GIVE GAHAN A PINK SLIP: (Monday) No more fear, Jeff. This isn't East Germany, and you're not the Stasi.

Last week was so much fun, let's do it again.

As a run-up to Decision 2019, I'm headed back into the ON THE AVENUES archive for five straight days of devastatingly persuasive arguments against four more years of the Gahan Family Values™ Personality Cult.

I've already made the case for Mark Seabrook as mayor. Now let's return to the voluminous case against Gahanism in five informative and entertaining installments -- at least until next week, when I may decide to do it all again. Heaven knows we have enough material. Following are last week's hammer blows.

GIVE GAHAN THE BOOT: (Monday) The Reisz Mahal luxury city hall, perhaps the signature Gahan boondoggle.

GIVE GAHAN THE BOOT: (Tuesday) Gahan the faux historic preservationist demolishes the historic structure -- with abundant malice.

GIVE GAHAN THE BOOT: (Wednesday) The shopping cart mayor's cartoonish veneer of a personality cult. Where do we tithe, Leader Dearest?

GIVE GAHAN THE BOOT: (Thursday) That Jeff Gahan has elevated people like David Duggins to positions of authority is reason enough to vote against the Genius of the Floodplain.

GIVE GAHAN THE BOOT: (Friday) Slick Jeffie's hoarding of power and money is a very real threat to New Albany's future.


Jeff Gahan's carefully crafted image as avuncular civic cheerleader is flatly contradicted by a legendarily foul behind-the-scenes temperament. Evidence of this has been cited so often by victims and observers that we needn't waste time citing line by line examples apart from pointing to his abuse of the discussion format at the League of Women Voters' sham election forum in September. 

While it's true that believing you're Walt Disney one moment and Don Corleone the next is solid evidence of a personality disorder, ultimately this is of less significance than the example Gahan's behavior sets for his sycophants and underlings, as when David Duggins threatened to turn a taser on a public housing resident and explained it as a hilarious joke.

Gahan's obsession with campaign finance has greased the skids for a political culture of corruption, and his root instinct to abuse and bully those who can't quite grasp his singular brilliance ups the ante by adding a layer of intimidation that we simply shouldn't tolerate from our elected officials.

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ON THE AVENUES: No more fear, Jeff.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

2018 introduction:

I'm on vacation, and this is a rerun from 10/01/2015. At the time, I was in the midst of an unsuccessful run for mayor as an independent candidate. 

The column is about intimidation; 28 months later, give or take a public housing putsch, Team Gahan was at it again when interim bulldozer mechanic David Duggins threatened a public housing resident with being tasered. 

The reason why the same old suspects persist with intimidation? It parallels your dog's decision to lick his nuts: because he can, there are no consequences, and it feels so good. 

Fortunately, there is a cure called the "ballot box": #Fire Gahan2019 

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2015 original

“I talked to a downtown business owner. He’d put a Zurschmiede sign in his window, and (a city employee) came in and said it was frowned on. He didn’t know what that meant, so he took it down”

“I was sitting there minding my own business, and here comes (a mayor-appointed board member). He looked at me and said, ‘Jeff Gahan is the best mayor we’ve ever had.’ What was I supposed to say?”

“(The council member) ran inside and started yelling at my employees about my Baylor yard sign. He said he was a city employee, but we wouldn’t identify himself.”

“So I called down there (city offices) to see if they planned on doing anything about the trash piling up in the alley behind my neighbor’s slum, and they patched me to (high-ranking official). The first thing he said to me was where do I get off asking for favors with a Zurschmiede sign on my property?”

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There was a novel feature of the Leadership Southern Indiana debate on Tuesday, which should have been a threesome, but was missing a sitting mayor.

Each of us was asked to provide a question to be asked of the others. With Jeff Gahan absent, this meant Kevin Zurschmiede and I questioned each other. He asked me about my depth of feeling about two-way streets, and I explained in detail.

I asked him whether he’d support local ordinances against human trafficking, and he fielded the question positively and flawlessly, indicating that he grasps important contemporary issues.

Leadership Southern Indiana might not have allowed the question I’d have asked to Gahan, had he bothered attending.

Jeff, why are so many ordinary people in our community afraid to differ openly with you?

I can almost hear the answer.

That’s a cheap shot, because every single person I’ve talked to in this city supports the water park – and if you’re not one of them, expect an angry phone call very late at night.

Yes, this is the state of New Albany’s ongoing degeneration.

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Seeing as it’s my lot in life to say aloud what others are thinking, here it is.

During the time I’ve been paying attention to the local scene, there simply has not been any point of comparison with the atmosphere today in terms of retribution, intimidation and implied vengeance.

For those in support of the opposition, the consistent message is there’ll be hell to pay if the incumbent loses his bid for re-election.

My calls for UN election monitors and assistance from the Jimmy Carter Center are only partly in jest, because the situation is getting increasingly tense as voting draws near.

Consider the experience of Indie Fest. Last Sunday’s fourth edition was a success, with over 2,000 attendees, but it almost didn’t happen.

Earlier this year, city officials approached Indie Fest organizer Marcey Wisman-Bennett and asked her to consider shifting Indie Fest to Labor Day weekend, so as to provide a September bookend (with Boomtown Ball in May) to the summer concert series at Bicentennial Park. She also was asked to move the event to the Riverfront Amphitheater. She agreed.

Shortly thereafter, I announced my intent to gather signatures for mayoral ballot access as an independent, and Marcey agreed to be my committee chairwoman. On the day the papers were filed, she and I decided to have a coffee at Quills, and by the time we walked there from the county clerk’s office, she’d already been texted by a city higher-up expressing disdain for my candidacy, and her involvement with it.

You have three guesses as to what happened after that – and the first two don’t count.

A City Hall once nominally supportive of independent local businesses completely disappeared from view. The mayor’s handpicked Board of Works fiddled and dithered with non-information about the amphitheater’s availability, before finally denying the Labor Day weekend date previously requested by City Hall itself … because someone already had booked it.

Marcey was left to dangle for weeks, and finally gave up trying. She turned briefly to the county, which characteristically was of no help. Almost at the last possible moment, the Carter brothers, developers of Underground Station, stepped forward and took it upon themselves to approach the city and tie Indie Fest to their own plans for a grand opening weekend.

