Part 3: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.

(Originally posted in January, 2006)

Part 1: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price's interview responses.
Part 2: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price's interview responses.
Part 3: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price's interview responses.

As a preface to this third and last installment of the series of NA Confidential's examination of interview responses offered by 3rd District Councilman Steve Price, we're happy to report that hits and page views this week are running around 20% more than normal for the days on which the installments ran.

We know you're reading. Thank you.

Part 1: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.

Part 2: NA Confidential examines Councilman Steve Price’s interview responses.

Our original questions are numbered, and CM Price's original responses italicized. Commentary follows. Note that while two-thirds of the questions asked of CM Price were formulated by Jeff "Bluegill" Gillenwater, the commentary is entirely that of the blog owner. Jeff is invited to join the discussion, either as a team member or in comments, and of course, all readers are likewise encouraged to provide their thoughts subject to our identity policy.

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11. What ideas do you have, if any, to restructure and enhance educational opportunities in New Albany?

As we know from following the news regarding the implementation of the federal “No Child Left Behind” Act we as a municipality are somewhat limited in our ability to legislate public education. However, that does not leave us without options. Other cities are finding ways to increase their school systems services and success. I strongly believe we as a city government owe it to our children to research and investigate plans from other cities to see if they are feasible for New Albany.

Fair enough; if, as it is obvious by the lack of a direct response, CM Price has no immediate ideas of his own, looking to the experience of other cities isn’t without merit. In fact, seeking information in such a manner is a large part of any educational experience.

But is the councilman willing to apply this precedent to other areas of inquiry?

We’ve already seen that Louisville’s successful Frankfort Avenue area is regarded by CM Price as “overcrowded,” “landlocked” and unsuitable as a goal for New Albany.

Can he provide an example of another school system worth studying, one that fits his obviously narrow crieria, i.e., as long as it doesn’t cost the city anything, it’s potentially useful?

More importantly, what else besides educational opportunities do we owe to our children?

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12. What is your plan for giving more meaningful authority to the historic preservation commission and ordinance enforcement position? Do you support the expansion of the city attorney position to full-time and/or the creation of a city court to better deal with the violations cited by those entities? If not, how do you envision the city being able to deal with them adequately?

The City Council established a position of ordinance enforcement officer to enforce the existing ordinances. While doing so, we outlined the consequences of violations to these ordinances. When properly enforced, I feel the message will get out that the city will not tolerate housing in substandard conditions. The City Council has discussed the possibility of a full time attorney. While I am not opposed to the idea, obtaining an accurate account of monies is a more immediate need at the present time.

On Thursday, January 26, the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association had its monthly meeting (as is his habit, CM Price did not attend this meeting).

One local couple went into great detail in describing their renewed efforts to demand accountability for a prominently ramshackle adjoining property. Indeed, after some years of effort, there is cautious optimism that meaningful action finally has been initiated to resolve the rampant code violations and filthy living conditions found in the house by the ordinance enforcement officer, the building commissioner and other officials charged with tending to such matters.

Our point in recounting this episode is that the ensuing discussion, one laced with understandable frustration and pointing of fingers, yet again pointed to certain realities as contributing to – in some ways, of enabling -- the culture of unaccountability that must be reversed if the city of New Albany is to move into the future.

While not excusing indolence on the part of city officials, it remains that in the absence of a city court, and without a full-time city attorney, the chances of successfully following up on building code violations is minimal. The same applies to parking fines.

Furthermore, in the absence of a division of city government responsible for regulating and inspecting rental properties, there are equally limited opportunities to bring the slumlord to heel, and it is the slumlord’s rental properties that are the prime source of “substandard housing.”

In essence, we are asking public officials to do 100% of the job with 50% (or less) of the tools needed, and when asked whether he is in favor of providing the tools – in the end, providing citizens with the tools to take back their neighborhoods – CM Price can offer only a lukewarm acceptance in principle, with the disclaimer that we’ll almost certainly not be able to afford it.

Can we afford not to?

Characteristically, he does not attempt an answer.

