GREEN MOUSE SAYS: David Brewer's post-building commissioner "consultancy" is a leveler even when money isn't a motivator.

The Green Mouse has learned from multiple sources that earlier this year former building commissioner David Brewer (now the township trustee) inked a year-long consultancy contract with Jeff Gahan's ever conniving helpful City Hall for somewhere in the vicinity of $14,000. If this information is true, here's why it matters.

In the aftermath of the 2018 election, NA Confidential asked a question.

Congratulations to David Brewer, hitherto one of the least objectionable and most functional of Team Gahan's appointees. David needs to clarify one point immediately: Does he intend to remain in a salaried position as Building Commissioner and draw the township trustee's pay?

But those local Democrats most inclined to laughingly dismiss the relevance of our concern already have savagely criticized newly elected Republican assessor James Sinks for doing precisely that -- earning full-time pay as both as a teacher and the assessor ... much to the open chagrin of his own political party.

As a point in his favor, Brewer chose not to push this particular envelope. Take it away, Papa.

COLUMN: Former New Albany building commissioner motivated to help others, by Credulous Morris (Tom May Content Propagator)

 ... (David) Brewer said the job of building commissioner was eye-opening in many ways, including seeing so many needs in the community. That is what prompted him to run for New Albany Township Trustee last year. He wanted to do more to help people, to get them back on their feet.

Brewer, who took office on Jan. 1, said he had no intention of being a politician, or running for political office prior to his 2018 run. He was content for nine years being the city’s building commissioner. But something moved him to toss his hat into the ring against a popular incumbent, Republican Steve Burks. Brewer’s first taste of politics was a successful one. He wound up beating Burks by 1,443 votes.

“I never thought I would get into politics. You see things [in politics] that just infuriate you,” Brewer said. “It can be very divisive. But I want to do what I can to help people.”

In light of today's consultancy revelation, it's this part of the story that might be, well, divisive.

Brewer said he will take a pay cut to be township trustee, but money is not what motivates him. Helping those in need is what lights his fire.

According to the state of Indiana's public employee compensation on-line search tool, the New Albany Township trustee's annual salary is $40,000, while the City of New Albany's building commissioner earns $54,000.

A consultancy for $14,000? As they say in the UK about football: "There's the equaliser."

Two birds, one stone; Gahan potentially now has greater (if not completely unfettered) access to the township trustee's bank account, and Brewer doesn't take a pay cut at all. Everyone's happy, except those of us who stubbornly persist in favoring fair play and a level playing field.

Apart from the Green Mouse's perspective, allow me to conclude with a personal point of view: I'd be delighted if this rumor turns out to be false, and I'll happily correct the record if it does. Brewer always has seemed somewhat benign in the larger context of Gahan's systemic corruption; I realize there are others who'd disagree. Maybe I was hoping against all available evidence that there'd be something or someone not tainted by Gahanism's elemental toxicity.

But there's a remedy for enduring disappointment: #FireGahan2019

We're doing better addressing the blight we have no plans to prevent.

This article looked intriguing, so I tunneled under the paywall to provide you with this takeaway:

In 2012 and 2013, the building commissioner’s office filed a total of $579,595 in liens, according to Brewer. Liens were filed for any service the city rendered on a blighted property, from cutting grass to razing a structure.

As of Wednesday, the city had recouped $155,284 in liens over the past two years. In 2010 and 2011, New Albany collected about $46,000 in liens, (Building Commissioner David) Brewer said.

No problem; you'd do the same for me, I'm sure. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wash my shovel.

FUTURE DOESN'T LOOK BLIGHT: City credits proactive approach, funding for increased codes results, by Daniel Suddeath

NEW ALBANY — The number of stressed properties and blighted structures addressed in New Albany over the past two years has risen sharply, according to numbers provided by Mayor Jeff Gahan’s administration.

ON THE AVENUES: Tickling the master's creatures.

ON THE AVENUES: Tickling the master's creatures.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Earlier this week, the local newspaper reported that Lord Cornwallis has been proven right.

The world has turned upside down, pigs are flying, toaster ovens are reciting Pynchon, and the building commissioner is onto certain code violators like the proverbial stink on genuine, locally ripened farmhouse cheese.

As Grandpa Jones would say, “That’s good!”

And as Archie Campbell would reply, “No, that’s bad!”

In truth, it may be either, or perhaps both. In New Albany, are daily affairs ever what they seem?

New Albany Building Commissioner David Brewer has ordered a rental property at 1308 E. Main St. to be vacated by Sept. 16 because of unsafe conditions.

