I strolled into last evening’s council meeting just in time for the commencement of the public hearing on A-08-19, an ordinance to set salaries for elected officials.
Settling into the creaky metal chairs that we can’t afford to replace, I listened as Gonepostalman launched into pointed criticism of what sounded to me like an optional program of healthcare benefits available to local elected officials.
The decrepit sound system crackled.
In the speaker’s eyes, this option amounts to a 180% raise if exercised – something positively scandalous in a country where people like the Gonepostalman customarily resist the siren's call of universal health care like that widely enjoyed in functional countries they loath for not being as American as we are.
Of all people, it was none other than Dan Coffey who effectively lanced the boil by asking the U.S. government’s taxpayer-sponsored snail mail delivery technician to describe the history of his own pay raises and benefits, but not before Steve Price served notice that if a shameless Checkers speech was good enough for Tricky Dicky, it’s good enough for the downtrodden constituents that CM Price drives (not walks) constantly on his own gasoline dime to visit, drink Folger’s, and assure that their prospects won’t be permitted to improve on his watch.
CM Price noted that alas, he was one of the council members who had signed up for the health care bonanza, not for himself, mind you, but after friends phoned him anonymously late at night and said that some doctorin’ now and then might be good for his daughter … and now that Gonepostalman had rightly pointed out the error of his ways, a contrite Price could see that thinking about his family was selfish.
“I put her before the common good of the city of New Albany, and that was wrong,” said Price.
Instinctively, I reached for my hankie … to wipe the shit off my shoes.
Put 'em to work breaking up rocks.
As C-J reporter Dick Kaukas informs us, the council approved a $25,000 tithe to Jeffersonville’s Haven House homeless shelter, primarily as a conscience-salving means of avoiding a comprehensive consideration of New Albany’s own problem with homelessness, and yet, as Price noted during an interminable, pre-schoolmasterly grilling of Haven House director Barb Anderson, it isn’t that most of those homeless people really want to work, anyway, something Price gleaned from his personal experience with a deadbeat rental property resident who stiffed the councilman and fled to the shelter at his first opportunity, presumably exhausted by daily mandatory Dave Ramsey recitations.
Remarkably, the primary rationale for Price’s hectoring of Anderson was revealed to be “red flags” raised by mysterious (different) callers phoning the councilman to complain about Haven House’s management, while refusing to come on down to the council chambers and put their comments on the record, with not even a Nixonian doctored transcript as proof of their existence.
The Haven House debate continued, with Coffey forcefully upholding the need to fund help for the homeless, and suddenly the gallery gasped as Price made another shocking revelation.
Who told you THAT?
Not only would there be no overtime for firefighters and a potential City-County Building rent snafu, but all of it had come to him “ACCORDING TO THE NEWSPAPER,” not via more obvious and conventional methods like his person being seated twice monthly on a council that deliberates on such matters in spite of never receiving information that isn’t passed on to them by cub reporters and red-flag-wielding chatters.
Don’t touch that rotary dial, folks … there’s more.
Outgunned, and with most of his ammo actually cheap Wal-Mart blanks, Price adeptly reversed field and decided to feign some measure of concern about the homeless, extemporaneously offering his venerable, three-minute old personal plan for the city to do something positive about the problem of people who refuse to work.
(a) House them in the Tabernacle building on 4th, presumably because its engaging patio-style rooflessness would simulate natural conditions out on the street, or …
(b) House them at the Rustic Frog/II Horseshoes, since to do so would be an improvement on the go-go dancers there now, and with an added benefit of the homeless being housed out of view by the floodplain, where they would be invisible to taxpaying citizens disturbed by their shiftlessness.
Perhaps the owners of the property will give it to the city.
Believe it or not, but it wasn’t over yet.
Having approved the Haven House funding resolution by a count of 8-1 (guess who), and with little further debate in the offing on the first reading of the salary ordinance, the increasingly apocalyptic (not to mention apoplectic) Price threw a final gem of observation into the recessionary gloom pervading the vicinity of Dewey Heights.
How bad is it, Steve?
Well, it’s so bad that the uncouncilman personally knows of people who’ve been forced to dispense with cable television to make ends meet.
The soiled hankie was of no further use, so I buried my head in my raggedy sweatshirt. The humanity … the humanity … hmm ...
Wonder if they’ve got cable over at Haven House?
