Wednesday, January 24, 2007

CM Steve Price auditions for Geico commercial, dismisses education and economic development as "feel good projects."

(For more, visit the Highwayman: "And the Price Is.......!!" )

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Our power-blogging, one-chord councilman -- or is that power-chording, one-blog councilman -- is back, and he’s more confused than ever about the fundamental meaning of words, with results far more revealing than he intends.

Need vs. Want Basic Economics

CM Steve Price begins by defining his terms ... sort of, as his definition of “need” is incorrect in the context used, even if a “lack of subsistence” inadvertently summarizes the prevailing paucity of ideas at his Dewey Heights compound.

In my opinion, I would say addressing the increasing need of 15th street to prevent a major catastrophe is a need. Giving $25 thousand to Montessori,or $92 thousand for Southern Indiana One to further the economic development of our city is a want. (Isn’t that what we pay Paul Wheatley for?) $117 thousand requested from Riverboat money so far this year.

Our councilman presumably was seated at a computer and linked to the Internet, so it isn’t too much to expect that he might search One Southern Indiana and render its name properly.

Sadly, but not at all unexpectedly, this lies entirely beyond his abilities, as does the correct pronunciation of the names of people with whom he disagrees (ask John Rosenbarger about that some time). In fact, this is a frequent Price stratagem: A bumbling, halting mispronunciation designed to entice titters from human laugh tracks like Professor Erika.

It's embarrassing.

Just as naturally, it wouldn’t be a vintage Steve Price yokel’s yodel without a disparaging cheap shot lobbed at someone like Paul Wheatley, complete with an ungrammatical sentence fragment about Riverboat money. Verily, writing requires different muscles than speaking, and can cause severe strains if the ones that have atrophied from lack of use are strained without proper stretching and preparation.

What about our NEEDS projects.

For example: the need to address 15th street, the need to address the deficient with our ambulance and street departments, the need to address our police and fire budgets, the need to address the issue of accountability and responsibility. $117 thousand could help in addressing these NEEDS.

To be honest, the “deficient” is something I worry about, too, seeing as he’s running for re-election on a head-in-the-sand-with-Dave Ramsey-tome platform of “no progress at any Price,” so perhaps someone will defeat him in the forthcoming election, thus correcting the “deficiency,” because if there’s any “deficiency” – any “need” -- that we must address, it lies in the 3rd district’s current mode of “deficient leadership,” which CM Price blithely expects us to believe is as easy as arbitrarily selecting a monetary figure, using it in conjunction with random citations of a half-dozen obvious problems of which we’re all aware (but not the only half-dozen), and using the predictable absence of a simplistic solution fit for a Sesame Street skit as the precise reason why all gears of the city must come to a complete halt, at least until a councilman who hasn’t managed to articulate a future-oriented strategy in three long years can catch up with a planet that refuses to stop spinning, evolving, and racing beyond his comprehension.

But here’s the bar-none, best part of CM Price’s plaintive paean to primitivism:

Where are our priorities? Funding feel good projects or attending to absolute necessities?

Check it out, New Albany. Read that paragraph very carefully, and remember it come election time. NAC most assuredly will.

In Steve Price’s mind, education is a “feel good” project.

In Steve Price’s mind, economic development of the sort pursued on a regional basis by One Southern Indiana is another “feel good” project.

Neither of these two necessary pillars of human civilization -- in the sense of things we "need" -- are "absolute necessities" to better the under-educated and the under-employed whom Steve Price is forever eager to help ... but in the end, to help do nothing except muddle through their lives while he selectively pursues shortsighted, futile policies of congenital limitation that are guaranteed to keep our pies – and our hopes, and our dreams – as small as his own narrow horizons.

This, my friends, is what the dreaded New Albany Syndrome can do for you.

Precious little.

CM Price's expressions of no-can-do are derived from the envy and resentment, the concurrent failures of the stunted small-timer to perceive politics as the art of the possible, and the cycle of miserable dysfunction that feeds on itself and perpetuates despair.

