“I’m going to be living at the police department.”
Newly appointed OEO Pam Badger.
Officer Badger spoke at the monthly meeting of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association on Thursday evening, introducing herself to a packed room and providing an ambitious outline of her busy months ahead.
It should be noted that neither 3rd District Councilman Steve Price, nor his council colleagues Coffey, Schmidt, Kochert and Seabrook – all of whom have crassly and incessantly politicized the selection of an ordinance enforcement officer as part of an ongoing insurrection against the 21st century– were in attendance tonight.
Surely they read notice of the meeting in NA Confidential?
New Albany’s new ordinance enforcement officer indicated that she is charged with residential, not commercial, enforcement of those ordinances dealing with junk, garbage, weeds, old cars and the like. Structural issues pertaining to homes remain the responsibility of the Building Commissioner, and of course relevant health issues go to the Health Department.
Officer Badger welcomes public input. First, she will issue warnings about violations, and then write citations for problems that go unremedied. In those cases that require city action, the property owner will be billed for the clean-up services by adding these charges to his or her property taxes.
Title searches and follow-ups will take much time, said Officer Badger. She’ll be working with the city attorney and the city clerk to ensure that fines are collected and actions initiated.
Association members in attendance chimed in with horror stories, a few of which can be glimpsed from the meeting site at Muir Manor, and as they did so, I was reminded of a bicycle ride I took a few weeks ago, one that brought me into CM Seabrook’s neighborhood.
It’s off of Klerner Lane, relatively near to Indiana University Southeast, and comprised of relatively new homes – far from ostentatious, but indisputably nice, with well tended lawns and gutters generally attached to the roofs.
Without exception, the homes seemed to be single-family dwellings, and I couldn’t find a single duplex with mattresses, broken furniture and weather-beaten appliances stacked on the porch.
Searching in vain for plywood sheets covering broken or missing glass, or chest-high weeds, or abandoned house stripped of interior walls and all plumbing, or impromptu street side body shops, or festive dancing rats, I concluded that property values in such a neighborhood must remain fairly stable over time.
Riddle me this, Mr. Seabrook: What sort of “suit” would a city councilman wear if it could be proven that continued inaction on ordinance enforcement bears a direct correlation to diminishing property values in parts of the city that need it the most?
Here’s a clue: We’re a nation of … what?
Get it? Ready for a bit of comparative study?
Sounds like fun.
It’s regrettable when people who claim to know better don’t behave that way, but if you’ve lived in New Albany for any length of time, you already understand that this city is cursed – wracked, lashed, afflicted – with painfully low standards of achievement.
It isn’t clear why this is so, although we may surmise that the wretchedness of our condition has become exacerbated during the most recent decades of the city’s two centuries of existence, because if our ancestors had gone about their business the way we go about ours, there would be no city here to be serially neglected.
Over time, certainly in conjunction with societal changes that are forever beyond the immediate control of any person involved with municipal governance, but just as surely stemming in large measure from an institutionalized absence of creativity on the part of the city’s “movers and shakers,” there has arisen a culture of non-compliance with certain of the civilized world’s basic assumptions.
Specifically, these are the assumptions that have been formulated so as to contribute to the overall well being of people who live close together in an urban setting.
Officer Badger now begins the task of assisting the community to reclaim its sense of compliance with these basic shared assumptions, but as she does so, rancorous political sniping against the very nature of her task continues unabated from members of the city council who have careened so far out of control that if New Albany’s mayor were to announce that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, they’d lapse into default accusatory pontification without so much as looking at the sky to see if it might be true.
Does the Gang of Four, and its occasional cohort and fellow enabler from the Republican side of the aisle, really have a commitment to cleaning up New Albany?
Or, like CM Kochert chief among them, do they feel that it’s a vote-losing proposition? Something else that can be blamed on Mayor Garner after they’ve done all they can to sabotage it?
Councilmen, it’s time to ditch the phony Pilate routine and save the dull nods for someone gullible – Forrest Gump, perhaps – and step up to the plate now with a strong and unequivocal public expression of support for ordinance enforcement and Officer Badger’s gutsy foray into places where most of you fear to tread.
Not neglected properties ... but accountability.
Send your statements to NA Confidential for publication – and be a part of the solution by leading, not politicking.
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3 comments:
Two things come to mind:
Sweeping it under the rug and the dirt under our finger nails.
Good luck in your quest for unity in code enforcement.
I find it disturbing that CM Price never sees fit to at least occasionally touch base with the neighborhood association at the meetings.
He receives announcements of all of them.
If he's been paying attention at all, he'd know that last night's meeting was particularly important. It would have been a great opportunity for him to answer questions and explain what he intends to do to help ensure Officer Badger's success.
A sizable portion of his district was out last night to support Officer Badger and the overall clean up effort.
It would be nice to have the feeling that our council rep was doing the same.
All the hoopla surrounding the assignment of Officer Badger is misguided. One fact that seems to be missing from all the conspiracy theorists' arguments is that the Mayor didn't appoint anyone to the OEO position.
That means they're accusing the Chief of Police of breaking the law. The simple fact is that the chief has the authority to assign officers to any enforcement duties he sees fit. That's hardly a new development.
You'll note that the BPW didn't approve, disapprove, or make a recommendation of Officer Badger. They were informed of the Chief's decision.
That said, having met Officer Badger, she seems like she's ready for the challenge-- a good choice by the Chief.
As I suggested before, it's probably in everyone's best interest to now focus on creating the conditions necessary to ensure that her efforts aren't wasted.
To make that a reality, we need to revisit the ordinances associated with residential property upkeep and the fine schedule attached to them.
Under the current ordinances, $100 is the highest fine Officer Badger can assess. It's not clear if that's a one time fine or if it can be assessed daily, weekly, etc. If the city has to clean up the mess, it can charge the property owner for those services. But how much?
If that amount is fairly low, say the total fines and fees equal only $200-$300, it's not difficult to see how our current ordinances and Officer Badger's enforcement of them could actually work to the advantage of absentee landlords. Which is cheaper: Hiring someone to clean up your property or letting the city do it for you for peanuts?
There's also nothing currently on the books to deal with repeat offenders, such as increasing the fine schedule for second and third offenses.
The only way to deal effectively with this situation is to strengthen the ordinances. That falls to the legislative branch of government, the City Council.
Ask your city council member what they intend to do about it. If they do nothing or try to make a political game of it, we'll know exactly where they stand on the clean up effort.
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