Presumably the city, having done almost nothing to assist the Carters with their project, was in a giving mood.

The many delays and obfuscations crippled Marcey’s fundraising efforts, and several former donors hinted that behind-the-scenes pressure was being exerted on them to not be seen supporting Indie Fest this year.

The story I’m telling is no secret, and it isn’t supposed to be.

Politically motivated strong-arming is a public function, not a private one, because the object is for others to see it taking place, and to learn the "proper" lesson that their own independence will be greeted in similar, heavy-handed fashion.

It’s abhorrent, and yet it’s happening. Worse yet, more than a few Democratic Party stalwarts are abetting the ugliness by refusing to face it head on.

Somehow this reminds me that the first annual meeting of Southern Indiana Equality is tonight. In the context of this meeting, human rights and Team Gahan’s incessant bullying, here’s a quote of significance from the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

“Free expression is the base of human rights, the root of human nature and the mother of truth. To kill free speech is to insult human rights, to stifle human nature and to suppress truth.”

That silence you hear?

It’s becoming deafening.

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Free speech seems a particular irritant to Gahan and the Democratic Party, especially as it pertains to social media. In the marketplace of ideas, they’ve almost never replied to questions by facilitating dialogue, as this would constitute two-way communications, and as such, veer uncomfortably close to an admission of intent to listen.

Rather, their chosen mode of communication most often involves systematically blocking it. On social media, I've been unfriended by several Democrats, and blocked by two Democratic agitprop groups, as well as by the mayor's campaign, his personal page and his wife's.

Consequently, I close today by concurring with this important point made on Facebook by my friend Mark Cassidy.

I just want to let the Floyd County Democratic Party, Jeff Gahan, and anyone else for that matter, know that you are more than welcome to post on my timeline, respond to any comment that I may make, engage in a discussion, etc., all without fear of being blocked by me. I have no fear of the free exchange of thoughts, ideas, plans, needs, wants, desires ...

I’ve been to places where fear was a daily consideration, but New Albany isn’t East Germany, and we can do better than this.

ON THE AVENUES: Unless you open your eyes, “resistance” is an empty gesture.

“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

British politician Winston Churchill and economist John Maynard Keynes both have been credited with this phrase or variants of it, although their attribution does not survive scrutiny. Probably it dates to a 1970 interview with an economist named Paul Samuelson, who may or may not have thought he was quoting Keynes:

Well when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?

Rest easy, dear reader. I’m not about to endorse Slick Jeffie for a third term. Actually the phrase came to mind this morning when I caught myself saying, “Well, I used to think that … “

There’s no need to complete the sentence because I say it at least once daily, as pertaining to a wide range of topics. It fits nicely with “there was a time when” and “I was absolutely clueless back then,” emphasizing a never-ending learning curve as a planetary inhabitant.

I suspect the vast majority of human beings are readily capable of acknowledging the need to adjust their thinking to changing circumstances, so long as doing so constitutes perceived material benefit. If not, millions of smart phones would be packed away in Asian warehouses, untouched. Doctors would be treating broken legs with leeches, and instant Ramen noodles might never have been invented.

However far fewer are willing to hold the same yardstick to what they’d undoubtedly refer to as their core “beliefs.” This word alone should tell us something.

Tangible, tactile reality is infinitely swappable, whether mutating from horse-drawn carts to automobiles or insipid Lite beer to an inspired Bavarian Kellerbier. Those only vaguely verifiable (if at all) “beliefs” are tantamount to the enduring human stain, as writer Philip Roth tagged it. Religion, race relations, the role of the sexes; occasionally we’ll permit experiential evidence to erode our pre-conceived notions, but far less often than we “upgrade” our redundant devices for communicating – ironically, a task that renders us increasingly isolated from human all direct contact.

Rock music radio commentator Eddie Trunk was talking about this a few days ago in response to a question about the future of rock as we know it. Trunk offered pros and cons in response, and in my view he correctly identified the digitalization of music in the internet era as a double-edged sword.

It makes all music available at any time, thus theoretically broadening exposure to different types of music and educating listeners about it. Maybe they’ll stop listening to hip hop after hearing Ten Years After or Ratt – or so this notion goes.

At the same time, according to Trunk, the digital revolution has deprived listeners of the joy of waiting anxiously for new music to be released, then rushing to the mall (his reference) to be the first in line for an album or CD, before hurrying back home with friends to crack the cellophane and listen while enjoying a microwaved pizza roll.

Trunk previously has lamented the evolution of outdoor music fests, observing that young attendees seldom are riveted to the music; instead, they’re wandering the grounds consuming gourmet food, craft cocktails and multimedia experiences – if not spending every moment documenting the scene for “live” transmission.

Why don’t they care about the music? I’d say they do, albeit in a different way than during my own youth. The problem is that no one these days wants to pay for it (see journalism, death of), including me, even though I know better.

It occurs to me that while Trunk’s perspective is as dated as my own (he’s in his early 50s), he’s also missing the central element that ties together his case: the communal joy of pre-digital listening.

For better or worse, rock and roll -- the post-WWII cultural phenomenon that morphed into the voice of the Vietnam and Cold War generations worldwide --- became the musical equivalent of a mass political rally, perhaps reaching its apogee in 1985 with the global transmission of Live Aid by means of just then emerging satellite technology.

It is said Freddie Mercury was reluctant for Queen to appear until Bob Geldof reminded the singer that the gig was what he’d always sought: the whole world as attentive audience.

So it was, and one’s like or dislike of Queen aside, Live Aid made possible the band’s subsequent career, before and after Mercury’s untimely death in 1991. By then the baby boomers were well along their way toward rejecting the political and economic lessons of the 1960s, maintaining cultural bona fides with an attachment to increasingly corporate rock while otherwise subscribing to fascism, or Live Aid with swastikas.

But I digress.

All of Trunk’s lamentations point to the same phenomenon, beginning in the 1990s with the availability of home computers and expanding exponentially in the 2000s with smart phones and the like: Progress is isolating us from the communal, shrinking our sense of the collective, and diminishing human contact.

