Vote Scott Stewart for New Albany City Council District 2.

Call it an endorsement if you will, or think of it as my personal support, backing, seal of approval, recommendation or advocacy.

I don't live in District 2, but if I did, I'd vote for Scott Stewart. Hands down. No contest. Not even close. Nary a moment's pause. It does not require tea leaves, a degree in rocket science or a passing acquaintance with urban street grid essentials (the latter as yet eluding Stewart's intellectually exhausted opponent, Bob Caesar) to grasp that seldom in the history of New Albany governance has there been a candidate with Scott Stewart's experience and credentials.

Period. Full stop. Drop the mic.

At his website, the candidate explains why. If you're a 2nd District voter, please vote for Scott Stewart. It is exceedingly rare for us to have such an opportunity to elect a council representative of his caliber.

Meet Scott

I believe deeply in public service. I’ve bookended my career doing just that. So, a quick introduction.

I grew up on Fenwick Drive and Ellen Court. I attended Holy Family and Providence.

I joined Mayor Bob Real’s administration while attending IU Southeast. I bought my first home in Finchland. I was a staff director for U.S. Senators Richard Lugar and Dan Quayle, then joined the Procter & Gamble Company. While I spent most of my time in Cincinnati, I did live in Switzerland and Belgium for 6 years. I retired from P&G after 24+ years and joined Governor Mitch Daniels’ staff in Indianapolis. I returned to New Albany and the 2nd District in 2010, completing my tenure in state government with INDOT and the Ports of Indiana in 2018.

My wife Christi and I have four children spread between Cincinnati, Lexington, KY, New York City, and Basel, Switzerland. Our four grandchildren are split between Lexington and Basel, the latter much too far away.

A final word about voting in local elections. My plea is to take it seriously.

Nowhere in the world is democracy more relevant than a local election. Be it mayor, city council, school board, or county offices, we all have the opportunity to select those men and women who have a direct effect on our lives. Everyday. The responsibility falls to you and me, our family, friends, and neighbors to ensure that our elected officials reflect the choice exercised by as many voters as possible. Too many big decisions that affect taxes, spending, and our community spirit too often are made that people who were elected by a minority of registered voters. During the last city election in 2015, 27% of registered voters turned out in District 2. We are better than that. Be sure to learn about the issues, the candidates and be sure to vote.

Previously:

Vote Josh "JT" Turner for New Albany City Council District 5.

Engorged with boilerplate, the AdamBot whines: My power would come to a "screeching halt" without TIF.

"(Commission member Scott) Stewart previously said the city could release a portion of the increase in assessed valuation, instead of capturing all the incremental increases, to other taxing units which would free up money for schools and public safety."

But how would that benefit Dickey's DemoDisneyDixiecrats?

New Albany Redevelopment Commission director says TIF districts healthy, by Chris Morris (Hanson's Trolley)

NEW ALBANY — The seven New Albany Tax Increment Financing districts are healthy.

That was Josh Staten's message to the New Albany Redevelopment Commission following a presentation Tuesday. Staten, the redevelopment director, discussed projects planned and financial obligations for each district and projections for 2020-21.

It's a municipal election year in New Albany, and the GOP is serious.

I stopped by Kolkin Coffee today to observe the scene as the Floyd County Republican Party rolled out its slate of candidates for municipal elections in 2019.

Mayor: Mark Seabrook

City Clerk: none

District 1: Stefanie Griffith
District 2: Scott Stewart
District 3: none
District 4: Cisa Kubley
District 5: Josh Turner
District 6: Scott Evans
At-large: David Aebersold, David Barksdale and Al Knable

Therein lies an 800-lb incongruity, which is a concise way of saying something is "out of place or keeping."

Seabrook said during his short speech Friday afternoon at Kolkin Coffee shop in New Albany there needs to be more transparency in city government and that the Gahan administration has wasted taxpayer money on projects, singling out the current rehabilitation work on the old Reisz Furniture building for the new city hall. He also criticized Gahan for not working with county leaders during his two terms.

Standing four feet away from Seabrook was Very Incongruous Barksdale, who garnered nowhere near the level of applause given the others.

His presence proved a bit strange. If the GOP intends to cite the Reisz Mahal as a prime example of Jeff Gahan's debt-laden waste -- and this is entirely true -- then why did Barksdale, one of the party's three council incumbents, provide THE critical vote to move the boondoggle forward?

Just remember that when it comes to manipulation and money, the mayor can be trusted to exploit the weak and vulnerable by finding and tapping their jugulars. Gahan simultaneously milked Barksdale for a crucial fifth Reisz Mahal vote and neutered a Republican. The historian blithely handed the charlatan power on a silver platter.

