Rental property regs inelegantly tabled as bile, petulance and "ethnic cleansing" fill the air.

This meme is dedicated to Pete.

On Thursday evening, during the final city council meeting of the year, CM Greg Phipps introduced a piece of legislation dealing with rental properties, their registration and inspection.

The 30-page draft ordinance was released by the city attorney on Monday. The best possible outcome would have been for the first two readings to be approved last night, the ordinance to go into committee, and the buffed and polished final version to be considered by a brand new council some time next year.

It remains unclear from whence this ordinance came. City attorney Shane Gibson obviously wrote it. Phipps introduced it. Building Commissioner David Brewer defended it. Economic development director David Duggins watched but said nothing. Neither the mayor nor his hologram was in attendance.

Dan Coffey, who let it be know early and often that he's off the leash and ready to renegotiate his contract with the mayor, denounced the ordinance as originating elsewhere and being handed to the council without sufficient time for review.

The room was filled with rental property owners, business owners who tend to advance disingenuousness to a sublime art form, but had a very sound point: Not a word was said on the topic throughout the political campaign, and now, at the last minute, they were told of impending regulation -- something to which they're unaccustomed.

As will forever be the case when people actually attend meetings and appear angry, the council was terrified, but also had a sound point: Some of us are leaving, others staying -- so let's go watch Star Wars instead. 

When it came time for a vote, Phipps quickly threw in the towel, tabled the ordinance, and added that he'd washed his hands of the exercise; it could be someone else's baby next time. There'll be a committee to explore options, to include stakeholding property owners.

Again: Was this Phipps' idea? Gibson's? Brewer's? City Hall's? The man in the moon's? No one knows, but in the end, isn't it Jeff Gahan's idea? And shouldn't he be the one articulating it?

Oh, and during Pat Harrison's comments in opposition to these rental property regulations, which we're told might have the unfortunate effect of invading tenants' privacy (somehow the laugh track stalled at this point), she offered that the ordinance would be the "beginning" of "ethnic cleansing" in New Albany.

This might come as a surprise to people in Srebrenica or Rwanda, but then again, Pat doesn't own rental properties in those places.

Yet.

(Since the meeting didn't occur in Jeffersonville, the newspaper has not published coverage as of this writing. I'll link to it HERE when and if it occurs (9:05 a.m.)

Campaign silence ends as rental housing code and wi-fi appear on Thursday's council agenda.

It's the mayor!

Throughout the municipal election cycle of 2015, Pavlov's mutt was roused on numerous occasions.

Team Gahan's opponents would point to the mayor's perennial and secretive non-transparency, and both the mayor and his acolytes would deny it. Had Bob Dylan resided in New Albany, it would have been called "Saliva on the Tracks."

The election is over, and Jeff Gahan won. There is a final city council meeting on the schedule this Thursday evening, complete with an ordinance about rental registration and enforcement, and resolution shifting monies previously allocated for a lighting project to an as-yet undefined WiFi installation.

Needless to say, these issues were skirted throughout the year ... until now.

INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES:

G-15-05 Ordinance Adopting Chapter 160: Rental Housing Code (Phipps 1&2)

A-15-10 Ordinance for the Appropriation of Riverboat or EDIT Funds for Blessings in a Backpack (Baird 3)

INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTIONS:

R-15-19 Resolution regarding WIFI (Phipps)

R-15-20 Resolution Approving the Extension of a Sanitation Services Agreement (Zurschmiede)

R-15-21 Second Addendum to Agreement for Collection of Residential Municipal Solid Waste, Recyclables, and Bulk Items in the City of New Albany, Indiana (Zurschmiede)

On Monday, at city attorney Shane "Thesaurus-Free" Gibson's request, the city clerk e-mailed the rental housing "exhibit" to council mailing list recipients. It runs 31 pages and is unusable as a .pdf file. Here are the contents headings:

These might be good developments, and I'd love to be able to provide readers with better background on these matters, but there is little I can do for now. Most of my recent questions to my own city council person go unanswered, and both City Hall and the local Democratic Party have spent the past nine months depicting me as a non-person.

No complaints: Live by the sword, die by scorched earth. I get it. That's life under the occupation, and why the resistance moves underground.

If New Albany had a newspaper, perhaps it might ask these questions. It will not, so I must defer to you, the readers. If you live in New Albany and care about these issues, ask your council person to explain them. Ask Team Gahan to explain them. It's too easy for the functionaries to shut down one voice, so please, at least make them break a sweat.

I'll continue doing what I do, as I'm able. But I need help.

Look: New Gahania is by no means a monolith. 53% of 28% of the city's registered voters opted for Oz. That's roughly 10% of the population as a whole. Jeff Gahan's bizarre cult of personality surely remains ascendant, though it isn't infallible, even if he's been unable to concede a mistake in 12 years.

Keep pushing, and thanks for reading.

Planned Parenthood resolution pulled from Thursday council agenda, so I guess the Coffey spontaneous combustion is off, too.

It just isn't fair. I had a meme ready, and shit.

If it helps, NA Confidential resolves to support Planned Parenthood. So do I. In fact, my household just made a donation a couple weeks back.

The Ayatollah Coffey sharpens his knives for a Thursday evening orgy of ward-heeling religious ecstasy.

For more years: Wasted council nixes solid waste.

Them salad days, back in '09.

Do you think corporate down in 'Bama is driving the bus as it pertains to the dragging of feet in hiring someone to cover New Albany?

Meanwhile, if you can make sense of the voting blocs on this one, let us know.

New Albany council votes down solid waste department funding, by Jenna Esarey (Clark County First)

NEW ALBANY — In a short but contentious special meeting, the New Albany City Council on Monday voted down an ordinance to appropriate $25,000 in EDIT funds to allow Floyd County Solid Waste to continue operations through January.

