Meretricious?
Why yes, Shane, but ... more like incredulity.
incredulity
[in-kri-doo-li-tee, -dyoo-]
noun
1. the quality or state of being incredulous; inability or unwillingness to believe.
The scandal-plagued Gahan administration has suffered another own goal -- another foot shooting, another faux pas. How often must the citizenry be embarrassed this way, Adam?
Democratic Party stalwart Warren Nash: Heck, this board hasn't ever approved social research study requests. Besides, we already have a captive sociologist.
On Tuesday morning, Board of Works gatekeeper Warren Nash told a representative of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) that the city of New Albany couldn't risk allowing academic research to be conducted.
How very local Democratic Party of us. Just a bit about the ISR ...
Our History
Established in 1949, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) is among the world’s largest and oldest academic survey research organizations, and a leader in the development and application of social science methods and education.
With researchers from a broad range of academic disciplines, ISR serves as a national laboratory for the social sciences, advancing public understanding of human behavior through empirical research of extraordinary depth and breadth.
The Bookseller has obtained the same Institute of Social Research background materials viewed by BOW. You'll want to click through and read the entire piece, but here's an introduction.
Oops – NA BoW Messes Up (NewAlbanist)
Karen Rice had no idea what she was walking into Tuesday because she represents a professional organization.
Ms. Rice hand-delivered a “To Whom It May Concern” letter from her organization, the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. As written, it is a courtesy letter informing those concerned that some people in our geographical area will be surveyed and that ISR representatives may be in the area over the coming months conducting important survey research.
Then Ms. Rice met the Hon. Warren Nash, who currently serves as chairman of the New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety. He and his two colleagues said “no way.”
To be certain, U of M was not asking for permission as the type of work they do wouldn’t require the permission of a municipality. However, they do understand that in an age of scam artists, citizens might become concerned when they receive a letter and a subsequent visitor asking questions. Who would one call if they suspected something fishy? The police or the mayor’s office, of course.
To allay those concerns, the ISR politely informed a public meeting of city officials that their scientific work would be carried out here.
I’m grateful that our local newspaper managed to find the space to report on what should have been innocuous news. But Mr. Nash turned it into something else ...
Maybe Nash misunderstood, though the materials certainly aren't ambiguous, or in a blind panic, reasoned that social research is dangerous in a place where the mayor has seized public housing and Democrats make war on the poor.
He might have scanned the Gahan for Mayor for Life donor list and not seen the ISR's friendly tithe -- and of course, if they aren't "for" the mayor via their wallet, they're surely "against him.
The rampant City Hall paranoia is especially thick this summer, isn't it? It makes sense if you remember that Nash's role on BOW has less to do with public safety than representing Gahan's political fingers in every conceivable pie, because what good are geniuses of the flood plain if they're not erecting plaques to themselves?
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