The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 4: The Estopinol Group and Cripe Architects are just two facets of River Run Waterpark's fertilizing effect.

Previously: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 3: Eight-year donor Terry Ginkins and a consistency of beak-wetting.

Some people watch ballgames for fun, but during the coming weeks we'll be plucking highlights from eight years of the Committee to Elect Gahan's CFA-4 campaign finance reports. Strap in, folks -- and don't forget those air(head) sickness bags.

As a preface to what follows, it's a long and winding road when it comes to navigating Jeff Gahan's big money. Dozens of companies are connected to Gahan's ruinously expensive capital projects, and connecting all the dots between so many out-of-town attorneys, consultants and vendors eager to pay respects to Dear Leader with a few hundred dollars of spare pocket change from their natty three-piece-suits would be a fool's errand.

Rather, I'm merely offering a tantalizing taste of the golden dust swirling around Gahan's money machine, enough for us to #FollowThatSlush.

For instance, here's a small and seemingly insignificant donation: a one-time only, never-to-be-repeated $100 tithe to the benevolence of our Dear Leader.

This C-note came in during the 4th quarter of 2015. River Run (New Albany Family Waterpark) had opened in July. The donor's connection is circled.

Krempp Construction of Jasper was River Run's general contractor, and a rarity in the annals of Jeff Gahan's all-encompassing campaign finance Shop-Vac Mechanism because there is no record of donations coming to Hizzoner from Krempp. However, I suspect the list of sub-contractors might yield a more interesting result, and that's coming soon.

River Run exists today owing to the windfall Tax Increment Financing-propelled city parks build-out that so grandly summarizes the Gahan style of governance on the down low, recalling that no one can recall parks being raised as a campaign issue in 2011 -- not even once.

In October of 2012 the city of New Albany abruptly seceded from the combined New Albany-Floyd County Parks Department, paving the way for new parks planning (2013), contracts to be awarded (2014) and construction completed in 2015 -- providentially and by sheer coincidence just in time for the municipal election season in 2015, and loads of sunburned selfies by the water slide.

The $19.6 million bond floated by the city footed the construction of the aquatic center, Silver Street Park and upgrades to Binford Park. In April 2014, the redevelopment commission accepted Krempp Construction’s base bid of $6.89 million to construct the aquatic center.

It's worth recalling that in 2011 the city's share of the parks budget was $517,914. By 2016 this figure had ballooned to at least $2.08 million.

Bearing in mind that pre-construction matters like engineering, design, legal representation and various other consultancies are not determined by bidding -- they're at the discretion of appointed boards stuffed with lackeys and partisans, among them redevelopment, board of works, sewer board and stormwater -- here's a reminder that thankfully at least a few principled objections were raised.

Design costs for big New Albany projects draw criticism, by Daniel Suddeath

Some city officials aren’t pleased with how much money Cripe Architects will be paid to design the multiuse center at Hoosier Panel and the makeover of Binford Park.

The New Albany Redevelopment Commission approved on Tuesday paying the Indianapolis company up to $35,000 to design a refurbished shelter house, which will double as a concessions stand, at Binford Park.

That amount is in addition to the $122,000 the company will receive for engineering the rest of the Binford Park project and another $277,000 to design the multiuse recreational facility at the former Hoosier Panel property.

“That’s just too much money,” said New Albany City Councilman Dan Coffey, who is also a member of the redevelopment commission.

He abstained from voting on the additional $35,000 contract which was approved by the redevelopment commission 3-1. Councilman and redevelopment member John Gonder voted against the proposal.

Gonder questioned why Mayor Jeff Gahan’s administration chose to accept Cripe for Binford Park and the Hoosier Panel project and The Estopinal Group to design the outdoor aquatic center without getting other proposals for comparison.

All three quality-of-life projects are being footed by a $19.6 million bond.

The rough estimate for the cost of the multiuse center is $5 million, and up to $9 million for the aquatic center.

Gonder said he’s discussed the aquatic center project with an engineer who said he “can easily shave a pretty significant chunk off that pool price.”

But the city, with the approval of the redevelopment commission, has already entered into a contract with The Estopinal Group and Cripe for design.

The late Wayne Estopinol, founder of TEG (The Estopinol Group), dropped cash into Gahan's in-box in 2013 and 2014 with $5,000 divided between two donations.

For the longest time I couldn't trace an Indianapolis donor named William H. Stinson, who made five donations to Gahan from 2011-2015, totaling $2,700. Stinson remains nearly invisible on-line, but his title at Cripe says it all: Director of New Business Development.

Team Gahan doesn't do irony, so give credit to Mayor Gahan's daughter, bookkeeper for the campaign finance enterprise, for being impeccably and probably inadvertently honest about Stinson in 2011.

She identified him as a "political engineer."

Political engineer?

In other words, her veneer-schlepping dad's most favored type.

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Belated postscript: American Structurepoint's role in the River Run buildout and the company's campaign donations) were inadvertently omitted in Part 4. Read about them here: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 13: United Consulting Engineers rocks Deaf Gahan like a hurricane.

Rebuttals are welcome and will be published unaltered -- so don't forget spellcheck. If you have supplementary information to offer about any of this, please let us know and we'll update the page. The preceding was gleaned entirely from public records, with the addresses of "individuals" removed.

Next: The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 5: In 2019, Gahan will pass the half million dollar mark in campaign fundraising since 2011.

The art of redistributive campaign finance: 1st class passengers in the Gravy Train kick the juice right back to Jeff Gahan.

Cartoon credit is in the cartoon.

