Messer is right: The new council must make redistricting a priority.

You could forgive Jack Messer for saying, “Eight (years) is enough,” but the former two-term city council person attended last Thursday evening’s 2012 council kickoff and sat through the entire meeting for his chance to offer a non-agenda item comment about the importance of timely redistricting.

Most readers already know that I was a plaintiff in the lawsuit mentioned below in Daniel Suddeath’s excerpted news account. Through no fault of Messer’s, two previous council configurations have botched this imperative. Here’s to the hope that in 2012, history won’t repeat itself.

 ... Former Councilman Jack Messer, who lost his seat after an unsuccessful run for mayor last year, addressed the body on a very familiar topic.

He reminded the council they must redistrict voting boundaries, which the body hasn’t done since the 2010 U.S. Census was released. Cities are constitutionally mandated to redistrict following a census, and the issue led to a lawsuit in New Albany in 2006 as plaintiffs were upset with how the council handled the process.

The plaintiffs eventually agreed to settle, though some were angered by the 2007 council ordinance that was eventually accepted as the redistricting guideline.

The boundaries were set in 2009, nearly a decade after the latest Census at the time which was calculated in 2000.

Speaking during the public comment portion of the meeting, Messer urged the council to make redistricting a priority. Messer was an at-large councilman when he was selected in 2008 to serve on a redistricting committee that included some of the lawsuit plaintiffs.

The redistricting plan that was hatched and approved by the committee was spurned by the council also in 2008.

“I’m just bringing it to your attention that this needs to be looked at and put in committee,” Messer told the council Thursday.

Flip a coin: Four-corner stall or fast break?

Over at Facebook the other day, I queried at-large council member (and independent mayoral candidate) Jack Messer about his opposition to expanding the city's riverfront development district, as originally discussed here: The nightmare scenario: Weapons of mass pub grub destruction.

Roger to Jack: "Given that the state ATC already defines the legal requirements of all alcohol permittees, including an obligation for them to serve food, what safeguards are you suggesting beyond the state's existing ones? And, what do restaurants with three-ways have to do with policing? Aren't the state boys poaching already? Thanks."

Jack to Roger: "In answer to your question, I and other members of the committee think that with the way things are right now, we need to support the existing establishments and promote the growth in the area that we have now, I feel that this is the most important thing to try to accomplish. With expanding the area, we would possibly only pick up one business and that right now is on hold after talking to the owners. I also feel that since I am in the 11th hour of my elected office as councilman, I don't think decisions like this are in the best interest of a new council that would be taking office. For too long now, things have been done in the past to try to undermine the will of the people. If the community thinks that this would build New Albany in a positive way, then the next council can deal with this. It also seems to me that the only person concerned about this is part of this administration and not from the public. Maybe a political favor is at work here.

He didn't really answer my question, but that can be another topic for another time. What I noticed first was the underlined portion above, which seems quite clear in the sense of Messer signalling his lame duck intent: I'm almost gone, and the next group can deal with this.

Fair enough, I guess, except that candidate Messer had an entirely different view of pro-activity with respect to a measure approved at last night's council meeting, as quoted in OSIN on Thursday (pop-up alert):

Councilman and mayoral candidate Jack Messer said he favors the amended code. He said “leaving things undone isn’t going to solve the problem of getting things done.”

“If it’s a tie, nobody wins. So to kill it would be an injustice to the people of the community that wanted it,” he said. “I think it should be tabled and brought back up when there’s a full council.”

So, isn't it fair to ask: Should, or should not, the council leave things undone in its declining weeks?

And: Why is washing one's legislative hands of it the correct path as pertains to the riverfront development district, but the incorrect one when it comes to the amended voting procedure?

I consider this a purely rhetorical question, by the way. In a wider world outside the atrophied shores of Scribnerdom, immediate communication has been enabled, and perhaps even perfected, via platforms like Facebook, and yet sadly, Messer isn't the only New Albany political hopeful inclined to emulate the famous television commercial's advice when questioning time begins.

