INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS: READING
R-09-16 Resolution To Appropriate E.D.I.T Funds To Assist Residents With Damages Caused By Recent Storms And Flooding (Gahan)
Bob Caesar adds his addendum to the Gahan resolution. Because it is a resolution, it can be introduced in modified form.
Coffey: Who enforces this? Answer is: Stormwater Board. Coffey rolls his eyes.
Jack Messer notes that stormwater has a machine for trenching that it is not using and hasn't for seven months.
Kevin Zurschmiede (first comment, 2:15 into the meeting): Accountability! They're not here because we have tough questions for them! Every deppartment needs to be accountable! Namechecks Erika. "There's no accountability." KZ grandstands about accountability, the new mantra.
Caesar: "We have to do something for these people," and "start now, not in nine months."
Benedetti: But we give them money and it doesn't change! How do we change that?
Coffey: Cut 'em, cut 'em.
Price: We had to sue to do something.
Messer: This administration hires people who won't work. Need different contractors, new people. They're not working.
Benedetti: Something about Ron Carroll hiring or paying too much to someone. Now they're getting tired and mumbling all at once.
Coffey: Bob wants to hire college kids for creek cleaning, and Kay Garry found out that the stormwater slackers already allotted money for this! We'll approve the $25,000 requested by Caesar for cleaning up cricks. Where to take it from?
Marcey: Kay and I figured it out. Explains the part-time scheme. It would take about $23,400.
Discussion about how to pay them.
Messer: Corrections people?
Paul Haub: "Use community service people." They could do it for free.
Coffey: The other $75,000? Where? To the people?
Gahan: The stormwater board makes that decision.
Benedetti: "What do I say to the people who come up to me" and can't afford the repairs?
Gahan: Stormwater and sewers make these decisions every day?
WE HAVE NOTHING REMOTELY RESEMBLING A RULING CLASS IN THIS CITY. WE HAVE SPENT AS MUCH TIME ON OLD GRIEVANCES TONIGHT AS ANYTHING ELSE, BECAUSE THIS IS ISSUE IS NOT CAPABLE OF BEING SOLVED BY DISBURSING MONEY TO THE FLOODING VICTIMS. THIS IS OF A SCOPE THAT ELUDES THEM ALL.
Coffey: Attorneys will swarm if some people get money and others don't.
They're arguing about the terms of a city-wide bailout.
Shane Gibson speaks: We try to determine on a case by case basis. Sewer claims have a $25,000 deductible. Most of the current crop would go past deductible. No specifics, but never this many problems. Many of these claims will be handled by the insurance company.
Gahan: Still a council issue, because "we have to come up with the big fix" and tackle the problems presented tonight.
Really? THEM?
Coffey: "Why do we need this $75,000?"
Gibson: The extent of this problem is for the insurance company. The deductibles owed by the city will come from the sewer utility, as it has done in the past. Now getting claims. No idea of the total cost when all is said and done.
***Gibson: "We still have to determine if the city is liable." Not comfortable just throwing money out because it can't be policed ... because it would not lend itself to accountability. Recommends it be specifically earmarked for the emrgency stormwater.
But that would run counter to Coffey's aim of kneecapping stormwater.
Vote: Price hems, haws, squawks and votessssss yes. Messer abstains. Zurschmiede now speaks up about water in his building, abstains. Coffey abstains. 6 yes, three abstain, I think.
Bizarre.
R-09-17 Resolution Concerning Statement of Benefits For VTI of Indiana Door, Inc, DBA Ideal Door Division by the Common Council (Gonder)
Marcey Wisman reads amendment to transform the abatement to five years for equipment. Unanimously approved.
R-09-18 Resolution to Fund the City Portion of a Fire Department Grant to Purchase a Multi-Task Emergency Vehicle (Gonder)
This is what the fire department is here to discuss. Poor guys. They got a grant for most of it, need $47,000 as the department's share. Coffey hates to turn it down because some other grants don't require matches. The chief explains. Vote by hand: Unanimos in favor.
Coming back for the grand finale.
Did these doofuses ever think that with $23,400 to buy gloves and boots, they could have 500 people come out to walk down Falling Run Creek from top to bottom to clear, hire trucks to haul off the deadwood, appliances, and condoms, and clean it up in one weekend?
ReplyDeleteNo. Because nobody gets paid off. The wife says Louisville is asking for volunteers to come mow the parks. They also give money to people who convert to manual mowers. Can you imagine 500 people with manual mowers clearing a park, boarding a TARC bus, clearing another, and so on?
Who has the cojones to declare a clean-up day for the creeks? Jack's right, the city employees won't and don't want to work. It's somebody's nephew's job to take a cut from the taxpayer. Getting the job done? That's an act of God.
Who reading this couldn't give up a Saturday to wade into this mess? How many of the recruited 6th District aggrieved would come out and join the urban core folks to once and for all root out the streams? 100 yards from Dan Coffey's house is the worst "brownfield" in the whole city, and 1/2 mile from the "streets" department, no less.
Let's quit calling them the "streets" department, anyway. They should be considered public works employees who do public works.
By the by, did anyone else notice that Spring and Silver's new paint striping was immediately swirled away by rain the other day? Swirls or paint coated cars and sluiced into the watershed all morning on Wednesday, all because someone wanted to declare the job "finished." I suppose that was contractors, but if it was city employees, it proves Jack's point.
Gaaaah!
The idea of the city appropriating money for potential tort claims is insane both legally and politically.
ReplyDeleteWe are basically inviting anyone with flooding/sewer backup to bring a claim and creating the expectation that they will be paid, regardless of the merit of their claim, insurance considerations, etc. When they aren't paid, I hope they remember Gahan promised otherwise.
Furthermore, I feel for the people suffering from decades of city incompetence, but if one has a history of flooding and sewer damage, it might be time to buy the common endorsement to your homeowners policy covering that type of risk.
I see from Part 6 that Shane Gibson was trying to interject some sense into the matter, but it's a little late for proactive legal advice, eh?
When's the next flight to Germany?
Yes Bookseller, I noticed the paint too...it was maddening.
ReplyDeleteImagine how fed-up you'd feel if you'd been a personal witness to the destruction of New Albany over 50 years? Seriously, the dysfunction in city government IS criminal. "Because nobody gets paid off." oHHH, watch out Bookseller, Bluegill will accuse you of slander and undermining all progress! :)
ReplyDeleteObviously, one city employee on the Council isn't enough. ;-}
ReplyDelete