Last week's introduction is reprinted below. The question I'll be asking of the bored this morning was first raised in this recent NAC post.
Where is the best place to put a bike rack? (A clue: not where it blocks a sidewalk).
On another level, the question refers to this story from 2015.
HWC Engineering, municipal cowardice, Jeff Speck and reading the tea leaves through dry heaves.
"Will the Bored of Works be placing bicycle racks on sidewalks, and if so, will it finalize the bike racks before or after the results come back from HWC Engineering's two-way street design and engineering study?"
Because: Why would we bolt down racks before we know how (or if) the street grid is to be redesigned?
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New Albany's Board of Public Works and Safety exists because the State of Indiana says so.
IC 36-4-9-5
Board of public works and safety; establishment Sec. 5.
(a) A board of public works and safety is established in each city.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the legislative body of a second class city may by ordinance establish as separate boards: (1) a board of public works; and (2) a board of public safety; to perform the functions of the board of public works and safety.
As added by Acts 1980, P.L.212, SEC.3.
As for what the board is supposed to do each Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., you can visit the American Legal Publishing site, search "Board of Public Works and Safety," and sift through various powers accorded the board over the decades by dint of ordinance.
Exactly how much power does our Board of Public Works and Safety possess?
If Jeff Gahan were to stray from the protection of his Down Low Bunker and comment, no doubt he would assert that the board has just the power it needs. He handpicked it, and he's perfectly content to see his program implemented by non-elected boards, as opposed to elected officials.
According to Dan Coffey, the answer surely is "too much." At the city council meeting of June 6, Coffey proposed that our council, as a body made up of elected members, should take back authority ceded to non-elected boards.
Agreed.
The Board of Public Works and Safety may be established by state, not city, and it may be appointed by mayor, not council, but the board's powers appear to derive from the legislative body.
I mention all this as prelude to a new feature at NA Confidential: Ask the Bored.
It has long been NA Confidential's position that given the board's accumulated powers -- justified or otherwise -- and its current function as arbiter of myriad conditions that impact the lives of citizens, for it to hold all its meetings at 10:00 a.m. on a Tuesday meeting is an affront (note that during the Garner Administration, a fledgling but doomed effort to democratize meeting times was made).
However, NAC can attend many, if not all, meetings. Public speaking time is allowed, and on occasion in the past, we've used it for the precise purpose of making comments, raising issues or asking questions, so that these are included in meeting minutes and become part of the public record. This way, it cannot be claimed later that "no one said anything."
Readers, I know you have questions. Many of you cannot attend these meetings, and so when possible, NAC will ask them for you. Generalized questions probably are best, but give us the brief, and we'll do what we can. Submit them at mayorbaylor@gmail.com ... and ask the bored.
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