The measure, put forward by councilman Dan Coffey, had passed first and second readings but was defeated 5-3 with one abstention on the third and final reading.

Kevin Zurschmiede, Diane McCartin-Benedetti and Coffey supported the measure, while Robert Caesar, Greg Phipps, Shirley Baird, Scott Blair and council president Pat McLaughlin voted no. Councilman John Gonder recused himself from the vote.

The Ayatollah Coffey sharpens his knives for a Thursday evening orgy of ward-heeling religious ecstasy.

There is a special city council meeting tonight for the sole purpose of deciding how much to tithe to the Floyd County Solid Waste District.

The newspaper explains it here.

INTRODUCTION OF ORDINANCES:                   READING

A-15-09 Ordinance for Appropriation of EDIT        Coffey 3
Money for Floyd County Solid Waste

Speaking of wastes, the final council conclave of the year takes place on Thursday night. There are several agenda items worthy of examination, including City Hall's proposal to shift 168K from a lighting project Duke Energy will fund instead, to a downtown Wi-Fi project no one knew existed.

The agenda does not make clear what any of this means, and as usual, we're reduced to gauging the spectrum of Kool-Aid colored smoke plumes emanating from somewhere behind the circled wagons.

HOWEVER ...

Even Team Gahan's belated discovery of contemporary communications technology (tin cans and string?)  pales by comparison with Shirley Baird's final legislative proposal on Thursday night.

It's a perfectly reasonable resolution in support of Planned Parenthood.

There's nothing radical in it, but there's something bloviating ON the council, and I suspect he's not going to like this one.

Briefly peruse these three recent "shares" on Dan Coffey's page at Facebook ...

... and understand how entertaining his tantrum on Thursday night stands to be.

I can't miss this one. It should be a filibuster for the ages. If Coffey packed the room for his various prayer bludgeonings, surely he'll fill it on Thursday.

We need to film this one, guys.

Then we can take the film to the Wunderkind, and ask: "Adam, can you explain again how Coffey is a Democrat?"

Hydrocephalus maladroits: Doggie water park in NA -- for only a quarter million $ more.

Photo credit: The water slide vendor.

On a morning when local media reports Jeffersonville businesses and their patrons expressing optimism about the future now that the downtown bridge is open, and River Ridge coyly hinting at other heavy hitter ... the News and Tribune's account of last evening's City Council meeting speaks for itself. A human water park wasn't enough. Now the mighty Oz must make moisten our dogs, too -- and who better to explain the expenditure than Sancho Panza?

Dog park expansion?

A potential phase 2 expansion of a planned dog park at Cannons Acres Park was presented to the New Albany City Council during a work session before the regular meeting Monday night.

David Duggins, director of redevelopment and economic development for New Albany, said the plan will expand upon $125,000 that was approved for phase one of the project in 2014.

Phase two includes a water line for the dogs, a walking path in the woods near the dog park, a 9-hole frisbee golf course and a water feature for the dogs.

The cost for phase two is $250,000.

The water feature, about 100 feet in diameter, would utilize a sinkhole to create a small pond where dogs could play or go swimming.

David Hall, director of the New Albany-Floyd County Animal Shelter, said it would create a unique feature for dog parks in the region.

Memberships that carry a small fee may be a requirement to be able to use the dog park.

Councilman Scott Blair questioned the location of the dog park and whether or not the area would be better served if a second soccer field was created in the park.

Duggins said the location was chosen working in conjunction with the Parks Department and the slope of the area would not allow for much else.

City Council Thursday: These are your luminaries. Cherish them.

Incoming 5th district council person Matt Nash on Twitter:

He's referring to lone Republican council member Kevin Zurschmiede, though it's worth noting that nominal pretend-Democrat Bob Caesar voted against recycling AND the homeless.

It even rhymes: "You folks in District 2 ... my, my how YOU'RE screwed." 

Read all about it: New Albany joins homelessness coalition, by Jerod Clapp (That Jeffersonville Newspaper).

Meanwhile, of the last 25 tweets at the News and Tribune's Twitter account, 17 dealt with locales in Clark County or were links to columnists.

Of the 25 tweets, four were devoted to New Albany and/or Floyd County.

And another four were about ex-chain restaurant spokesman Fogle's sex crimes.

Hash it #gahanhypocrisy: A mayor who doesn't bother attending council meetings criticizes KZ for poor attendance.

Jeff Gahan's first "attack meme" comes to us from the Democratic Party's page at Fb, which is well on its way to purging all dissenters by prohibiting their comments. It's a repugnant twist emulated at the mayor's campaign page, and in some recent instances the city's social media feed.

That's right: Taxpayer dollars not only are spent to tout Gahan's re-election campaign, but to prevent comments. Those of Gahan's supporters with a passing interest in human rights might consider this quote.

Meanwhile, as Mark Cassidy asks ...

Inquiring minds want to know:

Why does Jeff Gahan not attend city council meetings? He was so mad at Doug England for not attending, that he, as council president, would not allow anyone to speak in the Mayor's slot on the agenda but the Mayor. Now, as Mayor, he attends even less frequently that England did and routinely sends someone to speak in the Mayor's slot. Hypocrite or not?

Far less frequently, in fact. As for me, I intend to attend as many council meetings as I can once elected mayor. Hell, I already do. I will answer questions, throw rhetorical punches, and do so for as long as they wish. It should be like question time in the House of Commons.

A discussion followed Mark's post about Gahan's chronic non-attendance.

---

Clint: It depends on what the meaning of attending is.

Stephen: I was told by the current Council president that there was no reason for him to be there just to get "attacked" by the council members. This was at least two years ago, maybe three, when I raised the issue of his absence. That was when my disillusionment began.

