The return of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Sycophants and other brown-nosing spaniels.

Following is an encore presentation of the SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS column from June 8, 2016.

The idea for a column about words and ideas dates to late 2015, when city attorney Shane Gibson took to social media to mockingly disparage the subversive notion of a healthy vocabulary, and to pillory those daring to use it, seeing as anyone with a broad working knowledge of the English language surely poses a mortal threat to the sportsball watchers at City Hall.

My sabbatical is the perfect time to resuscitate SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, and so I'll seek to get back into the habit of posting on Wednesday. 

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Welcome to another installment of GREG's SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.

But why all these new words?

Why not the old, familiar, comforting words, like the ones you're sure to hear at the golf course when brothers-in-law casually chat about their millions in epochal development plans for an unstable hillside?

It's because a healthy vocabulary isn't about intimidation through erudition. Rather, it's about selecting the right word and using it correctly, whatever one's pay grade or station in life.

Even remuneration-engorged municipal corporate attorneys are eligible for this enlightening expansion of personal horizons, and really, as we contemplate what they knew and when they knew it, all we have left is plenty of time -- and the opportunity to learn something, if we're so inclined.

Today's word is sycophant, one of my personal favorites. Note the preferred pronunciation: SICK-uh-funt, or thereabouts. At the same time, you'll occasionally encounter a PSYCHO-funt, but usually only at Democratic Party costume balls.

sycophant

[sik-uh-fuh nt, -fant, sahy-kuh-]

noun

1. a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

Origin of sycophant 

1530-40; < Latin sȳcophanta < Greek sȳkophántēs informer, equivalent to sŷko (n) fig + phan- (stem of phaínein to show) + -tēs agentive suffix

Related forms
sycophantic, sycophantical, sycophantish, adjective
sycophantically, sycophantishly, adverb
sycophantism, noun

The list of synonyms for sycophant is especially entertaining and colorful: Yes-man, bootlicker, brown-noser, toady, lickspittle, flatterer, flunky, lackey, spaniel, doormat, stooge, cringer, suck, suck-up.

There's even an academic article: "Grovelling And Other Vices: The Sociology Of Sycophancy." Here is a sample sentence:

When the sycophants start calling you a malcontent, there is a sense of pure vindication.

Delusion, meet narcissism: Jeff Gahan denies the reality of homelessness while proposing to demolish affordable housing options.

There was a social media discussion last evening in which supporters of Jeff Gahan's "policy" (read: spasm) about homelessness -- i.e., commit acts of government-sanctioned violence against the community's most vulnerable first, and only THEN murmur softly about ways to "help" them -- suggested that it is the responsibility of this "policy's" critics to provide information and assistance to the victims of the mayor's violent acts.

Bluegill provides much needed perspective about the compassion of Gahan's demolition fetish.

Just to recap, here’s a newspaper article from 2016. Every single person quoted in it - agency and non-profit representatives, public employees, law enforcement - all said there was/is a homelessness problem in New Albany. Several said that the numbers of homeless people were quite noticeably increasing.

Jeff Gahan, as the lone exception, denied there was a homelessness problem in New Albany. This is the same mayor who also insists that we have far too many affordable public housing units and that he will demolish and not replace at least half of them.

How could anyone, in conjunction with the more recent housing camp demolition, read all that as compassionate? If they intend to be remotely rational about it, the “politicized” argument from Gahan supporters here isn’t about whether NAC should personally be providing or linking to resources. An actual argument would entail Gahan supporters explaining how years spent denying homelessness is a problem in New Albany *and* demolishing both homeless person constructed temporary housing and more permanent affordable public housing is good for people experiencing housing problems. It seems like we rarely if ever see those types of legitimate arguments.

Meanwhile, the primary Gahan strategy beyond pure denial seems to be directly focused on demolition.

The article to which he refers was referenced here on September 24, 2016: Jeff Gahan seldom speaks for the record, but when he does, he denies homelessness is a problem in New Gahania.

Six months later, Gahan staged a hostile takeover of the New Albany Housing Authority with the stated intent of demolishing half its units. This actually might be considered "compassionate" by prevailing Republican standards, except the mayor insists on referring to himself as a Democrat.

Is there a party standing in opposition to deranged and deluded narcissists like Gahan? If so, they have my vote. Here is the original News and Tribune article from 2016 by Aprile Rickert. At the time, a reader commented:

"Uh oh! A local reporter who dares fact check the Mayor's assertions? She interviewed six additional sources and checked two additional sets of data? And she found these additional sources contradicted the claims that New Albany's homelessness wasn't a problem for little citizens to worry about? A great example of how local newspapers really matter. My thanks to Ms. Rickert!"