The voting measure went through: New Albany council strengthens code enforcement measure; Motion requiring majority vote to pass or fail a measure approved (Suddeath; OSIN; pop-ups)

New Albany mayoral politics as Duck Duck Goose without the saving grace of limitless vodka.

Here's the way the C-J's Harold Adams phrases the scrum on Twitter:

Four vie for mayor in New Albany: Two city councilmen, a political newcomer and a three-time loser at the polls ... http://cjky.it/sR0rrj

That's an ouchie for libertarian Thomas Keister, but it is "political newcomer" DM Bagshaw who provides the most memorable quote, underlined:

While this is Bagshaw’s first run for elected office, he said that shouldn’t be a reason to discount him in a contest against Gahan and Messer. “What has their experience gained our community versus my life of inexperience?” he asked.

That's good enough to become the mission statement for New Albany's bicentennial celebration in 2013 ... if we make it that far.

Let's see if I have it straight.

DM Bagshaw would have been on the GOP council ticket for the primary, but was instead sent to the bullpen to await the outcome of party chairman Dave Matthews' backroom mayoral negotiations, first with the twice-elected Democratic at-large council person Jack Messer, who flamed out (see below) and then with lifetime Republican Irv Stumler, who abruptly flipped to the Democrats for a far better deal at sitting (Democratic) mayor Doug England's instigation, but was defeated by Jeff Gahan, meaning that freshly minted council candidate England's master plan to achieve Lebensraum was thwarted, and Messer had spin the bottle a (2nd? 3rd?) time by running for mayor as an independent, his own strategy of jumping to the GOP having been rendered moot by what he says was England's telepathic sabotage in the form of Messer's own widely reported racial malapropisms, and Gahan now finds himself feted night and day by the England cadre, whose jobs depend on his cooperation.

Shit, I should have taken the buck ninety eight and run for mayor on the One Southern Indiana ticket.

OSIN reader backs Jack.

Previously, we have expressed a preference for Jeff Gahan in the forthcoming mayoral race: Decision 2011: Gahan tops this field. Following is another point of view, reprinted from OSIN in its entirety because I persist in believing, "Just say no to outmoded and discredited pop-ups."

Reader says he’s backing Messer

I’m a life-long Democrat. I even ran for office this spring in the Democratic Party’s primary. But I will not be voting for my party’s nominee for mayor of New Albany.

Instead, I will work to persuade my friends — Democrat, Republican or independent — to vote for Jack Messer, the independent candidate for mayor.

I back Jack because I’m convinced he is the only one running who is determined to change the culture of secrecy and insider dealing that has held our city back. Jack, perhaps for different reasons, rejected the party establishment and chose to run as a candidate for all the people. I’m certain that's the kind of mayor he’ll be, too.

This year’s Democratic candidate, Jeff Gahan, has shown me that he is unable to understand that as a public servant, he works for us under laws that we the people of this city, state and country have established. I’ve closely observed his performance in office for eight years and see no indication that any change is in the offing.

Gahan fought vigorously to maintain inequality in our council districts, saying the law doesn’t matter and no one could make him conform to the law. He has been a leading proponent of maintaining an unfair sewer rate schedule despite the fact that state law mandates otherwise, risking the loss of this city-owned asset. Gahan also sponsored an appropriation that diverted $200,000 in taxpayer funds to compensate private individuals for losses they incurred from a rainstorm, despite the fact that the city had no legal liability or other obligation to do so.

And in his most recent and blatant act of disregard for the interests of New Albanians, he torpedoed the merger of city and county emergency communications operations — a move that would have saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Messer, on the other hand, has been a voice of reason and a highly approachable at-large council member during the same eight years Gahan has held office. Jack is for electoral fairness. He is for equity in utility billing. He won’t support giveaways of taxpayer money. And he was the leading proponent for merging emergency communications.

Jack will listen to all the people, not just the same old gang that has run things downtown. Unlike Gahan, he believes city money is our money and not a private piggy bank for political insiders.

Messer’s the man we need to take this city forward.