It’s an isolation born of the digital revolution, but it is sadly abetted each time an angry white male (and yes, that’s what they tend to be) sprays a crowd with gunfire. Of course your fear of shooters, Muslims, diseases, dark people and gays cannot be completely dispelled in the comfort and safety of your home, where statistically most accidents continue to happen, with or without purposefully discharged weapons.

Rather, we seek to be reinforced by those of like mind, which in turn means cocooning with Netflix and the Imbecile Supremacy Channel of the moment, handily closing ourselves off from facts capable of changing our minds.

As for me, well, when the facts change, I change my mind.

What do you do?

---

It shocked me at first that Donald Trump had been elected president, although in time the accumulated evidence convinced me to change my mind because Trumpism is not shocking at all. It isn’t an exception, a mutation or an aberration.

Trump as a poster child for capital accumulation, and consequently as the best available conduit for every evasive maneuver in history deployed by the oligarchy to maintain its pre-eminence, is in fact the fruition of American history to the present age, a sum total of founding hypocrisies about race, money and power, as supported full-throat by the GOP, the political party singularly better suited to elites, and only nominally “opposed” by the second of two monopolist political parties, which suckles the very same teats but has grown damningly adept at pretending it doesn’t.

It sucks, and loudly, yet it’s exactly who and what we are.

This brings me to the notion of “resistance,” a word I’ve heard less often as Trumpism has become normalized – and don’t kid yourselves; it has.

To repeat, Trumpism is a natural consequence of our survival-of-the-fittest variant of capitalism. You see, one needn’t have studied botany to know that tomato seeds seldom produce asparagus. Systemic conditions presupposing the manifestations to which one objects cannot logically be altered by any single presidential election cycle.

Most of us, myself ruefully included, have spent the past few decades accepting a default way of living which supports the superstructure of oppression with virtually every transaction. How exactly does one resist a system while continuing to live according to the system’s dictates – with which we otherwise remain in full cooperation?

If you’re in full cooperation with the purely intentional exploitation engendered by robber baron capitalism in its current form, exactly how can you resist it?

You’re accepting and opposing at the same time, but your compromises invariably result in acceptance, not resistance. So, while you’re prattling about your rights, perhaps it might be time to pause and consider whether Americans possess an inalienable right to be entertained around the clock to the exclusion of consciousness about the real nature of things outside, beyond reach of your streaming device?

“Trumps sucks! Oh, by the way, I’ll be holed up for the next 18 hours gaming, screwing and binge-watching pure fiction, and I simply can’t make time to toss a Molotov cocktail at yonder one-percenter.”

Please.

In many places and at various times in history, those undertaking to resist, dissent or rebel have gone into the fight with a clear understanding of the sacrifice involved – often although not always the “supreme” sacrifice, but at the very least grasping the potential price of non-conformity. They’d be giving up comfort, security and much else in order to bring about necessary change and secure a future for their kids.

Returning to social media to make yet another slam-dunk of a riposte visible only to the denizens of our hand-elected silo didn’t free the slaves or bring down the Berlin Wall, yet for today’s “resistance” it’s the risk-free strategy for … what?

You can color me skeptical.

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Here in New Albany our self-styled local “progressives” surrendered any notion of “resistance” to The Donald when they refused to acknowledge that one of their own is just as capable of being foul as one of “theirs.”

Local “progressives” surrendered the moral high ground as fast as their minivans would carry them by refusing to get involved in Jeff Gahan’s public housing takeover … and David Duggins giggling about TASER jokes … and more recently, the demolition of the homeless camp by Silver Creek as ephemeral beautification projects everywhere are endowed with fat cat funding … and yet again by looking the other way at Gahan’s cash-stuffed political patronage machine … and seriously, the list of Dear Leader’s undemocratic transgressions stretches from Rustic Frog to the loading docks at Mejier’s, and while just about every component of Gahan’s reign has included set pieces borrowed from right-wingers, these so-called “progressive” Democrats can’t move themselves an inch to see how ridiculously little their snarling darling has done when it comes to supposedly core Democratic platform values like seeing to the betterment of the community’s most vulnerable citizens.

Of course, these purportedly “Democratic” platform planks guaranteeing the right to luxury are tethered just as tightly to moneyed elites as the GOP’s. At the end of the day I suppose the cognitive dissonance is just too much for otherwise well-meaning folks who have no intention of negotiating their privileges, irrespective of imagined party affiliation, because after all, the two aisles share common roots by regarding as inevitability of the well-off confiscating value from the underprivileged (capitalism) rather than the other way around (socialism).

As a wee lad, I bought into the bilge. I’ve been changing my mind ever since, not because the facts have changed all that much, but because eyes wide open are capable of seeing far more than when they're glued shut.

Consequently, when it comes to the approaching round of municipal elections, I'll be voting for ... nah, let's wait another week or two for that.

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Recent columns:

August 1: ON THE AVENUES: The whys and wherefores can drive a man to drink; our lives just ARE, and that's that.

July 25: ON THE AVENUES: Until philosophers become kings, beer and food work just fine.

July 18: ON THE AVENUES: I'm a citizen of the universe, but I can't take a photo to save my life.

July 11: ON THE AVENUES: Trieste, New Albany and the meaning of nowhere.

Hospitality biz scores big in NA Confidential's Top Ten list of articles in May

Thanks for reading NA Confidential, where we enjoy reconnoitering the neglected periphery for uniquely local perspectives on life in New Albany.

Well, someone has to at least try doing it -- or we can grow old and gray waiting for the Jeffersonville News and Tom May's 'Bune to belatedly rediscover the journalistic imperative to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

As always, the previous month's most-viewed list begins with ten "honorable mention" posts, before concluding with the Top Ten, escalating to No. 1.

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MAY HONORABLE MENTION (10)

#20

Cars FAST, speed testing slooooow as Deaf Gahan looks forward to the year 2026 for traffic calming measures downtown.

It took six months for HWC Engineering's deliberate abacus to register sufficient "results" which may or may not correspond with what we see with our own two eyes each day.

These "results" now will be compared to precinct vote totals to ensure Jeff Gahan's dwindling support isn't compromised by drivers infuriated at a two-minute delay to cross town.

But even as we speak, the speed pandering test has being shifted to Market and Elm Streets.

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#19

Deaf Gahan somehow finds fresh, creative ways to insult Mt. Tabor Road residents.