Mark: Takes one to know one, I guess. At least England was man enough to show up considerably more often than Gahan has. Not to mention that he told many of us, when he ran four years ago, that he would be a regular attendee at meetings. Pshaw.

Steven: Mayor Garner almost always showed up and was almost always attacked by the Council.

Mark: True. I started attending on a regular basis during his last year.

Roger: But Gahan completely controls this council. Last night was vivid proof. It was as though their teleprompters went blank, and in the absence of instructions, flailing was the order of the day: "We'd tell you what we think as soon as Gahan tells us."

Stephen: From my perspective, being there is part of the job. No one else can answer for you, but you. Be a man, Gahan.

Roger: Only if manhood pertains to monetizing or propaganda. Cults of personality mean never having to be yourself. The fear needs to stop.

Clint: "Ve half vays of making you think."

Roger: Even in New Albany?

Clint: I didn't specify useful or logical thinking.

Council meeting recap 1: State's a trashy chain-ridden asphalt nightmare, and this sole derelict Hardee's must go!

I went to last evening's city council meeting solely because the word on the street was that Scott Blair wanted to talk about demolishing eyesore commercial properties.

In the end, the discussion about these properties was mercifully brief, and the bulk of the evening was given over to discussing storm water issues, and how we're probably never going to do what we should to begin resolving them.

Twelve years of do-nothing 8-1, 8-1 and 7-1-1 Democratic council majorities have calloused my demeanor, but Blair is a nominal "independent," and I came close to being rendered speechless last night at the notion that in a place like this where there is no rental property registration, zero rental property inspection, zoning codes in desperate need of updating (Shane Gibson said so himself), storm water problems, one-way streets -- a lengthy, seemingly endless list for a passive, leashed council with precious little on its twice monthly agenda throughout the Gahan term -- all this, and the boarded-up Hardee's on State Street inspires an immediate need for action!

Yes, it's been sitting there for a long time. But have you ever stood in the middle of the New Albany Plaza parking lot, dodging speeding Kentuckians and their cigarette butts, and looked around?

It is a depressing, soul-crushing, exurban tableau of chain stores, rutted asphalt, clamorous traffic, trash and auto-centric ugliness. There's almost nothing human about it. We slayed the fascist dragon in WWII for this?

Again: We live in what amounts to a city-wide slumlord empowerment zone, and the city council has not done anything about it -- EVER.

EVER.

And the banker's offended by an empty fast-food building surrounded by acres of impermeable surfaces that -- wait for it -- bear prime responsibility for the drainage problems the council members all want to look concerned about because, yes, THIS IS AN ELECTION YEAR.

Rant over.

As you were ... as we ARE, which may be the ultimate problem.

Council meeting recap 2: Dear Jeff.

Dear Jeff,

Missed you again at the council meeting Thursday.

Members of the public came to talk to the council about how the storm water plan is deficient, and the zoning code is whacked (your own attorney even conceded it), and the animal shelter needs help ... and you know what's crazy? Not a single one of them said, "Hey, but we have a water park now, so never mind -- it's all good."

So, when there are this many major infrastructure issues being mentioned this often for the past 12 years -- ever since you first served on the council -- exactly how is it that you've made New Albany fundamentally "better" since you've been mayor?

That is, unless you're having another vocabulary malfunction?

We really need to get together and debate. My people will call yours. Cool?

Not "Kool-Aid."

R

---

Flooded with concerns: New Albany residents ask for help with drainage problems, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune)

Coyle sitecapades: In New Albany, Democrats WILL be Republicans ... and Jeff Gahan WILL stay on the down low.

TH, a first-time council attendee, was in the crowd last night. As the crisply tailored suits from Flaherty and Collins made their case for "high level" coddling, with frequent assistance from David "Our Corporate Welfare Clerk" Duggins, TH messaged me on Facebook.

If anyone is allowed to ask questions, the question or statement to be made should be that their job creation numbers have to be horribly off. He said target renter would be 50k per year. After taxes, utilities, and a rent of $1,100 dollars the person will not have disposable income to spend downtown.

I observed that the decision had been made long before last evening's propaganda exercise.

Back door politics. I couldn't comment good or bad if the complex is a good thing, but I think it would be deceitful if it was sold to the public as a job creator with a tenant target that only makes 50k, thus having no leftover money to spend. Or heck, maybe there are a lot of 50k earners better at budgeting than I was.

Numerous other broad assertions went unchallenged by council "Democrats" eager to prove the veracity of Ronald Reagan's trickle-down economics, as when Flaherty and Collins simultaneously asserted that walkability was a key to the project, but the firm is just fine with New Albany's one-way arterial street grid.

Uh huh.

Let's hope luxury tenants enjoy the sound of 18-wheelers streaming past, mere feet from the patio constructed with only the finest building materials ... and color-coordinated, too.

With the arterial streets representing a 24-hours-a-day incessant lowering of the property values that the apartment development supposedly will increase, and the ongoing degradation of adjoining neighborhoods, where the same tumescent council endorsing corporate welfare last night displays a persistent unwillingness to tackle basic infrastructure problems ... let's just say the idea that such renters will "choose" New Albany solely on the basis of the luxuriousness of the apartments and their proximity to exclusive bocce ball courts strains credulity.

So does the view advanced by Flaherty and Collins last night that these apartments alone will attract high paying jobs to New Albany, where the absence of relevant modern infrastructure works daily against efforts to lure them, dooming us to extractive economic development models.

Hence, the likes of Tiger Trucking, whose vehicles will actively discourage those intrepid apartment occupants daring to walk or ride their bicycles.

How long after the project's completion will the fences and gates go up?

It's important to remember that Democrats are doing this. Not Republicans or oil-rich Saudis. Rather, Democrats.

