Councilman Phipps' future council meeting emergency reduction resolution is another Team Gahan mess. Can it be tossed out with the rubbish?

It's bad enough that Jeff Gahan has used the occasion of a pandemic to concentrate his powers even further, but the DemoDisneyDixiecratic Party's new scheme to set out provisional guidelines for minimal public appearances just in case things get bad again in the fall is muddled and laced with nonsense.

It's a strange resolution, anyway. The bulk of it sets out to define how public input can be made in the era of Zoom, then a brief paragraph almost incidentally allows for the council president (currently the awful partisan sycophant Bob Caesar) to take the council underground if Gahan's own state of electoral emergency so ordains, with COVID as pretext.

Our local DDD officials lie almost as artlessly as Louisville police. The only surprise is that Warren Nash hasn't found a way to blame Floyd County government for his own purportedly faultless party's enduring contempt for transparency.

Following are the minutes from the most recent council meeting. This resolution belongs in the landfill, but with five council votes coming from Gahan's shameless bootlickers ...

Power grab: Gahan and Caesar want to install a convenient "emergency" dictatorship (NEW ALBANY WEEK IN REVIEW for Friday, March 27).

Don't look now, but Jeff Gahan's seeking to declare the dictatorship this afternoon -- and as always, Bullet Bobby Caesar's head is far up hizzoner's asp.

To wit: If COVID-19 keeps boards from meeting, let's just hand Gahan complete power over everything, because it's an emergency and we need to give those checks and balances a rest during a crisis.

For eight years I've been telling you that we'd get the truest glimpse of Gahan's character deficiencies if he ever had to face a genuine crisis. The coronavirus is, and we are: Gahan's predictable response is to grab more power (and the control of more money) while he can, taking advantage of the curve-flattening measures to fluff himself and the same old cronies. As Josh Turner (5th district) wrote:

(The resolution) will essentially give the controller, at the direction of the mayor, free rein to do whatever the mayor would like in the city with in regard to public works and safety. This type of power no one in government should have. This resolution should only be an option in the event of a major disaster like earthquake, major flood, nuclear disaster, etc. Not for when we are ordered to stay at home.

Here's the list of council persons who'll be asked to vote by Caesar, the ethically bankrupt council president who functions as a sort of obliging mistress to Gahan's every whim. Call them and remind them that democracies don't need dictators.

At-Large – David Aebersold
1202 Aebersold Drive
(812) 944-9823, daebersold@cityofnewalbany.com

At-Large – Jason Applegate
P.O. Box 1578
(502) 338-5083, japplegate@cityofnewalbany.com

At-Large – Al Knable, MD
2241 Green Valley Road
(502) 386-5051, aknable@cityofnewalbany.com

1st District – Jennie Collier
624 W. 8th Street
(812) 207-0476, jcollier@cityofnewalbany.com

2nd District – Robert Caesar (President)
614 Camp Ave.
(502) 552-7969, rcaesar@cityofnewalbany.com

3rd District – Greg Phipps (Vice President)
1105 E Spring Street
(812) 949-8317, gphipps@cityofnewalbany.com

4th District – Patrick McLaughlin
1739 Florence Ave.
(812) 949-9140, pmclaughlin@cityofnewalbany.com

5th District – Josh Turner
1851 McDonald Lane
(812) 641-1221, jturner@cityofnewalbany.com

6th District – Scott Blair
3925 Rainbow Drive
(812) 697-0128, sblair@cityofnewalbany.com

Tonight's council action: R-19-08 Resolution in Support of Maintaining Access during Sherman Minton Bridge Renewal Project.

Courtesy of Al Knable.

I haven't been to a city council meeting in a while, primarily because previous experience has taught us that when elections draw near, the body's politicization reaches a fever pitch -- as it has with the fireworks ordinance hijinks and Payhan's veto.

However, there's a resolution on tap this evening that might prove to be genuinely useful, albeit non-binding.

R-19-08 Resolution in Support of Maintaining Access during Sherman Minton Bridge Renewal Project

It's always nice to see David Barksdale climbing down from the Reisz Mahal scaffolding to consider measures that pertain to human beings, as opposed to cornices.

At-large councilman Al Knable explained on Facebook.