— Randy Smith, New Albany

The nightmare scenario: Weapons of mass pub grub destruction.

(Feast BBQ is going into the old Shirl-Ray's spot across from the YMCA. To learn more, visit their Facebook page)

If you derive a sense of hope or contentment from downtown New Albany's burgeoning concentration of restaurants, it helps to understand that these considerable investments so very crucial to revitalization probably could not have been leveraged without the "tool" of specially designated, off-quota, $1,000 three-way (beer, wine, spirits) alcohol permits.

In turn, these have been made possible by the city's establishment of a riverfront development district, the mechanism described in Daniel Suddeath's piece below. As a more specialized brewery-restaurant, Bank Street Brewhouse certainly could have made do with a two-way (beer and wine) permit, but for other eatery start-ups, a riverfront three-way might easily be the deciding factor in whether to invest or invest downtown -- and the city need not spend $12-18 million in encouragement.

The city council is being asked by the city to expand the size of the development district, extending it into the west end. All along, the Green Mouse has said that the prime reason for the proposal was to enable an inexpensive three-way for the Holiday Inn Express, which Dan Coffey (among others) has been wary of facilitating, but now it appears that the hotel has its own means of exemption from the quota. As it stands, the district's widening could lead to greater start-up possibilities in an area that needs them.

Now, the case in opposition is being made by Jack Messer, outgoing council member and mayoral hopeful. Frankly I find Messer's position, as stated here, to be confusing (at best) and caterwauling (at worst). For starters, in a legislative sense, exactly how do we distinguish between "just pub food" and the presumably superior grade of food served at a "real" restaurant? Yes, I surely believe in varying grades of culinary attainment, but gazing upon the faces inhabiting the current council, is it a judgment any of them are qualified to make?

Furthermore, it seems we've already covered this ground: Believe it or not, the state of Indiana already has considered the issue of permittee cuisine, and one cannot possess a "by the drink" alcohol permit of any sort without agreeing to have foodstuffs on site, ready to prepare and serve. As you can see, the state's definition of food is poetically minimalist:

The Commission will, hereafter, require that the retail permittee be prepared to serve a food menu to consist of not less than the following:

Hot soups.
Hot sandwiches.
Coffee and milk.
Soft drinks.

Hereafter, retail permittees will be equipped and prepared to serve the foregoing foods or more in a sanitary manner as required by law.

Given these considerations, what is Messer trying to say? For the purposes of any potential permittee seeking his or her license according to the stipulations of the riverfront development district, what is the difference insofar as policing ramifications between the beverage alcohol served at La Bocca and Hugh E. Bir's?

And, if there is a difference, hasn't the state already ruled in detail as to the legal requirements of a permittee? What does this have to do with policing? Obviously, the state clearly has made this determination, and accordingly, isn't it Messer's responsibility to explain what further safeguards he personally requires in order to vote in favor of the district's expansion, and not City Hall's job to somehow "prove" to him that it's a good idea?

Jack, if you're reading, can you explain? Thank you.

Do you lose with more booze? ... Messer, Coffey wary of impact of more liquor licenses

A proposal to extend the city’s riverfront development district to allow more liquor licenses to be sold will likely be weighed in committee at least one more time before the New Albany City Council takes final votes on the measure ...

... In September, the proposal passed the first of three votes by an 8-1 count before it was tabled for committee review. Messer voted against the ordinance, as he said some assurances need to be made to ensure a slew of bars don’t open.

Quality restaurants can benefit a community, but allowing multiple bars to open downtown under the guise of selling pub food can be detrimental to public safety and create a “nightmare” for police, said Messer who is a New Albany policeman.

“I’m not open to expanding what we’ve got until we find out what benefit it’s going to produce,” Messer said last week.

Why wait for the election?

If Jack's already mayor, and the transition already is beginning, then there's really no sense in me voting, because victory in inevitable ... wait, I'm beginning to understand now ...