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SATURDAY SPOTLIGHT: New Albany Homeless population struggles to cope; local officials notice growing number of homeless

NEW ALBANY — Dwight Schmitt, longtime New Albany resident, said he considers himself homeless right now for the first time ever.

Schmitt, a Vietnam veteran, said he was arrested in early July and spent 68 days in jail when someone was discovered in his home using drugs. Schmitt, who said he doesn’t use drugs and didn’t know the person had them in his home, was originally charged with possession of methamphetamine and paraphernalia and maintaining a common nuisance.

The first two charges were dismissed, he said, but the third remains because it was his home. While he was incarcerated, he lost that home, and his belongings are now being stored in a friend’s trailer.

He said he’s waiting for his $2,500 bail that he posted to be released, and his pension check to come in early October before he can think about trying to find a new place to live.

“But until then, I’m at-large,” he said of being without a place to live. “Different friends let me stay here and there for a night or two. I’ve been doing yard work. I do all I can to make a living. I’ll find some way to eat every day.”

Schmitt said he knows of 25-30 people at least who are traditionally “street” homeless in New Albany, and that’s just in one area of the city. Some people say the number of homeless are increasing in New Albany over the past few years.

DIFFERING VIEWS

Not everyone agrees on the scope of the problem.

New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan’s office sent an email to the News and Tribune addressing queries about homelessnessin New Albany Gahan stated in the release that homelessness is not something to take lightly, but that is not a large issue in New Albany.

“Anytime someone is homeless without a safe place for the night, it’s a serious issue for those individuals,” the email states. “However, the data does not support an assertion that New Albany has a homeless problem.”

The Indiana Housing Community and Development Authority (IHCDA) reported that through point-in-time counts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), when homeless individuals are literally counted on the streets, Floyd County had 74 homeless counted in early 2016, alongside an estimated total population of 76,668 for 2015. This translates to .09 percent homeless in Floyd County as compared to 5,863 or .08 percent homeless in the state, according to IHCDA, which reports a 2 percent drop in homelessness in Indiana from 2014 to 2015.

Dawn Klemm, executive director of the recently formed Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana, said that since the point-in-time count is done nationally every late January, numbers may not reflect the actual situation.

“Basically what you’re saying is whoever you can count on the street is how we’re going to base what goes on in your community,” she said of the national statistics. “The majority of the [homeless] are not going to be on the street. They’re doubling up, they’re sleeping in cars. They’re not on the street in January because it’s cold.”

The City of New Albany has worked in recent years to provide safer and more affordable housing, the mayor’s email states, operating more than 1,100 homes through the New Albany Housing Authority — more than Charlestown, Clarksville and Jeffersonville combined.

The City has also initiated a rental registration program to ensure that the 40 percent rented homes in New Albany are regulated for safety, and endorsed Low Income Housing Tax Credit applications through the state for development and redevelopment of affordable housing.

HELPING THEM COPE

Still there are people without homes, and some Floyd County residents and organization directors say that number is rising.

Jesse Floyd, board president of the Tri-County Health Coalition of Southern Indiana, said that he’s never seen homeless numbers like he is now in New Albany, and he speaks from experience. He’s been with the organization 30 years.

Floyd said that he’s seen an uptick in the homeless population, especially over the past two years. Since January, he’s also noticed a growing segment of young men among the homeless population, something he said is new.

“The indigent population has grown as a whole,” he said. “When we started, there were very few people coming through. We would have one or two people coming through asking for help.”

The organization has a series of programs providing food and clothing, helping with taxes and other services for anyone who needs it, not just the homeless.

“Now the food pantry stays empty,” he said. “We used to not have too many homeless people that stand out like this, but they’re standing out. You can’t miss them. You’ll see them with their backpacks, just sitting everyplace they can. You’ll see them just roaming the street. Most of them, you can tell they’re just hot. Its awful warm outside.”

Although working with homeless people has always been part of Tri-County’s mission, the need appears greater now. Floyd said this summer, between five to six young homeless people, mainly men, have been coming into the office every day for free water, snacks and a place to cool off. They range in age from about 17 to 22 years old, he said.

“A lot of them that come in, they just want to talk,” he said. “They’ve been coming in and sitting and talking about why they’re on the streets, what they would like to change in their lives and how their home lives [were.]”

Melissa Merida, director of the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, said the library regularly serves the homeless population.

“They utilize a lot of the services and it’s also a cool place in the summer and a warm place in the winter,” she said, adding that some people go in to read or use the computers and some just want to sit in a more comfortable place than outside. Over the past several weeks, she said they may have seen fewer people because the weather has been more mild.

She said the library helps where it can — it offers free computer use with an ID, free computer classes weekly to learn how to use basic Microsoft programs and a job and career center to help people get started on making and posting resumes and searching for jobs.

“Most of the homeless, they have some kind of income, but it’s not enough to afford housing in our area,” she said. “And since we don’t have a shelter or somewhere to help them kind of get back on their feet, that kinds of complicates things.”