If you're a local Democrat fond of asking why the working class continues to mimic chickens voting for (Republican) Colonel Sanders, it may be time for a visit to the ideological mirror, but be careful: Some of you with a conscience may find it impossible to avoid disavowing the reflection.

Finally, to repeat: Mayor Jeff Gahan was in the building last night. He remained in his office as Duggins repeated the same tired trickle-down bromides and Democrats on the council rolled over like puppies seeking a good belly-scratching. There's a question in urgent need of an answer.

What good is a mayor who maintains that the Flaherty and Collins residential development at the Coyle site is of central importance to the future of the city, but cannot walk 100 feet down a hallway to make the point himself?

A stellar subsidized evening of Reaganite corporate welfare, New Albany Trickle-Down Democrat-style.

Tonight's city council verdict: In a "free" market economy, risk is a necessary condition for small local businesses, developers and entrepreneurs, while for-profit businesses of larger size, pursuing ventures of a certain vaguely defined "magnitude," must forever be sheltered from the vicissitudes of risk by means of civic subsidy.

Democrats did this -- except for John Gonder, who joined Kevin Zurschmiede in voting against the $4.9 million bond.

It bears repeating: Tonight's exercise in risk-free corporate welfare and purely trickle-down economics, wherein "luxury" apartments matter more than neglected areas of blight and impoverishment situated yards away?

Yep: Democrats did that.

Not Republicans.

Democrats.

With his spirited defense of subsidized luxury apartments as curative for what he referred to as "blight," 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps apparently has coined a new re-election campaign slogan.

"The Needs of the Luxurious Few Outweigh the Needs of the Marginalized Many." 

Mr. Spock would be appalled. Then again, he never was a Democrat in New Albany.

Jeff Gahan did not attend the meeting. At the conclusion, as I stepped into the hallway to chat, Gahan could be seen emerging from his office. He saw me, and ducked back inside.

He must have been there all along.

Wouldn't you have liked your elected mayor, and not an appointee like David Duggins, explain the merits of this purportedly transformational luxury bocce empowerment project?

I sure would. More tomorrow.

City council rubber stamp boilerplate orgy begins at 7:00 p.m. tonight.

We've all been here before.

It's just boilerplate for the city to pay someone to make a profitable investment, right?

"Because subsidizing wealthy, out of town developers is the only thing our economic development director knows how to do with our tax money."

Me?

I'm so old, I can remember when Dan Coffey routinely objected to "boilerplate" giveaways like this one. He'd preen, posture, brandish quarts of lighter fluid and threaten to flick his Bic right there in the council chamber unless we put a stop to it.

Drinking the lighter fluid would have made more sense.

Now, engorged by the capital projects largesse that oozes from the Gahan administration's pores like last night's garlic-laced clam sauce, Dan Coffey is the most enthusiastic advocate in town for subsidizing the wealthy, even as local developers work on their own dimes.

Tonight's council meeting has been choreographed in advance, as most of Jeff Gahan's expenditures have been. I'll attend in the proper spirit, aware that nothing of genuine substance will occur. Rather, as with judges at a gymnastics competition, council members will be graded on how well they read their pre-assigned scripts.

Shams and travesties, all. As usual, NAC's co-editor drives the nails with authority.

Jeff Gillenwater: If the New Albany City Council approves the mayor's request for $4.9 million to subsidize the apartment complex on Spring Street, the public will be paying for more than 50% of that project. When profits occur, the public will be entitled to 0% of them. If anyone thinks that's a good investment deal, please contact me. I have several more projects to pitch to you in which you put up more than half the money and I keep all the profits.

JG: Almost as funny is Councilman Blair's suggestion that the luxury apartments are like the YMCA. Except that the public investment in the non-profit YMCA was much smaller, the Redevelopment Commission and some council members demanded that the Y guarantee full public access - that no one in the city would ever be turned away for inability to pay - before they would agree to invest at all, and, because it's a lease deal, if the Y ever fails, the City still owns the property and could re-lease or sell it to recoup costs.

Roger A. Baylor: Whaddya say, Scott Blair? Apples and oranges? Seriously, I'd just once like to hear Scott or Shirley Baird or any council member submit to a substantive chat about topics like this.

JG: The usual silence. We're a day out from a decision about a major public expenditure and, despite their obvious connectivity v.v. communications technologies, I've not seen any public discussion or shared reasoning concerning the merits or lack thereof of this project.

In New Albany, public discussions take place in backrooms and side corridors, with the occasional elected official on hand to break the sheer monotony of political appointees bored with decision-making on the down-low.

The Flaherty Collins apartment development at the Coyle site isn't the first such instance, and it may not be the worst. It's just the latest in a long line of chicanery-ridden money transfers dismissed as "boilerplate" by the leader of the band.

Sorry, but economic development by ATM withdrawal offends me.

I may or may not be elected mayor, but I can promise this: If I am, we'll do everything possible to put a stop to the backroom fixes and rampant palm-greasing.

Don't forget: Council meetings start at 7:00 p.m. these days. 

Pocket veto council Ninja.

For Pete's sake, couldn't someone just ASK Mike Hall why he didn't sign the financial information ordinance -- I mean, he probably just forgot, right?

New Albany City Council votes down mayoral veto, by Daniel Suddeath (Otisco Today)

NEW ALBANY — Mayor Jeff Gahan failed to sign an ordinance calling for certain financial information be provided to the New Albany City Council at the last meeting of each month.

In response, the council voted unanimously Thursday to again approve the measure, and thus overrode the pocket veto of Gahan. A pocket veto occurs when an executive takes no action on a bill as opposed to an outright veto of the measure.

Councilwoman Diane McCartin-Benedetti sponsored the ordinance, which was passed 9-0 on final reading during the May 21 meeting. Gahan hasn’t provided a reason for the veto.