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#18

ON THE AVENUES: Where do we go from here?

One Gahan functionary, evidently disturbed by the imminent prospect of a job loss, happily took to Facebook to celebrate, crediting God herself for preserving pay-to-play patronage in our fair town.

It would have been the ideal occasion for a gospel choir "come-to-Duggins" moment, except that during Gahan’s 16-year career of mind-numbing mediocrity he’s done almost nothing to empower minority rights and advancement in this city.

“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”?

Perhaps, but for now Deaf is most fond of “Disneyland Uber Alles.”

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#17

Jeff Gahan's slick newspaper ad claims the city profits from River Run waterpark. If so, why won't he show us the financials so we can see for ourselves?

Here's the text of the ad. Note that during the River Run waterpark's four previous years of operation, financials have yet to be released in spite of numerous requests to view them. These would address profit-and-loss realities. Wouldn't YOU like to know how much money the fire department transfers monthly to the parks department as "rent" for its station on Daisy Lane, such to (maybe) balance the books?

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#16

ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Our great and noble leader soon will be going away, so let's break out the țuică and make a joyful noise.

The following column was written in 2017 and repeated in 2018. In the year since then, the anchor-laden civic idiocy has continued to proliferate.

We've witnessed the final Reisz Mahal luxury city hall fix, the death of a skateboarder on uncalmed city streets, a planned sixty-mile recreational trail to nowhere, David Duggins' piece-by-piece dismantlement of Riverview Tower, the Colonial Manor public relations catastrophe and Jeff Gahan on the verge of $500,000 in career earnings from pay-to-play political patronage.

NA Confidential has documented Gahan's bullying of a street department worker and a policeman, and we've watched with dismay as the News and Tribune continues to duck, cover and abdicate its responsibility to cover news in New Albany.

There've been Kool-Aid blackouts and loaded Rice Krispies Treats freakouts, and all the while the insider Democrats keep doubling down on Dear Leader -- and why not? They're at the apex of a cliquish and privileged pyramid looking down at the people they're supposed to be serving, but have been too busy implementing Gahan's luxury enhancement program to give a damn.

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#15

In truth, Team Gahan's politically-motivated ineptitude produced its Colonial Manor fiasco -- but neighborhood activists continue "moving forward."

Because the forever smug Team Gahan's "process" at Colonial Manor was strictly reactive, with election year political imperatives hastily brought to fruition in order to check the mortal threat of citizen participation, Redevelopment's proposed purchase price for the Colonial Manor property was higher then the appraisals, legally necessitating the council vote.

As Josh Turner points out, had City Hall taken the time to finesse the price, Redevelopment already would be planning the mixed use development with its chosen no-bid, professionally contracted architects, engineers and consultants, all of whom are eager to tithe to the closed circle of pay-to-play patronage.

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#14

Steve Burks is the new Floyd County coroner.

Congratulations to Steve Burks for winning the caucus; if Steve is reading, perhaps once he's settled into the position we can chat more about what a coroner does and I'll explain it here.

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#13

The old becomes new: Boomtown Kitchen will replace Cox's -- and a glimpse of Floyd County Brewing's new beer garden.

Boomtown Kitchen is the very same "juicy" rumor I heard from the start, but hell, let's let the newspaper have this one. It's a "new concept" from people with restaurant experience; not to nitpick, but the former name of the Barrelhouse in Jeffersonville was Levee, not Levy.

By the way: Levy Pants was Ignatius' sadsack employer in the comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces.

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#12

ON THE AVENUES: Challenges are forever, but downtown New Albany's food and drink purveyors keep on keeping on.

Concurrently an overview of social media comments, taken in aggregate, suggest that very few of us know how the restaurant business actually works or understand the multi-dimensional dynamic of a (presumably) free market.

But let’s not blame the Internet for this one. Do you think it’s a coincidence that Richard Nixon resigned at roughly the same time Burger King started saying this?

Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders, don't upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way.

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#11

R.I.P. Richard Lang, a.k.a. Rick, Big Dick Lang and Biggus Dickus. Goodbye, Biggus.

Barrie Ottersbach texted me earlier today with the sad news: At around 1:00 p.m. on May Day, his friend and in-law Richard Lang at last found the Perfect Pint.

Rick passed away after a fight against lung cancer. He was a military veteran, a postal service employee, a serial raconteur, one of the seven original founders of the FOSSILS homebrewing club, longtime patron of the Public House and part of the first tour group I ever "led" in Europe, the Doppelbock Viscosity Tour in March of 1995.

MAY TOP 10

#10

A good deal at Mirin New Albany THIS WEEK.

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#9

Low standards in high places, or the way Democrats avoid talking about the excessive costs of Gahanism.

Yes, a strong case can be made that a public official pulling down $125k sans requisite qualifications, driving with expired tags and making excuses for impaired driving, probably should be held to a higher standard.

It must start at the top.

By all rights such standards should emanate from Mayor Jeff Gahan, but we all know they haven't. From the murky ethics of pay-to-play political patronage to nepotism, from board-packing to a steadfast refusal to hold his underlings accountable for their snark (TASER jokes, anyone?), Gahan has abdicated his responsibility to maintain high standards.

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#8

The New Albany branch of Cox's Hot Chicken is no more.

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#7

The former Gospel Bird space on Main Street will house a new eatery called NA Standard.

Always keep your eyes on the Alcohol & Tobacco Commission's local board information page. It's a valuable source of information, revealing that the new occupant of the former Gospel Bird space is to be called NA Standard. Further research indicates it will be operated by local food and drink business veterans, which is very good news.

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#6

River City Winery news flash: "We're selling our Pearl Street properties."

RCW: We're selling our Pearl Street properties! Serious inquiries only. Message us!

Reader: New location?

River City Winery: We're currently looking at several locations.

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#5

A message from David White.

"From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank all the citizens who participated in the greatest democracy on earth to let their voices be heard on May 7. I'm confident even in our loss that your voices were heard and I was humbled and honored to be your messenger."

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#4

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: No one asked me, so here's what should happen next at the former Bank Street Brewhouse.

After ten years in business the New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse is closing at the end of May. NABC leaves 415 Bank Street considerably better than the company found it when Resch Construction began the building's renovation in 2008.

