Dennis Roudenbush for Commissioner: Josh Williams mentions "transparency" as Adam Dickey runs screaming from the crypt.

I voted for Dennis Roudenbush and recommend you do the same, but we must profusely thank DemoDisneyDixiecratic candidate Josh Williams for his ironic detachment, surely unintended, as he contradicts the daily operational goals of the Dickey/Gahan party apparatus with this one statement.

Floyd County Commissioner, Dist. 3 | Election 2016, by Madeleine Winer, (Courier-Journal)

... First priority is transparency. Elected officials have a tendency to forget that they are elected as public servants. The citizens of Floyd County deserve to know what is going on and have full disclosure of all pertinent information so that they can voice a true opinion on issues.

I've not met Williams, who seems earnest and well meaning, but he might wish to take an honest look around him at those Roadhouse party functions and grasp that the very best examples of non-transparent megalomania are seated across from him, drinking the Bud Light Lime Kool-Aid, as crafted in small batches by the party chairman himself.

To repeat: Roudenbush for Commissioner.

"Roudenbush well-qualified to be Floyd commissioner."

My personal meme; unauthorized by the candidate.

Following is the text of my letter to the editor of the News and Tribune supporting Dennis Roudenbush for Commissioner. It requires no further explanation.

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Roudenbush well-qualified to be Floyd commissioner

In 2016, Dennis Roudenbush is running for Floyd County Commissioner, and there are several good reasons why you should vote for him.

First, he’s running as an Independent, because the leadership we currently need from our county commissioners shouldn’t be the sort tied to partisan politics, as so often in the past. Dennis knows this. He’s lived here his whole life, and as an Independent, he’ll serve the taxpayers, not the party power brokers.

Second, Dennis’ accumulated experience in management positions is greater than his three opponents combined. He’s served in the U.S. Army, been a township trustee, sat on a township board, managed a supermarket and worked as a corporate auditor. His record of personal responsibility and fiscal accountability is impeccable.

Finally, Dennis understands that Floyd County government is entering a transitional phase following the sale of Floyd Memorial Hospital. It is imperative to have a mature, practiced hand in a position to chock the partisan political deal-making sure to arise from the influx of money.

Dennis truly is the best qualified candidate in this race, and he’s the man of the moment. I encourage readers to examine his platform planks at roudenbushforcommissioner.com

— Roger A. Baylor, New Albany

A reminder: Dennis Roudenbush for Floyd County Commissioner.

The meme is my creation, and addresses one of the campaign's fundamental issues: Do we really need the Democratic party chairman running county government on the down low, too? I think not, but that's the lesser of reasons why Dennis has my vote.

He's also the most experienced and qualified candidate, hands down, and at a time when (a) the hospital sale has Floyd County government awash with cash for the first time in living memory, and (b) county government tends to be populated by (shall we say) artless sorts, it's critical to have a practiced hand in a position to chock the inevitable partisan deal-making.

What they're saying: As the GOP candidate for county commissioner, Billy Stewart just surprised the Hell right out of me.

In the race for Floyd County Commissioner (District 3, but we all vote) there'll be four candidates.

One of them is perennial contestant Tom Lenfert, who is running as an independent. At the moment, he has no identifiable web presence, and even if a web site materializes, it isn't likely to matter very much.

Previously, I've told you who I'm voting for in the battle to replace the incumbent Republican, Steve Bush.

I'll be voting for Dennis O. Roudenbush, the independent candidate for Floyd County 3rd District Commissioner.

Given the national mood, perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that while both independent candidates for commissioner seem willing to be known as such, I can find no record of affiliation on the web pages of either mainstream political party nominee.

One of them is Josh Williams, who is a Democrat. The other is Billy Stewart, a Republican. As soon as Williams posts something of substance, I'll try to afford him equal time. In the meantime, I saw something interesting on Stewart's Facebook page.

The text:

Floyd County will be receiving $136 million from the sale of Floyd Memorial Hospital.

Currently there are several plans being considered on how to spend and invest these monies. One proposal is to share some of the money with other local governments.