I wrote this resolution and am presenting it for debate and hopeful approval at council’s September 5 meeting; 7:00 p.m. in the third floor assembly room of the City-County building (highlighted areas only show recent edits, not of greater or lesser importance). Resolutions are non-binding but I believe it’s imperative that we voice collectively to INDOT that this project, while necessary, will have major impacts upon our citizenry and economy. If you’d like to be heard on the matter I encourage you to come and opine- you’ll need to sign up prior to the meeting’s start.

Council Democrats have been instructed by their party "leader" Tricky Dickey to obstruct anything that comes to them from Republicans. The vote on this resolution should be unanimous in favor.

Will it be?

Following up: the Redevelopment Commission's resolution RC-06-17 is released, but not documents pertaining to the terms of the $750K handout to Denton Floyd.

As you'll see below, the Redevelopment Commission's Josh Staten complied promptly (two days) with my request to view the text of RC-06-17, the commission's resolution to spend public funds on the renovation of the Reisz Elephant, as well as two other buildings. I appreciate Staten doing this.

However, we've yet to see documents pertaining to conditions, agreements and contingencies approved by the city and Denton Floyd as a prelude to the handover of the check. 

Reisz Elephant: Lawyer Gibson hails redevelopment's back-room RFP fix as an excellent way to do business with just one company.

Jeff Gahan handed Denton Floyd $750,000 to kick-start the Reisz project. Where are the documents detailing this transaction?

To reiterate, throughout city council’s discussion of the Reisz project, from May 2018 to the present, including the 35 questions for Gibson to answer (or artfully evade) on June 21, the actual text of the resolution and the content of accompanying legal documents have not been seen … by anyone, on council or off, although presumably the council’s two redevelopment representatives at the time, David Barksdale and Bob Caesar (the latter since replaced) viewed the terms.

These details are rather important, aren’t they?

Would any self-respecting attorney merely hand a $750,000 check to a contractor without specific language about the terms of the transaction taking place? There'd be signatures, right? And wouldn't there be detailed explanations of contingencies, the simplest being things like insurance coverage and time frames?

Or are we to believe that former (seriously?) redevelopment chieftain David Duggins brought a briefcase filled with C-notes to the limousine for Denton Floyd's public-officials-only Keeneland junket (with paid models) last September?

Isn't it impossible to believe that the Redevelopment Commission resolution and/or legal agreements between the city and Denton Floyd explaining the $750,000 payment AREN’T accompanied by somewhat more than a post-it note reading “if Reisz doesn’t happen, just keep the money and tear down that motherfucka”?

Gibson stood before council on the 21st and said there are only two options for Reisz: the mayor's plan, or the landfill. Perhaps the reason redevelopment doesn't want anyone to see the documents pertaining to the $750,000 is that other options are mentioned therein -- and if so, wouldn't this render a "yes" vote null and void?

We’re confused. Does McLaughlin's censure climbdown mean he isn’t a mayoral contender any more, or is he the front runner now?

(Thanks to Jeff Gillenwater for today's header.)

There were somewhere around 80 people at the city council meeting on Monday night, and perhaps in direct response to Pat McLaughlin's censure resolution, management of the City County Building (it's owned by the county) decided to remodel both 3rd floor restrooms, which were closed.

Feeling the effects of pregame cocktails, I sneaked a peek at the men’s room.

It was in such a state of demolition that for a moment there, I thought I was privy to one of David Duggins’ wet dreams about the future of public housing.

On the topic of poo, irresolute thinking as muddled as McLaughlin's should disqualify him from consideration for any future office, but this is New Gahania, not Birdseye, and by noon today the DemoDisneyDixiecratic Party's resident Machiavelli in Knee Pants (A. Dickey) will have transformed McLaughlin's clueless farce into another great propaganda victory for Dear Leader.

How the AdamBot spins this abysmal train wreck is a mystery, but so it goes here in the land of congenital political underachievement.

For the best council coverage you can steal for 600 words at a 3rd-grade level of comprehension during two minutes' reading time, visit the newspaper.

Chris Morris also reports the outcome of the latest zoning imbroglio, in which a development proposed for the corner of Green Valley Road and Daisy Lane was defeated.

Following are five points I learned amid the straining bladders.