GROWING CONCERN

Floyd County Sheriff Frank Loop said he’s seen an increase in homeless New Albany residents over the past five to 10 years.

“Where years ago we might see one or two, now it’s not uncommon that they’re all over the place,” Loop said.

Several factors are contributing to the growth, he said.

“I think the homeless population in Clark and Floyd counties has exploded because there is a homeless shelter in Louisville, there is a drug problem that’s bigger than it’s ever been and there’s is a walking bridge so they can easily walk from Louisville to Southern Indiana where before they could not.

“That’s why Clark County has a much bigger problem than Floyd does, because they’re walking across that bridge,” Loop said.

While New Albany doesn’t have a shelter, Jeffersonville does. Barb Anderson, director of Haven House, said around 26 percent of the shelter’s population is from Floyd County, with around 50 percent from Clark.

She said the county percentage fluctuates and has been as high as 35 to 40 percent from Floyd County before. Haven House has 80 beds on regular, non “white flag” nights. White flag status is called when the index is at or below 35 degrees or at or above 95 degrees and is considered an emergency situation. Then shelters and makeshift shelters allow for more people to come in.

“It depends on what night you’re here,” she said. “This is a pretty mobile region and [some] people are between Jeffersonville, Clarksville and New Albany and kind of burn their bridges in one city and go to another city.

“And finally when the bridges are burned in all the cities, they wind up here. So the picture is kind of jaded. They may be from New Albany but lived in Clarksville for the past two months or they’ve gone to Jeffersonville and lived with a cousin. So it takes a little while to even find out where they’re from.”

Anderson said she doesn’t think an added shelter in New Albany is the answer.

“No, I think they need affordable housing,” she said. “I’m not a fan of sheltering and I provide shelter, but I know what I am. I am a shelter for the homeless. And there shouldn’t be shelters. There are enough resources in our community and our country to have affordable housing for people. It’s a matter of desire and it’s a matter of building it. And that priority has not taken place.”

NAHA hooks up with DNA for Voucher Walk 2019, and so we revisit the hypocritical aftermath of Gahan's public housing hostile takeover.

No joke; the New Albany Housing Authority is a member of Develop New Albany. I'm told that DNA's "leader level" is $1,000 annually. We know it's not coming from executive desiccator David Duggin's fattened pay packet.

Speaking of disruption ...

Demolition Man: Either Gahan lied about the NAHA "memorandum of understanding" from 2017, or he lied to Mark Elrod Tower residents in 2019. Which is it?

In which Deaf Gahan asks: “Okay, what’s the ISSUE with Riverview? Do you KNOW people who live over there? I mean, WHY are we talking about Riverview?”

In which Deaf Gahan encourages public housing residents to be "thrilled" about the indoor grass at the sportsplex he built with their money.

In which Deaf Gahan regales public housing residents with ribald tales of the "superstar" Warren Nash.

Readers, as you contemplate the marriage of NAHA and DNA amid bouquets of RSVP and WTF, think about pouring yourself a nice adult beverage and revisiting these thoughts from June 15, 2017.

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ON THE AVENUES: Hi there, NAHA wastrels. My name is Peter Principle, and these are my friends Deaf and Dugout.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Not since the unlikely elevation of a dissolute New York City property mogul to the highest office in the land has such an abysmally unqualified individual been handed the keys to the future of so many lives, but we reside in the Principality of New Gahania, and David Duggins now “directs” the New Albany Housing Authority.

Perhaps only the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka or Gabriel Garcia Marquez could explain our new surreal reality by means of creative fiction, but to paraphrase the mayor, “Nobody reads books.”

Duggins was awarded his dandy high-paying sinecure by a board of obsequious toady minions, as carefully packed by Mayor Jeff Gahan with his best available bobble-headed sycophants eager to abandon their integrity to bask in the glow of their puppetmaster’s gleaming pate, leaving no doubt about the ownership of whatever master plan for demolition is being implemented.

Never forget that the dismantling of public housing in New Albany is to be Deaf Gahan’s crowning achievement, unless Duggins botches the job and is sent back to the bullpen at the Class AA River Ridge Bootlicking Wannabees, absorbing the blame for disappointing whole generations of white suburban males who feel deep in their bones that if only the poor people would go away, this town might really amount to something.

The fact of their preachers encouraging them in this belief is a topic for another time.

Speaking of stopped clocks, the timing of Duggins’ windfall pay rise, as well as the arguably more significant and impending appointment of his replacement as economic dishevelment director and artful router of beak-wetting sustenance at the Redevelopment Commission, simply cannot be separated from impending election cycles in 2018 and 2019.