The ordinance calls for financial records such as bank reconciliation statements, budget to actual expenses, and cash balances to be submitted to the council by its final monthly meeting, which is held on the third Thursday of each month.

Benedetti said she checked with the City Clerk’s office multiple times before reintroducing the measure, and said Gahan had not signed the ordinance.

Regional Cities Initiative 1: Cooperation inducement, or bait 'n' switch?

There's an emerging mantra in my world.

Every day, not every now and then.

"Day in, day out" encapsulates my preferred tactic to achieve progress. Speaking for myself as the owner of an independent local business, the daily business climate almost always trumps special, one-off events. It is the undertow, and the cash flow.

In terms of small business, the main point is determining what can be done to improve quality of life every single day, rather than hope a one-off festival or recurring special event attracts "new" and potentially returning customers. If the festival or event is of sufficient gravity to attract a crowd, it stands to reason that most attendees are coming for the music, art or beer -- not to take note of the surroundings. Some surely will, but spreading the risk and the reward throghout the year, every day, is the better formula for ultimate success.

It is uncommon for me to reprint an article so soon (below), but with New Albany having so many "micro" issues going chronically unaddressed, the randomly "macro" aspect of Indiana's Regional Cities Initiative has struck me as a red flag (or more aptly, red herring) from the very start.

More succinctly, when One Southern Indiana starts getting giggly and giddy over the Regional Cities Initiative, it meant we should be getting very cautious. As we'll see in part two, Clark County's council already has.

I'm not entirely rejecting the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative.

As the Indy Star noted recently, it might have genuine merit. When a WDRB reporter asked me what I thought, we had a long conversation, and I said that in the end, whatever compels adjacent communities talking with each other probably is a good thing.

Conversely, we could be talking regionally right now, and working on smaller projects right now. There is a "win the lottery" aspect of the Regional Cities Initiative that is worrisome, and the involvement of the same old regional suspects who brought us the Bridges Boondoggle is even more alarming, owing to yet another loss of local planning sovereignty (see part two).

Might we finish a project first, before embarking on a moon landing?

The following was posted on January 5, 2015.

---

Council Night 3: The Regional Cities Initiative's bait 'n' switch comes to a Greenway near you.

Before tying things into the council meeting tonight, let's catch up.

The most recent downtown merchant "mixer" meeting was held on December 16 at Strandz & Threadz, and weirdly enough for a group that seldom attracts more than a dozen attendees, and is routinely ignored by the city's ostensible "economic development" officials, the chat was attended by both State Representative Ed Clere and Mayor Jeff Gahan.

They were there to inform struggling downtown merchants about the potential sheen of the Indiana Regional Cities Initiative, which at first glance appears to be one of those world-classic, chamber-endorsed, bait 'n' switch ideas designed to divert attention from the mundane daily grind of the here and now (which abjectly terrifies City Hall) and instead, to fix all our gazes toward a bountiful harvest ... a coin flip to be determined some day, down the road.

I was fascinated by the spectacle. In November, David "Industrial Park First" Duggins had dominated the merchant meeting as visiting enforcer, there to silence me and gloweringly assure shop owners that they didn't want to hear about the potential for two-way streets to improve their businesses quite soon, in the short term.

Then a month later, here was the mayor himself, spending half an hour describing the Regional Cities Initiative, a strictly "might be" iffy proposition, tantamount to time spent allocating future lottery winnings to the background noise of a Disney soundtrack instead of counting the change actually occupying the jar. If only someone other than a dissident like me would have said:

"But if it would help business downtown, couldn't we change the streets next week?"

The fact is, the missed opportunity cost of Jeff Gahan’s present-day neglect of small business is irrefutable, and the evidence to support my position is overwhelming, but I've already made these points.

Back to tonight, when a council currently configured to do quite little will listen as the Greenway explains its place in that future largesse from Big Daddy Pencebucks.

McLaughlin to seek third term as Mayor Gahan's pliant boy (News and Tribune)

 ... Though there’s only one voting item on Monday’s agenda — a final reading on a road salt purchase appropriation — the body is slated to hear a report on a potential expansion of some of the features of the Ohio River Greenway.

After holding public meetings on the idea in Clark and Floyd counties, representatives of the Paul Ogle Foundation will detail their plan to assist the Ohio River Greenway Commission to “possibly elevate the Greenway to the next level in both scope and scale.”

The Ogle Foundation hopes to pair its plan with the Regional Cities Initiative to be considered by the state legislature this year. The legislation could leverage up to $1 billion in public and private investment for infrastructure and quality-of-life projects around the state, as communities would compete to garner those funds.

Right now, we have a few hundred thousand dollars worth of bigger fish to fry, and so at least it's encouraging to hear Scott Blair publicly question the latest unelected back room board diktat, this one being last week's behind-the-council's-posterior decision by the Board of Works to fund an ill-considered farmers market buildout and a bizarrely situated dog park, three miles out of town on Budd Road.

Councilman Scott Blair said he would like to see the city’s dog park, which is slated to be constructed at Cannon Acres, moved near the Greenway to further bolster the usefulness of the walking and biking path.

“We need to add amenities along that facility,” Blair said.

What we really need to do is finish the Greenway's decades-long first phase, don't you think? After all, Silver Creek might as well be Puget Sound for all the good an unbridged Greenway in pieces does us.

ON THE AVENUES: This is Dan Coffey, New Albany’s quintessential Democrat.

ON THE AVENUES: This is Dan Coffey, New Albany’s quintessential Democrat.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Dan Coffey is a Democrat.

I know, I know.

Go and paste a photo of Coffey into Google Images, and the magical search engine yields various glamour shots of none other than Governor Mike Pence.*

But as Coffey surely would remind you in his very best caterwauling drawl, “that Ol’ Man Goggle ain’t from HERE, is he?”

