Mayor Garner's "State of the Garner" address

New Albany’s Mayor James Garner doesn’t strike one as the type to use multi-syllabic words, but after reading Courier-Journal reporter Ben Zion Hershberg’s January 3 piece on Garner’s first year in office, one of those $10 spelling bee bafflers lodged in my brain:

Disingenuous: Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating; pretending to be unaware or unsophisticated.

In typically efficient fashion, the C-J's Hershberg provides numerous nuggets for reflection.

Mayor Garner on his problems with the City Council, specifically Larry Kochert’s opposition to many of Garner's positions:

“I don't know what it is."

(NA Confidential: Might it be an almost pathological ineptitude in making political patronage appointments, then haughty stubbornness when confronted with these mistakes?)

Garner on whether he had made any mistakes during his first year in office:

"Not seeing the negativity of politics, not having the realization politics can be downright dirty — that was a huge mistake."

(NAC: No other mistakes, all year long? This puts New Albany’s elected leader in a class with George W. Bush, although as Republicans are quick to point out, flawlessness is not a trait compatible with Democratic party affiliation.)

Garner on his resolve to move forward:

"I do my job.”

(NAC: But not without seeking new and creative ways to enhance remuneration – see Board, Sewer: Pay Scale.)

Others interviewed by Hershberg for the article are fortunate to have feet located somewhat closer to the ground.

Larry Kochert, council member, on Garner’s resume:

"I think he was only on the (city) council four years … didn't have anything under his belt and didn't have the knowledge."

Warren Nash, ex-mayor and Democratic Party chairman, on political reality:

"You have to get along with your council, or you will have a miserable four years."

Lewis Upton Pry, president of the Building Commission, on Garner’s obvious mistakes:

"I think he has not had enough experience in negotiating and handling the inside policies and procedures … I think he needs to step back and mend some fences."

Predictably, Garner expresses satisfaction with his first year in office, citing two projects (Budd Road sports complex and Grant Line Road high tech park) far removed from the city’s chronically neglected city center as justification.

Hershberg closes the article with a vintage Garnerism that perfectly summarizes the innate arrogance with which an obviously overmatched public official greets each day, envisioning thousands of cheering supporters, and only grudgingly conceding the need to recognize the precious few who might dare to disagree:

"Something I had to learn (is) no matter how good a decision I think it is and no matter how many thousands of people agree, there always are people with the opposite opinion, and they have the right to voice it."

Folks, the depths are being plumbed. This is the same Mayor James Garner who I saw turning his nattily attired back on a City Council meeting room filled with supporters of deposed building inspector Steve Broadus, refusing to acknowledge their existence, refusing the opportunity thus afforded to listen to them “voice it,” and before and after the evening in question, refusing to acknowledge the right of anyone to question his personnel decisions.

I realize that in the Book of Scribner, the lunchtime crowd at the South Side look into their plates of starch 'n' gravy and foresee a prophet coming down to New Albania from the heights of Silver Hills ... but what I'm foreseeing is much closer in characterization to Gogol's "The Government Inspector."

Hershberg’s full article:
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2005/01/03in/A1-garner0103-8086.html