CAMPAIGN MOVES INTO FINAL DAYS

Jack Messer

... There is every reason to believe we will be victorious in the November 8th election, marking the first time in memory that a mayor has been elected without being nominated by one of the established parties. And that’s appropriate. In my experience, the people of New Albany are fed up with the past performance of both parties and are more interested in selecting the right person to lead this city responsibly and honestly.

... Our informal polling tells us we need to get started right now on planning the transition. There will be a lot of activity between election night and the first of January, when we expect to take up the mantle of service as your mayor.

Decision 2011: Gahan tops this field.

The mayoral contest analysis now beckons. Candidate listings are cribbed from the clerk's office, followed by brief comments by the senior editor.

Democratic mayoral nominee Jeff Gahan’s spring primary victory was a tonic, and a much needed refutation of New Albany’s ingrained, perpetual and shambolic political shenanigans.

Gahan defeated Irv Stumler, who had expediently defected from lifelong Republicanism to become, overnight, the bizarrely anointed successor to the purportedly Democratic mayor, Doug England. It was the act we’ll always remember as The Deal, and it reeked of backroom cigarillos.

But the Deal was undone by voters, and ever since the morning after, the same platform-deprived party functionaries who noisily celebrated the attempted England/Stumler coup d’etat have been falling over themselves like Larry, Moe and Curly to curry favor with Gahan, who appears visibly uncomfortable every time he’s near them … and that’s as strong a recommendation for his fundamental character that can be made.

Taken alone, the entertainment value of this panicked, self-interested caterwauling on the part of sinecure seekers would be sufficient reason to cast a November ballot for Gahan. Fortunately, there remain numerous reasons to support him apart from it.

Gahan has eight years of city council experience, and a record upon which to be judged. It is true that he and NAC have not always agreed. However, if we are to focus on the future, and on numerous, positive and shared visions for the city’s operation, we can agree to disagree.

Gahan is no leftist, but he’s also not an unreconstructed Dixiecrat. In terms of temperament and core beliefs, he falls far closer to the vicinity of principled conviction wherein a true Democrat’s political instincts should lie.

Gahan has chosen not to announce his appointments prior to being elected. Although his restraint has not spared us the indignity of job seekers swapping their obsolete Stumler tees for Gahan wearables, it’s the sensible thing to do.

Gahan owns a small, local, independent business, and was instrumental in advising and assisting the start-up of New Albany 1st, New Albany’s first-ever grassroots organization dedicated to the interests of small, local, independent business. Yes, the political wing of One Southern Indiana endorsed him, but there is no indication that he kowtowed to the oligarchs, or has abandoned his anti-tolls stance.

In the end, it would be wrong for previous disagreements to serve as deal-breaking impediments to making a considered, rational choice for mayor. Gahan is that choice.

Libertarian Thomas Keister’s sense of humor is valued, but one simply cannot take a three-and-a-half-year sabbatical from current local events, then belatedly throw a hat in the ring in the expectation of being taken seriously. We believe Keister has something to contribute to the body politic even if he has not quite found it, so let’s hope he stays connected between now and his next run, whatever office it may be for.

After the spring primary was finished, D.M. Bagshaw finally was chosen to run for mayor by the detached suburbanite Republican Party chair Dave Matthews, but only after the city’s GOP precinct committee heads couldn’t or wouldn’t even try to pick a candidate. In all of this, there is little to inspire confidence, even if Bagshaw himself seems likeable, if overmatched by the requirements of the job.

Finally, there’s outgoing “Democratic” councilman Jack Messer, who is running for mayor as an “Independent” after dallying with local “Republicans,” leaving New Albany’s Greens, Constitutionalists, Objectivists, Labor and Raza Unida parties insanely jealous that they couldn’t buy at least a piddling dime dance with him.

We like Messer – always will – but we don’t back Jack for mayor, precisely because there was a general loss of focus when his mayoral ambitions began to take root, to the detriment of his being able to decide who he is and what, if anything, he belongs to. Still, Messer was a fine at-large council representative for a long, long time, and his contributions often constituted the sole council rebuttals to the digressions of the Burger King & Li’l Stevie.