What's done is done, so let's focus on the future. The sisters and building owner Steve Resch say they'd like to treat the vacated space as a unit, to be taken over as a turnkey.

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#3

NABC "winding down" brewing at Bank Street Brewhouse, and Taco Steve "hanging up his apron."

"We’re winding down our brewing schedule over the next couple months & bowing out of distribution. This, unfortunately, means leaving downtown New Albany too where we've been for over a decade."

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#2

Just another driver "flipping" over the beauty of the East Main Street Project median.

#1 (on Facebook)
I rarely use Facebook for stand-alone posts. They're almost always links to the blog. However on the day Cox's Hot Chicken closed there was no time to blog, so I posted a photo using my iPhone. It proved to be the closest thing to viral we've seen in a while.

In which Deaf Gahan asks: “Okay, what’s the ISSUE with Riverview? Do you KNOW people who live over there? I mean, WHY are we talking about Riverview?”

On April 2 a "handful" of Mark Elrod Tower residents (the mayor's words, not ours) witnessed a full-throttle City Hall team in glorious campaign mode. Mayor Gahan, Gauleiter Duggins and BOWhisperer Nash each spoke.

For this final excerpt, comprising roughly the first ten minutes of the "presentation," it's a shame the audio isn't available. I've taken the liberty of underlining those passages in which Gahan's and Duggins' tone of voice changes markedly, from talking to (not "with") an audience of seniors as though they were schoolchildren, to brief snippets of a defensive, almost menacing edge. 

Here is the extended excerpt. I went over it a second time for accuracy and made a few light edits to the passage previously published here. Thanks to the Green Mouse for uncovering this gem.

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(David Duggins is speaking as the recording begins)

Duggins: “I just learned we’ve got maybe a squirrel issue, which we’ll be working on some squirrel issues here. We’ll get that taken care of, too.”

(nervous laughter)

Duggins: “If there’s anything you need always get with Steve or Sue, and I’m happy to help anytime I can. I’d like introduce my good friend, Mayor Jeff Gahan. Thank you.”

Gahan: (giggling) “That’s a good sign, right? Hey, listen, uh, thanks for taking time out, and thanks, uh, for giving me a minute tonight. I certainly appreciate it, uh, I do want to acknowledge the work that everybody does here at New Albany Housing Authority because it’s really a serious group of people. I know you see Dave, you see some of these folks, they got a smile on their face, and they’re kinda cutting up some times, right? But, but you know, they’re real serious about their job, they’re real serious about making all the properties in the New Albany Housing Authority, you know, top flight. And, uh, top, they want to make sure they’re all well maintained, and, uh, the accommodations are the best that we can offer. And it’s really a challenge nowadays, uh, and I’ll tell you why, because okay in the city of New Albany we have 1,187 units, and for many years you had to go through this period where at the federal government they were kind of turning the screws and they weren’t putting the maintenance money that they needed to maintain the properties down here, so, we knew we needed some maintenance done but it didn’t really get down here like we wanted it to, and that trend is continuing, uh, the latest budget they’re pushing for has a 16% reduction in funds for housing and urban development. So we’re still committed to making this, everything, every unit, the top flight, and we’re going to continue to do that, and I can tell you that’s going to happen, uh, we’re taking every step that we can possibly make to make sure that every unit is as good as it can possibly be. And uh you’ve seen a little bit of changes around here, Dave’s done a great job, and changed some things, but soon you’ll see even more, you’ll see additional, we’re taking steps right now to acquire additional properties throughout the city, to build new ones, we’re taking steps right now to make sure that, uh, each one of the units have been inspected, you’ve probably seen people coming and going, making sure that we have a good idea of what the condition of every one of the properties is. And we’re going to take steps to improve them. David Duggins, again, he worked for the city in re-, in economic redevelopment before he came here, so he knows what it takes to take dollars and put them into service, take dollars and turn them into improvements for everybody. And that’s what we’re going to do, that’s the course we’re on for the next five or six years, you’ll see really, really cool improvements in the housing in New Albany and Jeff. You have a really great place, this happens to be the best facility we have, uh, we have some of them that are in terrible condition, they’re terrible, and, uh, but we’re taking steps and making plans to improve those as well. So I’m excited about it, it’s a really great opportunity for us to show how we can make something that’s very much needed, housing is very, very needed, uh, across the board where, uh, there’s a shortage of housing at all levels, uh, at all income levels we’re short houses, we’re short housing, and, uh, we’re committed to improve the housing stock all over the city and make better opportunities for people to live here, and afford to live here, so, uh, in addition to that you’ll see the mission of the housing authority is expanding, which I think is really cool. Uh, we’ve, we’ve taken steps to improve the health, and we’ll be announcing some facilities that will improve, have opportunities for you folks to go to, to have check-ups and their, your teeth looked at, uh, which I think is very exciting – we haven’t had that, but you’ll see that soon. You’ll also see, if you haven’t already seen, additional police presence on campus, more police, more security, more cameras, all right, so a whole lot of really cool things are going on, and uh, again – again we’ll just be expanding services in general, so I’m excited about it, and uh, I wanted to come in and say hi, so if you’ve got any questions, I’m sure you have questions and I’d like to answer them.”

Resident: “I want to know why you’re buying more property for parking when you’re going to tear down Riverview. The newspaper states that you’re putting in more parking for Riverview residents, but yet you’re moving Riverview residents out and you’re going to tear down the building.”

(Duggins quickly intervenes in a question intended for Gahan)

Duggins: “Well, none of that’s been released, it said in the paper we had the opportunity to buy an eyesore, and one of the proper uses for that is parking for that area. We do have a parking issue in that entire area, when we have anything that goes on at Riverview Tower we have to move folks out, we have to close those two spots out front, so any work, when we have electricians and all that, and when that eyesore became available to be purchased, which the city had targeted that for a long time, we purchased it, and that is why we’re doing it. We have not made formal – we have just finished with the negotiations for the insurance on Riverview Tower and this is Mark Elrod Tower, there’s a difference in the type of age of people that live on this side and the quality of the units of this apartment complex compared to Riverview Tower, so when we purchased that, that is available, be available, there are environmental issues and a big creek that runs through there, we’ll be tearing the building down there and looking for that, but yes, property, property purchased for the expansion of parking.”