With Gahan still emitting random gurgling sounds about the State Senate race in 2018 (the vexed commode begs him to decide), there exists neither time nor desire for Gahan to bring in fresh blood from outside.

Meet Bob Caesar, Chris Gardner or Zelda the Wonder Ferret, YOUR new interim redevelopment figurehead, fully capable of treating the high rollers to drinks, mass-producing cookie-cutter tax abatements, and using one of those ballpark t-shirt cannons to ensure proper distribution of cash-stuffed “In Gahan We Trust” v-necks.

By then, Mike Hall and Adam Dickey will have produced fresh and scintillating reams of adulatory press clippings for the mayor’s ketchup-topped binge credulity, and there’ll be an election campaign or two.

Exactly where Gahan’s megalomania is taking us remains murky, but it’s best to harbor no illusions about his ambition or any of these minutely orchestrated preludes.

He’s doing what’s best for Big Daddy G, just like he always does.

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Getting back to our local production of “HUD Times with Ben Carson and Diamond Dave,” here’s a comment left at NAC by Susan Ryan, a longtime community (and local Democratic Party) activist.

Duggins is getting a nearly 40% raise, not 30% which means that he is basically doubling his salary. My favorite part, however, is how a brand new housing board (most of them only have been in place a couple of months) can continue to talk about the firing of Bob Lane as necessary because he didn't share their vision.

Huh? How does any board that has no experience, and no history of working together develop a vision in just a couple of meetings? Hogwash!

Next thing to look for: Duggins will let maintenance slide and push the units into a state of total disrepair by neglect. Then they will have to be torn down. Some residents also expect that their now quiet and safe environment will suddenly be filled with problem tenants so that crime will increase, making the housing developments a broader negative public concern.

And beyond Duggins’ lack of experience for the NAHA position, we now have a new executive for the Homeless Coalition. Her background is working for the Chamber of Commerce. We only want to get those homeless and poor out of our city. Simply appalling.

Ouch. There's so much hard truth in Ryan's words that local Democrats probably will obey their overlord by not bothering to read them. After all, there's always television.

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Meanwhile, the headline just writes itself.

One Southern Indiana ecstatic as Homeless Coalition selects former Indiana Chamber of Commerce staffer to concur with Wendy Dant Chesser’s plans for a regional oligarchy free of the unsightly impoverished.

True, I hadn’t been paying all that much attention to goings-on at the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana, and I missed this passage in a June 5 newspaper article written by Danielle Grady, explaining the departure of HCSI director Dawn Klemm.

Leslea Townsend Cronin, chair of the homeless coalition’s board, said that she could not comment on whether or not the former director, Dawn Klemm, had resigned from her job or her employment had been terminated …

… Stacy Deck, a Floyd County resident, said in a text that Klemm is now a fellow member of an informal advocacy group that opposes a recently passed memorandum of understanding between the City of New Albany and the New Albany Housing Authority board …

… (former coalition board member Virginia) Peck said that she left because she had originally only planned to work on the board for a year, but that she, too, wanted to do more advocacy work that she didn’t feel comfortable with as someone affiliated with the homeless coalition ...

… Peck said that the board was dependent on the generosity of local government. The city councils of New Albany and Jeffersonville voted to each give $75,000 to the homeless coalition to get it started.

“I didn’t want to take a chance on harming the coalition’s relationship by doing the advocacy work that I felt was really needed in our community,” Peck said.

“Sometimes elected officials don’t like it if you disagree with their policy positions and sometimes they are not particularly willing — not willing to work well with you — if you have used them in the past,” she said.

Sometimes they disagree?

An amazing coincidence, but as Ryan observes, the HCSI has quickly filled its leadership vacancy, presumably with someone more in keeping with the tastes of local elected officials.

Elizabeth Beilman explains.

 ... Keeley Stingel, a Washington County resident, replaces former director Dawn Klemm who left her position this spring. Stingel starts her new role June 19.

In her capacity at the Chamber of Commerce, Stingel's work has covered as many as 45 counties. She also brings experience from the Indiana Lieutenant Governor's Office of Community and Rural Affairs and Hoosier Uplands Economic Development Cooperation. She is a member of the Indiana Youth Institute Board of Directors and the Commission for Higher Education 21st Century Scholars Advisory Council.

Stingel holds a bachelor's degree from Purdue University and a Master's in Public Affairs from Indiana University …

… Leslea Townsend Cronin, president of the homeless coalition board, said it's Stingel's experience in fundraising, community building and advocacy that drew the board to her.

"She's incredibly dynamic. We're very excited to have her," Townsend Cronin said in a phone interview. "She's very knowledgeable about funding systems, funding streams, very passionate about the people she's going to be serving."

But will Stingel be able to soothe Interim Redevelopment Procurator Caesar's fevered brow as he frets about playing second fiddle to the imperial ambitions of Dear Leader, without so much as a single paltry vestal virgin to plop seedless grapes into his mouth while NAHA burns and Duggins gets all the credit for the inferno?