Brewer made the announcement during a New Albany Building Commission meeting Tuesday, as he said the city will explore options, including razing the structure, which is owned by local businessman Matt McMahan.

The Irish Exit in New Albany and The Levee Bar and Grill in Jeffersonville are owned by McMahan.

The link to the newspaper article is here, assuming Internet surfers dare to risk publisher Bill Hanson’s bottom-line, auto dealerships’ pop-up fetish: Deadline set for vacating New Albany apartment.

---

In an e-mail yesterday, my blogging partner Jeff almost immediately put my own initial reaction into words.

Anybody know what McMahan did to piss off the City?

Countless other people and structures are worse, with the 8th and Culbertson building being just one example. It was declared out of code and in need of tens of thousands in repairs just to be habitable months before the corner collapsed. They bust McMahan, who has done at least some positive investing, and offer to enrich the other slum lord owner with no penalty. The McMahan house is in a historic district and they want to demolish it. The Culbertson building isn't and it's vital to the neighborhood?

These are my sentiments exactly, and while I can hear the accusations of toxicity being loaded along with black powder and grapeshot in the rhetorical muzzleloaders of those local power elites most recently ensconced in the good graces of City Hall’s current occupant, it remains that Jeff’s considerations are valid, and they embrace precisely the sort of questions the newspaper never seems to get around asking of the elites.

So, did Matt McMahan climb to the top of the splendiferous Elsby Building and moon the mayor in full view of downtown shoppers?

Did he refuse to let the deputy mayor run a tab at the Exit?

Does this explain why every time I suggest including the Exit in riverfront catering activities, it is rejected in favor of making sure the New Albany Country Club bar and grill gets the majority of slots, sans any semblance whatever of a fair bidding process?

Has the rot of favoritism become so pervasive that we’ll never be able to believe what we read?

---

Yep, Matt must have pulled a Roger, because after all, he was given a deadline, and now the city proposes to ignore it by intervening a full two weeks early, ostensibly because for the first time in recorded history, someone’s actually checking back to see what’s been done after an order was given.

That’s good … except that it might be bad, too, and in saying this, I’m not being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. I’m also neither criticizing Brewer, who runs his routes within the constraints of a leash brandished by higher-ups, nor coddling Matt, who can take care of himself.

As you know, NA Confidential has long advocated rule of law and the enforcement of ordinances as two sure means of solidifying the foundation of the city’s urban future, particularly as these pertain to the health and safety of rental property occupants. If the health of Matt’s tenants is threatened by mold, then something obviously must be done, precisely as something needed to be done throughout the city during the long reign of slumlords like the infamous Gregory brothers – and wasn’t, not once, not ever.

And, as I’m sure Matt would agree, he and I have had our differences in the past. Part of the process of our coming to terms was me confessing to being overbearing, and he admitting that if he had things to do over, he’d have done some of them differently. We’ve worked together a time or two, and it’s been fine. If Matt is given a chance and fails it, that’s regrettable, but he’s shown me that he’s willing to learn. Because of this, I believe he deserves that chance, just like anyone else.

My hunch is that Matt’s just another scapegoat, and I’d like to see evidence of other rental property owners being monitored in like fashion, because there’s a pesky 800-lb gorilla perched somewhere in the vicinity of Room 316, and it’s a massive question mark denoting skepticism and doubt: Doubt in the notion of equality, doubt in the sense of how uniformly such ordinances are enforced, doubt in the transparency in the process, and doubts as to whether there is any consistency in it.

When purely political motives can be seen to determine so many other facets of the city’s daily life, how can we be sure that Matt is truly deserving of newfound and meticulous enforcement scrutiny when others continue to boldly fly under the radar?

How can we really be sure that the inequality of cliquishness, rampant cronyism and the calculated (and secretive) backing of winners, from River View down to the Bud Light at Confederate Railroad show, are not factors at work in Matt’s case?

As we have seen, City Hall’s backroom reaction to 8th & Culbertson’s dilapidated status, including its ongoing efforts to seize the assets of the Urban Enterprise Association, stands as a non-transparent benchmark of justified skepticism.

There are 114 days left in which to answer these questions, before the next chapter begins. DM Bagshaw, Jeff Gahan, Thomas Keister and Jack Messer are the candidates running for mayor in our November election, and to each of them, I have only this to say: Will you pledge to disband “local government by unelected cliques”?

It’s the single best step the winner could take to remove past taints, and to help boost New Albany to the next level.