1. Clearly, the cynically fabricated hue and cry over Knable's statement to the News and Tribune has had far less to do with his actual comment than seeking to deflect any rational discussion of a combined 9-1-1 call center for city and county -- although if there were a few stray points to be scored by attacking Knable's character, the DemoDisneyDixiecrats are happy to take them. There weren't many, and overall, it's hard to imagine a bigger public relations misfire.

2. Given that there is a rational case to be made for a combined call center (as well as a corresponding argument against it), and seeing that the sliming of Knable was meant to derail anything that might resemble "truthful dialogue," we're compelled to consider the call center issue from a different angle: who currently wets their beaks from the dual call center organization as it presently stands? In short, it's time to follow the money, especially when the upper echelons insist that it's about safety, not cash.

Speaking for myself, I'm pro-union and anti-unigov, but the presence last evening of a spokesman for the call center/dispatcher union provides one clue; another might be found in a detailed examination of the mayor's campaign finance records.

3. Police chief Todd Bailey is planning to run for office. Granted, he hasn't said as much, but since this contrived controversy first reared its nasty, snarling, Gahanesque head, no public appearance by Bailey, as ostensibly devoted to defending the integrity of his unfairly maligned officers (heavens; spare us the melodrama, please), has come without the earnest recitation of his personal curriculum vitae. Bailey currently is jostling with Greg Phipps to determine which of the mayor's hips will be a target for attachment, but of the two, I suspect only the former has the requisite ambition.

4. Speaking of Phipps, the single greatest political disappointment of the current generation, who is fond of bragging about his Olympian detachment when it comes to decision-making, but unfortunately tends to embrace reasoning that mimics the circuitous gibberish of the Delphic Oracle rather than Mr. Spock's Vulcan logic, he was spared from casting a "yes" vote on Monday by virtue of McLaughlin's disintegration. However, Phipps hurriedly reminded the chamber that when it comes to cooperation between city and county, he is opposed to any measure that involves space aliens outside city limits.

Gahan himself couldn't have said it any better, and this is the point. Sycophants, unite -- you have nothing to lose apart from your dignity.

5. Answering Phipps' expression of disdain for perfidious county reactionaries (psst, Greg ... Democrats live there, too unless your implying that ... ), Knable reminded the room that county government recently came into an inheritance, this being the proceeds from the sale of the hospital -- and maybe, just maybe, this is a good sign as it pertains to future cooperation.

Speaking only for myself, sometimes when the facts change, one must recalibrate his opinions. County government no longer is the self-starving mechanism of old, and the closing of JeffBoat assures Clark County of a 20-mile-long development (and redevelopment) corridor from Charlestown and River Ridge to the South Clarksville project at the former Colgate. I may or may not like it, but this is the case. Unfathomable heaps of money are roosting there, and more is coming. If our plan is to bask in the backwash, it would be helpful to have a coherent niche. Right now, we don't.

A luxury dog spa nestled atop a Native American sacred area just might not be enough for New Albany and Floyd County to cope with the ramifications. Instead of wasting everyone's time with a resolution of censure derived from the reeking DemoDisneyDixiecratic swamp of petty and limiting self-interest -- those great big fish in this curbside puddle by the handicapped ramp -- perhaps a genuine commitment to the as-yet purely euphemistic "truthful dialogue" might help us move forward in the coming years.

A final takeaway: The usual DemoDisneyDixiecratic bait and switch -- gestures and signalling about social justice as intended to provide cover for the grubby excesses of the local party's patronage machine -- bears no similarity to the words "truthful dialogue" except as an expression of brutal irony, and as we know, they don't do irony. If there is any lasting value to be derived from McLaughlin's idiotic censure resolution, it's the appearance of these words, "truthful dialogue" within it.

Consequently, if anyone sees "truthful dialogue" emanating from a local ranking Democrat, please let us know. It would be a veritable holiday from the prevailing malice.

Well, look at this: "Resolution Requesting Amendment of Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County Bylaws Regarding City Council Appointments."

Tonight is the last city council meeting of 2017, paving the way for the first city council meeting of 2018, which means it will be appointments season all over again.

Seems like only yesterday, doesn't it?

As it pertains to the Horseshoe Foundation board, its appointments come with a significant caveat in the context of recent ideological shifts.