And HERE, in New Albany and Floyd County, reverting to the curiously deceptive dialect spoken by those who have their obscure reasons for not being publicly identified as Republican in a benighted place where only two options for political affiliation are permitted, Coffey remains a card-carrying, fully sanctioned and purely customary Democrat.

In fact it says so, right there, at the Floyd County Democratic Party’s web site.

Dan Coffey is a Democrat.

He also is an unreconstructed homophobe, a serial bully, and a perennial opportunist. He has occupied a council seat since the year 2000, and during all that time, while amassing a record of non-achievement notable even by New Albany’s subterranean standards, he never once has troubled himself with deep thoughts about prayers and invocations, apart from repeating them by rote, mindlessly, along with everyone else in the council chamber.

Then along came “them people” asking for their rights, and all of a sudden, Coffey sprang forward to defend the faith from these godless heathens, of whom I surely must be numbered as one. For reason of my atheism, perhaps my testimony is unreliable to some. However, as it pertains to Coffey’s most recent council displays or righteousness, you needn’t take my heretical word for it.

The following forceful and passionate passage was written by a certified believer, the Rev. John Manzo of St. Marks United Church of Christ, and posted at Facebook. Seems Coffey might not be speaking on behalf of all the city’s Christians.

The other night God got mocked at the City Council meeting.

Councilman Dan Coffey swore at another member of the Council by calling him a "lying piece of (expletive)" during a debate over public prayer on Monday.

Later, Mr. Coffey said, "No, I didn't bring this up to curry favor," Coffey said, hitting his hand against the council's desk. "I brought it up because every time you turned around, there was something coming up about gays, lesbians, transvestites and making sure they had their rights."

The council then considered an amendment that would've allowed members only to pray, give an inspirational message, or to skip their turn in the rotation.

"If someone chooses to say a prayer, that's fine," Councilman Greg Phipps said. "I they choose to read an inspirational poem, that's fine."

"I can hear it now, 'tiptoe through tulips,'" Coffey replied in reference to a gay person presenting a prayer or a devotional reading.

This was all bad an offensive in and of itself. Swearing at a colleague and bashing people is offensive behavior in and of itself. This, out of context is just bad behavior that doesn’t mock God. But in context, wow.

Mr. Coffey was promoting and advocating for a bill to mandate prayer at the City Council meetings. He swore while advocating, seemingly, for God. He mocked people while saying he was advocating for God. He was promoting prayer.

This is worse than Bill Maher. Mr. Maher regularly mocks religious people but he doesn’t believe in God. He’s a comedian. He’s an entertainer. I often find him to be offensive but he does no harm to Christianity because he simply doesn’t believe in God. I don’t take him seriously.

The problem with what Mr. Coffey did is that he was acting like he was protecting God and protecting religion. He wasn’t. He was being offensive and saying he was doing this in God’s name. That mocks God. As a pastor of a church in downtown New Albany I find his actions deeply offensive. He made a mockery of those who us who take our faith seriously and pray. My hope and prayer is that he takes time at the next Council meeting to apologize to his colleagues for his offensive behavior, but most of all, to the people of faith for his vulgar mockery of God.

Hmm. Did I mention that Coffey is a Democrat?

This Democrat, when handed the gift of tailor-made grandstanding, abruptly coiled like a copperhead and stung like a Pharisee, professing hitherto unwitnessed allegiance to points of order, and volunteering to explicate obscure passages of Constitutional law which have confused genuine scholars since before the ink was dry on the original document.

Coffey, a Democrat, knew fully well the camera was focused on him, and so he was suitably explicit for the viewing audience at home, because he no longer can suppress his revulsion at the inexorable advance of the Sodomites.

Dan Coffey?

He’s a Democrat, and he knows that as a Democrat in New Albany and Floyd County, he is perfectly free to say and believe and do anything, or nothing, however egregious, nasty and untruthful, because there’ll always be a fellow “Democrat” in need of the sin-eating services of a small-pond operative utterly devoid of scruples or ethical sensibility.

Dan Coffey’s been HERE his whole life, and he merely shrugs. How can it be a crime if there isn’t any punishment … ever?

It has been ten days since this episode of KoffeyKulturKampf was aired on the boob tube, as recounted evenly and accurately by Pastor Manzo, who has been joined by the LGBT community and numerous other fair-minded individuals in expressing revulsion.

Our leaders tend to be Democrats, just like Dan Coffey, and they ... are silent.

The Floyd County Democratic Party has said absolutely nothing. Mayor Jeff Gahan, like Coffey a Democrat, and moreover, quite content to deploy Coffey as his dull, blunt Sancho Panza, to be wielded in pursuit of his and the party’s monetization aims, has remained mum.

Both party and mayor invite you to go swimming, and forget about the rest.

Of Coffey’s city council colleagues, six of whom are Democrats, only one has referred to the landmark council evening publicly, and yet  John Gonder’s welcomed critique was mostly oblique, as usual, and his brave but doomed loyalty to a political party – to his own Democratic Party – itself largely in connivance with Coffey’s and Gahan’s despicable targeting of Gonder for defeat in the November election, is elegiac, fated and shaded with melancholy.

Ideals, anyone?

Four years ago, Jeff Gahan’s stated aim in seeking the office of mayor was to somehow alchemize New Albany into a “fundamentally” better municipality.

As Coffey’s recent human rights slurs abundantly illustrate, this has not occurred. In fact, it has not begun.

Fundamentals are basic, underlying, core standards. They must exist to serve as the foundation for what follows. They are the procedures and protocols defining more universal matters like human and civil rights, but also those daily markers wrongly viewed by many as mundane, including topics like the demeanor, practices and expectations of public officials and employees, and their bodies, boards and commissions.