Price is a councilman, for heaven's sake. He's already confessed in print that he's done all he can do -- but my cats accomplished far more in the litter box today.

Don't you think we "need" something different in 2007?

18 comments:

  1. Just a thought in passing. I wonder just how many of these "poor, fixed income, indigent older folks" that CM Price thinks he's reaching out to, have $300 to $1000 computers with internet service sitting on their antique rolltop desks?

    Surely it can't be that he talking to us can it?

    Oh by the way, has anyone seen Dan Coffey's blog yet? I keep looking & looking but so far, no luck!

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  2. Price's comment about education being a "want" - does it say those of us who aren't uneducated are elitists simply for having an education? Is that the local cultural sense of education, that it's not a necessity? That would explain some of the dysfunction here.

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  3. Aye Lass,

    I believe you've got it!

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  4. A few things up front. I have never met Councilman Price, nor corresponded with him. I have never personally witnessed him at a council meeting.

    I believe some of the recent postings and comments about the councilman are unfair and, sometimes, as one sided as he is accused of being.

    We ask candidates for reasons to vote for them. In his own way, Mr. Price is providing reasons--whether we agree with them or not. He deserves credit for that.

    I have read that he almost always returns phone calls, emails, etc. Have read(and heard)this even from his harshest critics. I believe it was NA Annie who said(paraphrasing) that he is basically good man but not very sophisticated.(if I am wrong Annie, I apologize and please set me straight).

    Where I am headed? I don't think that he is COMPLETELY wrong in his comparison of the Montessori/15th street. Attempting to say that he is against education based on that is more than just biased. It is wrong.

    I have more thoughts on this but I have rambled enough. I hope that with some responses, I can focus better. (Challenging is how I learn, in case no one noticed)

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  5. Classically, the primary function of government has been to provide Public Safety, infrastructure, AND education; I'm lost in arguing which is frivolous. One Southern Indiana is the most frivolous on the list I see. A question I myself have asked - how many people are on the Develpment/Re-development payroll in NA? Has anyone ever done a cost/benefit analysis of the cost of so many supposed development entities...I mean, there's not a lot of development, at least not in the last 60 years.

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  6. As I have said before, I don't have a problem with Steve Price. Yes, he makes statements and holds positions from time to time that I do not agree with. So does every other politician that I have ever known or dealt with. However, he ran for and was elected fairly and squarely to council and met the criteria to hold the position. If I had to make a "hit list" of elected and/or appointed officials that absolutely have to go, Steve wouldn't be on that list.

    What he does do is respond. He answers phone calls, he returns emails. He is never verbally abusive. And I have to say, I can identify with his attitude of suspicion from time to time regarding budgetary requests that come before council.

    Take the sewers (please!) We hear a lot about the sewers, and I know everybody gets tired of the bickering about whether another rate increase is justified or not. I believe that there has been a lot of hanky panky with the sewer funding. I cannot tell you how many times over the past 10-15 years we've been hit with a rate increase "to fix everything"--and the damned things still aren't near fixed. How many times have we paid companies to dye test for connections, yet mysteriously, untold numbers of buildings remain unconnected? That isn't rumor, it's fact. There are several up in Silver Hills now, and others scattered around town.

    If I sat on Council and I got a sewer rate increase put before me for approval, I'd sure put up a fight before I ever approved it. Because then, you force your constituency to pay more, but you cannot control the obviously poor job that some are doing to get the problem remedied that the money was supposed to be used for.

    And a few more thoughts: so Steve gets off the Council. What about who takes his seat? Are we guaranteed a more qualified person? What about the other Council members, who may or may not remain the same? What about who becomes/remains Mayor?

    I think being dissatisfied with Steve and wanting him off council is one thing, and you've got a right to do that. But I see far more important matters to expend energy on in the world of New Albany politics, if we want to see real changes relatively soon.