How might Caesar successfully mount a future mayoral bid without being able to say it was CeeSaw, not Duggins, who made New Albany luxurious again?

It might be helpful for Caesar to renew his breathless vows with One Southern Indiana; perhaps after Dant Chesser has contrived a second Regional Cities Initiative boondoggle, she can direct her captive RDA to set aside a farthing or two for public transport – in this instance, bovine rolling stock.

Because: As economic movers and shakers will tell you all too readily as you squirm over your third martini and look desperately for the fire escape to offer some way out of this acronym-laden golfing oligarch’s networking hell, it’s all about economies of scale.

Why use separate trains to transport first the homeless, then public housing residents to their peachy resettlement camps located just across the Harrison County line, when all of them can be crammed into cattle cars for a single gala trip, offering a far more efficient photo-op for Gahan, Caesar, Dan Coffey, or any other local politician in need of a platform plank?

And again this reminder: No local elected officials with the possible exception of Coffey have spoken publicly about Gahan's plans for the NAHA. Silence is acceptance, is it not?

They're all imaging the Orwellian words inscribed on the locomotive, right next to the smiley faced mud flat anchor.

“Hop on Board the Quality of Life Express.”

Rather like Petticoat Junction and all that shit.

Yo, progressives -- sidewalks are a social justice issue. But we spend a lot more on paving, don't we?

Don't strain your eyes looking. There were no signs warning of a closed sidewalk throughout the period of work, even though handicapped users could not pass. How much effort can it possibly take to think FIRST about walkers and handicapped users? 

My new work schedule has made it somewhat impractical to attend city council meetings, but I can still read the minutes.

It's budget time, and in the minutes from August 16 there was a casual mention of combining money from two different funds to free as much as $3 million for paving in 2019. Note that this sum addresses paving alone. It does not include various other street expenditures, the bulk of which go toward automotive-enoblement projects.

It would be interesting to arrive at a comparison of car-centric expenditures and those going to improve and enhance non-automotive options. I think it's safe to say that sidewalks (to name just one) receive much less investment on an annual basis. At the risk of error, my guess is that we rely primarily on Community Development Block Grants for the cash for sidewalk improvements. This excerpt is from the 2015 CDBG draft.

Sidewalk Spot Improvements $1,100,000: Funded throughout the Five-Year Plan to provide for improvements where deteriorated sidewalks restrict connections that can benefit pedestrians or to repair spot basis sidewalks where incidental deterioration exists. Sidewalk improvements of approximately 1,795 linear feet are planned each year. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant ramps are included.

Um, impressive.

Dear reader, do you think of yourself as a progressive? If so, are you aware that deteriorating or non-existent sidewalks are a social justice problem of escalating dimension?

Read on, if you dare.

Crumbling Sidewalks Become a Legal Battleground, by Adina Solomon (CityLab)

A lawsuit in Atlanta reflects a growing movement that demands accessible, well-maintained sidewalks—and rejects budgetary constraints as an excuse.

I'm shocked -- SHOCKED -- at the possibility of cities not properly budgeting for sidewalks.

For one thing, the ADA became law nearly three decades ago, in 1990. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which guarantees certain rights to people with disabilities, dates back to 1973.

“At this point, it’s hard to imagine that cities aren’t appropriately accessible,” says James Harrington, an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin and founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project. He has worked on sidewalk-related cases in Texas. “The ultimate defense, of course, is they can’t afford it, but when you’re looking at 30 years of notice, then it’s hard for them to say they can’t afford it had they not structured it into their budget as they were supposed to from the beginning.”

Attorney James Radford, who is representing the plaintiffs in Atlanta, says he spent two to three years on research before filing the lawsuit. He met with people in wheelchairs and looked at sidewalks across the city to gauge whether maintenance was a systemic issue. He also found a 2010 report from Atlanta’s Department of Public Works saying 18 percent of the city’s sidewalk network was categorized as deteriorated.

“If you look at the budgets over time, they just decided not to fix it,” Radford says.

But ... but ... annual paving is the very basis of pay-to-play!

And it’s important to remember that it isn’t just a matter of convenience.

“Cities should invest in sidewalks if they want to increase walkability, often for some of the most vulnerable parts of the population, but [also] for the general population as a whole,” Loukaitou-Sideris says. “Now that we have the back-to-the-city movement, we have more people walking or wanting to walk. As costly as it is, it is not as costly as paving highways.”

Of course, New Albany municipal bureaucrats typically cite their own long-neglected sidewalks as an excuse to mow down street trees accused of buckling walkways, but subsequently they repair only a fraction of the sidewalks thus liberated from the insidious tyranny of shade.

