Former mayor James Garner endorses David White. Watch the video and read why this matters.

NA Confidential will turn 15 in a few months. When the blog was born in 2004, all I knew for sure was that you were entitled to my opinion. It's been a long and suitably strange journey since then, and the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Back in 1999 the city's voters broke with precedent and elected Regina Overton to be mayor. She was a she, she was Republican, and the city was suffering from overexposure to Doug England, who embarked on the standard ritualistic disappearance into the wilderness so as to plot his inevitable comeback.

Four years later in 2003 came the reaction in the form of a landslide that brought eight of nine council seats to the Democrats as well as placing James Garner in the mayor's office.

You'd think such a decisive majority would have afforded Garner a clear mandate, but council immediately split into factions, with lone Republican Mark Seabrook often in the position of offering wry and sensible commentary as Democrats fought Democrats to a standstill in the peanut gallery.

Four years of trench warfare ensued, and only in retrospect can it be seen that Garner became mayor at a time of social and political transition. It strikes me now as a generational turning point, one that wasn't very kind to his prospects.

The traditional Floyd County Democratic Party, primarily a right-leaning, ward-heeling machine symbolized by longtime county power-broker Ted Heavrin, was fading and its county strongholds eroding amid an influx of residents for whom conservative values were best suited by actual Republicans, not Republicans masquerading as Democrats.

In place of the Heavrinites a new generation of Clintonian liberals (or neo-liberals) was moving up, as perhaps best represented by then-chairman Randy Stumler, and a short time later Adam Dickey. The latter has put Disney into the Democrats while leaving Dixie right where it was, hence the DemoDisneyDixiecrats we see today. 

As Garner became mayor, these and many other social and political factors were queuing at a crossroads, and meanwhile New Albany as a city stood still, as though in shock. Downtown was dead and all the action was in the 'burbs, although given our city's proximity to Louisville, we probably were at rock bottom, property so profoundly undervalued as an asset that the only way to go was up.

Exactly what "up" meant was unclear, and I was critical of Garner in the beginning. Much of this criticism was borne of ignorance about the way governance works, and I've tried to learn from it. My attitude in 2004 was "don't just stand there, do something," and it seemed Garner wasn't. But after a little while it became apparent that Garner really was doing as much as he could with the tools he had at his disposal, all the while swatting away swarms of old party fogies and regressive council Luddites.

Two of Garner's achievements are very important.

First, Garner expended a good portion of his limited political capital against entrenched opposition and ensured the completion of the YMCA project he'd inherited from Overton.

Second, Garner embraced the Indiana alcohol licensing tool known as the Riverfront Development Area and got the measure through council (2006) via a rare unanimous vote.

Inexpensive three-way alcohol permits helped jump-start a restaurant and bar renaissance in New Albany, while the YMCA brought people downtown. Together, these measures were a catalyst for private investments in businesses and buildings, which in turn finally instigated a civic conversation about possibilities.

Garner also was an early proponent of two-way streets and measures we now refer to as "walkability," and as he notes in the endorsement video, he worked behind the scenes with David White for economic development and quality of life efforts later blithely claimed by others. 

Garner lost in the Democratic primary in 2007, England having returned from Outer Utica and rallied the Old Guard for a last hurrah. England Mach III proved to be largely ineffectual, and hizzoner's enduringly bizarre, doomed effort at handpicking a successor (lifelong Republican Irv Stumler) helped bring us to the era error of Jeff Gahan.

James Garner is a former mayor, I'm still a blogger, and it's good to know we have a shared point of view: Don't just stand there, #FightForWhite2019 in the May 7 primary.

And by doing so: #FireGahan2019

REWIND: "Steve Price compares himself to Jesus Christ. A captive city yawns. Somewhere, a dog barks." (2007)

During the past five years, 153 posts at NA Confidential have been tagged with labels bearing the uncouncilman Steve Price's name. These include:

Steve Price
Steve Price kindergarten vandalism
Steve Price rational decisionmaking
Steve Price's favored constituents
things Steve Price won't get even then
karaoke the hard way

One of my personal favorites from February, 2007, is reprinted here. What will we write about now that the uncouncilman is gone? I'm not sure, but if the city is fortunate, there'll be much to say about our collective efforts to undo his obstructionist (dare we suggest toxic?) council legacy.

Okay, it’s only fitting and proper that I should be the one to divulge the truth to you before you read it in Trogland. Yes, it happened. I was ejected from last night’s city council meeting.

I know, I know … just because Steve Price thinks he’s Jesus is no reason to lose my temper. But apparently he does. And I did. Alas, it occurred.

