out of boredom or disgust while still sending in their tax payments?

The mission of this blog is to assert the lunacy of such a stance. Government, in particular city government, is not sports. It is not trivia. It is not a TV show. It is important and it is critical that we each become involved.

We are about to experience a city election that is shaping up to have the lowest level of participation in history. A good argument can be made that this is hunky-dory with the candidates. It certainly makes it easier to keep the good old boys club closed when most of the people couldn't care less who gets elected.

Over the next few years, in whatever small way we can rid New Albany of the attitude that politics is for "sleazy people," we will. By shadowing the votes of the incoming city council, we hope to demonstrate how "who" we elect affects our lives.

At a time when buffoons range all around us declaring that our property tax levies are too high - when those buffoons know that there is no objective reality to their claim - it is more important than ever to speak the truth. For so long as the buffoons believe they can get away with their diversionary and divisive untruths, we're in the drink. An educated voting public won't fall for such flim-flammery. It's our job to educate that voting public in time for the 2011 elections.

Don't give up on 2007. It will be important to elect the best in order to offset the damage we are sure to suffer during the next four years. We surely don't want to spend the better part of the next decade repairing that damage. Think of the few bright lights running for city council this year as our preventive maintenance. It will take a strong majority in 2011 to right the ship, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't recruit (elect) some people to keep bailing.