Can old trees and sidewalk repairs co-exist? New Albany's lickspittle clique says no, but surely there's a way, although we probably won't discover a solution for so long as Nanny Barksdale insists on clearcutting anything green (except money).

Seismologists record earthshaking Tree Board orgasms as Schoolmaster Barksdale's chain saw strikes again.

Meanwhile, the newspaper's most recent reporter hire dug a bit and learned that the street tree recently landing atop a car on the south side of the 100 block Market Street -- this being the side of the street slated for zero improvements according to the city's latest sycophant-endorsed plastic Disneyfication plan -- had been reported repeatedly to the city by the business owners nearest it.

Here finally was an obviously rotting tree, one certifiably justifying pre-emptive removal, and of course the city did nothing; however, once the tree fell, all remaining living things on the block were removed and light landscaping followed at a glacial pace, taking something like six days, with parking in front of the salon blocked throughout.

That'll show them for running to the newspaper instead of Big Daddy G. As for Ms. McAfee, she'd best be careful with truth-telling like this. Deaf Gahan might get huffy and cancel his newspaper ads -- and without ads, how can Bill dispatch an editor all the way to Evansville to cover Herr Drumpf?

New Albany business owners frustrated with delays in removing tree, by Brooke McAfee (Tom May[de] in the Shade)

NEW ALBANY—Local business owner Angela Shaughnessy said she wishes the City of New Albany had taken immediate action to remove a hazardous tree before it fell.

On Wednesday, a tree uprooted and fell on top of a car parked downtown on Market Street in New Albany.

The car was damaged, but it was unoccupied at the time. No injuries were reported.

Shaughnessy, co-owner of Downtown Style on Market Street, said she and her business partner have called the City of New Albany multiple times about their concerns with the tree. The tree was located outside of her beauty salon, and she noticed that large portions of the tree's base were visibly hollow.

"I don’t know how it was still standing," she said ...

How would Pat McLaughlin know what "truthful dialogue" means when his local Democratic looters so very seldom participate in it?

Tonight's the night. If you're a fan of sleazy, slimy, self-serving seediness, you'll want to be at this evening's council meeting as Pat McLaughlin (D-Fantasy Island) introduces a politically-motivated resolution to censure council president Al Knable.

“Resolution to Censure the Council President for Misstatements to the Council and Media Concerning New Albany Public Safety and the 911 Emergency Telephone Service.”

To be sure, it's no use assembling a political patronage machine if the elders can't periodically lift the jalopy's leg and spray Bud Light Lime-scented urine around the room, but even by the barren, subterranean intellectual standards of Gahanism, this resolution is a sham, one that closes with what surely are the most hypocritical words every uttered in Councilpalooza.

“THEREFORE, We the Common Council of the City of New Albany adopt the censure and encourage truthful dialogue in all matters.”

LOLWRP (laugh out loud with rusty pitchforks).

These pitiful Democrats now piously stipulating truthful dialogue – how often have they collaborated in denying it, or telling whoppers themselves? Here are a few occasions that spring to mind in my personal experience.

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Truthful dialogue? I attended a Tree Board meeting in May of 2016 and asked to see minutes of previous meetings. Two years later, I've received nothing.

Truthful dialogue? Was there even five minutes of public discussion about the plan to gift Flaherty and Collins with sewer tap-in waivers, a freebie without precedent, and one never previously offered to non-profits and educational entities?

Truthful dialogue? I famously asked Bob Caesar to provide the Bicentennial Commission financial records. He delayed me for two whole years, then flat refused; I made an information request from the city "corporate" attorney, who informed me these records of a formally chartered municipal entity, one that spent taxpayer money over a period of several years, don’t exist.

Truthful dialogue: We created the storm water board to be self governing and independent -- until it acted independently, then mayor-in-waiting Gahan mounted the lawsuit to strip it of independence, this being a precursor to City Hall annexing the Urban Enterprise Association and the New Albany Housing Authority.

Truthful dialogue? Develop New Albany, another taxpayer-supported organization, refuses to answer questions about the cultural appropriation encouraged by its own governing board during last year’s Taco Walk.

Truthful dialogue? Has anyone outside the mayor’s immediate circle seen financials from the water park's operation? Anyone? Bueller?

Truthful dialogue? Speaking of parks, has evidence yet surfaced of a single word in Gahan's 2011 campaign platform suggesting that just a few years later, he'd have split the county parks department and added almost $3 million in annual budget outlays to a new city-only "quality of life" want?

Truthful dialogue? Jeff Gahan, who as council president angrily refused to allow minions to speak at council meetings on behalf of the mayor at the time, has himself sent a minion to represent him at council meetings almost every time since day one in 2012.

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The preceding are just the first vivid examples to come to mind.