New city council game of chance: Horseshoe Party Affiliation Roulette. (January 16, 2015)

In the past, the foundation has insisted that only real Democrats and genuine Republicans can attend its meetings, seeing as these are the only two parties legally allowed in God's own America, with the council expected to send one sub-species of each, meaning that the sole GOP choice for eight years running has been Kevin Zurschmiede, the council's sole Republican.

This is vitally important, given that much of New Albany's economic development planning centers on impolitely demanding money from the Foundation, especially when the TIF Credit Card is running on vapors.

Hence this interesting diversion on tonight's agenda, in the form of a polite resolution.

As currently constituted, the council's partisan breakdown reads like this:

4 DemoDisneyDixiecrats: Caesar, Phipps, Nash and McLaughlin
2 Republican: Aebersold and Knable
1 HPQR (Historic Preservation Quasi Republican): Barksdale
1 Independent: Blair
1 CFP (Coffey First Party): the Wizard of Westside

Don't ask me to handicap this one, although Scott Blair's example is an interesting way to extend this post a further two minutes until dinner.

At least twice in the past, Blair was appointed to the Horseshoe Foundation board, and was promptly batted back. Blair should be a natural to vote yes on tonight's resolution, except that he also possesses a principled objection to resolutions as non-binding wastes of the council's time --although there have been past exceptions.

Expect Coffey to be toting his abacus, all the better to determine whether this or any other proposal is calculated to Make Coffey Great Again, and if not, the proportion of axle grease needed to persuade him.

Phipps will defer to the mayor, and it may require two pre-meeting martinis to get me all the way through it.

Wish me luck.

The NewAlbanist: Tonight, we seek to speak truth to power, insisting that no public housing should be demolished unless and until viable alternatives are made available to public housing residents.

In advance of tonight's vigil (6:00 outside the City-County Building at 311 Hauss Square), the news cycle's pace is increasing.

Rep. Ed Clere on Gahan's public housing deceptions: "Paper promises are not enough. The residents deserve meaningful assurances and action to ensure they're future access to housing."

Gahan's reeking public housing putsch, his chosen procurators, their escalating foul tempers -- and snow, wonderful snow.

Randy's statement is brief, succinct and appreciated.

Public Housing and Speaking Truth to Power, by the Bookseller, at the NewAlbanist

 ... Tonight, we seek to speak truth to power, insisting that no public housing should be demolished unless and until viable alternatives are made available to public housing residents.

We, part of the organization We Are New Albany, are standing up peacefully for this proposition tonight in front of the City-County Building and presenting collected petitions representing this position.

The problem with speaking truth to power comes when power has no respect for truth, public sentiment, or open government. There is a non-zero chance that we will be confronted by the power tonight regardless of our Constitutional rights to peacably assemble and to petition for the redress of grievances. We demonstrate tonight on public property, without trespass, in exercise of those rights and will not impede the rights of any other. Nonetheless, we live in an America and a New Albany where the exercise of rights is not sacrosanct. We live in a city where vindictive retaliation is the norm and where there is little hesitation to deploy police powers to intimidate and do injury.

I'm struck by the fact that while writing separately, each of us sees the inevitability of being "confronted by power" tonight.

Examples of intimidation directed against public housing residents already are a matter of record, and as David "Brownie, You're Doing a Heckuva Job" Duggins sinks ever further into sofa-hugging paranoia and imagined enemy sightings, it can only get worse.

Meanwhile, it's going to be a wonderful litmus test tonight for our “Let’s Pretend We’re Democrats”®️ organization. The more light shining on Jeff Gahan’s hostile takeover of public housing in New Albany, the greater the stench — and it’s clinging to all the local Democrats who value a luxurious fealty to Dear Leader over any stray spasm approximating a principle.

It’s going to be very interesting, Adam Dickey ... but we can chat tonight, right?

Rep. Ed Clere on Gahan's public housing deceptions: "Paper promises are not enough. The residents deserve meaningful assurances and action to ensure they're future access to housing."

Kaboom.

The News and Tribune is AWOL (N & T coverage here) as Justin Sayers at the C-J breaks this important story detailing Rep. Ed Clere's public stance on the public housing putsch and his attendance at tonight's Hauss Square vigil.

Hilariously, all David "Brownie, You're Doing a Heckuva Job" Duggins can do is spout bilge about "politically motivated" protests and outside conspiracies.

