"How can you be a leader?" Simple.

The persistent dysfunction of “New Albany Politics” can be seen in its genetic propensity toward stunted comprehension of the modern world, an inbred inability to visualize, and a sometimes sentimental but periodically violent adoration for the palpably untrue.

--NA Confidential, May 5, 2006

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3:00 p.m. update
For more meeting coverage, read: City Council Meeting = Bad Manners, at the New Albany Today blog.

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If last night’s city council meeting was any indication, the Larry Kochert Era is going to be remembered as the time when the reins finally were loosened, any remaining pretense abandoned, and all – not just some – of the Gang of Four’s persistently unprofessional, native dysfunction brought into full, Technicolor view of the city’s residents, and permitted to fester, then drown, in a puddle of self-generated bile.

A boy can dream, right?

New Albany council shuffles changes agenda; New firefighter rules were not considered, by Dick Kaukas, (short shelf life for Courier-Journal links).

Members of the New Albany City Council were criticized for not considering an ordinance last night that would set new rules for hiring firefighters.

It had been removed from the agenda over the weekend.

While CM Larry Kochert gyrated wildly from one direction to the next from a seated position in his well-greased presidential chair, seemingly unable to issue firm dictates on matters ranging from agenda items to public speaking topics, the handy “Wardheeler-O-Matic” grandstanding detector used by NA Confidential to measure the preposterousness of the Conjoined Councilman clicked like an amok Geiger counter positioned outside Professor Erika’s shabby double wide.

Details are important, of course, but it should suffice to note that while specific content varies, the institutionalized unprofessionalism of the current council remains consistent from meeting to meeting, and in spite of the best efforts of those council members who obviously have acted in a manner that differs from the baser instincts regularly flaunted before the gallery by members on the east side of the table, these self-aggrandizing outbursts are what sets the tone and will unfortunately be remembered by visitors, who walk away in amazement to perpetuate New Albany’s sad public image by word of mouth.

One such episode was the topic of last night’s posting, “A weasel ripped the Building Commission president's flesh.”

Steve Laduke, president of the building commission, took advantage of speaking time allotted to public officials to present a brief overview of recent actions taken by the city’s building department to creatively facilitate the demolition of derelict properties. Laduke’s basic message: In the absence of a council resolution to restore the demolition fund from its current position in the “red,” and to push it into the “black,” such creativity is necessary, takes more time, but is being exercised on a weekly basis.

Given that many of these derelict properties had been part of an inaccurate list circulated by CM Bill Schmidt at the previous meeting, and later published by the non-fact-checking Erika, it’s probable that Laduke intended his presentation at least in part as a refutation, on top of his stated aim of providing good news amid the customary litany of acrimony and complaints.

And, surely, the simple act of pointing out that the building department is doing some measure of its job does not excuse legitimate criticism of it in several areas. This blog has joined in the criticism, and will continue to do so as merited by circumstances.

But rather, it was the ill-tempered response to Laduke’s comments that provided the most recent cogent illustration of the council’s persistent dysfunction, as well as pointing toward the most common offender.

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it one hundred times: CM Dan Coffey complaining loudly and bitterly that he has not been provided information … or doesn’t know where the proper information is hidden … or that critical pieces of the puzzle are being denied him.

At least as often, one or the other public official has been heard to respond that CM Coffey’s request has yet to be forthcoming, that he hasn’t asked, that the phone hasn't sounded, or that he’s shown no interest in learning. Instructively, last night, Laduke provided precisely such information to the council – just as the council in general, and members such as CM Coffey in particular, had been asking for him or someone like him to do.

CM Coffey’s immediate and predictable response was to attack the building department (“it’s a mess”), to viciously accuse Laduke of performing shoddy work in his day job, and to ask Laduke to identify for the jury the part of town where he lives – as though this were at all germane.

(Germane … wait, GERMANS!! Nazis in the VFW exhuming the video poker games of our vets, NAAAHHHZZ – screeeeech – not now, CM Price … not now. Here, have a nice umbrella rum drink and read this article in Rental Property Weekly)

What’s worse, and more damning, is that CM Coffey maligned Laduke’s act of sharing information with the people who asked for it as “politics” and nothing more.

Think about that one for a moment.

Later, on another topic, CM Coffey lamented that very soon, New Albany could begin "losing companies" owing to a lack of acreage compared to Clark County. Have readers ever wondered how many businesses of any size -- whether these require bricks and mortar homes or merely the laptop occupying space at a coffee shop -- have been frightened away from New Albany by people like Dan Coffey himself, and the mode of "thought" that he represents?

Sometimes it’s so bad at these meetings that I arrive back home to find that my pot and kettle are no longer on speaking terms.

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The Tribune’s Eric Scott Campbell was there, and we’ll link to his coverage when it appears on-line: ___