Greg Phipps for City Council: My letter to the News and Tribune.

(As yet not archived on-line. Appeared on Saturday, April 23)

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Letter to the editor of the News and Tribune:

Democrat Greg Phipps is running for city council in the 3rd district primary. It is a seat that has been inexplicably vacant since 2003.

Actually, the seat in question has been (nominally) filled since then with someone who indeed has a pulse and endorses council paychecks, but it might as well have been used to stack old magazines or provide Fido with a warm spot for contemplating the roaring fire.

In essence, the 3rd district council seat has gone dusty, rusty and unused for eight long years. Greg Phipps aims to change that.

Greg has numerous positive qualifications. He knows what government is like, having served for many years on the Board of Zoning Appeals -- a thankless job if ever there was one.

Greg has not taken the easy way out and wagged a populist finger on the topic of public safety, and he sensibly asks only that police, firefighters and first responders receive respect and professional courtesy during considerations of staffing and pay, and for an end to the dysfunction that currently pervades these discussions.

Greg has helped to drive the establishment of a neighborhood association, spoken out for code enforcement and the rule of law, and in ways large and small, has put his time and money into the fray.

Greg bucks the tendency of hooded and semi-literate discourse that tends to make local politics acrimonious. He actually has a university degree … actually is a university professor … and manages all of it while using his own name when he speaks and writes.

In the context of New Albany, it’s a novel and amazing feat of transparency. Imagine: He is who he is.

Greg is a powerful advocate for human progress, and can be trusted to consider the interests of the 3rd district as a whole when issues arise. His thoughtfulness, rationality and personal equilibrium will preclude the sort of ideological extremism that has characterized the incumbent’s intemperate “No progress by any Price” tenure.

In fact, it’s so simple that even a caveman (or an antebellum Dixiecrat) could see it: Greg Phipps will address problems by using his brain, not jerking his knee. I urge 3rd district voters to choose him on May 3.

Roger A. Baylor
1117 E. Spring Street
New Albany
502-468-9710