Barksdale's abrupt collapse might be sad, except it's all hamartia and hubris to to me: "Hamartia is the (fatal) flaw, hubris is the behavior that does not acknowledge it."

Apart from Barksdale's capitulation to Dear Leader -- can he be redeemed? -- it's a fine and balanced slate, surely the deepest we've seen from the GOP since this blog's inception.

Seabrook officially announces bid for New Albany mayor, by Chris Morris (Tom May for Poet Laureate)

NEW ALBANY — The Floyd County Republican Party candidates for city offices in 2019 want residents to know they will always listen to their concerns. Their ears, and doors, are always open. That, they said, has been missing in the last eight years from Mayor Jeff Gahan and other elected Democrats.

"We will listen," Mark Seabrook said. "We will listen to every citizen. The days of a city administration going it alone will be over. We want the community involved and we want to make New Albany the best it can be. Being the best New Albany can be is what this campaign is all about."

snip

Floyd County Republican Party Chairman Shawn Carruthers said he is "very happy" with the slate of candidates, which can still grow before the filing deadline of Feb. 8.

"We have a diverse group of people who are talented in all aspects of industry," he said. "There is a lot of energy in the room."

Carruthers said Republicans enjoyed great success in the county-wide election last year, and he believes that momentum will carry over to this year.

Rails, trails, holy grails: "That's why we're here," babbles Gahan about yet another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to economically develop others at his own city's expense.

This one is bizarre even by News and Tribune standards: New Albany mayor, redevelopment official debate benefits of Rails to Trails project (see excerpt below).

The header suggests an actual debate between public officials, but it isn't really a debate, which as we know Jeff Gahan avoids like the proverbial plague, and seeing as Gahan and Scott Stewart weren't actually in the same room.

Can you even begin imagining how intimidated the small town huckster Gahan is by Stewart's career and life experience? The mayor probably keeps a voodoo doll of Stewart in his municipal-issue SUV.

Stewart patiently makes actual arguments about costs, benefits, wants and needs, while Gahan repeats his painstakingly memorized "gotta act fast right now" mantra, over and over, which reminds me of a story about Joe Stalin's parrot.

Stalin was so paranoid he suspected his pet parrot of deviant tendencies when it imitated his crude spitting; he purged it with a death blow from his pipe.

Morris' piece comes off as a reluctant cut 'n' paste job, with the critical question yet again going unasked:

Why these pyrotechnics about a vague rails-to-trails pointed at Bedford when job one for New Albany should be connecting the Greenway to the North Side, which would be a project benefiting city residents and not outsiders?

Fortunately the article includes inadvertent hilarity.

Ever diligent when it comes to preserving his lifetime sinecure, John "Pinocchio" Rosenbarger falls over himself to effusively agree with the mayor, and yet it is Rosenbarger himself who has spent years making n excellent case for the potential usefulness of a link from downtown to IU Southeast using the CSX rail line -- which interests Dear Leader not one jot.

For Rosenbarger to be absolutely right about anything occurs once "every three or four lifetimes," and yet his long-term point about connecting downtown and the north side is spot on. Now he has abandoned it, tossed right down the toilet in his eagerness to bow in the general direction of whomever signs his paychecks.

We mustn't forget: Whenever the mayor opens his mouth, follow the money -- and, perhaps in this instance, his ambition. If we are to take the most optimistic scenario, Gahan's rails-to-trails fetish would leave the city of New Albany with 2-3 miles of a campaign talking point in the form of a pathway to elsewhere, with elsewhere and others paying most of the costs. 

Thus far, Gahan has expended more hyperbole on the rails-to-trail's benefit to the region than his own city, as if he is playing to a larger audience, seeking to be the Mayor of Southern Indiana.

Cash and ego? That's why he's here. We can do something about that.

#FireGahan2019

New Albany mayor, redevelopment official debate benefits of Rails to Trails project, by Chris Morris (Tom May Biblical Odyssey)

NEW ALBANY — Scott Stewart said the Rails to Trails proposal sounds intriguing, and admits the idea looks good on paper.

However, as a member of the New Albany Redevelopment Commission, Stewart voted no on hiring Indianapolis law firm Faegre Baker Daniels (FBD) to assist with advancing the Rails to Trails project. The measure passed 4-1 recently with FBD being paid $125,000 for its services.

The Rails to Trails initiative would replace abandoned CSX train tracks that run 63 miles — starting just north of the new Sazerac facility (at the former Pillsbury Plant) in New Albany and ending near Bedford.