Resident: "Okay, but you are going to tear down Riverview?"

(Both Gahan and Duggins can be heard murmuring amid the muddle; Duggins can be heard condescendingly saying “not tearing down buildings.” The questioner, perhaps fearing a Taser "joke," says “Okay, alright, I just want to get clear in my mind.”)

Gahan: “Okay, what’s the issue with Riverview? Do you know people who live over there? I mean, why are we talking about Riverview?”

Resident: "Because they’re all moving into here – no, it’s not I’m concerned that they’re moving in here, but you’re moving those people … the people from Riverview are being moved out."

Duggins: “No, that’s not true. We haven’t moved anyone out. There are eleven, eleven vacancies here now, and the people at Riverview have first opportunity to come here because we are holding vacancies there because we have an electrical issue, so when we have vacancies here and if they qualify by their age, uh, which there is a different age requirement for living here, then they are welcome to move here just like you were welcome to move here, and that’s what we’re doing – there are 11 vacancies as of last – I looked it up – last Wednesday and we’re trying to fill them, and the folks at Riverview have the opportunity to move over here, and they’ll continue to have the opportunity.”

Resident: "Before other residents within in the city?"

Duggins: “Yes because they’re in public housing, public housing.”

Gahan: “Yeah, I don’t think, I don’t think you have to be worried about anything, uh, that’s going to crowd you, if that’s what your concern is, I mean I don’t think you have to worry about that. We have 1,187 units, which is more than anyone in Clark County, any five counties combined, we have more than anyone, and we’re going to keep – that’s the way it’s going to stay, with more opportunities to live here in New Albany than any other place, but what we won’t put up with is sub-standard housing. It’s not, we’re going to make it better, make improvements, and you know I, I feel great about it, and you all should be too – I think you all should be really thrilled about it, because yeah, at the end of the day, you know, with folks out in Seattle, that, there, they can make you know 150,000 dollars a year, 200,000 dollars and they don’t have a place to live, because houses have gotten too expensive for people to live in! And that’s the way it is. And that’s what we’re going to do …

(Resident interjects, "That’s Seattle, that’s not New Albany.")

… here, we’re going to do everything, everything to make this a better place, but you have to be right now, you’re feeling super, because this is the best that the city has right here."

(garbled question: will you build another high rise?)

Gahan: “I don’t know if it’s going to be a high rise, I mean that’s something for the New Albany Housing director, the board to discuss, but I don’t know if it would be a high rise, because it’s kind of difficult, for, you know, seniors to get up and down a tower – but additional housing, additional housing, additional, uh, housing, absolutely, it may not be a tower, but you know, it’s – you know, right, don’t need to tell you, it’s hard to get up and down.

(Resident whispers, "I know")

Gahan: “So anyway, so I know those things, uh, you know we’ve made some changes and when you make changes you make people a little nervous, and I don’t blame ya! I’m the same way, uh, I can just tell you we have some really solid plans that we’re working on now to improve the residents, the residence halls for everyone, and uh, these things don’t happen overnight, everything we do has to be approved at the state level and at the federal level, it’s not like I can just come in here and Dave come in here or the board come in here and make all these changes, these wholesale changes, it doesn’t work that way. It has to be approved all the way up the line and then back, and it includes lots of layers of bureaucracy that we have to deal with, so you know there’ll be no changes overnight, but I have people say, when’s it going to happen? Well, each box has to be checked. But first thing we had to do when Dave came over here was to make sure he understood the condition of each unit. Hell, it’d been years since people had even walked in and knew exactly what was going on in those units. First thing he did was inspect them all. Every one. Every single one. Dave did that. So now we have an idea of what the condition of each unit is, that’s the starting point, and I have to tell ya, it wasn’t really great news. Some were in pretty rough shape – these aren’t, these are super …

(resident heard scoffing)

… but if you ever had the chance to go see some of the others … right? So I want you to feel good about it, I feel good about it, I feel really great about the future of the New Albany Housing Authority, it has some great leadership there, got a great board, got a great leader in Dave, got committed staff, committed maintenance, and it’s a big part of New Albany, and it’s going to stay that way. Okay? So what other questions do you have, what do you have, what else?"

The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 6: GM Development, yet another economic development consultancy from afar.

Previously: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 5: In 2019, Gahan will pass the half million dollar mark in campaign fundraising since 2011.

Some people knit for fun, but during the coming weeks we'll be plucking highlights from eight years of the Committee to Elect Gahan's CFA-4 campaign finance reports. Strap in, folks -- and don't forget those air(head) sickness bags.

Here's a slice of boilerplate from a Board of Works meeting in February of 2017, just before David "Bag Man" Duggins was shifted from glad-handing contractors in economic dishevelment to threatening public housing residents with being given a good TASER-ing if they didn't straighten up and bow to Dear Leader properly.

Strictly cookie-cutter; after all, $55,000 for advice from an Indianapolis consultant, as lifted from "excess" funds (!) barely qualifies as an expenditure, right?

GM Development and its honcho Greg Martz may gotten other, similar contracts, having greased the wheels of beak-wetting with a few choice contributions to Jeff Gahan's piggy bank

         GM Dev.         Greg Martz
2018    3,000
2017    3,000
2016                            3,000
2015    1,000
2014       500
2013                            5,000

Total: $15,500

It's not the highest donor total, but a nice chunk of change and enough to launch a negative mailer at the first sign of anxiety.

Rebuttals are welcome and will be published unaltered -- so don't forget spellcheck. If you have supplementary information to offer about any of this, please let us know and we'll update the page. The preceding was gleaned entirely from public records, with the addresses of "individuals" removed.

Next: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 7: Jacobi, Toombs & Lanz, or the anatomy of $33,225 "Big Daddy Dollars" since 2011.

Do New Albany Housing Authority residents enjoy freedom of speech as it pertains to political campaign yard signs?

The Green Mouse has learned that earlier this week a resident at the New Albany Housing Authority planted a David White for Mayor yard sign in his yard.

It wasn't as big as this one, but still.

The resident promptly was told by maintenance (wait -- doesn't councilman Matt Nash now work in maintenance at NAHA?) to remove the sign. He asked if he could put the sign on his door or in the window, and learned that they'd have to go ask the esteemed Gauleiter Duggins first.

