Verily, we’re counting down to the final gun … and what a doozy of a two-minute drill it’s shaping up to be.
The beer may actually have to wait until tonight's city council meeting is over, lest we dull our senses to the full extent of the spectacle.
And so, although he can’t be with us tonight, we turn now to the Highwayman for an appropriately irreverent overview of the impending festivities.
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Batten down the hatches, sound battle stations, load all torpedo tubes and remove all safeties! The boyz in the band have a full plate on their agenda for the final act of King Larry's reign.
Here is a brief sampling of Thursday's offerings (NAC’s thoughts in red):
R-07-44 *Funding for One Southern Indiana - CM Gahan
See yesterday’s posting: Will the city of New Albany help 1SI pay for the placards at ROCK's next religious rally?
R-07-45 *Funding for Haven House - CM Zurschmeide
Given that management difficulties have plagued Haven House in 2007, this ordinance is an open invitation for demagoguery from the Gang of Four, even if Haven House remains virtually the only Southern Indiana organization willing to acknowledge (and help) New Albany’s homeless.
G-07-18 *Assassination attempt on the New Albany Housing Authority - CM Coffey
G-07-18 *Sewer Board restructuring - CM Coffey
Councilman Cappuccino, whose behavior since the November election has been likened to a feral canine pawing the dump for scraps, needs a new power base, hence his recent nuzzling of New Albany’s FOP. Meanwhile, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and incoming councilman John Gonder thinks Coffey may not be wrong when it comes to the composition of the sewer board.
Z-07-22 * Approval for the latest McCartin greenfield development plan - CM Zurschmeide
You can be sure The Gary is marching in lockstep with ROCK when it comes to the situation of “their” church – and that the locale needn’t be far removed from the beltway.
G-07-19 * Reintroduction of the Schmidt Redistricting Ordinance - CM Price (unless I'm mistaken, there have been no changes made) Go Larry Go!!
Here come da judge, dudes … but please, have it your way.
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It's Hawaiian shirt night ... and don't forget your stogie for the post-meeting Connor's Place rehash.
Read tonight's council agenda and attached paperwork here.
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3 comments:
Someone PLEEEAASSEEEE tape this. It'll make great alternative viewing to SNL reruns during the writers strike!!
Challenge for the evening:
Since 1SI is claiming credit for helping to create 631 jobs in New Albany and the council's funding resolution is predicated on that job creation as justification, Michael Dalby or whomever else shows up to speak on 1SI's behalf should be readily able to explain how their involvement directly caused the company expansions and job increase or why they wouldn't have happened otherwise.
They can't, and that's a problem.
I've been shuffling through the 1SI list of new jobs and matching them up with Tribune stories about the companies' respective expansions. Over and over again, it's apparent that 1SI had little or nothing to do with the expansions and, when they did have some small influence, it was usually in directing the employers to further tax breaks and grants, sometimes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars for already well-established, successful companies to create more mostly low paying jobs.
The Highwayman's mention of the wage/profit discrepancy earlier in the month is a lingering invisible elephant, especially when taxpayers are asked to shell out around $16,000 to create $18,000-a-year jobs and 1SI continues to tout low wages as a draw for outside companies.
Globe Mechanical's owner cited industry changes to explain increased business and the need for expansion. Hitachi got a new contract with GM to provide hybrid vehicle parts. Conforma Clad, same type of story. L&D Mail Masters was already planning on expanding and creating 20 news jobs. They decided, according to their owner and 1SI board member Diane Fisher, to create an additional 20 to 26 only after getting additional tax breaks and a tax funded grant. (1SI is claiming credit for all 46 projected jobs).
Samtec and Beach Mold and Tool have been in business for decades, steadily growing all the while. Now whenever they expand like they have for the past 30 years, 1SI will take credit.
The companies themselves negotiate the deals that make those expansions a possibility and city staff and taxpayers most often handle the real work of facilitating them with planning, zoning, infrastructure improvements, and tax breaks.
In other words, 1SI wants us to pay them to tell us to do the same things we've already been doing.
If 1SI were serious about its commitment to the community, they would be facilitating legitimate public discussion about development and how best to approach it rather than trying to pass off bogus numbers as qualification for the status quo and impetus for their own expansion.
So far, they've chosen to rely on the latter while involving themselves in other questionable dealings- a sad testimony on the "vision" they promised as part of their restructuring
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