Stewart said there are only so many redevelopment dollars available, and he would like to see the money used to benefit New Albany residents. He said connecting neighborhoods and making them more walkable is something he supports.

"When you look at New Albany, we have wonderful neighborhoods and downtown, there is the Greenway .... there is a lot to build on," he said. "I would like to see safe pathways for cyclists and walkers."

Stewart said developing Rails to Trails would cost millions and while FBD may help secure some state funding, those dollars will be capped leaving the city and other communities along the trail responsible to foot the bill.

"It faces immeasurable challenges. The financial commitment is significant," Stewart said of the idea. "It just didn't makes sense to me.

"Where does it go from here? There is a much bigger potential to distract scarce resources from our neighborhoods and business districts. I am interested in taking care of New Albany first. This is a discussion of a difference in priorities."

ON THE AVENUES: "That's why I voted no," explains Scott Stewart, pausing to duck rocks feebly lobbed by Team Gahan's propaganda pygmies.

ON THE AVENUES: "That's why I voted no," explains Scott Stewart, pausing to duck rocks feebly lobbed by Team Gahan's propaganda pygmies.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor ... with assistance by the Green, Green Mouse from home.

Here we go again.

New Albany’s suburban-minded, self-congratulatory ruling caste is moving with characteristic pre-election haste to make the city safe for all the people just like them.

Wile E Gahan(Genius) is shining yet another spotlight on the shoddy chipped veneer of his own ego, joining with our culturally illiterate elites to merrily filch someone else’s idea about recreational rails-to-trails, surreptitiously scratching off the serial numbers, and heading down to the Quality of Life Pawn Shop for the cash to pay approximately 3% of a long-term project located almost entirely outside city limits.

Bait, meet switch. Neither a pathway to Bedford nor a series of triumphant press releases will help New Albany residents find alternative routes to work, obtain affordable housing, or keep their porches safe from petty thievery.

But look at us!

We rock!

Huzzahs all around!

Operators are standing by to take your campaign donation, so call BR549 today!

Long live the Bling!

Of course, we're nodding wearily. It’s just another gold-painted brick in the putrid swamp of Mayor Gahan’s burgeoning cult of personality, this all-seeing, all-knowing Great Father of the New Albanians, who recently joined the festive crowds under our municipal Christmas Tree and humbly accepted their beseeching to belt out the Official Anchor Theme.

At least it explains why the animals were howling in terminal distress that particular evening.

---

Are the scalpels ready?

Let’s get down to the necessary dissection, beginning with this banner on social media, courtesy of the City of New Albany’s propaganda commissariat.

At today’s Redevelopment Commission meeting, the board approved a motion for Faegre Baker Daniels (FBD) to assist with advancing the Rails to Trails project. The vote was 4-1, with the lone dissenter being Scott Stewart.

(As an aside, Faegre Baker and Daniels are not newcomers to our civic circus: Me thinks Coffey knows Gahan's public housing attorneys. After all, he tossed them from Redevelopment's temple just last year.)

Thinking human beings should note an obvious item of importance from the preceding.

Why didn’t Jeff Gahan’s staffer phrase the missive to credit the city’s own loyal bootlickers, rather than imply Scott Stewart somehow is a vile creature for exercising due diligence about this latest pie in the sky?

At today’s Redevelopment Commission meeting, the board approved a motion for Faegre Baker Daniels (FBD) to assist with advancing the Rails to Trails project. The vote was 4-1, with Terry Middleton, David Barksdale, Adam Dickey and Irving Joshua voting in favor.

This is the city's official "feed," as it were, and it isn't the place to pursue political vendettas -- which is exactly what this is.

Isn't shaming the Republican Stewart the sort of thing for the Floyd County Democratic Party's disinformation outlets, as opposed to the city's? Party chairman Dickey's already doing it regularly for the Democrats, isn't he -- even if it didn't avert a third consecutive electoral meltdown earlier this month?

Surely it's a coincidence that Dickey enjoys a lifetime sinecure at the Redevelopment Commission.

I’ve only recently gotten to know Stewart, but his Curriculum Vitae is a matter of public record. He worked in communications for Proctor & Gamble Co., including stints overseas. He worked for Governor Mitch Daniels as senior policy director, and as head of the Port of Indiana.

In short, Stewart has considerably more employment and life experience at far higher levels of The Game than the combined weight of a motley crew of yes-men and sycophants gathered together by Team Gahan to stifle grassroots creativity, ladle political patronage, and make grammar school insinuations about Stewart in their self-serving press releases.

So, Stewart is a dissenter?

