Coffey suckles at cash cow's teat as crowd adjourns for a soda and some popcorn.

In fairness, the 1st district's Dan "Copperhead Lift Station" Coffey vowed to return to his outspoken (badly spoken) ways once he relinquished the council presidency and returned to his familiar rock outcropping, so pity the current chair, John Gonder, for attempting a response approximating reason at a time of acrimony and panic. The Tribune's Daniel Suddeath spies the theatrical production from the mezzanine and reports here: No rate increase on Monday’s New Albany City Council docket.

Since the sewer board manages the utility’s operations, Gonder said it’s practical to let its members form a plan before the council weighs the matter. The council has to OK a rate increase before it takes effect. “It may be premature to meet to talk about it until they’ve decided what their stance is going to be,” Gonder said.

But Councilman Dan Coffey isn’t interested in waiting. He said he doesn’t trust the sewer board and wants a private review of the utility. “The sewer is nothing more than a cash cow and we need a full blown audit to see where this money has went,” he said.

Ennui, come by honestly.

I've spent the morning rummaging through guttural vicissitudes, seeking to faithfully reenact the lingering consequences of council meeting attendance. Thus far, I have failed.

I suppose that makes this an open call for candidates.

Get ready for the Great Paving Compromise of '09, and '10, and '11 ...

If the most interesting man in the world prefers Dos Equis, is it really possible that he's the most interesting man in the world?

Meanwhile, the Tribune's Daniel Suddeath takes a look at the state of the city's streets, a recalcitrant council and its "Nickels and Dimes" do-as-little-as-possible decay management bloc, and the mayor's inexplicable, ongoing reluctance to expend political capital.

Council members, administration officials meet over resurfacing plan

England is just ready to see something happen.

“I’m going to respect [the council’s] wishes. This is not a time to fight and argue, this is a time to get something done,” he said.

Is getting something done really possible with the current political dynamic in place?

Open thread: Another way of looking at EDIT expenditures.

It’s hardly a secret that New Albany’s two most reactionary councilmen subsist off their council pay packets, scant as those stipends are.

Permit me to dream for a moment …

If we manage someday to get EDIT monies out of the sewer rat hole where they absolutely don’t belong, would it be an example (in more ways than one) of legitimate economic development expenditure to buy out the remaining three years of Boner & Jethro’s council contracts in return for their resignations from public office?

It would be less than a hundred K, right?

Those of us characterized as “them people” keep joking that the council should buy out the progressive bloc and ship us en masse to communistic, atheistic Holland so (a) we could live happily, and (b) be safely out of way of the city’s congenital underachievers … but, given the cost/benefit ratio to be derived from how very little it would cost the city to sweep aside impediments to overall economic progress like the conjoined councilmen, doesn’t it make more sense for the ones capable of glimpsing the future remain, and those that cannot contribute pack up, take their buy-outs, and settle in Birdseye?

Discuss if you wish.