NAC co-editor Jeff Gillenwater adds:

Without having much to add to what Roger has already explained (except a general disgust for what's happening in Indy along educational lines that I think Jeff Gahan and I share), I'm in agreement.

The most important thing this city can do to position itself well for healthy long-term decision making is to end the patrician strangleholds that have turned off and run off the talented and willing from the region for the past few decades if not longer. Opportunities come not from them but in spite of them.

Whether we've agreed or disagreed or will in the future, Jeff has at least shown a capacity for the adaptation and adoption of better ideas as they're presented. A much improved council would undoubtedly help that continue and I think will be necessary for real direction change, but I also think Gahan in the mayor's chair makes that more possible than the other candidates.

On our mayoral candidates and 1Si's attempted usurpation of the local political process.

New Albany First, the city’s first-ever grassroots, local and independent business alliance, held an information session last evening at the Public House, and among the participants were mayoral candidates DM Bagshaw (Republican) and Jack Messer (Independent).

Jeff Gahan (Democrat) was not in attendance, but he has been a supporter of NA 1st from the very start. Also absent was Thomas Keister (Libertarian).

I was hoping Keister would attend, so I could jokingly ask him about his Free Rein Media, which someone masquerading as “Jimmy” recently took to task in One Southern Indiana Pop-Up Newspaper (OSIPUN, an acronym which looks almost “insipid”) for selling items designed to draw fire from Reclaim Our Redneck Backwoods Superstitious Culture Kentuckiana (RORBSCK, which lacks only a “u” to suck out loud, and surely already does).

But, as is my habit, I digress.

Significantly, all four candidates are small business owners, and even more interestingly, both Bagshaw and Messer were willing to report bits and pieces of the interview process wherein One Southern Indiana’s (1Si) political aggrandizement arm asked them questions to see who merits political endorsements, ones calculated to obtain oligarchic orgasms at the highly likely ultimate cost of sacrificing voluntary funding from every last locally elected governmental body able to grasp that taxpayers of virtually every political stripe earnestly wish for entities like 1Si to keep the politics out of whatever it is the organization does to justify its existence – itself a debatable topic.

According to both Bagshaw and Messer, one question asked of them was if elected, whether they would “use” 1Si’s services for outsourcing their economic development tasks. Both candidates indicated they responded with wariness, if not outright hostility. It is rumored that Gahan was more vociferous in objecting to 1Si’s arrogance. Having read Keister’s blogs over the years, I’d expect the same from him. None of the four seem to be buying into 1Si’s errant shtick, and for this, we should be grateful.

It makes me guardedly optimistic to know that first and foremost, our mayoral candidates understand small business issues by virtue of being small businessmen themselves.

Furthermore, not one of them is eager to be co-opted by One Southern Indiana’s creeping and unnecessary interference in the political process, and in this, each candidate lies firmly on the side not only of the general public, but an ever-increasing number of 1Si’s own operatives, who see quite clearly that the Stemlerization (that’s a synonym for politicization, folks) of 1Si impedes whatever legitimacy lies in their daily work. They can’t say it aloud, but readers would be amazed to hear the chilling off-record comments.

In fact, 1Si is so squarely on the defensive owing to its leadership’s perpetual, self-defeating political missteps that it cannot even run the risk of linking its new, vaunted Think Local Southern Indiana diversionary tactic to 1Si, which founded it. Nowhere is the 1Si brand to be seen, which of course does little except deepen the depth of deception.

All of which, to me, seems curiously toxic in nature.

Windstream second-guessing sweeps NA: Which language is who speaking, when, and why?

If it was my job to prepare a lesson plan encompassing the following news item, it would include a few simple questions.

Coffey: Windstream move caught New Albany City Council by surprise; Messer cites lack of communication from administration; Gahan said proposal had council support (Suddeath; N&T)

1. Exactly what is meant by "growth" in the context used by Windsteam's Dan Bates?: "The administration here has done an awesome job of trying to bring growth to New Albany, and I think this would have been a great way to do that."