You likely won't see either mainstream party or their candidates address it but a politician receiving significant campaign contributions from companies who are awarded large public contracts is an obvious conflict of interest, ethically stunted if not outright graft -- Bluegill

If you're still wondering why street grid reform is taking so long, or why rental property registrations once again are being swept under the rug -- by folks who fancy themselves as Democrats, no less -- then sharpen Occam's Razor, put civic affairs into proper focus ... and follow the money.

If it cannot be readily monetized into campaign finance, as with a walkable city, then it isn't a priority. Conversely, if campaign finance is monetized from it, as with slumlord empowerment, it must be left as is.

ON THE AVENUES: It's just like when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

ON THE AVENUES SPECIAL EDITION: Adam's rib tips.

Over a period of years, Mayor Gahan consistently has bypassed the elected city council to spend millions on plaque-ready infrastructure projects approved by appointed boards, primarily the Redevelopment Commission* -- upon which his DemoDisneyDixiecratic Party chairman (and de facto campaign chief) sits.

Many millions of dollars have been spent, and subsequently, many thousands of dollars have found their way from design, engineering and construction beneficiaries, straight into the mayor's re-election fund. After all, when you're planning future political careers, nationally recognized telephone voter contact services don't come cheap**.

The mayoral hologram now is booted up (thanks to Walt Disney Animation Studios, the stress and strain of unscripted public appearances is kept to a bare minimum), and we're told that fat cats, big wheels and special interests needn't be the exclusive domain of tried and true practitioners like Kerry Stemler.

“I think it shows we have some broad support from a lot of local firms as well some firms that have helped us in the various projects that we’ve begun and will soon be completing,” (Gahan) he said.

“Generally speaking, I feel like we’re equipped and we’re prepared to begin our campaign, and go out and talk to people about how promising a future New Albany has.”

But if holograms are good enough for Jeff Gahan, surely George Orwell can be reanimated, too. We need him here to help explain concepts like bellyfeel, duckspeak and minitrue, which are alive and well in New Albany's DemoDisneyDixiecratic hermetic state.

Gahan holds campaign funding lead in New Albany Dem mayoral race, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — Incumbent Jeff Gahan held a sizable fundraising advantage at the end of 2014 over challenger David White in the race for the Democratic nod for New Albany mayor.

The Committee to Elect Gahan — who is seeking his second term after being elected in 2011 — had more than $89,000 on-hand at the end of 2014, according to an annual fundraising report filed in January. Gahan entered last year with about $36,000 on-hand, and raised about $58,000 in 2014 for his re-election campaign ...

... White’s fundraising campaign differed from Gahan’s in that most of his contributions came from individual donors. Some of Gahan’s biggest contributions came from Political Action Committees, engineering firms and contractors.

Wayne Estopinal, owner of The Estopinal Group, gave Gahan’s committee $4,000 last year. Jorge Lanz, co-owner of Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz pitched-in $5,000 in 2014 to Gahan’s election campaign, and Clark Dietz Inc. donated $2,000.

Each of the three companies have held various contracts with the city in recent years for professional services. Multiple other companies that have received city funds for services also contributed to Gahan’s campaign last year.

Three Indianapolis PACs — Frost Brown PAC, Citizens for Excellence in Government and CD PAC — donated $8,500 to Gahan’s campaign in 2014.

Are you disgusted yet?

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* From the city's web site:

New Albany Redevelopment Commission

Irving Joshua, President
Adam Dickey, Vice-President
Edward Hancock, Secretary
Dan Coffey
John Gonder

Mr. Dickey, Mr. Hancock and Mr. Joshua were appointed by Mayor Jeff Gahan; Mr. Coffey and Mr. Gonder were appointed by Common Council.

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** The client list at InFocus Campaigns includes relatively few mayors and council persons, most of whom are from cities like Los Angeles, San Antonio and Houston. One client is from New Albany, Indiana. You get three guesses who ... and the first two don't count.

InFocus Campaigns is dedicated to delivering the highest quality telephone voter contact service for Democratic, progressive and non-partisan clients. Since our founding in 2011, InFocus Campaigns has worked for over one hundred clients in thirty states in the U.S., and for international clients in the U.K. and Canada.

Aquatics: More on less.

First, a reposting of the $3.5 million aquatics center site plan from Marion, Ohio, shared here recently. One of the most noteworthy features isn't in the image but in the branded text: the architectural firm who helped make the low cost happen, Brandstetter Carroll Inc, has a Louisville office. It might be worth a phone call before handing the full set of keys to The Estopinal Group.

Second, it's also worth noting that not every community manages to build an aquatic center similar to New Albany's proposal for as little as $3.5 million. Some spend more, as shared below.

Joplin, MO

The Schifferdecker Family Aquatic Center in Joplin replaces an aging pool much like in New Albany. It maintains most of the features in New Albany's plan but also includes a full size 50 meter pool as some residents here have requested. It will be open within the next couple weeks.  
Total Cost: $5.3 million


Leitchfield, KY

The Leitchfield Aquatic Center plan is very similar to New Albany's in that it lacks a full 50 meter pool and focuses a bit more on the splashy elements. It's being placed on a previously undeveloped site so all supporting infrastructure like entrances, parking lots, and buildings will have to be built from scratch. New Albany's plan includes the use of some preexisting Camille Wright infrastructure, explained as a money saver. Leitchfield sold $4.9 million in bonds a few weeks ago to cover construction costs. $400,000 was added to the overall budget to cover a slightly higher than projected interest rate and to lower annual payments by $10,000 per year. Officials expect the center to open in 2014.  
Total cost: $5.3 million

Lacking a full size pool and reusing some preexisting infrastructure, New Albany's non-bid, Estopinal aquatics plan has been approved for a total cost of up to $9 million.