I'm in favor for the proposal to share some of the money with other local governments.

Under this proposal $20 million would be set aside for projects in the City of New Albany, $1 million for Georgetown and $250 thousand for Greenville.

This would not be direct payments to other local governments but a commitment to spend money on local projects that would benefit those communities.

Let me know your opinion on this proposal as it is your money we are talking about spending.

Are these "plans being considered" originating with Republicans or Democrats? It simply isn't normal for Republicans on the Hill to be this benevolent. As a helpful hint to Stewart and anyone else considering a CARE package of this magnitude, please consider bypassing the current occupant. We really don't need another water slide for the dog park.

Shifting to Stewart's web site, we find another indication that he's not reading from the usual county political script: Future Growth/Urban Sprawl.

As New Albany is the largest and best-equipped community for commercial growth, the County should be working with the City to help develop these areas. Whether it’s shopping and dining or industrial activities, New Albany has the pieces in place to grow wisely. New Albany success is also the County's.

Commercial growth has a very limited place in the county. Ten years ago, I moved my family to Floyd County. My wife and I wanted to live in an area that had good schools, a welcoming community and an environment conducive to raising children. We found that and much more in Floyd County. While growth can be good by bringing jobs and much needed taxes to the county, urban sprawl is not. We must strive to preserve these basic traits that make Floyd County such a wonderful place to live.

I'm a bit dizzy. There's a Republican from Georgetown advocating density for the city and an end to urban sprawl?

And he'd like to make $20 million available for the city's use?

Admittedly, I'm intrigued. Think about these two words, which Stewart might consider defining more specifically:

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. 

I'll be voting for Dennis O. Roudenbush, the independent candidate for Floyd County 3rd District Commissioner.

In the aftermath of county government's sale of the hospital, it's more important than ever before to have responsible officials on hand to ensure the largess is properly managed.

I believe independent candidate Dennis Roudenbush fits this definition, and I'll be voting for him in November.

There are three county commissioners. In recent years, one has been a Democrat (Chuck Freiberger, up for re-election this year) and two have been Republican. One of these is Mark Seabrook, whose seat is not being contested in 2016. The second is Steve Bush, who has decided not to run, hence the open seat being sought by Roudenbush.

To be perfectly frank, after these years of GOP control in the commissioner's wing, the idea of a principled independent exercising the swing vote is something I find mighty appealing, far more so than a Democrat-turned-Republican (Billy Stewart) or an inexperienced but Dickey-approved Democrat (Josh Williams).

Dennis O. Roudenbush for Floyd County 3rd District Commissioner

Hello, my name is Dennis Roudenbush, and I am running as an independent candidate for the office of Floyd County 3rd District Commissioner. Every voter in Floyd County is eligible to vote for me as there are 3 district Commissioners and all three are voted by the whole county, not just their District. I have been a registered Democrat since the age of 21, but after much thought and prayers I made the decision to become an Independent.

I do believe in the two major parties, but I do not see the parties working together for you.

I became an independent because I don’t agree or disagree with every policy of either the Democrats or Republican parties. In my heart, I believe I can honestly serve the citizens of Floyd County better without a particular party affiliation. Our county, state, and national office holders have a problem getting things done because each appears concerned only with what is right for their respective party and not the citizens they serve.

Roudenbush spies newspaper picking nose, eating boogers in Coddington case.

Dennis Roudenbush asks the 'Bama Pop-Up Gazette to consider following up on story:

"I would like to ask the News and Tribune since they missed the boat for some reason not backing my accusations at that time."

Well, Dennis, the 'Bune's Jeffersonville-based management, for whom New Albany might as well be located just east of Albuquerque somewhere in Outer Mongolia, says it trusts senior staffer Chris Morris to relay the information worth publishing. But Morris traditionally refuses to ask disrespectful questions to venerated elders like Seabrook. And so it goes in a place where sports are more important than facts.

A round of applause to Dennis for getting it right even if the gatekeepers of southern fried journalism won't.

