With weekend layouts largely set, and no Monday edition, here's all that will be forthcoming from the Tribune:
Councilman proposes redirecting funds to sewers, by Eric Scott Campbell (News & Tribune).
RAB
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It's come to my attention that the thinking folks in the community are being asked to work overtime this weekend. It seems the depilatory duo (starts with Coffey and ends with Price) are plotting to both halt the Scribner Place project by robbing the community of it's only real investment in downtown redevelopment in most of our lifetimes and to use a one-time EDIT refund to continue propping up a still financially failing sewer operation in a cowardly maneuver that neither puts the utility on firm footing nor meets the stipulations of the over $40 million sewer finance plan, thereby putting the community at risk of being found in default of its bond agreement, meaning that the entire sum would be due and collectable immediately.
Why? Because they're afraid to tell you the truth about the details of an agreement that some of them signed off on.
In the meantime, Mayor Garner will be whiling away the weekend in a desperate attempt to figure out how to foist a small bit of reading comprehension (the type of words that appear in legally binding documents for instance) onto the community at large, who by all rights should've been familiar with the information months ago.
And you can be sure that Randy Stumler, in his capacity as Chairman of the Floyd County Democrats, will have no official comment on the situation because, according to him, the Democratic Party as a whole has no business taking stances on local issues. It might mean putting what he perceives to be the good of the community before party loyalty and where would we be with that kind of honesty?
All this comes to a head (again and again and again) at Monday night's City Council meeting at 7:30 on the third floor of the City County Building. In local parlance, that's known as a gut check. I'm sure one of my editorial brethren will be along shortly to explain the nuances of the situation(s) in more detail.
Me? I'm going out drinking until I can recognize some semblance of sanity in town. See you in rehab.
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15 comments:
Bluegill, do you mean to say that instead of having the city’s only municipal utility pay for itself by having the people who use it the most pay the most…they want the taxpayers to divert their money to subsidize the sewer utility?
What kind of fools do they take us for?
As I understand it, about 20% of the ratepayers aren’t taxpayers. At least they don’t pay EDIT taxes to the city. Their EDIT allocation goes strictly to the county coffers.
And that one-fifth of ratepayers wouldn’t be paying anything to make the sewer utility self-sustaining. In fact, that’s more like one-third of the sewer revenue base being given a free pass while residents in the city would be paying to watch city services wither on the vine.
Isn’t it pretty well established that city enterprise operations are supposed to be self-sustaining? They aren’t a general benefit because they can be effectively metered. You use, you pay. That’s why it’s semi-autonomous. That’s why it has its own board of directors. Those directors have a fiduciary responsibility to make the operation pay for itself without being subsidized by the taxpayers.
You’re right, Bluegill. Thinking folks are being asked to work overtime. What could these guys be thinking?
i'm just wondering if any of you would consider running for these positions? i like your opinions and ideas for New Albany, but if you can't get your rep. to work for you, how about we get the Barnie Fifes out and put in some forward thinkers.
i think it can be done.
Funny, names of folk in politics for this area seem the same, only running for different positions. No matter if it is Clark or Floyd Counties in Indiana or Jefferson in Kentucky.
Are we the only people who seem to want a change and make a difference in the community of which we live?
With RC on the ballot this fall, that is a start, but we need what happened in Denver,CO back in the 90's, someone to step up to the plate, say I have plan and have the community get on that persons back and make changes.
Tommy, good thoughts.
"What could these guys be thinking?"
I'm not sure cowardice is a "thinking" response.
Hey, thinking folks, I was thinking (between checking out rehabs for me and Bluegill) about this crazy idea of using EDIT taxes to put off a sewer rate increase.
It won’t work. Even if the city put THIRTY million into the sewer utility, it wouldn’t be money generated from operations. And money generated from operations is the only thing that makes the sewer utility a viable enterprise.
Unless the income stream of the sewer utility is sufficient to meet the expenses, both operational and maintenance, plus required capital improvements, it ceases to be a going concern.
And don’t the bond covenants (for the money borrowed to rebuild and upgrade the wastewater treatment system) actually require the utility to generate not 100%, but 125% of the periodic bond payment from rates?
So, it seems to me that the only option to raising the rates sufficiently to meet the bond covenant is to pay off the bonds completely. Nobody is suggesting that, are they?
Polly wanna culture war?
Make no mistake about it.
Monday’s utterly redundant “kill Scribner Place” vote won’t be about money – never has been, and never will be, because among those living and working in the city of New Albany, there is widespread understanding and support for leveraging an unprecedented $20 million commitment from the Caesar’s Foundation and an accompanying fundraising effort by the YMCA into what is undoubtedly the best hope for downtown revitalization in more than one generation.
