True or not, with the inaugural city council meeting of November moved forward to tonight so as not to interfere with Scary Larry’s anticipated last-minute November 5 "trick or treating" – er, make that “electioneering” -- for the Republican opponent of the 4th district's Democratic nominee, both the Tribune and the C-J breathlessly report that this evening's sagacious (nah) gathering will feature a fresh round of redistricting discussion.
The New Albany City Council will be asked tonight to set aside a redistricting ordinance that already has won preliminary approval and support a plan to delay the issue until next year, when a new council will take office.
The Tribune’s Eric Scott Campbell identifies this startling new twist in the tale of the council’s laggardly response time to the legal imperative of redistricting:
(Councilman Bill Schmidt’s plan) is not equal enough for the taste of a group of residents that sued the council for unequal representation in May 2006, largely because the council did not realign district boundaries in 2002 as the state had charged it to do. The matter will proceed to trial Dec. 3 unless, plaintiffs say, the council agrees to drop any redistricting effort and instead appoints a panel of council members and plaintiffs to redistrict in 2008.
To that end, another bill on the council’s Thursday agenda, sponsored by Councilman Jack Messer, would have members join the plaintiffs in putting that agreement in writing.
Full disclosure: NAC’s plaintiff editors are among the signatories to Messer’s document, which stands as a perfectly reasonable compromise to the impasse.
Speaking for myself, I’d dearly love to be there tonight to watch as the Gang of Four collectively foams at the mouth and once again misrepresents the magistrate’s instructions to the council’s bumbling chief executive, and also to observe unfortunate council swingman Donnie Blevins agonizingly flail as he re-enacts Hamlet’s soliloquy for the 205th consecutive council meeting without managing to find his footing on touchstone principle, but my wife’s cousin from England is coming to town for a visit and her plane will be landing in Louisville about the same time that Steve Price dramatically wields grandma’s cookie jar as a shield against progress and human rationality. So, I’ll just have to miss it.
Ironically, Price happens to be the same 3rd district councilman who recently conceded to me that the Gang of Four’s redistricting stance is “all Larry’s thing,” meaning that the ever deferential and customarily unthinking Price will be voting yet again tonight in favor of an ordinance that will result in a costly trial and precisely the sort of cookie jar depletion that he insists is his worst nightmare. As in most other matters, Price is about to count incorrectly, and that’s why readers residing in the 3rd council district are reminded to vote against him, and for Brenda Scharlow, next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, intently reading his or her tea leaves, NA Shadow Council’s shadowy uber-analyst nonetheless sees enlightenment in the evening’s legislative festivities:
And Peter Vogt and his pals ought to be pleased at how their case is strengthened this evening.
Noting that Vogt’s name is first on the list of plaintiffs in the redistricting lawsuit, I can say with all honesty that it doesn’t matter to me at this point.
Any excuse to buy a new suit will do just fine, thank you.
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