Scanning the Interwebz, it appears this controversy isn't uncommon.

Another issue which has not been discussed in great detail by the courts is the regulation of political signs in front yards in a community governed by a homeowners association. In general, the First Amendment protections do not extend to private residences governed by a homeowners association. If the regulations governing the display of political signs involve a contract between two private parties and the government is not involved, then the regulations will be valid. If, on the other hand, the government is an actor, then a complete ban on political signs will probably be invalid. The Washington Supreme Court recently held that a local housing authority could not prohibit the posting of political signs on the doors to residences in a public housing complex.

There was a case with yard signs at a public housing site in Massachusetts.

Political signs can only be displayed in a tenant's interior window or spaces where a tenant has exclusive control," (management) said. "So we asked Mr. Rose to remove the signs, he didn't, and our maintenance department did and returned them."

But Harvey Silverglate, a civil liberties litigator, said Rose would prevail if he took the matter to court.

"That rule prohibiting political signs would be declared unconstitutional," he said. "It may be permissible for the housing authority to limit the size of the signs or the exact placement, but a blanket prohibition is too broad and too restrictive of speech."

And one from Michigan.

Public housing residents remove campaign signs after eviction threats

Public housing residents in Traverse City have removed campaign signs after officials threatened to evict them. The Traverse City Housing Commission took action after some residents displayed signs in favor of a public vote on buildings taller than 60 feet. It's a question on Tuesday's ballot.

The housing director says the signs violate the lease. But some disagree.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan sent a letter to the commission saying the ban on displaying window signs without approval is violation of the first amendment.

One local attorney said this.

I don't know the precise answer to that question, but I can't imagine an outright ban that would pass constitutional muster.

Another added:

Haven’t researched the nuts and bolts for Indiana, but a landlord cannot prohibit political speech. They can impose some reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. Displaying a political sign from the inside of your unit should be fine.

As of this precise moment, it isn't know whether the NAHA resident in question has received an answer. Oddly, if there's a policy prohibiting yard signs at the housing authority, it would prevent a sitting mayor like Jeff Gahan from commissioning Duggins to compel NAHA population to "voluntarily" displaying Gahan's signs as a form of coerced adoration.

Maybe Duggins could threaten them with a TASER.

#GoldenOldies

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Are city officials really talking about selling Riverview Tower for luxury redevelopment? Trump might want a piece of THIS action.

In Nawbany, the satire writes itself, as with this startling revelation from 2017.

Interim executive housing director Duggins eagerly welcomes student nurses to Riverview Tower.

After all, most everything of what little Duggins knows about anything he learned from Bill Clinton -- probably at Keeneland.

ON THE AVENUES: Could that be David Duggins paddling across Jeff Gahan's putrid cesspool? On second thought, I'll take the blindfold.

Let's review: In 2017 Jeff Gahan staged a hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority, thus escalating the heart rate of every old white guy in town of Gahan's own vintage who'd spent the past 50 years insisting that if we could just remove the poor (read: mostly black) people, this town finally could be something. 

Seeing as Duggins already had assembled all the fixes our creaking TIF areas could allow while merrily monetizing at redevelopment, Gahan transferred our favorite Clark County transplant to NAHA, where he could abuse real human beings rather than funding and branding mechanisms.

File under "TASER Humor from Overpaid Functionaries."

Week in review: Jeff Gahan created the Duggins debacle at NAHA, so stop normalizing his efforts to remain aloof.

In 2018, things got really interesting.

Duggins spreads blame, manure as the air conditioning at Riverview Towers fails on HIS watch.

"I'm electric," says a kite-bearing Duggins to Riverview residents as Gahan disappears into yonder bunker.

Duggins, Gahan log into Priceline Dot Com as Riverview Towers residents are evacuated.

This brings us to the present day.

Queue the cattle cars, because Riverview Tower will be the next pawn in City Hall's luxury enhancement crusade.

From the moment we heard about the public housing putsch two years ago, Gahan's uncharacteristically transparent rationale was obvious.

1. Ship out the unsightly poor people living there -- and who cares where they go?

2. Use that land for luxury "redevelopment" in the vital cause of pay-to-play campaign finance enhancement.

For the cynics, stalker, trolls and creeps (gypsies, tramps and thieves?) populating the fevered corridors of NA Confidential, this meant one prime goal above all others.

The nevermindset of selected bloviators like Gahan and Duggins -- not to mention their hordes of slobbering sycophants and eager campaign donors -- might be encapsulated as "poor people simply don't deserve such a nice view, and we might far better deploy prime real estate for the elites." In short, Riverview Tower always was going to be the centerpiece of the NAHA takeover.

The NAHA putsch was many things, among them sheer expedience. Donald Trump had been elected, and he'd presumably appoint wastrels of his own to look the other way as HUD was summarily pillaged. Who better than Trump to empathize with Gahan's lamentation about the uselessness of a nice view if only wretched poor people have it?

What's more, if Gahan didn't act quickly in early 2017, Bob Lane might have been on the verge of succeeding in his long-sought goal of rejuvenating public/affordable local housing on a 1:1 basis, this being anathema to ranking local Democrats who've never been democratic at all when it comes to the challenges facing plain folks -- and especially for Gahan, who would not receive proper ego-brushing for Lane's hard work.

That's because Adamization means gentrification, and Gahanism embraces loads of cash far beyond the disposable income of minimum wage employees, hence our prediction about the probable outcome of Riverview Towers, which we made from the very start of the putsch.

Under normal circumstances, there'd be no way to co-opt Riverview Tower, but by seizing NAHA in Our Time of Trump, banishing Lane and packing the governing mechanism with gutless lickspittles, Gahan engineered the possibility with extreme opportunism.

• emphasize Riverview Tower's irreparable physical problems, blaming them on predecessors while ignoring more recent screw-ups committed by his own handpicked regime
• scatter the Tower's residents for their own good (as Gauleiter Duggins openly signaled to the forever inattentive Chris Morris of the local chain newspaper)
• sell off the property for for the sort of "luxury" high-rise development that's eternally more conducive to the engorged mayoral sense of self-importance than any conceivable dose of Viagra

All this has been written previously, and the Green Mouse is the first to admit that when we first began discussing the mayor's Riverview Tower adaptive luxury reuse plan, it was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. However, as the months passed, Luxury Riverview became ever more plausible.