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  7. Gina,

    I'm glad you brought up the topic of Development/Redevelopment. I was going to address it anyway, particularly in light of Price's "isn't that what we pay Paul Wheatley for" comment.

    The city has an Economic Development Director, Paul Wheatley. He's been on the job about a couple of years and is paid and budgeted solely via Economic Development Income Taxes. He receives no money from the general fund.

    Currently, Wheatley's paid $38,000 per year plus benefits at $13,267 for a total of $51,267.

    He's given an office budget (supplies, travel, postage, printing) of $8,500 per year.

    The only marketing/development funds he has access to without Council approval is a contractual services line item funded at $35,000 a year. For real world perspective, that's about what it costs to run a quarter page ad in the Courier Journal once a month for the year.

    If my math is correct, that brings the grand total to $94,767 per year. Outside of the $137,000 allocated to leveraging a much larger private investment in Scribner Place, that's the only money the city currently has specifically budgeted for economic development.

    For comparison, consider that over $1 million in EDIT funds will be spent on the sewer system in 2007.

    In addition to his daily routine of dealing with business owners, real estate agents, developers, etc, Wheatley has brought ideas before the Council to improve the development atmosphere in the city.

    During this summer's budget hearings, Wheatley presented two solid ideas to the Council. One was to use EDIT funds for preliminary design studies on vacant historic buildings downtown, sparing prospective investors the upfront costs of determining suitable uses. The other was for the city to use some EDIT as matching funds for a revolving, low interest loan program in cooperation with the Urban Enterprise Zone and local banks.

    Both ideas have proven successful in other communities but were immediately shot down by Coffey, Price, et al, as "corporate welfare".


    A general breakdown of recent Redevelopment spending is available via The Tribune here.

    One large expenditure not included in the paper's breakdown is $150,000 allocated for emergency repair to owner-occupied, low income households. Because compliance with federal regulations becomes much more difficult above a specified dollar amount, repairs are limited to $5,000 per house or about 30 houses per year.

    Their budget comes from federal Community Development Block Grants, again not from the city's general fund. If CDBG money dries up, as almost happened last year per a President Bush proposal, we'll have no Redevelopment Department.

    You'll notice that $149,777 has been set aside for payroll and administrative costs, approximately 20% of the overall budget. That's supposed to cover five full-time employees and one part-time employee, plus office supplies, equipment, postage, etc.

    I know that Redevelopment has been living with fewer employees to counter CDBG reductions recently but I'm not sure to what extent that will be remedied. To my current knowledge (and don't quote me on this) they recently had four employees but are now down to three since Adam Dickey just moved on recently.

    One of the other items you'll notice in The Tribune breakdown is "$10,000 to train neighborhood-association representatives in community leadership through the NeighborWorks program."

    NeighborWorks is a national nonprofit with an extensive network of successful revitalization professionals across the country. Amongst many other services, they provide training and certification in community and neighborhood revitalization.

    They recently started a national pilot program to bring that training directly to communities rather than requiring locals to travel to conferences in major cities and then try to replicate their activities at home.

    Through the diligence of New Directions Housing Corporation, the Louisville metro area was selected as the locale for that pilot program and New Albany was offered five seats in exchange for $10,000 dollars of CDBG funding.

    The normal cost of that training for five people would be roughly $15,000, not including travel and hotel expenses for the five to attend several different conferences, a number that could easily equal another $10,000 to $20,000 and make it much more difficult for people to schedule. The total cost for bringing the whole program to the metro area is around $150,000.

    After discussing the funding proposal with the Redevelopment Commission, it was decided that the five persons would be selected from a cross-section of citizens and not just neighborhood associations. In fact, only one seat was made available to association representatives.

    During the Redevelopment budget approval process (the Council has to approve it even though we have a Redevelopment Commisssion and the money is federal), Steve Price singled out the training money for removal from the budget. His objection? Too many people in his district (or more specifically, certain neighborhood associations) might be selected for training. I'm neither kidding nor exaggerating.