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13. As an extension of the preceding, do you agree that New Albany should institute rental property inspections with real teeth? Why or why not?

As a reminder, I spearheaded the cleanliness ordinance. I think homeowners’ period should take responsibility for their property. At the present time, I feel we need to focus on enforcing the established ordinances before entertaining new ones.

See the analysis of #12, preceding.

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14. Is there a difference between being a “taxpayer watchdog” and expressing public contempt for the ideals of civic progress? Please explain.

The difference is the “taxpayer watchdog” is open-minded and looking out for the better good of the community and supports “community-based “ progress and takes a stand on force fed growth. A “taxpayer watchdog” knows taking out a 2nd mortgage to go to Disney World isn’t the smartest business move you can make. While the latter would say no without just reason, the “taxpayer watchdog” says lets look at ways to make the progress happen without tax increases. We can progress ourselves into bankruptcy. After all, Grandma’s don’t spend it if you don’t have it philosophy left wealth not debt with her memory. Let history be our teacher.

CM Price closes the NA Confidential interview on a palpable note of impatience, defiantly welding together a handful of favored themes and convenient catchphrases into a rousing homily designed to rally his constituency to his defense.

Stripping away the tired rhetoric (second mortgages to finance a vacation, “progress” into bankruptcy) and unsupported premises (force-fed growth, “better good” of the community), we’re left with the fundamental premise – one that CM Price has articulated throughout his term in office – that government finance is the same thing as household finance, and by extension, that if Dave Ramsey can instruct Steve Price how to keep his family debt free, that should be good enough for the city of New Albany as a whole.

It should be noted that NA Confidential does not deny the efficacy of the “taxpayer watchdog,” for we, too, pay taxes like all the rest.

Rather, we believe that by the very nature of the social contract (as implicitly recognized by CM Price, though perhaps not by our Libertarian friends and readers), government is entrusted with performing a number of tasks the likes of which are not directly applicable to household or business finance.

These tasks pertain to the commonweal, or the public good. Police and fire protection are among them, although they’re not the only examples.

Money in this context is a means to an end. Yes, it must be accounted for, properly audited and explained to the citizenry. Yes, we are certain that it does not grow on trees. But there are indeed matters of importance to the community in general, and insofar as these are the domain of elected officials and their appointees, they must sometimes be considered in ways that differ from the calculations made by those living from paycheck to paycheck.

If these considerations and expenditures are botched and the monies misused, legal and electoral ramifications will come into effect.

Government has never been as simple as grandma’s cookie jar philosophy, and it never will be, but there will always be those among us who seek to simplify the world in such a way, and who do so from both noble and ignoble motivations, but sometimes for other reasons, too.

Perhaps grandma was frightened, unwilling to confront the uncertainties of a changing world, content with her lot in life but unaware of the possibilities. With some encouragement and information, she might have seen that sometimes one spends money to make money – as in the case of her grandchildren borrowing to attend college.

Maybe then, instead of fearing the future, she would have embraced it. Rather than be intimidated by the inevitable force of change, she would have seen in it the seeds of diversity that carry within them the potential for community-wide empowerment, achievement, success.

Throughout the NA Confidential interview, Councilman Steve Price clearly enunciates a tri-partite “vision” about the city of New Albany and its future.

We don’t comprehend the future.

We can’t afford the future.

We can’t.

When one considers CM Price ’s policy alternatives, it becomes clear that he, along with fellow Councilman Dan Coffey, speaks as the foremost local prophet of decay management as the only attainable goal.

This is completely unacceptable to the majority of CM Price's constituents.

NA Confidential is dedicated to a differing proposition.

“We Can.”

You, our readers and citizens, are invited to join us.

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15. Neil Young or Bob Dylan?

What do you think?

We think neither. The Manic Street Preachers came close with "If you tolerate this/Then your children will be next," but they come from a place (Wales) where they don't even speak English all the time.

Although we may not enjoy the music, the only artist that matters is the one embraced by the young New Albanians still in school, because that artist will provide the soundtrack for their future.

We're working toward their future being here, in New Albany.