Now an insider has informed the Mouse that far from being imaginary, these musings are real, and ranking NAHA officials recently have been overheard discussing precisely just such an outcome for the building.  

After all, the mayor has promised a slew of exciting new revelations during this, his majesty's electoral re-enthronement drive of 2019.

To be clear, currently this is classified as RUMOR. We've no proof, at least yet. But it's clearly something that could be done, and fits the DemoDisneyDixiecrat mantra.

In Nawbany, the satire writes itself -- but does life imitate satire?

#FireGahan2019

Jason Applegate files for NA city council at-large. Does this mean fellow Democrat Sam Charbonneau will challenge Scott Blair in the 6th?

Long rumored, now official.

The Facebook post does not reveal whether Applegate is seeking an at-large seat or the 6th district nod, but the Green Mouse has been told it's Applegate at-large and Sam Charbonneau soon to announce in the 6th; they're both Democrats, both closely aligned with Jeff "Dear Leader" Gahan, and both having lost elections in 2018 (Applegate for commissioner against Shawn Carruthers and Charbonneau for Indiana House against Ed Clere).

When there comes time I'll crunch a few precinct numbers, because I'm guessing the prevailing assumption is that Applegate beat Carruthers within city limits, and there seems little reason to doubt this. More interesting to me is how Charbonneau did last year in precincts 27, 41, 42, 43 and 44. If the rumors are true and Charbonneau is running in the 6th, it sets up a very competitive three-way contest with the incumbent Scott Blair (completing his second council term as an independent in the mayor's old seat) and Republican Scott Evans.

Adam Dickey's imagined post-Gahan succession is looking clearer than ever. Just choose between Applegate, Charbonneau and former building commissioner, newly elected township trustee (and forever a local sporting legend) David Brewer. At least they're not tremendously old white males, although it's more of the same for the party of touted diversity that isn't, and it should be recalled that Gahan has a challenger this spring in David White.

The Green Mouse says:

David Duggins might be Gahan’s bag man, but ever since TASER-gate he’s become completely unelectable to any public office with the possible exception of dog catcher – and both SPCA and PETA already have filed preliminary complaints objecting to Duggins being in the vicinity of canines, much less humans. Pending Applegate and Charbonneau bolstering their expanding resumes with election wins, Brewer is the Democratic Party’s future star. Nothing prevents voter thoughtfulness quite like sports, and Brewer just finished bucking the GOP electoral trend with his trustee victory. Has Chris Morris yet figured out that the trustee’s budget henceforth will serve as a handy ATM for a mayor with rapidly diminishing TIF options?

Earlier today:

ON THE AVENUES: Democrats should judge city council incumbents in districts 2, 3, 4 and 5 by their regressive deeds, not their progressive words.

New Albany primary filings: Old white male Democratic council functionaries as yet unchallenged by diversity.

In a unanimous decision, NAC's New Albany "Person of the Year" for 2018 is Jeff Gahan's Money Machine.

It’s time once again for NA Confidential to select New Albany’s "Person of the Year." As in 2017, there'll be no run-ups and time-wasting teasers, although our basic definition remains intact, as gleaned from Time.

Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) is an annual issue of the United States news magazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year."

In 2018 there was a consistent theme in the governance of the city of New Albany. As such, what do these occurrences have in common?

• David Duggins' unpunished threat to taser a public housing resident
• Riverview Tower and the recent self-inflicted electrical system damage, as blamed on others 
• Jeff Gahan's Reisz Mahal luxury city hall boondoggle
• The city's neglect of the Moser Tannery, leading to the fire that destroyed it
• Automobile aggrandizement projects being built throughout the city
• The ongoing idiocy of Gahan's cult of personality 
• Summit Springs corporate mud slide and franchise theme park
• Spike in the popularity of Rice Krispies Treats
• A shared use pedway leading straight out of town, rather than linking to the Greenway
• Gahan's bizarre mishandling of the Human Rights Commission

Managerial incompetence, for one thing; for another, shamelessness on the part of people who haven't read books since faced with the imminent failure to graduate high school.

However, they're all connected to greater or lesser extent to the overarching theme of Gahan's seven years in office: the construction of a self-aggrandizing political patronage "pay to play" system unprecedented in the modern era of New Albanian political malfeasance.

Photo credit.

With municipal elections just around the corner in 2019, New Albany has become a banana republic -- or maybe that's a Bud Light Banana-O-Rita Republic.

Gahan's face is on everything, as is his chosen symbol, the anchor. A steady stream of political propaganda proclaiming Gahan's flawless brilliance emanates from City Hall, while the compromised local chain newspaper ducks, covers and cowers over at its Jeffersonville headquarters.

But little of this would have the wherewithal to stick if not for Gahan wetting his beak on each and every expansion of the city's budget. His campaign finance/re-election fund invariably receives a piece of the action on these expenditures of taxpayer money -- and, of course, we only see the transactions he bothers to report on the public forms. 

The emperor and his cash are tied together by the propaganda, and if you think I'm exaggerating, consider this one question: At any point during the past seven years, have you heard Gahan or any of his minions concede to making a mistake or committing an error?

Mull this for just a moment. They're human, and humans are fallible. How can they ever be perfect? And yet, like the Kims in North Korea, we're supposed to believe that a former veneer salesman exemplifies perfection.

It's revolting -- and it's time to revolt. Do we need a mayor whose primary interest is self-deification, or do we need a mayor whose policies make a difference for ordinary citizens, like me and you?

All things considered, there can be only one choice as New Albany's Person(s) of the Year for 2018. It's Mayor Jeff Gahan's Money Machine, and all the people currently benefiting from it. If you're not one of them, please consider voting for one of his challengers next year.

Previous winners:

• 2017 ... #MeToo -- the NA silence breakers
• 2016 ... Chloe Allen
• 2015 ... New Albany property tax payers
• 2014 ... Heroic Non-Incentivized Downtown Developers
• 2013 ... (tie) Houndmouth and "Quality of Life"
• 2012 ... Bill "Slumlord" Allen
• 2011 ... The Sherman Minton Bridge