As we noted yesterday, paranoia is on the rise within the ranks of Team Gahan -- and where are all the Democrats?

You've stepped into it, Jeffrey. That's why the smell keeps getting worse and worse. Expect to see a few of the mayor's operatives tonight, hovering around the periphery, taking notes. When the reprisals begin, and they will, just remember that for the City Hall sycophants wetting beaks and running envelopes, the end justifies the means.

'Paper promises are not enough': Lawmaker joins public housing fight in New Albany, by Justin Sayers (Louisville Courier Journal)

Housing advocates in New Albany said they remain unswayed by a city promise that no residents will go homeless because of a plan to overhaul public housing.

And a group of them, including state Rep. Ed Clere, plan to deliver a petition on Monday from more than 3,000 New Albany residents – including a quarter of the city's roughly's 2,000 public housing residents – that asks Mayor Jeff Gahan to not "tear down public housing without a plan to replace it."

The "Candlelight and Prayer Vigil," sponsored by newly created outreach group We Are New Albany, is to begin at 6 p.m. Monday outside the city-county building at 311 Hauss Square.

"Paper promises are not enough," said Clere, R-New Albany. "The residents deserve meaningful assurances and action to ensure they're future access to housing."

David Duggins, interim director of the New Albany Housing Authority, called the rally and petition "politically motivated" and the actions of people who "do not have the best interests of the residents in mind."

Gahan's reeking public housing putsch, his chosen procurators, their escalating foul tempers -- and snow, wonderful snow.

A previous conversation about snowblindness, joined in progress.

Wait -- did I forget to answer your question?

Sorry about that!

Here's a solid primer on the topic at hand; hope it helps.

Short-term health effects of cocaine:

• extreme happiness and energy
• mental alertness
• hypersensitivity to sight, sound, and touch
• irritability
• paranoia—extreme and unreasonable distrust of others

Some people find that cocaine helps them perform simple physical and mental tasks more quickly, although others experience the opposite effect. Large amounts of cocaine can lead to bizarre, unpredictable, and violent behavior.

What was that?

No, I hadn't heard about the random drug testing program being terminated without explanation, and I didn't know this meant he could have avoided the standard drug screen prior to taking the job.

It's probably just a coincidence, anyway. How long does it remain in the bloodstream, anyway? Looks like more research is merited.

Now, where were we?

Ah, yes -- it all comes back to me now.

---

Robo-NAHA board waves sheets of meaningless paper while Duggins foams at the mouth. No worries, because Gahan's finest functionaries are on it.

---

Below are photos of this inexplicably bizarre *'false' rumors* resolution (what about all those true rumors, anyway?) and the accompanying letter to New Albany Housing Authority residents, but first ... paranoia, big destroyer?

Have you noticed how irritable and sensitive Jeff Gahan's fawning flatterers at NAHA Occupation Force Supreme Command have gotten lately -- especially the Imperial Grand Poobah, who suddenly was shifted away from the redevelopment mess and appointed to wet the beaks of future developers as the luxury land grab approaches?

When Gahan's punch-drunk putsch was launched almost a year ago, there was euphoria and celebrations in the Stretch Humvee Limo (complete with paid eye candy) in route to the glories of Keeneland; now it's like Baghdad after Saddam Hussein was toppled, with rapidly spreading chaos, stunning incompetence, hyperactive attention to perceived slights, and lately these big, angry, roundhouse punches being thrown at phantom "enemies" no one else in the room can even see.

Seriously, who can keep a straight face while reading a borrowed-from-Hallmark line this lame: "At this festive time of year, we need to focus on our families."

Heavens. Lindsey Buckingham managed far better than this while assembling Tusk: "Why don’t you tell me what’s going on? Why don’t you tell me who’s on the phone?"

Now that's an old-school snowstorm -- and Buckingham was a consummate pro, not a servile minion.

Meanwhile, in 2017 Gahan scratched his 50-something New Albanian white boy's itch and gleefully snatched the housing authority, but now the stench just won't go away -- and the sycophants and lickspittles assigned to monetize and colonize New Albany's most vulnerable population will be getting ever more testy.

Dude, why not take a break for the holidays? I mean, things like this aren't good for the nervous system, are they?