The abyssmal plight of the Haven House "emergency shelter" falls squarely on the shoulders of one person and one persons alone.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Anderson deliberately jeapordized the services to the clients that the emergency shelter (and my agency) serves when she chose not to pay over $400,000.00 in federal payroll taxes for the employees of the shelter.
In doing so, even though the intentions were well placed, it was an idiotic move at best and cost not only the $400k, plus interest, but it cost the emergency shelter future funding from private grants, public funds, and individual donations as well.
(like plugging a hole in a damn with a lit stick of dynomite)
The "invoices" she sent out to the surrounding community governments stating the Haven House was entitled to compensation they provided to said communities "homeless", was, in my humble opinion, guilt driven extortion, and by cleverly placing said letter on the front page of the evening news, it was placed in the spot light where politically fragile individuals were placed in a position of help us fill the breach in the dam we created, or be vilified.
Yes it provides a much needed service to an underserved population. However, it is my humble and PRIVATE opinion that the surrounding communities should have offered financial support to the Haven House, on the contention that the ones responsible for the gross mismanagement of the funds be replaced BEFORE one red cent was released from all ready starving coffers.
Of course if we were to look at the bigger picture of government responsibility in fiscal management,we would find no better solutions than to bail out the executives that made horrible decisions, and in the end the bail out is borne on the backs of the tax payers.
Hopefully the emergency shelter will be in place if God forbid some New Albanians become homeless should thier house burn down when a fire station is closed due to lack of funding.
(then again, perhaps I should send an invoice letter to the city for the services provided for the medically indigent residents of New Albany, keeping them out of the trustees office)
*okay, maybe a little harsh, but this one really touches a nerve
Chris, Barbara did not attempt to shirk responsibility for the tax situation, and answered all the councilman's questions.
ReplyDeleteThis is a legitimate topic for discussion, althouth my intent in the preceding was to illuminate the councilman's views on homelessness in general.
I have always thought that Mr. Price was in over his head. Last night proved that, yet again.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also always thought that he had a good "heart". Good thing Tiny Tim was not in the room last night. His crutches would have been sold. But maybe his cable TV would have been saved.
Sorry to excurse from the main subject Roger.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, CM Price's alluding homelessness = a refusal to work is WAY off base.
These very PEOPLE are the are the ones I am blessed enough to be able to serve.
Many are just like you and I, and one lost paycheck set forth into motion a chain of events where they lost everything but their pride, and that too was taken when they had to seek shelter in, well a shelter.
It has the ability to take away ones identity, sense of self worth, and humanity.
For a person who makes their living off of bad music, and worse rental properties it does seem strange to cast dispersions on those who are trapped in a vicious circle. Whether that circle is made up of bad luck, mental health issues, etc.
Perhaps it would do CM Price's soul well to spend just two days in the shoes of someone who has lost everything.
But I do still stand behind the one statement in my original post, we can spend TRILLIONS of dollars on financial bail outs, and yet we can not end homelessness?
Worry not, Chris ... we're on roughly the same page here. Price's questions were mostly justified, but his conclusions with regard to homelessness are not.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like Mr. Price is doing that time honored thing of vilifying the poor. Poverty and homelessness comes from many sources and people end up in these situations for a variety of reasons. Interestingly enough, the reason is rarely a refusal to work or laziness.
ReplyDeleteIn the issue of Haven House, they offer a greatly needed service. Frankly, we have a desperate need for a shelter in New Albany. As winter sets in we are seeing a whole lot of 'under the bridge' dwellers coming in majorly cold.
And, if the ladies at the Rustic Frog or whatever are unable to afford clothing while they do their dancing, our Clothes Closet will be happy to help them out!
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ReplyDelete"Chris, I think you are carrying a torch, if not a pitchfork, that should have been put out by now. Like Price, you're addressing past issues that Barbara Anderson cogently addressed last evening. She has righted the ship over the past 16 months and while things are not perfect, her critics haven't lifted a single finger to help."
ReplyDelete??!!
All4word,
For the first time on this blog I actually feel insulted.
All I can say is in this instance, claiming I am like Price, and fast to be critical and not lift a finger to help, you obviously haven't the slightest clue what so ever.
Thank you and God Bless
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ReplyDeleteMr. Smith,
ReplyDeleteI decided to remove the previous post, as I do not in any way shape or form have to explain myself to the likes of you.
You may play immature games such as spell checker all you wish, it only serves to further illustrate what a fustian ass you are capable of being.