2. Is it the meat or the motion?: "According to (Dan) Coffey and Councilman Steve Price, Windstream tendered its product patents for collateral instead of real property or cash. 'This was a risky loan,' Coffey said."

3. When City Hall says, "No comprehension," and Coffey says, "No information," and Jack Messer says, "No communication," should the entire city of New Albany join the refrain from the Stones, circa Beggar's Banquet:

Take me to the station
and put me on a train
I've got no expectations
To pass through here again

4. Exactly what is meant by "entrepreneurial" in the context used by Mayor Doug England?: "In a news release, England did not directly fault the council for Windstream but said 'I do hope the city learns that we must become more entrepreneurial in our economic development decision-making.'"

5. Exactly what is meant by "economic development decision-making" in the context of the preceding passage? Whose definition? Who decides? Is there more than one way to look at such questions?

6. Given the scope of the request, the fact that it was City Hall and not the council asking for more time to be duly diligent, the resident whoredom of businesses seeking "economic development" favors from "entrepreneurial" cities, and the benumbing difficulties in separating fact from fiction in an election year, doesn't council president Jeff Gahan's statement constitute the final word on Windstream:

“I felt like it was moving as fast as it could have given the amount of money they were asking for from the council.”

That's enough for now. Let me know if you find any nuggets.

Messer declares.

The News and Tribune observes that Jack Messer's New Albany mayoral run (as an independent) was not an easy choice‎, because of the "controversy that has surrounded him after comments he made about civil rights last year."

Two local television stations covered yesterday's announcement. In an illustration of spin put to use, note the difference in their web site headers. WDRB plays is straight, with "New Albany police officer to announce candidacy for mayor‎," while WAVE inserts the "r" word: Police officer accused of racism to announce run for New Albany mayor‎.

In like fashion, I might have chosen to title this post, "From within a gated, razor-wired compound, populist Jack Messer declares for mayor." It would be true, but also slightly misleading.

Make no mistake. I already have a candidate, but I like Jack, and my mind is open to what he has to say. To me, it's less a case of him explaining the alleged racial comments than addressing his quirky, declining and occasionally outright weird city council report card over the past year, and illuminating his brief dalliance with the GOP's Dave Matthews before eventually landing in the mayor's race as an independent.

Speaking personally, I sincerely hope Jack addresses these matters himself, in due time, and -- this one is especially important to me -- in his own words. Consequently, readers are advised to pay close attention to Jack's emerging social media campaign. Deftly exercised, social media might make his bid. Ham-fisted, it could just as easily break it. I have a good feeling about the next few months, in the sense that Jack Messer and Jeff Gahan will offer much for voters to consider.

As for D.M. Bagshaw, he remains a blank slate. As for persistent rumors that Doug England will conjure a way to re-enter the mayor's race as an independent, let's hope not.

Note: Messer's web site is up, although not all hyperlinks are active.

"We Back Jack at GoDaddy.com," and other famous campaign slogans.

I get the eerie feeling we've all been here before ...

We've got mayoral candidates.

First there's Jack Messer (as an independent): Messer confirms mayoral run. He'll have to get a few signatures before the end of the month.

Then D. M. Bagshaw (as a Republican): Bagshaw to run for mayor of New Albany. It would have been a lot more fun to have of the local Sarah Palins in the race, but Dave Matthews couldn't pull it off.

Now Jeff Gahan, the Democratic nominee for mayor, has two opponents this fall.

In the Tribune article about Messer's decision, the GOP chairman claims to have a candidate for every race except clerk.

Even the 1st district?

Is there still time for an independent to run against Dan Coffey?

That's some quorum: Price, Coffey join Benedetti, Messer on council's after-school detention list.

With an election right around the corner, let's hope the local combined newspapers take an interest in explicating a lawsuit that names two sitting and conjoined council persons, Dan Coffey and Steve Price, as defendants.