    When Redevelopment Director John Rosenbarger reminded Price that the Redevelopment Commission, of which Price was a member at the time, had decided to select a cross-section of citizens, he still refused to yield, insisting that the $10,000 be moved to the building demolition line item, enough to demolish one to two houses.

    There was a legal question concerning whether Price and the Council had overstepped their bounds. The law isn't clear about the Council 's authority to amend the Redevelopment budget. It seems to be a matter of either approving the budget or sending it back to the Redevelopment Commission for changes. The Council, with Price in the lead, amended it themselves against the wishes of the Redevelopment Commission and then approved it in one maneuver. It could've been grounds for a legal challenge.

    In the end, it was decided to not waste additional resources fighting the inanity. Still, Price's political vendetta nearly cost New Albany the chance to participate in the program. Luckily, the City of Louisville and the Federal Reserve stepped in to cover the costs but that wasn't settled or known at the time.

    Given the opportunity to learn and cooperatively acheive, Price spit in the face of those trying to improve things and, as usual, neighborhood associations, other nonprofits, and the Redevelopment Commission had to work around him to accomplish something.

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  8. iamhoosier,

    Let me challenge you to attend council meetings for three months and watch CM's Price, Coffey, Kochert, and Schmidt in action.

    See for yourself what happens when someone, anyone comes forth with a sensible plan to address 15th street, economic developement, police & fire protection, or any other issue that we have mentioned throughout the past year.

    Watch it live and in living color as they trash both the message and the messenger even when it can be and has been proven time after time that NO MONEY will come out of the cities coffiers. Then tell me how deserving they are of another chance at the feed trough.

    Yes, Steve answers his phone and in turn contacts the proper authority about whatever the concern is. But then he stops dead in his tracks! He doesn't take the initiative to follow up with a second or third or fourth contact. He just comes back to report that he has done all that he can do by statute.

    Yes, Steve is stating his campaign platform as it concerns 15th Street rail crossing and infrastructure repairs, but I'll eat my hat and both of your tennis shoes if he and Coffey don't try to sabbatoge any effort on the part of the Sewer Board to propose an outside appraisal of what is needed and how much it will cost to make it right!

    Yes, Steve's heart in in the right place and as he understands life, his intentions are good.

    However there is another old country saw that goes "The road to hell is paved with good intentions!"

    New Albany does not need nor can it survive much more of good intentions. We need forward movement into the future!!

    And after all of that, I'll still buy you a beer of your choice at the pub when we meet!

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  9. Anonymous7:59 PM

    HIghway man makes a good point. A councilman may retrun all the phone calls he recieves, and my well answer all emails that they get. But a wolf can also dress up in sheeps clothing to get into the flock.
    What we need as a city now, is action, not more words. Show us where you are introducing an ordinance to establish a city court, show us where you are trying to obtain block grants to improve the infrastructure of hard hit neighborhoods to light the kindling of change. Be PROACTIVE on some concerns this city has, not REACTIVE to postings on blogs.
    There is an old saying that I too am fond of; "The smallest deed is better than the grandest intention."

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  10. Anonymous8:00 PM

    is it possible that I may have made anymore typ-o's in that posting??

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  11. Quick note:

    Minor home repair does seem to be listed in The Tribune Redevelopment article. I didn't recognize it at first. The amount listed in the article is $200K while the five year plan and Redevelopment officials have mentioned $150K. My bad.

    Re: Price

    It's not a matter of agreement or disagreement. It's a matter of whether or not he's willing and/or able to piece together and present/consider accurate information. Without that as a basis, his decision making ability is irrelevant. By not putting forth considerable effort to do that, I think his stance on education is pretty clear.

    But don't worry. The majority of energy is being spent on positive city related activities that don't include Price. There are any number of people outworking him. If he were actually involved in revitalization efforts, he'd know that himself.

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  12. IAH wrote: "We ask candidates for reasons to vote for them. In his own way, Mr. Price is providing reasons--whether we agree with them or not. He deserves credit for that."