Former commissioners’ candidate says he was right on auditor

I appeared before the Floyd County Commissioners last spring complaining about how our auditor messed up the spring settlement checks using the wrong year. He overpaid the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. by $1.6 million.

He did not pay Georgetown Township one cent, which I am the trustee of, and when I asked him if he had informed the office-holders that he had overpaid NA-FC, he stated yes.

I then turned to Commissioners Bush, Seabrook and Freiberger and all three said that was the first they had heard about it. You can read and hear the audio on the minutes from that night’s meeting.

Mr. Seabrook told me the commissioners had nothing to do with the auditor. I would like to ask the News and Tribune since they missed the boat for some reason not backing my accusations at that time, do the right thing and print those minutes now for all to see what fools they were. If they would have listened and done their job, maybe this would have been prevented. By the way. I am passing out bumper stickers that say, “Don’t blame me, I voted for Roudenbush.”

— Dennis O. Roudenbush, New Albany

Broadsheets we have known: "The Floyd County Review."

Interesting stuff. Especially who paid for it. Does this mean I'm finally in agreement with C Faux A? Gads. The world turned upside down, indeed. Here is the text.

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Floyd County Gets the Chance for Better Leadership

This November, Floyd County has a chance to elect one of our county’s finest citizens to the county Board of Commissioners. With the encouragement of many residents, Dennis Roudenbush is a candidate for the 3rd District seat. Although the county is composed of 3 districts, each commissioner actually represents the entire county. Roudenbush already represents the residents of Georgetown and Georgetown Township as their elected Township Trustee, and he has expressed much excitement about the prospect of helping even more county residents as their Commissioner. Dennis is a lifelong county resident and longtime manager of the Floyd Central Thriftway, and he says he shares the growing frustration of Floyd’s citizens with recent developments in the community. As a concerned taxpayer, Roudenbush strongly objects to the recently reported waste and misuse of tax money by certain officials, and he believes that he must act to instill more integrity and accountability into the county’s government affairs. Like most residents, he is especially frustrated at the significant sums consumed by the murder trial of former police officer David Camm and the subsequent media circus surrounding the county prosecutor’s apparent misconduct.

A review of official documents obtained from the county auditor and the commissioners’ office shows that the county’s elected prosecutor, Keith Henderson, has spent at least $27,539.00 of taxpayer funds to conduct his own personal legal affairs defending an ethics grievance filed against him, presumably for improperly negotiating a book-publishing deal during the trial. His conduct is specifically prohibited by Rule 1.8(d) of the Indiana attorneys’ Rules of Professional Conduct. Mr. Henderson’s alleged misappropriation of trial funds is the subject of an anticipated investigation by several state agencies, including the State Board of Accounts and the Indian Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Commission. When the matter was brought to their attention at their February 21, 2012 meeting, Commissioners Mark Seabrook (R) and Steve Bush (R) refused to support the efforts of Commissioner Chuck Freiberger (D) to recover the tax funds, essentially voting to let their fellow Republican Henderson keep all of the money. Considering that the sum of tax money is more than 8 months of the average Floyd County wage earner’s income of $39,788.00, many residents are upset at what appears to be an abuse of their trust and the political donation of their hard-earned money. Floyd’s taxpayers are also frustrated and concerned that Mr. Henderson’s handling of the murder trial will necessitate yet a third trial with an estimated price tag of an additional $ 1 million dollars. Indiana’s Court of Appeals and Supreme Court both recently ordered Henderson removed from the case because of his self-inflicted conflict of interest, with his efforts to fight his removal helping to delay the third trial for approximately two more years.