Rumors and accusations about this case of familial squabbling, elder care, sickbed sign-offs to strangers, property deeds, blood money and house flipping goes back a few years, and apparently it even made the newspaper, although all I can find by searching the Tribune archive is an angry letter taking issue with the newspaper's story, itself nowhere to be found: LETTERS: April 28, 2007 (by Patricia Walker). Was the story removed, or never archived? Only the Shadow knows.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit's a matter of public record, and not unlike Diane Benedetti's wine-driving case, it appears to have been pushed back until after the primary. How very unexpected. Yet another council member, Jack Messer, has just learned that his brush with notoriety (a suspension) cannot be ducked, but he's not on the ballot ... yet.

Follow the link for just the facts, Erika.

22C01-1103-CT-000313

Marcelene Jahn, Avis Byers, Dixie Denton et al vs. Dan Coffey, Stephen Price

03/07/2011 Floyd Circuit Court
CT - Civil Tort Pending

03/24/2011
Appearance Filed
Stephen Price
For Party: Price, Stephen
File Stamp: 03/24/2011

03/24/2011
Motion for Enlargement of Time Filed
Filed By: Price, Stephen
File Stamp: 03/24/2011

03/24/2011
Order Granting Motion for Enlargement of Time (Judicial Officer: Cody, John Terrence )
To and Including May 4, 2011
Order Signed: 03/24/2011

Messer redeals.

Jack Messer's campaign slogan was conjectured long before reading that his plans have changed. By offering, “That’s not what I meant,” it turns out that I wasn't far off.

Messer not retiring from New Albany Police Department; Councilman won’t seek re-election; says city should choose leaders more wisely, by Daniel Suddeath (Tribune)

New Albany City Councilman Jack Messer said Friday he will not seek a third term this year or run for another public office.

Messer also confirmed he will not retire from the New Albany Police Department May 31 as was his original intent.

Posterity can sort through the evidence, although I'll continue to maintain that Messer's overall council record is a good one.

More significantly, for eight years Messer has been just about the only council member willing to stand up to Dan Coffey's incessant bullying, and to call out Cappuccino's frequent self-aggrandizing lies. The best solution, in keeping with Messer's parting words, is for the 1st district to choose its leader more wisely. If not, an assertive replacement for Messer will be necessary.

Some potpourri, and then I turn this thing off for the day.

Our city council gifted One Southern Indiana with cash to lobby in favor of bridge tolls that will wreck New Albany businesses. Kudos to John Gonder for at least asking the right questions.

Councilman Jack Messer's disciplinary hearing has been delayed and will now occur one month closer to the day he planned on retiring, anyway.

Lee Cotner's back on the school board. Don Sakel's still off it. That's a big 10-4.

There were balmy temperatures in the brewery this morning. Meanwhile, craft beer sales nationwide continued to rise during the first half of the year.

I'm outta here. See you tomorrow.

Tribune: "Messer to retire from New Albany Police Department in May."

For the record, as reported in the Tribune.

Messer to retire from New Albany Police Department in May; Councilman filed for retirement in 2008 before allegations of racist remarks, by Daniel Suddeath

NEW ALBANY — New Albany City Councilman and policeman Jack Messer will retire from the force May 31.

But Messer said Tuesday the decision to end his career after more than 27 years as an officer was made in 2008 — well before accusations that he made racist comments during a January roll call meeting came to light.

Tribune editorial: "Messer situation is mess for all."

Well, what do you think?

TRIBUNE EDITORIAL: Messer situation is mess for all; Public safety is no place for politics

We interrupt today’s celebration of our country’s independence to address a local situation that centers on one of our most vital democratic beliefs — free speech.

However, the complex words and actions surrounding New Albany policeman and elected city councilman Jack Messer is simply a mess and nothing to be patriotic about.

The New Albanist: "Zero Tolerance, But What's Real and What's Not?"

(Late note: The Tribune's coverage can be found here)

Randy Smith offers a dispassionate and thoughtful analysis of the increasingly surreal case of Jack Messer and racist comments that were made, or not made.

The crux of the issue remains this, as phrased by Randy: "Without a formal complaint, how does this become a public issue? How does the Merit Commission even take up the matter?"