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ReplyDelete"Well, you really showed me, didn't you? Refuted me point by point, didn't you?
ReplyDeleteI'm humbled by your rhetorical skills."
Ah.. More maturity shining through
Chew on this for a while:
Fact: The back taxes owed to the IRS were an estimated $400,000.
Fact: Less than half of that has been repaid
Fact: Barbara Anderson accepted full responsibility for those actions
Fact: The staff levels of the emergency shelter has dropped from 30 to 10
Fact: By Mrs. Andersons own words, they are not sure if the agency will still be there in a year
Fact: They have lost case management services for the clients
Fact: My agency is paying the case managers salary now.
Fact: Barbara Anderson was quoted as stating she was sending out invoices, and that she was sure that local governments would scream that SHE was not entitled to it.
Fact: every non-profit human services agency in the state faced the same financial storm in the months and years after 9-11, one agency came out in this mess, the rest of us are still here, not in that mess.
So let’s address your claim that I am kicking them when they are down, shall we?
* As previously mentioned, my agency is now providing case management services for many of the same people.
* We are taking in as many as 30 new patients a week, a large percentage of them are homeless, they are getting the medical care, dental care, vision care, case management, prescription medications that they need.
* We are doing so in Clark, Floyd, and Harrison Counties
Lets address your snide comment of how basically cowardly I am for not being at the council meeting, where you instantly became a world famous human services consultant.
That evening I was helping to find medical care, hospice care, and emotional support for a 42 year old woman who was given two months to live from lung cancer that has spread to her liver, her lymphatic system, and her brain.
So don’t you sit back in your little bookstore and DARE to question why I wasn’t not at that meeting.
And further to address how you feel I love to kick the homeless while they are down, answer me these questions:
I paid for out of my own pocket warm winter clothes for quite a few homeless clients of mine, what have you done?
I paid for a new mountain bike for a homeless man whose bicycle was stolen from the emergency shelter, which was his only form of transportation to get to and from his job and doctors appointments. What have you done?
And if you would have taken a few minutes to take the entire context of my message, before trying to turn me into a bad guy, not once did I say haven house did not deserve the money, or that it is a waste of money, or that it is not needed.
I did state that it was my PRIVATE opinion that before agreements were met that the ones responsible for the mess were removed before the funding was provided, and I stand by that.
If I in my official capacity were responsible for endangering the services provided to thousands of families of Clark, Floyd, and Harrison Counties, despite how good my intentions were, I would be gone in a heartbeat.
If I were left with the choice to make that decision to do so, I would, and I would take the loss of the job as the price to pay to ensure the services were available, even if for a little while longer. But if it came down to that under my watch, then I would be responsible for it, and I would not feel that I am capable of continuing to do the job at hand.
Let’s get onto your level of maturity for the rest of this:
You called me a bully, I answer to that by stating you may feel you can intimidate me, much like you did my 15 year old daughter by reducing her to tears when she came into your store and asked you if you were hiring, the asinine tirade you launched into her with, correcting her speech, not letting her finish a sentence, and bullying her the way you did.
If I am still carrying any torches or pitchforks against anyone that would be the only one I would be carrying.
So go back to selling your books, and putting letters in the papers, and acting as though you are better than everyone else at everything, and while doing so, keep in mind while your actions to make a difference in this community are pretty much limited to words, I am out there every day, every evening, making a difference one person, one family, one patient at a time.
I gave 8 years to this community as a reserve police officer for free, working nearly full time, on top of school and work, to repay the debt I owed to the Officers who helped my mother after my father passed away. I gave to this community when I volunteered for years as an intervention role model for troubled teens, or when I volunteered as a worksite supervisor for persons with community service.
I make about HALF of the salary I could make in the private sector as a Chief Operations Officer, about 2/3s of what I could have been making at this point on the NAPD, but I chose to do this job, and helping those in the community that have no where else to turn. What do you do?
Until you can prove that you are doing the same, and not just randomly verbally attacking people, whom you feel are beneath you, take your rusty knife out of my back, because I will not back down unlike most people you yourself have a habit of bullying.
So keep doing what you do best, just talking, and I will keep doing what I do best, taking action.
With All Due Respect,
C
Please take it off-line, gentlemen.
ReplyDeleteSigned, the editor.
Roger,
ReplyDeleteI apologize for disrespecting you by behaving this way on your site.
Chris
It's okay, Chris. There just comes a point where as much has been said as can be said. I interpreted no disrespect.
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