Awesome. Can we have more dissent like this, please?

I’m proud to stand with Stewart, whether he’s a Republican, a Kentuckian, a Klingon, or just an reasonably intelligent human capable of looking past the perennial bilge to dispassionately vet a proposed expenditure at the Redevelopment Commission, this being exactly why he was appointed by city council president Al Knable in the first place.

Consequently, seeing as the Redevelopment Commission likes to keep its usual pair of deuces concealed, I did the unthinkable. Let's hope the News & Submitted Press Releases is paying attention, because I actually asked Scott Stewart to explain his dissenting vote.

---

Thank you for your inquiry about the Redevelopment Commission's action today on a $125,000 consulting agreement pertaining to the proposed trail between New Albany and Bedford.

As a commission member, my initial thought when this proposal was first presented on November 13 was that the concept of converting an unused rail line to a multi-use trail was worth considering.

There is no greater foundational need for bettering our community than a laser-like focus on improving what economic developers call quality of place. For New Albany, such an effort, in my view, would require a comprehensive plan and targeted investment linking our neighborhoods and commercial areas with one another, including downtown and the Greenway, as well as with Indiana University Southeast and the Purdue Technology Center.

As I've discussed the trail idea with others over the past few weeks, I've come to the conclusion that I cannot support using our limited Redevelopment resources to speculate on a trail to Bedford without first making substantial progress in providing safe pathways for pedestrians and cyclists within the city limits. There have been fatalities among pedestrians and cyclists given the failure to effectively address this critical need. Improving quality of place requires making walking, running and biking as safe as possible. Safety and economic development should go hand in hand, and they start right here at home, not on the way to Bedford.

There are many factors relating to the proposed trail to Bedford that are unknown or speculative. Such a project will be complicated and very expensive. The commission was asked to sign the first of what may become a large number of checks for this project. Given the many needs and opportunities within the city, committing to a project that would cost millions outside the city doesn’t make sense. In other words, there are important needs within the New Albany city limits that will remain unmet if this project moves forward.

That’s why I voted no.

---

So, rather than vilify Stewart for refraining from participation in the ritualistic mass fellatio that typically greets any pronouncement by the saintly emperor, perhaps Team Gahan’s luminaries might offer some sort of gurgling sound faintly resembling a rebuttal?

They won’t, so allow me to fully agree with Stewart, and add that while perfectly valid in the abstract sense, the rails-to-trails we need most in New Albany would begin at the Greenway, to run along the urban section of the CSX tracks all the way past the currently specified beginning point near Sazerac for another two miles north, to the city limits.

There it would stop, to await action by surrounding governmental units to complete their segments eventually leading to Bedford, Bloomington, Keokuk or Duluth.

First things first, and people in New Albany first -- unless you're a mayor enamored of smoke, mirrors and low-hanging fruit, because what the current rails-to-trails proposal really signifies is the accumulated pain of the city’s TIF One Credit Cards screaming "tilt"; we can't afford the necessary urban route, the one resembling the Monon Trail in Broad Ripple, so we'll settle for the first two detached and isolated miles of a yellow brick road to Needmore.

What does this paltry two-mile stretch have to do with New Albany, apart from one man's engorged megalomania?

In closing, several alert readers who’ve rigorously trained themselves to look past faux journalism and simple stenography, straight to the heart of the matter, have asked precisely the right question.

How much money has Faegre Baker Daniels donated to Jeff Gahan's re-election fund?

Here’s the answer … so far, and not including and cash-stuffed envelopes adorning the monthly fruit basket. You'd think he'd at least give the untouched fruit to a homeless person.

That’s $4,000 total for 2015, 2016 and 2017. My guess is not a single casino on the planet would choose to fix the odds on whether another donation was made in 2018.

Some will find nothing particularly odious or even noteworthy about a mayor's campaign accepting donations just like these from vendors, consultants and contractors just like them.

But you can’t convince me it isn’t pay to play. Read Stewart’s explanation again. It's damned ethical, isn’t it?

We need more like him, don't we?

---

Recent columns:

November 22: ON THE AVENUES: A few thanks to give before we return to our regular anti-anchor resistance programming.

November 15: ON THE AVENUES: Notes on Solidarity after a visit to the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk.

November 1: ON THE AVENUES: Three books by Polish writers.

October 23: ON THE AVENUES: I'd like nothing more than to go for another ride with Kevin.

City Council Thursday: Knable seeks the HRC's reanimation and appoints a heavyweight. Coffey rightly speaks up for public comment placement. But who squelched free speech in the first place?