I like Jack Messer, and believe he's done a fine job on the council. I've no clue as to his job performance as police officer, and having heard nothing negative, I'm inclined to take it as a positive -- not unlike umpiring. If his words have violated the racial compact, there obviously must be discipline. But surely there is a procedure to determine this apart from the unfolding trial by press release and media circus?

Does such a procedure exist? Or, are we seeing it now? I'm neither rushing to defend not hurrying to distance, just inquiring ...

Zero Tolerance, But What's Real and What's Not?

... Wednesday evening, the New Albany chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) successfully summoned all 4 local TV stations, 2 local newspapers, and inadvertently 1 Internet journalist to a press conference on the steps of the New Albany Police Department.

The occasion was a hitherto unknown meeting of the Police Merit Commission, whose purpose was to conduct an inquiry into whether comments made by police officer Jack Messer in January constituted officially inappropriate conduct.

A cherished and hallowed way of life.

Two weeks have elapsed since the C-J’s Harold J. Adams broke the "racist remarks" story and NAC smirked here that "them people" has become the current city's council's unofficial motto.

Today, Matt Thacker brings the Tribune belatedly into the game.

NAPD officer reportedly made racist remarks; NAACP calls for review of officer’s arrests

… Dustin White, legal redress for local NAACP chapters, says he would push for an internal investigation by the police department or prosecutor reviewing all of (Jack) Messer’s arrests to see if there are any questionable cases or if his cases reflect any bias.

“They need to decide if that’s the type of police officer they want to have and whether that questions the integrity of the police force,” White said ...

... “I don’t think this whole thing is a question of sensitivity or diversity training,” White said. “It’s a question of whether he thinks everyone should have civil rights according to the constitution.”

Messer is also a New Albany city councilman and is a Democrat. He has said he may switch parties, but White and (Nicole) Yates, both Democrats, reject any suggestion their criticism is politically motivated.

Maybe not, but now it's clear why City Hall mentioned the revival of the Human Rights Commission at a recent council impotency confab. Note also that NAC has supported the revival of the moribund HRC since at least 2005.

As for the dust-up about Messer, it may surprise you to learn that I have a personal opinion.

In all likelihood, the Messer incident is relatively minor in the cosmic scheme of things, and it is highly doubtful that he will ever be confused for David Duke, but: In a city with as dismal a record of human rights consciousness as New Albany, you’re almost certain to get a racist bite anytime your line gets wet, and in that way, it's always political.

It's not so much that the bar here is set too low. It's that its buried and can't be found at all.

As Messer -- whom I continue to appreciate and respect for being right far more often than not during his council tenure -- is learning, it’s one thing to uphold the law of the land as a policeman, and quite another to establish the non-civic credentials currently demanded of Republicans in order to belong to their tea party ... and to make a New Albanian mayoral bid.

In general terms, and in an observation not aimed at Messer himself, the irony is this: In Floyd County, the Democratic Party is so devoid of intellectual content, platform consistency and a record of upholding coherent views on virtually any topic, that it isn’t even necessary for a person to switch parties and join the GOP in order to accommodate an aberrant racial viewpoint.

You're free to disagree. Discussion?

Doesn't Jack know that "them people" is Coffey's trademark line?

The single most ironic thing about this development is that as soon as the first registered New Albany Democrat in living memory concedes that he isn't really a Democrat after all (how many really are?), the transition to Republican values has occured with such lightning speed. Too bad about that, because Jack Messer, the anti-Price, has been right far more times than he's been wrong during his council tenure.

Remark prompts sensitivity training for New Albany police, by Harold J. Adams (Courier-Journal).

A New Albany police officer’s racial remarks have prompted the chief to schedule sensitivity training for the entire department ...

... Messer said those who make an issue of what he said are politically motivated. He was elected to the city council as a Democrat but has stated his intention to switch to the Republican Party. “Apparently somebody is trying to politically try to ruin me, I guess,” Messer said.

“I am going to run for mayor next year,” he said. “I’m not lining up with the Democratic Party anymore.”