That’s because Dan Coffey and his benumbed ilk want a culture war.
As with the discredited and humiliated Sen. Joseph McCarthy, CM Coffey’s truth-defying, Red-baiting spiritual forbearer, and one to whom the 1st District councilman bears a striking resemblance both physically and temperamentally, the real motivation is, was and remains finding the best means to strike back at people and ideas that he and his motley crew of envy-driven small-timers despise.
The target might be Scribner Place, it might be craft-brewed beer, and it might also be a Silver Hills street address.
Of course, bicycles are fair game.
And because Dan skipped creative class, he can do without that one, too.
The threat to one’s self-esteem that is posed by people who’ve benefited from an education he never had?
Open season on his betters.
Undisguised malevolence is not something that is capable of being explained or measured by polite discussions of New Urbanism, patient demonstrations of fiscal cause and effect, or expressions of quiet optimism that insist against all evidence to the contrary that owing to principles of self-interest, most people are reasonable, after all.
The right side of the council table is not reasonable, and has not been reasonable for quite some time.
The Gang of Four is intent on punishing the people and the ideas that are best suited to provide our children and grandchildren with a better place to live, and they’re doing it as though to openly celebrate the triumph of their own profound shortcomings in intellectual capacity and leadership skills.
The slumbering giant in New Albany isn’t a taxpayer advocate. It’s a mass composed of those that can do, as opposed to those who can only pander, loot and destroy.
Where’s the Democratic Party leadership in all of this?
Where?
Don't worry, New Albanian. I'm sure we'll be able to read all about their great character traits in election materials. After all, according to party leadership, it's their job to win elections- not to advocate for the community.
Oddly, we witnessed one instance of genuine leadership, and pertaining to the same topic.
Excerpt from a July 10, 2005, NAC article:
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(On Amany Ali’s Tribune City Council report):
On Thursday night, City Councilman Jack Messer’s introduction of the resolution detailing Scribner Place funding permitted him time to explain his support of the project, but far more than that, it allowed him to explain the reasons why he chose to enter public service, and to issue a rare challenge to the political class to do what is right, not just what is expedient for the continuation of careers.
(Ms. Ali):
“Before the council voted on the (Scribner Place) resolution, Messer did what I wish other political figures would do. Not petrified by the thought that he might not get re-elected, he announced that he supported Scribner Place and support the plan that would use property taxes as a backup …
“ … Messer’s words were a breath of fresh air at a meeting where entirely too much time was taken up with political malarkey and bitterness. He should be commended for speaking his mind and not worrying about the political ramifications. There are other politicians in Floyd County who could learn from Messer’s example.”
NA Confidential says:
Amany Ali does a marvelous job of recognizing Councilman Messer’s contribution to last Thursday’s meeting, and although all council representatives voting for Scribner Place deserve commendation for their principled stances, Messer’s address to the audience, and his comments to fellow council members, almost certainly and deservedly will become the stuff of legend.
Here’s why.
Throughout the run-up to the Scribner Place vote, upstanding citizens confused and frightened by impending change have been manipulated by certain calculating elements -- some well-intentioned, others unfortunately not – who are in opposition to New Albany’s ongoing efforts to move forward.
Time and again, fear and loathing have been stoked. Sincere efforts to explain the way a city works have been dismissed. Progressives have been attacked as pointy-headed, out of touch – and to be truthful, even threatened. Freedom of speech has been curtailed.
In short, citizens have been turned against each other by fellow citizens who quite simply should know better – assuming, of course, that they haven’t meant worse from the beginning.
Jack Messer’s words last Thursday night demolished this “culture war” argument once and for all.
Here is a New Albany resident, a concerned taxpayer, a policeman of long standing, a public servant – a man who is as fully representative of the community as any could ever hope to be – walking tall and announcing that he understands why some of his fellow New Albanians are scared, but that there’s absolutely no reason for them to be; that much hard work certainly is yet to come; but unless something is done now to reverse the fortunes of New Albany, that there will be no city to pass on to the next generation -- and this work must begin now, by all of us, and for all of us.
Brilliant. Thank you, Jack, and thanks to Amany Ali for her take.
It appears that the lines have been drawn in the sand.
On the one hand, there are those who are opposed to any idea that smacks of progress, change, and developement. They somehow seem to beleive that the potential income to the city from these projects is somehow inherently evil while at the same time, lamenting the fact that the city has no operating capital! They fail however to propose any plan for acquiring such.
On the other hand, there are those of us who have learned the life lesson that nothing can remain stagnant for any extended period of time. It will wither and die as sure as the sun comes up. We have learned that risk is a part of life and that without it, nothing good ever happens. We are willing to take that risk knowing full well that there are no guarentees expressed or implied.