What's That Definiton of Insanity Again?

The following began as a comment to the latest post on "The Voice of The People" blogsite. By the time I completed it I was so worked up that I elected to bore our NAC readers with this content once again.

Every time I grow weak and stoop to attempt at responding to "Anonymous" I get frustrated, but then I remind myself that maybe, just maybe someone of like mind may by happenstance read it and catch on.

And so it goes!

I don't know where the idea came from that anyone is advocating homeowners get a free pass while rental owners get hung by their thumbs on the courthouse lawn.

That is not the case. This has all been said before in various public meetings, forums, blogs and newspaper articles, but apparently some still don't understand.

Therefore I'm gonna take yet another stab at it.

First of all to the ownership question.

There are a variety of programs available for indigent homeowners to get help with repairs involving health and safety issues. Yet it befuddles me how few take advantage of them. Perhaps we as neighbors need to offer them our help in this area.

As far as identifying ownership of these properties, CM Steve Price is right. Most of the time, but not always, one can indeed ascertain the current owner of an owner-occupied home by simply going to the tax assessor’s office and entering the address into the public access computer.

Remember, I said most of the time.

On occasion, if the home has been sold recently (and recently can be as much as 18 months), the new information may not yet be in that database.

In those instances one must start tracking at the recorders office. Even then it won't show up if for some reason the property transfer has not been recorded. So then it's off to the races.

With respect to rental property Mr. Price is in error. The chain of ownership transfers can stretch across family, state lines and international borders, ad infinitum. What is on the local records may be, and often is, out of date information.

Although they are few in number, the most egregious offenders control the majority of the worst properties.

They have made an art form out of transferring (on paper) ownership to a cousin, ex-wife, future brother in-law, etc. for the sole purpose of creating an untraceable paper trail to confuse and frustrate.

The purpose of rental registration is to enable the enforcing entity to go directly to a locally available responsible party to alleviate the issue at hand, be they code enforcement officers, building commissioner, city attorney, or tax collector.

Everyone assumes that just because a tax bill gets sent to a post office box on Cancun, the responsible party will pick it up and overnight a check. That would be an erroneous assumption!

Yes, liens can be placed on the tax bill and property seized, but neither is happening. At least not where we can see it.

Just like Pam Badger can cite repeat offenders, the city attorney can prosecute them, or the building inspector can enter any home, owned or rented if he has probable cause ... but that isn't happening, either.

So please quit buying the crap that the professional slumlords and their anonymous cowardly supporters are feeding you because I know you are smarter than that! Besides, it doesn't become you.

Instead, get out your digital cameras, take pictures of the offending property, hand it in person to the building commissioner and if nothing happens, do it again, and again.

Then if nothing happens, send them to the Tribune or this blog!

By now it should be obvious to all that promises are just words, and words more often than not fall on deaf ears.

So it is up to us to keep the pressure on and the issues in front of their faces.

If we can't or won't stand up, get involved, attend public meetings and quit hiding behind “anonymous” then we need to just shut the hell up!

Damn!

I feel better now!

Auto Pilot! (part 2)

To continue the conversation concerning the rampant code violations in New Albany, here is a scenario for consideration.

Tom & Gerry peruse the inner core of our fair city and find a vacant lot to invest in. Following the purchase they acquire a building permit and proceed to build a modest home. All goes well, the finished structure is completed, the Building Commissioner’s office signs off on it, and they move in.

Then it gets funky. The following year they decide they need/want more living space so they purchase an adjacent lot and begin adding on to the original structure. Only this time they leave out a few pertinent details.

First of all the transfer of ownership for the second lot is never recorded with the County Recorder.

Secondly no building permits are pulled for the additional construction.

Thirdly, although the addition violates the set back from property line regulations, no Zoning Variance is applied for. At least not until after construction is complete.

So why does all of this matter and WHO really cares? As to the second part of the question apparently no one in officialdom.

As it concerns the WHY, we all should care for at least the following reasons.

Failure to record the deed means among other things it remains on the books as a vacant lot and is taxed as such. The result being not only a loss of revenue for the City/County, but a potentially troublesome transfer of ownership & tax liability for the next buyer.

Failure to obtain a building permit means that no inspections as to structural integrity, nor adherence to plumbing, electrical, & HVAC codes ever occurred. This also affects the tax roles as the forwarding of these permits from the Building Commissioner to the Tax Assessor is how that office is made aware of a structure's existence.