Dan Coffey is a Democrat, and his peers would rather enjoy weekly colonoscopies than call his bluff.

There are no fundamental guidelines available for needed discipline, save one: The ballot box, except that Coffey had no challengers in his party’s primary in May; the GOP apparently refuses to run a candidate against him; and no independent alternative has emerged.

Dan Coffey, Democrat?

Might as well – and a lean, mean Democrat at that, mercifully stripped of any platform compliance obligations or other burdensome adornments resembling anything remotely democratic, with upper- and lower-case meaningless, and thus completely interchangeable.

Apart from the many citizens Coffey has openly denounced, he also has humiliated his nominal political party, his cowering patron of a mayor, and the entire city, for good measure. Each and every one of us looks bad at the present time.

And Dan Coffey, the Democrat, is winning.

He is winning by default.

Even by New Albany’s traditionally subterranean standards, that’s absolutely appalling.

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* When I pasted this into Google Images ...

... this was returned.

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Recent columns:

June 4: ON THE AVENUES: Dan Coffey speaks for Jeff Gahan and the Democratic Party … unless they say otherwise.

May 28: ON THE AVENUES: The last of the summer beer.

May 21: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: "I Just Want to Know, Can I Park Here Somewhere?”

May 14: ON THE AVENUES: Take this cult of personality and shove it.

May 7: ON THE AVENUES: In Havel I trust.

April 30: ON THE AVENUES: Until philosophers become kings.

KoffeyKulturKampf 1: John Gonder writes, "I'm just one Councilman who probably has been/is being targeted for defeat because of (Coffey's) antics."

(Part 2 is here)

Councilman John Gonder, in his own words.

Commentary to follow. Just remember: These are Democrats. Democrats on all sides, whether Gonder, Coffey, Dickey, Nash or Gahan himself.

This is the machine, at war with itself. The chief casualty? Progress.

It's Alright. Right?

Although it seems a long time ago it was just last Monday, June 1, that the City Council chamber erupted in a surreal display of short-circuitry. Epithets were pitched, and caught by the electronic glove of WAVE TV's news cameras. Seemingly settled expressions of tolerance were recanted, then tossed onto the chamber's floor to be beaten into unrecognizability, as though an errant snake had slithered under the door.

Since then, a trip to the hardware store yielded this observation, "the City Council in Jeffersonville is pathetic too". (emphasis added)

At a public event for a Historic Society, "if a Republican had uttered the same kind of intolerant, homophobic remarks, (as were heard at the City Council last Monday) the Democrats would have crucified him, and the entire party. Looks kind of like a double standard."

A chance encounter with a fellow Councilman opens with, "how's it going, you lyin' piece of shit?" Je suis L.P.O.S.?

As a result of the purposefully obtuse characterization of my attempt to reach a bit of compromise on the issue of spoken prayer at a Council meeting, I've been called a racist, anti-prayer, in cahoots with un-named forces outside the Council, and beholden to a society-destroying agenda promoting human rights. I've also been reminded that thousands of voters will remember that I was out to strip prayer from the City Council. I realize this controversy is not about me. But, as one maligned in such a ridiculous campaign to hoist the flag so the Christian Soldiers could March to War (by way of vote centers), I'll simply say, I'm sick of it.

ON THE AVENUES: Dan Coffey speaks for Jeff Gahan and the Democratic Party … unless they say otherwise.

ON THE AVENUES: Dan Coffey speaks for Jeff Gahan and the Democratic Party … unless they say otherwise.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

For many New Albany residents, the WAVE 3 video of 1st district councilman Dan Coffey’s antics during Monday’s prayer – I mean, council – meeting, during which Coffey made intemperate and homophobic remarks, then denied them even as he was chased down the stairs by the reporter, have proven shocking.

In sad fact, they’re the time-tested norm.

Many of these same residents promptly took to social media, asking why the Floyd County Democratic Party and our incumbent mayor, Jeff Gahan, for whom Coffey has recently served as unofficial council whip and “fundamentally better” enforcer, both have failed to comment on the situation.

You guessed it: Mute Democratic impotence also is the norm hereabouts.

I’ve been describing Coffey’s frequent outbursts at NA Confidential for a very long time. His career in playacting at public service has been an embarrassment to his party and the city in myriad ways since before I even began attending meetings in 2004, but there is "Something Different" about the most recent episode of the Wizard of Westside’s frothing at the mouth.

It was captured on video.

But there’s a twist, because I think Coffey planned it that way.

Why?

That’s how much he hates gays, lesbians and transvestites.

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It’s worth remembering that Joe Stalin attended seminary school before embarking on his stellar career of thuggery and mayhem, and in like fashion, Dan Coffey’s belated discovery of prayer has not been meant to bring him a step closer to a ragpicker’s sainthood.

Rather, it has been a convenient means to an end. It’s been about inciting and assembling an angry mob – like the crowd of angry “Christians” who gathered a few meetings back to learn who was taking their cherished rituals away – which can be called back to the podium when needed.

Of course, in this case, it’s been about three years since council protocol changed, with nary a peep from Coffey. He didn’t care an iota about the Lord’s Prayer, not then or now; it merely was another chit to be safeguarded whilst nursing his elderly white man’s panoply of grudges, at least until the right cue came along.

Coffey got his chance when the council resolved to denounce the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Astronauts on orbiting space stations could see him salivate in anticipation.

You see, the gays, lesbians and transvestites had taken it a step too far … and it was time to declare Coffey Jihad Time by paying them back with the resumption of invocations.

True enough, only Sigmund Freud himself might be able to establish the Coffey-concocted connection between prayer and sexual orientation, but if Freud were reincarnated and attended a council meeting, Coffey would start prattling on about the Jews taking over.