In retrospect, it should have been obvious that a bad moon was rising when the council considered second and third readings of the Summit Springs development on State Street, and for the second week running, the 1st district’s Dan “Wizard of Westside” Coffey was surreptitiously beamed from the chamber by playful space aliens, who placed in his stead a strange conciliatory figure waxing constructive about the virtues of development and a widened tax base.

C’mon, guys – give us our famous ward heeler back. Not really.

Just ten days ago, the council approved a first reading of the Summit Springs zoning change by a resounding 8-1 margin, with 2nd district CM Bill Schmidt alone in opposition. Last night, with councilmen Blevins and Zurschmiede absent, the vote had reached 5-1 (Schmidt one again opposing) when it came council president Larry Kochert’s turn, and he provided sweeping justification for his “slippery” sobriquet by … abstaining.

I laughed aloud, and was immediately affixed with a presidential glare.

When Kochert’s turn came for the third reading, he looked directly at me, sarcastically said “thank you,” and voted against the ordinance, remarking that only then – at the last possible moment, and having first voted in favor of the measure prior to abstaining on the second reading – could he reveal a hitherto unspoken objection, which had to do with jurisdiction for future zoning decisions.

To repeat: 4th district CM Larry Kochert recorded one vote for, one abstention, and one against … and all three stances were taken at various times on the exact same ordinance.

Is it any wonder we laugh?

No, it isn’t, but having done so openly, I feared that the worst was yet to come, and of course come it did, for if there ever were a legislative body that confirms the adage, “the beatings will continue until morale improves,” it’s this one.

My end came as 3rd district CM Steve Price took advantage of the heaven-sent opportunity afforded by his predictable tabling of further discussion of ten new police cars to, yes, prattle on for another five minutes about the very same ten police cars, which of course meant that the discussion would not be about police cars at all, but about specific nuances of CM Price’s stance v.v. take-home police cars.

CM Price’s monochromatic strumming yodel was forcibly rebutted by colleague Bev Crump, which segued into a brief period of accusatory chaos that mercifully ended with fellow councilman Jack Messer asking why the council was persisting in discussing business that had already been tabled in favor of yet another committee.

CM Price responded that he must be given time to respond to his “accusers” on the police force, and when, somewhat remarkably, CM Kochert seemed inclined to agree, the time finally had come for CM Price – previous crusader against “Nazis” in the VFW, defender of “raped” taxpayers, and linguistic mangle artist extraordinaire – to don his rubber mask of Larry Linville's best Frank Burns face and whine loudly that the council might as well bring on “the cross and nails.”

As the room dissolved into embarrassed laughter, I remarked that Price’s performance was his best ever, and this prompted a buffoonish jackal to turn and heckle me. Shrugging, I responded in the only appropriate way under the circumstances: I asked the man, otherwise known as the newly scrubbed and streamlined council candidate Dick Stewart, if he’d come to the meeting to race-bait, or just to masturbate like always -- and that did the trick.

With CM Price now waving his arms and demanding I be removed, CM Kochert actually did the right thing and tossed both Stewart and myself. Rest assured that if there had been a home plate that I could have used my hands to cover in dirt, or a water cooler to heave, it is likely to have happened.

Chief Harl was officious and pleasant, and permitted me to visit the restroom before exiting. My only regret is that Professor Erika didn’t hang around to witness it, although Auntie V's hired camera got all of it on film.

Verily, it has never been my intention to “gonzo blog,” or be part of the story. From the beginning, I’ve felt that it was enough to provide reports that admittedly entertain, but also provide the reader with insight into the city’s council meetings.

But there are times when the breathtaking inanity exhibited by the likes of my 3rd district representative is enough to shatter the firmest of one’s resolve. Last night was just such a night. Sorry ‘bout that, although I’m not promising it won’t happen again.

Why? Because the answer to New Albany’s dilemma simply does not lie in Steve Price’s preferred state of degradation, deprivation and yokeldom, although there’s some solace to be derived from the fact that as he warbles and croons the “we can’t” defeatist line, plenty of people aren’t buying it. They both “can,” and “are,” and there's little that he's yet been able to do about it.

Lacking any constructive notions for how the pie might get bigger, and mired in the tattered depreciation logic of the landlord, our councilman seeks only to wrap his fingers around the piggy bank and keep the hands of others as far away as he can.

Yet ... if one possesses as chief operating wisdom such a naked contempt for progress and success, it stands to reason that he must seek to permit as little as possible to actually occur, lest the doom of cognitive dissonance creep through the bolted doors of his perception.

That's a fine way of protecting one's own limited bailiwick. It does not improve the community, or benefit future generations. In fact, it is nothing more than the expressed public will to fail.

We need to put a stop to it, and a chance is coming ... first in the primary, and then ...

Hail, Toga Party!