Until a local DemoDisneyDixiecrat shows the first sign of a weak, labored pulse with regard to the concept of "truthful dialogue," it's the same old bait and switch: Indulge in endless “for show alone" gestures and signaling on social issues to avert eyes from the machine-led pillage being conducted by Dickey, Gahan, Gibson, Duggins and their merry crews, who'll go to any length, however nasty, fetishistic and depraved, to remain the biggest bottom-feeders peddling influence in this shrunken pond.

I encourage you to attend tonight and use your three minutes. Message me and I'll tell you how. 

Previously:

Ethically challenged local Democrats can't find a single friend as public opinion weighs in on the party's toxic Knable censure resolution.

More profiles in cravenness: "McLaughlin did not want to make a public comment until Monday's meeting."

ON THE AVENUES: Al Knable doesn’t lie, but the local Democratic Party is a flood-plain Pinocchio. Let’s censure it at the ballot box.

Gahanism is gangsterism, and Pat McLaughlin's nonsensical resolution censuring Al Knable is the best example yet of the local Democratic Party's utter depravity.

Did you miss the headline? The crux of it - DemoDisneyDixiecratic chairman Dickey is up to his eyeballs in fake facts, not to mention male moo cow feces.

The politics of diversion: "Chief Bailey is playing a losing hand, but then, they're not really his cards."

Jeff Gahan's handpicked public housing board bottom-feeds today at 4.

The meeting of the New Albany Housing Authority commissioners (i.e., soulless lickspittle sycophants) that was postponed last week owing to cold temperatures almost commensurate with conditions within Dugout's heart, has been reset for today (Monday, 22 January) at 4:00 p.m. in the community room at 300 Erni Avenue, and although NAC cannot make the meeting, this announcement provides a wonderful opportunity to debut two brand new satirical memes.

That Scrooge -- he's a mere piker in the rapturous confines of New Gahania.

Jeffersonville newspaper says Harvest Homecoming is a local treasure of ad revenue. I'd rather study those economic impacts a bit more closely.

Back on August 27, 2014 there was an excellent blog discussion about Harvest Homecoming and economic impacts.

Fear the gorilla: After all, Harvest Homecoming's business plan has never been designed for inclusivity.

When citizens, businesses, or other groups go to the City to ask about using public space and are told they have to get permission from a private, non-elected, non-accountable, third-party, there are obviously issues. Eventually, someone is going to have to push the conversation along via civil disobedience. It would be helpful if the business/property owners most directly impacted would do it en masse. If HH doesn't have to go before the Board of Works to secure the space in front of your building for that time period, then neither do you, right?

The year before that (October 13, 2013), there was this.

Amid the garbage, we contemplate Groundhog Day in New Albany.

The festival takes place because the city allows it to take place, always under Harvest Homecoming's terms of engagement, and with what amounts to infrastructure subsidies for the festival that are not consistently applied throughout the remainder of the year (street department work , police and fire overtime, etc.)

And yet nowhere, neither in an ordinance nor on a granite tablet, is there a law that states Harvest Homecoming must occur in the fashion it does.

Retreating whole decade into the mists of time, to October 14, 2007,  a Tribune guest columnist (no, not me) considered Harvest Homecoming's downtown context.

While thousands from the area descend on downtown New Albany, the location of the event could hardly be any less relevant to most attendees. Sure, Harvest Homecoming is in downtown New Albany, but it’s not of downtown New Albany. People stay in the streets, booths cover the businesses — little attention is paid to the locale. Since Harvest Homecoming fails to effectively tie-in to New Albany’s struggling downtown, why even hold it there at all? Tradition, sure. But the parking is better elsewhere ...

I'm struck by one word in Daniel Robison's 2007 piece, and that's "struggling." Most of us would say this is no longer the case. To be sure, much has been accomplished, but much more remains to be done, and complacency is something to be avoided just as fanatically as Pome-Granate-Rita.

However, one of Robison's observations remains true. Harvest Homecoming is not about downtown, and it cannot be about downtown for so long as the festival's "booth days" business model remains unaltered.

In fact, for all the generally exaggerated numbers quoted to the effect of Harvest Homecoming's economic impact, my guess is that we'll soon reach the tipping point on the graph, although we might be there already.

In short, this is the juncture where Harvest Homecoming's traditional booth model suppresses more overall economic activity downtown than it generates.

At present, the festival and existing businesses must co-exist according to a grid, within a finite amount of space, as designed for one or the other to maximize, but not both. Progress has indeed been made in forging an uneasy compromise, but the overall dynamic remains one of tension.

Up to a point, in perfect weather, the compromises hold (ignoring the plain fact that the board it still tilted toward the primacy of Harvest Homecoming's booth model, not the needs of year-round downtown stakeholders).

But spread this grid over a larger geographical area, so that fest and locals are not in direct competition, and wouldn't the returns be greater for both?