And a majority of his colleagues wouldn’t say a damned single word about it.

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That’s because Coffey is accustomed to saying and doing as he pleases; after all, he’s a Democrat, and generations of council presidents have been Democrats, too, and none of them have ever tried very hard to discipline Coffey.

Current president Pat McLaughlin treats his gavel as though it had only recently been dipped in Ebola jam, and he cannot so much as use the restroom until the Gahan gives him a signal via earbuds. Coffey’s been bullying his cohorts for years. He knew the cameras were there, knew he could do as he pleased, and knew he’d not be censured for it.

That’s how enduringly tone-deaf Gahan and the Democratic Party have become.

Yes, Dan Coffey’s behavior is routinely despicable, but the Democratic Party persists in enabling him. With few ethical principles of their own to promote, local Democrats jokingly handle their “Coffey problem” by siding with Lyndon Baines Johnson’s preferred method of dealing with J. Edgar Hoover:

“Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than the other way around.”

More importantly, ostensibly "respectable" elements in the party are forever in need of Coffey’s services as sin eater, and to launder their own bile. They won’t say it aloud – but Dan sure will! They believe they can use Coffey, and even if he usually turns the tables and uses THEM, non-democratic Democrats get exactly what they need in the interim.

What’s more, Coffey's invoice doesn't go to the Democratic Party. Rather, the entire city pays it, again and again, in a loss of civic reputation … and of remaining a regional backwater.

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I’m hoping to be proven wrong, but there’s as much chance of Dan Coffey being censured for his most recent bullying as the aquatic center actually paying for itself.

Way back in 2009, when Coffey physically threatened my colleague and friend Jeff Gillenwater, only one council member, John Gonder, had the intestinal fortitude to suggest that Coffey deserved some form of censure.

The other council members sat and stared at the floor.

I watched them look the other way, ducking and covering, and I’ll watch them do it again, this time, all the while remaining pathetically incapable of grasping why they’re regarded as political laughingstocks by anyone in town who takes the time to observe them in twice monthly repose.

What of Jeff Gahan? Dan Coffey has been Gahan’s loyal, groveling Sancho Panza. Will the mayor emerge from his bunker to reassure the LGBT community that Coffey does not speak for him?

I doubt it. Gahan believes what he reads on the city’s Facebook page, which is updated by a paid contractor, who provides precisely what its client wants to hear. A typical animated Disney feature contains more reality than this.

Coffey’s snarling disregard for the rules of simple human civility is a nasty symptom of the rot within, one that is being left to fester by mayor and council alike. Coffey is a nasty bigot, all right, but far more significantly that this, he’s an apt metaphor for the diseased existence of the local Democratic Party, which now operates purely from a principle of machine monetization.

It’s more Republican than ever before. There’s a lot of censure to go around.

None of it will.

Think of it as the sorrow of New Albany.

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Recent columns:

May 28: ON THE AVENUES: The last of the summer beer.

May 21: ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: "I Just Want to Know, Can I Park Here Somewhere?”

May 14: ON THE AVENUES: Take this cult of personality and shove it.

May 7: ON THE AVENUES: In Havel I trust.

April 30: ON THE AVENUES: Until philosophers become kings.

April 27: ON THE AVENUES MONDAY SPECIAL: Et tu, Greg Phipps? Or: Anger and the electoral variability of transparency.

Dan Coffey's homophobic council tantrum: The Video.

Dan Coffey, on fire.

Listen as Coffey maligns two of his council colleagues while the body's president sits inert and motionless.

Flinch as Coffey explains that reconstituted council prayer is necessary in light of the constant agitation of gays, lesbians and transvestites.

Guffaw as the WAVE reporter follows the Wizard of Westside down the stairway of a public building as the Wizard flees.

Worst of all: Recoil when you consider that Coffey is one of New Albany's highest ranking Democrats, and a veritable pillar of Adam Dickey's party machine.

Welcome to Jeff Gahan's New Albany, in a nutshell.

Fundamentally more bigoted.

Longtime homophobe Coffey offers heartfelt prayer for his "lying piece of (expletive)" colleague.

Prayer duly restored, the Ayatollah Coffey will now decide whether your religion deserves his stamp of approval.

Longtime homophobe Coffey offers heartfelt prayer for his "lying piece of (expletive)" colleague.

This tidbit didn't make the Jeffersonville Moore-ovian.

It speaks for itself, don't you think? Just remember: Dan Coffey is Jeff Gahan's chosen enforcer, the one running interference for the mayor.

This isn't Coffey's scandal alone, is it?

New Albany councilman swears into open mic during prayer debate, by Theo Keith (WAVE)

NEW ALBANY, IN (WAVE) - A New Albany councilman referred to a colleague as a "lying piece of (expletive)" during a debate over public prayer on Monday.

Councilman Dan Coffey made the comment into an open microphone, yet denied using the curse word during a brief, tense interview after the meeting.

"I didn't call him that," Coffey said, as a reporter followed him down a staircase in the City-County Building. "That's what you say I called him."

Coffey used the meeting to argue in favor of starting Common Council meetings with a prayer. The council approved the public prayer ordinance on a 7-2 vote after three amendments failed.

A minister who attends the meetings will likely lead the prayer, as one did before Monday's debate that became increasingly tense.

Councilman John Gonder offered an amendment that would've allowed only council members to lead in prayer or moments of reflection before meetings. The amendment failed, 5-4, after Gonder accused Coffey of trying to "curry favor" with the prayer issue.

"No, I didn't bring this up to curry favor," Coffey said, hitting his hand against the council's desk. "I brought it up because every time you turned around, there was something coming up about gays, lesbians, transvestites and making sure they had their rights."

READ THE REST AT WAVE  NEWS' WEB SITE