Thursday's city council meeting clocked in at a brisk 32 minutes from gavel to gavel. The only ordinance on the agenda was Haven House homeless shelter funding (3rd and final reading). It was tabled until February owing to administrative something-or-another.

Mike Hall promptly performed 30 seconds of workmanlike stand-up mayoral ventriloquism, and then President Al Knable introduced council member appointments, three of which deserve special note.

Matt Nash (D) joins David Aebersold (R) on the Horseshoe Board.

Knable (R) will serve as one of two council appointments to the ignominiously beached Human Rights Commission (the other council appointment is local realtor Paul Kiger), supplanting Greg Phipps (D), who in 2017 vocally wishy-washed his hands of "his" crowning achievement.

Knable announced his intention to request two remaining mayoral appointments to the HRC (the body itself then chooses a fifth member) and to reanimate it. Jeff Gahan let it die, so this should become interesting very quickly.

Finally, David Barksdale (R) remains posted to the Duggins Turbo Pay Play Station (Redevelopment Commission), but Bob "Human Rubber Stamp" Caesar (D) is removed, to be replaced by an extremely well-qualified citizen, new Albany native Scott Stewart, who recently retired from his position as director of the Port Authority. Previously, Stewart was an executive at Proctor & Gamble, and worked for Governor Mitch Daniels.

Pro tip: time to start attending Redevelopment Commission meetings. 

Now, let's comment about comments. Last night, something was missing.

Last year, former council president Pat McLaughlin (D) echoed the local Democratic Party's aversion to dialogue by implementing a requirement to specify one's subject when speaking.

Knable now has removed it, and this is good. 

Meanwhile, it is perfectly normal (if surreal) for 1st district councilman Dan Coffey (I) to be on his best behavior during the first few meetings each year. He's studying the terrain for maximum self-aggrandizement, and sniffing the best opportunity to maintain beak-wetting.

Last night, the "good" Coffey ventured a genuinely thoughtful point, sans his customary theatrics: Why not move non-agenda public speaking time back to the beginning of meetings, rather than keeping it at the end?

Wouldn't this be of benefit to long-suffering members of the public, who simply want to be heard?

Shouldn't their comments be made first, up front, without restrictions?

Have a seat and a shot, because Coffey's right. This way members of the public would be spared the inexcusable agony of enduring Coffey's customary theatrics.

Nash asked Coffey how these public comments came to be pushed to meeting's end in the first place. Coffey chuckled and replied (paraphrased): let's just say some council persons weren't interested in listening.

Who was it?

You're in luck, because THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE.

Let's begin in January of 2010, when at-large councilman John Gonder was elected president. Previously, public comment time was on the agenda at the beginning of meetings. It was not divided into agenda and non-agenda slots. There was a single sign-up sheet, and before the introduction of ordinances and resolutions, those persons listed on it came forth and spoke.

(There are legitimate questions about how long members of the public should be allowed to speak, but these aren't the point, at least at present.)

Gonder changed the agenda; if memory serves, he lifted the original wording from the city's enabling ordinance. Throughout 2010 during Gonder's term, communications still occurred at the beginning of the meeting, in this cadence.

(E) Communications, in the following order:

(1) From city officials
(a) Mayor
(b) Controller)
(c) City Council
(d) City Attorney; and
(e) City Engineer

(2) From official commission:
(a) Board of Public Works;
(b) Plan Commission; and
(c) Park Commission

(3) From members of the public, including petitions and remonstrances

Other council business came after these communications, including committee reports, appointments, and the introduction of ordinances and resolutions.

By the first meeting of February, 2011, the agenda had been streamlined under a new council president.

You might even know him; it was an ambitious veneer peddler by the name of Gahan (D), in what was to be his final year as 6th district councilman prior to enthronement as mayor.

By February 7, 2011 the Great Wall of Comment Segregation had been erected.

From this point forward, members of the public were compelled to restrict their comments to items on the evening's agenda, or cool their heels -- maybe 30 minutes, maybe two hours -- to make general observations about the zeitgeist.

In 2017, McLaughlin cynically refined it further; now general comments were to be strictly delineated, too. Mercifully, this petty suppression is gone, and last evening, Knable also seemed amenable to re-ordering public comments according to Coffey's suggestion. He should. We can't help it if Coffey's right every now and then.

In closing, let's be clear.

If, according to Coffey, some council members back in the day didn't want to listen, it was Jeff Gahan as council president in 2011 who was most eager to rig the proceedings to result in less communication, as opposed to more of it. 

Because as we know, in 2011 or 2018: THAT'S WHY HE'S HERE.