Then there are the biggest cowards of all. That being the political party leaders from both Repubilcas and Democrats who could apparantly care less about New Albany, its citizens, or its future. Instead of using their resources and influence to do what's right, they are in the backgroud remaing silent while preparing to curry favor from whomever is left standing after the dust settles.
To the first group I would point out that without new growth the only ones left to pay all those rate and tax increases you so fear are going to be you and you alone.
To the third group I say that you should be ashamed of yourselves! I would further point out that until you "LEADERS" can state what it is you stand for and what you have done to promote it, as far as I'm concerned, you stand alone!
Finally to the second group, of which I am proud to be a part, I say stand fast and march on! Our future as well as New Albany's depends on us!
HighwayMan - great stump speech - are you running? I'll vote for you.
OK, so first this sewer resolution lets one-third of the ratepaying base off the hook from paying to keep the utility going. On top of that, EDIT money that can now be used to meet practically any of the city’s many pressing needs ($1 million in imminent police and fire retirement bonuses; restoring the downtown traffic patterns to neighborhood-friendly two-way traffic; replenishing the housing demolition fund; giving codes enforcement some real teeth instead of pretending to; making much-needed and long-delayed street repairs; etc.)…is going to be literally tossed into the sewers.
It accomplishes nothing. Merely to meet the bond requirements, the user fee (ratepayer charge) must be raised by 20%. Only a few more percentage points on the rate increase are needed to meet critical “survival” needs of the utility. It’s beginning to look like the immediate increase will total 24%. We wouldn’t be in this bad a shape if the previous council had followed the professional recommendations for rate-setting. For the last few years, rates have been artificially depressed by 13 points less than that recommendation.
No wonder the utility is in such bad shape.
The funny thing is, under Price's plan, the fixed-income resident down the street will be paying for the sewer upgrades while the much wealthier, two-income professional family living in a suburban 3500 sq. ft house will not.
The EDIT money he wishes to use comes from an income tax on those who live within city limits. Those who live in outlying areas (whose sprawl continues to put more pressure on the sewer infrastructure than downtown residents) don't pay EDIT tax to the city. Price's plan won't cost them a dime.
Even if if the bond agreement did legally allow for rates too low to cover payments, the Price/Coffey plan would still create a situation in which the low-income residents they claim to be protecting would be subsidizing upper-middle class suburbanites.
You don't reckon the Gang has a money pipeline from the suburbanites, do you? A payoff is a much easier explanation than trying to figure out whether they are either stupid or evil. Venal explains everything.
Would that explain the silence of the leadership? Is that why Connie Sipes, Bill Cochran, Randy Stumler, Warren Nash, Linda Moeller, et al are remaining silent in the face of this embarrassment?
A phone call from those worthies would go a long way to putting these two resolutions in the grave where they belong. Let's see if they have what it takes.
Ceece, you've discovered what we've already learned: CM Price knows one tune and one tune only, and he's prepared to sing it again, and again, and again.
Here's another NAC excerpt from December 8, 2005.
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Unfortunately, the Scribner Place project continues to be the whipping boy preferred by those among them, like 1st District Councilman Dan Coffey and his Siamese Councilman, 3rd District CM Steve Price, who are innately suspicious of an evolving world that seems foreign and incomprehensible to them, one populated by odd people with strange preferences like exercise, reading, sushi and espresso, and who, to them, symbolize detached affluence and practiced disdain for the working classes and the underprivileged.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and both Mr. Coffey and Mr. Price probably know it, but grandstanding and ward heeling become second nature when you’ve been at it for so long.
These people represent hope for a new economy, and New Albany desperately needs to get smarter so all of the city’s residents can reap a share of the benefits from such a new economy. The good news is that many, if not all, of the factors necessary to get us headed in the right direction are already here. They just need help.
Scribner Place, while hardly a panacea, is precisely the sort of cost-effective partnership between government and the private sector that stands to bring people – including non-residents -- downtown. In conjunction with the Ohio River Greenway, the Cannon sports park, Main Street and Spring Street area plans, Al Goodman’s plans for the Moser Tannery, existing downtown businesses and new ones that are coming soon (trust me, I know), Scribner Place is a major step in the right direction.
I know it doesn’t seem this way to those for whom envy and spite are the dominant personal and political modes of expression, and it’s a genuine pity that they’ll be missing out on the good times ahead out of sheer stubbornness, but as they say so often, it’s just their opinions – which aren’t necessarily facts, and which definitely aren’t valid reasons to dismiss progress in New Albany.
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