In this case, with the addition not being accessible from the original house, it means that it could be viewed as stand alone living quarters (i.e.; multifamily dwelling) by some future owner. All the while this particular house sits dead in the middle of a single family zone.

And the above example is just the tip of the iceberg. At a Building Commission meeting late last year it came to light that a group of homes (shacks) along our riverfront were put there by squatters decades ago on property they did not and still do not own!

That fact had never been recognized by officialdom as I understand it.

No, check that ... I don’t understand it!

It leads one to conclude that there really is no one paying attention.

The sad news is all of the above result in adding to an already strapped city’s ability to provide the services we all desire to have. They endanger the property values of all who surround them. And they set even further precedent to the all too pervasive trend of ignoring local ordinances.

The sadder news is that due to a lack of dollars, training, job descriptions & legal guidance either state or local, most of these positions are more politically filled than they are by knowledge of the job requirements or skills needed to perform them.

At the county level save for the County Clerk and Tax Assessor, the only statutory requirement for holding a particular office is that one be a resident of the county and be a registered voter in the county. One typical example is that you need not have any medical background to be the coroner.

The saddest news of all is that we the tax paying citizens are the only recognized defense against violators getting off without a hitch. When asked how they become aware of most violations I’ve had official after official at both city & county level say the information came from a member of the public bringing it to their attention.

So it comes to this. If the public is doing all the research & leg work, why are we paying for vehicles, gas, insurance and all else that go with it for city/county officials who apparently can’t see the forest for the trees?

Why is it that even though the various offices often share the same data base it takes someone walking in off the street to point out a discrepancy to various offices? Is there no intra system communication?

Or ultimately if the general public is doing the work or is satisfied with it going undone, why do we need these positions at all?

Must we privatize all public offices in order to get results?

All the more reason for advocating public involvement in the process for to many of us, it is apparent that those charged with doing the peoples business and protecting the public’s good…… Aren’t!!!!

Auto Pilot Only Works If a Course Is Plotted In.

Deep within the bowels of the ever elusive concept known as "code enforcement" we find a cluster f#@* of such asinine proportions as to make a classic military FUBAR look like a successful manned space flight to Mars.

At the very bottom of the heap is the Ordinance Enforcement Officer position that was created under Title XV, Section 150.040 of the New Albany Building Regulations.

By ordinance that person reports directly to the City Attorney. Which brings me to the question, do we have one of those yet (attorney, not enforcement officer)?

Next in line is the Building Commissioner, who under 150.020 is authorized and directed to administer and enforce all of the provisions of this subchapter (i.e.; Building Regulations).

Now here is where the confusion begins.

Under 150.023, the Building Commissioner shall be directly responsible to the Board of Public Works and Safety in the performance of his duties. I find this conflicting for at least two reasons.

First of all, under Title V of the New Albany Code entitled Public Works, the BOW’s responsibilities by ordinance deal with Garbage & Refuse, Sewers, Wastewater Treatment, Water, Drainage, Cemeteries, and Storm Water Management. I can find no mention to that body’s involvement in the structural aspect of buildings.

I do however find the following under Indiana Code 36-7, which outlines the office of Planning & Development: IC-36-7-2-9 states among other things that “Each unit shall require compliance with (1) the code of building laws and fire safety laws that are adopted in the rules of the fire prevention and building safety commission under IC-22-13.” These are referenced in the New Albany Code under 150.010 entitled Adoption of Regulations by Reference.

I’m reading by state statute that Planning & Development would be the Building Commissioners go-to entity for guidance on enforcing building codes. That is, if one follows the chain of command as prescribed by law.

Continuing on up the ladder the next official in line is the City Attorney (I’ve already asked the question haven’t I?) who once again under IC 36-4-9-12 shall among other things (2) “Prosecute violators of city ordinances.”

Then we finally get to the very top rung, and we find under IC-36-4 (City Executive) 5-3 Powers & Duties he shall (1) enforce the ordinances of the city and statutes of the state; (6) supervise subordinate officials; and (7) ensure efficient government of the city.

WOW! What a system! Anyone dare to venture a guess as to who’s on first and what the hell (if anything) is on second?

So far the best I can come up with is a quote from a classic Paul Newman movie: “What we have heah is a failuaa to communikate!”

I’ll stop for now, but stay tuned sports fans. We wouldn’t want the county government's role in this saga to go unexplored!

http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/Indiana/newalb/cityofnewalbanyincodeofordinances?f=templates$fn=default.htm$3.0$vid=amlegal:newalbany_in

http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/code/title36/