Here it is - in my other pocket

Locals with achingly long long memories will recall that Mayor James Garner began his term of office in January, 2004 by advocating a reorganized sewer board with himself as chairman, and a commensurately huge increase in the chairman’s rate of pay.

Amid much tumult, the board was indeed reorganized, but without the pay hike sought so grubbily and superficially by the Mayor, who insisted at the time that the “people of New Albany want to see their mayor paid for the job he does."

We must always remember that the first official act of New Albany’s “different kind of” mayor was to advocate an increase in his own remuneration.

In October, the city’s sanitation department was discovered to be more than $600,000 in the red. Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Ben Hershberg apparently had learned that the deficit was being covered by the sewer department, and asked Garner to comment. Until this question was asked, Garner did not know where the money was coming from, and only then, scurrying off to look into it, was he able to verify what the reporter already had determined.

Two reminders for the future study guide.

First, Mayor Garner is president of the sewer board.

Second, would any of this be known had not a reporter asked a question?