The Board of Commissioners were given more opportunities to demand the return of Floyd taxpayers’ money during their meetings of October 2 and 16, 2012 when resident Joseph Moore presented them with a comprehensive summary of events leading to the alleged diversion of funds, supported by official vouchers and invoices as well as the commissioners’ own minutes of their February 21 meeting. Court documents and the Attorney General’s Office both confirm that Henderson’s personal attorney did not represent him in any of the Camm proceedings, indicating that he had obtained county funds under false pretenses. Despite acknowledging that they had not approved funds for Henderson’s ethics defense, Commissioners Bush and Seabrook again refused any effort to recover the money or even to investigate the matter. Rick Fox, attorney for the commissioners and brother-in-law of Keith Henderson, admitted that no one on behalf of the Board has looked into the matter since it was discussed at their February meeting and, ironically, said their failure to investigate precluded them from taking any action. Following Moore to the podium was local civic watchdog, George Mouser, who admonished the board that a private citizen was the only person to investigate a scandal that the commissioners had known about for at least 8 months.

Mr. Roudenbush, who attended the commissioners meetings, stated that, if elected, one of his first efforts will be to launch an investigation and recover any funds wrongly obtained by Mr. Henderson. “Our residents work too hard to have their money just given away to highly-paid elected officials,” Roudenbush said, “especially for an ethics problem caused by their attempt to profit from a private book deal that conflicted with their official duties. We weren’t going to receive a penny from that book deal but now we’re expected to pay his private lawyer $375.00 per hour? I don’t think that’s right.”

Positions on the issues:

1. Merger with New Albany on services and resources:
Roudenbush believes that our emergency services providers should be consulted; the cost-savings should be analyzed; and commissioners should not be afraid to relinquish some control to the city if fairness and the facts warrant it. Egos should not prevent common sense solutions.

Bush has repeatedly claimed that he favors consolidation to “streamline services” and save money, but several joint city-county efforts have been thwarted or even reversed during his term. He has refused to discuss equitable cost-sharing and insists upon maintaining full control over any merged departments, even where the city clearly shoulders most of the work or cost, e.g., the aborted fire-dispatch merger and the anticipated split of the county parks system.

2. Keith Henderson scandal:
Roudenbush insists upon a full investigation and a demand for the return of any misappropriated tax money.

Bush, while acknowledging that the money appears to have been misspent, has nonetheless stated that he “supports our prosecutor,” and has refused every effort to recover the funds or even to request an official investigation.

3. Open and transparent government:
Roudenbush has proposed a number of changes to encourage public participation in the commissioners meetings and decision-making process, including holding meetings around the county, publishing detailed agendas before meetings, and allowing public comment before voting on any issue. He also favors the use of resident surveys or referendums whenever practical before a vote is taken by the commissioners, to better assess public sentiment on the issues.

Bush, despite campaigning every time on promises of “openness and transparency,” has refused to support the advance publication of meeting agendas and, as president of the commissioners, discourages public comment until the end of each meeting, long after the commissioners have already voted on the issues.

4. Fiscal accountability:
Roudenbush is a proven fiscal conservative who has the know-how and many years experience managing budgets, payrolls, insurance plans, vendors and contractors, and personnel. He believes that commissioners have a duty to scrutinize every request for money rather than merely rubber-stamping all claims submitted by the auditor’s office or other county departments.

Bush is a career police office with no real fiscal training or experience. His lack of knowledge on financial matters causes him to rely entirely on the advice of other county employees, resulting in confusion, overspending, and problems such as the Henderson scandal and the growing costs of the Camm trials.

Bush also has an ongoing conflict of interest because, as a police officer, he votes for every (or almost every) funding request from his law enforcement colleagues without questioning their necessity or merits. His close working relationship with the county prosecutor is also one of the factors believed to be behind his refusal to support an investigation of Keith Henderson’s alleged misappropriations.

5. Economic growth:
Roudenbush believes that Floyd County is best served by reasonable planning and growth, including the expansion of business in common-sense locations such as those nearest to our major highways. By enticing employers first, we can better pay for any future growth of residential areas. This fits in with his belief in reasonable and limited growth that will not drastically alter or destroy the rural character of our county that we all cherish.

Bush has shown no appreciable efforts or results in drawing new businesses and employers to the county, instead relying on residential developments to provide new sources of tax money. However, residential growth arguably consumes more in tax revenue than it generates when taking into account the substantially increased need for roads, sewers, emergency services, and schools required for homes as compared to businesses. This problem is compounded when new residences are built for people who work in Louisville or other places outside of Floyd County.

