New Albany is a state of mind … but whose? Since 2004, we’ve been observing the contemporary scene in this slowly awakening old river town. If it’s true that a pre-digital stopped clock is right twice a day, when will New Albany learn to tell time?
We'd be utterly remiss without properly attributing the preceding photos: They're from the Floyd County Democratic Party, which has been defending you from cold calls and porch scams since, uh, er ... never mind.
But the same party functionaries are right there at the Board of Public Works and Safety, defending you from pre-arranged social research by accredited academicians.
Feeling safer yet?
NA Confidential is delighted to know the police chief takes such a strong stance against unsolicited household visits. The next time we see him and his political cronies doing it again, we're going to call the police and have them hauled off. Per Warren Nash, Greg Phipps, et al, if there are any questions about it after the fact, we'll just lie and attribute it to miscommunication.
Isn't it time these candidates show us their solicitation permits? It won't stop us from baring our pitchforks, but at least the hypocrisy would be more entertaining.
“Quiet! I must say you people are a nuisance. If this is retirement, I’d rather be back at that Levy Pants.” Miss Trixie raked at them with her cookie box. “Now get out of my house and mail me my check.” -- John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
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There was a city council meeting on Thursday evening. I'm told the bunker door was barred and the wagons circled before the tailgate party even shut down.
Unsurprisingly, the usual pillared suspects have engineered their way out of the embarrassing box their superannuated gatekeeper devised for them. No error is acknowledged, and no public input recognized beyond the perimeter of the closed circle.
Alas, the newspaper that broke the story did so unwittingly, and never once followed up amid preparations for Cooking School: The Spatula Strikes Back.
If you’ve followed this blog the past 2 days, you may want a status update.
I no longer have reason to believe that the work of the Institute for Social Research will be impeded in New Albany. And that’s a good thing. Thanks to all who made this happen.
Suffice it to say that the city has exercised its regulatory responsibilities in a courteous and professional manner. As an advocate in this matter, representing only myself but on behalf of a situation I saw as a misunderstanding, I was at all times treated with courtesy and respect.
The Bookseller returns today with this update. You'll want to click through and read the complete dispatch. I'm very busy today with a writing assignment and a corresponding deadline, but will do my best to update you in this space. Tonight is a city council meeting, and the issue will be raised there.
As an aside, I wonder if Mayor Gahan has considered reassigning Warren Nash to help David Dugout with the public housing putsch? Mr. Nash might be the NAHA board member with the responsibility of saying "no" when HUD comes calling. After all, he has much practice as Gahan's BOW gatekeeper.
Jeff Gahan’s appointees could use a refresher course in due process. After all, it is a tenet of representative government and basic justice.
Yesterday we reported on a decision by the city’s Board of Public Works and Safety (BoW), appointed by Gahan and chaired by former mayor Warren Nash (1971-75) that appears to thwart the work of one of the nation’s most-respected social research institutions.
I believe that decision was misguided and does not comport with the relevant city ordinance. A strong case can be made that the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan (ISR) needn’t have even appeared before the board and I will try to make that case tonight at New Albany’s city council meeting and, if necessary, at next week’s BoW meeting (10 a.m., city hall).
Further, due process requires that a board with such broad public responsibility state its reason for withholding its approval. In the absence of a defensible rationale, that approval should be forthcoming. After all, the relevant city ordinance says nothing about prohibiting the requested activities – if it’s applicable in the case at all, it’s only about regulating them.
Witnesses report that even before the meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Nash showed sheer annoyance that the ISR notification letter had been placed on the agenda. He griped that “Kathy (Cousins) knows we never approve these.” He went on to reject the notification, saying, “Since I’ve been on the board, we’ve never approved anything like this.”
That’s a pretty sad state of affairs, isn’t it? The body charged with evaluating and approving solicitations (again, this is hardly applicable) has erected barriers to even be heard ...
1. the quality or state of being incredulous; inability or unwillingness to believe.
The scandal-plagued Gahan administration has suffered another own goal -- another foot shooting, another faux pas. How often must the citizenry be embarrassed this way, Adam?
On Tuesday morning, Board of Works gatekeeper Warren Nash told a representative of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) that the city of New Albany couldn't risk allowing academic research to be conducted.
How very local Democratic Party of us. Just a bit about the ISR ...
Established in 1949, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) is among the world’s largest and oldest academic survey research organizations, and a leader in the development and application of social science methods and education.
With researchers from a broad range of academic disciplines, ISR serves as a national laboratory for the social sciences, advancing public understanding of human behavior through empirical research of extraordinary depth and breadth.
The Bookseller has obtained the same Institute of Social Research background materials viewed by BOW. You'll want to click through and read the entire piece, but here's an introduction.
Karen Rice had no idea what she was walking into Tuesday because she represents a professional organization.
Ms. Rice hand-delivered a “To Whom It May Concern” letter from her organization, the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. As written, it is a courtesy letter informing those concerned that some people in our geographical area will be surveyed and that ISR representatives may be in the area over the coming months conducting important survey research.
Then Ms. Rice met the Hon. Warren Nash, who currently serves as chairman of the New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety. He and his two colleagues said “no way.”
To be certain, U of M was not asking for permission as the type of work they do wouldn’t require the permission of a municipality. However, they do understand that in an age of scam artists, citizens might become concerned when they receive a letter and a subsequent visitor asking questions. Who would one call if they suspected something fishy? The police or the mayor’s office, of course.
To allay those concerns, the ISR politely informed a public meeting of city officials that their scientific work would be carried out here.
I’m grateful that our local newspaper managed to find the space to report on what should have been innocuous news. But Mr. Nash turned it into something else ...
Maybe Nash misunderstood, though the materials certainly aren't ambiguous, or in a blind panic, reasoned that social research is dangerous in a place where the mayor has seized public housing and Democrats make war on the poor.
He might have scanned the Gahan for Mayor for Life donor list and not seen the ISR's friendly tithe -- and of course, if they aren't "for" the mayor via their wallet, they're surely "against him.
The rampant City Hall paranoia is especially thick this summer, isn't it? It makes sense if you remember that Nash's role on BOW has less to do with public safety than representing Gahan's political fingers in every conceivable pie, because what good are geniuses of the flood plain if they're not erecting plaques to themselves?
On the other hand, the reporter Morris did a wonderful public service today with this concluding portion of his Board of Public Works and Keep You Safe from the Eggheads coverage.
Has board chairman and Democratic Party bigwig Warren Nash ever looked quite this flagrantly out of touch?
What was that?
Oh, yes; you're right. The street piano debacle two years ago was worse. We apologize, Ms. Rice. Some day this bone-headed junta will be back to greeting customers at Wal-Mart.
The board also denied a request from Karen Rice, representing the University of Michigan, for a door-to-door survey to be conducted in New Albany as part of a larger social research study being completed in the Louisville area.
The study would have likely lasted through the end of the year. Rice said residents are contacted first, with a letter, before being solicited for response. They would also be paid for their time.
Nash said it has always been board policy to deny such requests.
"Since I have been on the board we have never approved anything like this," he said.
Let's hope the University of Michigan makes a second request, or just comes and performs the study without asking permission -- you know, like the religious zealots and political candidates knocking on doors without ever seeking permission from Warren Nash and the Band of Bored.
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