    I gave him credit for that, but I never said that the mere act of uttering a platitude should be mistaken for a substantive position.

    Have you ever notice that the harder we press, the more he resorts to cliches and homilies, and reduces matters to the most simplistic black/white rendering he can?

    Full court pressure's the obvious strategy. Until he determines a way to break it and score a few easy layups, then there's no reason whatosever to permit him the luxury fo walking it up the court.

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  13. Okay, I never said he should be re-elected. I admitted, up front, that I have not seen him in "action". NAC, you are correct that you did give him credit(my mistake). On the other hand...

    My impression of Mr. Price, from the blogs, newspapers, and discussions with others:

    1. Basically a decent person who works and tries to follow his own philosophy.
    2. A person with limited life experiences outside the very local area.
    3. A person who would probably be a very good councilman in a town of 2,000.

    So, yes, I think he is in over his head for a city the size and complexity of New Albany. I believe many of his statements show that, ie Dave Ramsey for city financial matters. I think Dave's advice is excellent for many people's private financial matters but his philosophy is misapplied in Mr. Price's role as councilman.

    I think we do a disservice to a man and to ourselves, when we try to turn practically everything he says into something that fits our "plan". Do we not have an obligation to attempt to understand what the man is saying?

    15th Street/Montessori? Was he saying that he was against education? Even subconsciously? I think not. I believe he was saying that sometimes tough decisions have to be made. It was an example. With his money "philosophy" he believes that only what is immediate can and should be done. I don't agree with that but he is following his philosophy.

    If he is anti education, there are probably much better examples than this. I'm sorry, NAC, but this example is pretty much what KR did to John Kerry. You are so much better than that.

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  14. While not exactly a syllogism, and whether he realizes it or not, CM Price offered a chain of reasoning leading to a concludion.

    Montessori is a want, not a need. We should address needs, not wants. To determine this, we must discard "feel good" projects.

    Did he come right out and say that education is "feel good" and not a necessity? I suppose not. Was his argumentation stilted and inelegant, and was such an impression one that he ended up conveying? I believe so.

    I'm not swiftboating the councilman. I am applying incessant pressure for him to say what he means, and to mean what he says, and to do so clearly. When he does so badly, as he did iwith the post in question, then I propose to lash him mercilessly. The ability to articulate is part of the job description. He seeks to dumb that part down through homilies and cliches, and I seek to prod him upward, surmising that it might be a climb he has difficulty sustaining. How is that not a part of politics?

    Perhaps my attitude in part is derived from watching so many times as he and the other council reactionaries have openly mocked anything that smacks of thinking and education. But I believe my response is justified beyond just that motivation.

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  15. Readers hould note that IAH and I are having a discussion and are disagreeing, but are doing so within the bounds of decency.

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  16. Of course we are. Roger would never hold a grudge. The last time I had a Progressive pint, he assured me that everyone was being charged $20 for them.(smile)

    For those who don't know us(or me)this is pretty typical for NAC and me when we are together. We agree probably 98.5% of the time but neither of us is the others back pocket.

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  17. I understand your wanting Mr. Price to be clear. I even agree with it. He is not the best writer in the world. Neither am I, and guess that I am sympathetic to his plight. It is why I quit rambling in my original post and waited for responses to help me become more clear(or just ramble some more).

    We obviously are coming at this from two different perspectives. You have been involved in this a long time. You know him personally. In short, you know the history. That can lead to bias. I am ignorant of most of this history. That can lead to stupidity.

    If he had used as an example the choice between saving a mortally endangered spouse or child, and he chose the child, would it lead to calling him a spouse abuser? I know it is not exactly the same thing but you used "not exactly" in your response and I wanted to too.

    When you get right down to the nitty gritty the M school is not going under if they do not get their request. 15th street could very well go under. That does not make anyone anti education. I still think your "slip" is showing.

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  18. My 10:12 post last sentence should be "...neither of us is IN the others back pocket". Damn lack of education...razmatzzz, griadlsa, ;ak.

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