I'm getting sleepy.

Well, it turns out they do read, after all, if sporadically.

Thanks to B for the tip. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to shower. But first ...

As Bluegill points out from time to time, NA Confidential is my blog. Consequently, speaking for myself, and myself alone, I am supporting Dennis Roudenbush in his campaign for Floyd County Commissioner. He neither has paid me to place an "ad" on NAC's marquee, nor did I request his permission to do so. I believe that if elected commissioner, Roudenbush would better serve the entirety of Floyd County, which I vaguely recall is the whole point of one's decision to vote "for" a candidate.

Sounds like an endorsement to me, doesn't it? Consequently, I reckon it passes the duck walk/sound/dump test and actually is an endorsement.

Meanwhile, I can't decide whether to laugh or yawn at the yammering of predictably small, trognonymous minds. Formica-ites, one cannot perpetually deny that I have any influence, and then collapse in spasms of outrage when I express a simple viewpoint. Make up your anonymous minds, will you?

I'm not sure if there'll be any more to say about it, although I have chatted with Roudenbush's opponent, the incumbent Steve Bush, and I agreed to meet with Bush and hear his sales pitch. Probably I'll print it here, too, when the time comes. Bush also is perfectly free to submit his pitch in writing, and I guarantee I'll publish it when and if he does. Bush seems like a perfectly personable fellow. It's just that I don't agree with him.

In addition to Roudenbush, I also will be voting for Obama, Donnelly, Yoder, Freiberger, Grabowski, any human, plant or amoeba (alive, dead or cryogenically preserved) appearing on the ballot opposite Tony Bennett -- and there may be others whom I may be forgetting.

John Gregg? That one's a bit more troubling to me, and might deserve further public vetting. Or not. Pence? Nope. Maybe the libertarian whose name I can't even remember? Likely.

Todd Young? I richly enjoyed meeting and having a beer with him, but I disagree with his platform. Does this surprise anyone? If so, you don't know me very well, do you? That's right; you wouldn't know because you don't read, except you do read when you want to. It's all clear now, just like Paul Etheridge's motives.

Shockingly, you may even disagree with me. If so, you're welcome to let me know, right here, in the comments area, although we have this pesky blog comments policy, and ... oh, never mind.

Just can't hold it back. Here it comes:

"Yawn."

Open thread: Elections for County Commissioners.

The election’s almost here, and yesterday we began to consider the local races.

As noted, NAC’s pants-down editorial board hasn’t undertaken a detailed consideration of anything, much less the candidates. We’ve been far too busy monitoring our Obama yard signs to prevent them being stolen by Roveing gangs of brown shirts.

So, we're randomly tossing out local contests for discussion, and today, the two races for County Commissioner.

The Tribune's hard work is more than sufficient to set the table. The newspaper’s questions and answers are extensive. There’s much to chew on, including the candidates’ views on the Kernan-Shepard commission local government streamlining recommendations, options for a new Youth Shelter, how to increase revenues, and public safety.

I’m no handicapper, but for my money, the more interesting of the two races is District 2, where the Democratic incumbent Freiberger is challenged by the Republican Party chairman Matthews, with the dean of county potty policemen hoping to be a spoiler. It is the latter, George Mouser, who provides the single best quote of this campaign courtesy of the Tribune:

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CONVICTED OF A NON-TRAFFIC COURT CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES? IF SO, PLEASE EXPLAIN ALL RELEVANT INSTANCES.

“Only once; many years ago I paid a fine of $50 or less, for ‘putting fear’ in one or more trespassers on my property. In view of my timid disposition this was a ridiculous decision by the judge.”

Huzzah. Any thoughts?

ELECTION Q&A: Floyd County Commissioner - District 2

Charles Freiberger (D)
Dave Matthews (R)
George Mouser (Independent)

ELECTION Q&A: Floyd County Commissioner - District 3

Steve Bush (R)
Dennis Roudenbush (D)