This is exactly why the News and Tribune's mention of 1,000,000 visitors is so mind-numbingly ludicrous. I expect very little from the newspaper's editorial board, which strives always to achieve a certain acme of milquetoast, but in this instance there's an obvious imperative to reward business-as-usual Harvest Homecoming-related advertisers at the slight expense of keeping creative long-term thinking safely sedated and boxed, never to escape the newspaper's beige reality.

There are so many ways the Harvest Homecoming experience could be improved. None are likely to be considered, because it's how we've always done it. As long as the newspaper profits from the status quo, so it will constrain.

OPINION: It's been a great 50 years, Harvest Homecoming

 ... Last year more than 700,000 visitors converged on the downtown during the four booth days, which this year began yesterday.

And with good weather in the forecast for this weekend, that number could grow. Maybe this is the year it tops 1 million visitors.

Harvest Homecoming is truly a local treasure. It’s all about community ...

ON THE AVENUES: Hi there, NAHA wastrels. My name is Peter Principle, and these are my friends Deaf and Dugout.

ON THE AVENUES: Hi there, NAHA wastrels. My name is Peter Principle, and these are my friends Deaf and Dugout.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

Not since the unlikely elevation of a dissolute New York City property mogul to the highest office in the land has such an abysmally unqualified individual been handed the keys to the future of so many lives, but we reside in the Principality of New Gahania, and David Duggins now “directs” the New Albany Housing Authority.

Perhaps only the likes of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka or Gabriel Garcia Marquez could explain our new surreal reality by means of creative fiction, but to paraphrase the mayor, “Nobody reads books.”

Duggins was awarded his dandy high-paying sinecure by a board of obsequious toady minions, as carefully packed by Mayor Jeff Gahan with his best available bobble-headed sycophants eager to abandon their integrity to bask in the glow of their puppetmaster’s gleaming pate, leaving no doubt about the ownership of whatever master plan for demolition is being implemented.

Never forget that the dismantling of public housing in New Albany is to be Deaf Gahan’s crowning achievement, unless Duggins botches the job and is sent back to the bullpen at the Class AA River Ridge Bootlicking Wannabees, absorbing the blame for disappointing whole generations of white suburban males who feel deep in their bones that if only the poor people would go away, this town might really amount to something.

The fact of their preachers encouraging them in this belief is a topic for another time.

Speaking of stopped clocks, the timing of Duggins’ windfall pay rise, as well as the arguably more significant and impending appointment of his replacement as economic dishevelment director and artful router of beak-wetting sustenance at the Redevelopment Commission, simply cannot be separated from impending election cycles in 2018 and 2019.

With Gahan still emitting random gurgling sounds about the State Senate race in 2018 (the vexed commode begs him to decide), there exists neither time nor desire for Gahan to bring in fresh blood from outside.

Meet Bob Caesar, Chris Gardner or Zelda the Wonder Ferret, YOUR new interim redevelopment figurehead, fully capable of treating the high rollers to drinks, mass-producing cookie-cutter tax abatements, and using one of those ballpark t-shirt cannons to ensure proper distribution of cash-stuffed “In Gahan We Trust” v-necks.

By then, Mike Hall and Adam Dickey will have produced fresh and scintillating reams of adulatory press clippings for the mayor’s ketchup-topped binge credulity, and there’ll be an election campaign or two.

Exactly where Gahan’s megalomania is taking us remains murky, but it’s best to harbor no illusions about his ambition or any of these minutely orchestrated preludes.

He’s doing what’s best for Big Daddy G, just like he always does.

---

Getting back to our local production of “HUD Times with Ben Carson and Diamond Dave,” here’s a comment left at NAC by Susan Ryan, a longtime community (and local Democratic Party) activist.

Duggins is getting a nearly 40% raise, not 30% which means that he is basically doubling his salary. My favorite part, however, is how a brand new housing board (most of them only have been in place a couple of months) can continue to talk about the firing of Bob Lane as necessary because he didn't share their vision.

Huh? How does any board that has no experience, and no history of working together develop a vision in just a couple of meetings? Hogwash!

Next thing to look for: Duggins will let maintenance slide and push the units into a state of total disrepair by neglect. Then they will have to be torn down. Some residents also expect that their now quiet and safe environment will suddenly be filled with problem tenants so that crime will increase, making the housing developments a broader negative public concern.

And beyond Duggins’ lack of experience for the NAHA position, we now have a new executive for the Homeless Coalition. Her background is working for the Chamber of Commerce. We only want to get those homeless and poor out of our city. Simply appalling.

Ouch. There's so much hard truth in Ryan's words that local Democrats probably will obey their overlord by not bothering to read them. After all, there's always television.

---

Meanwhile, the headline just writes itself.

One Southern Indiana ecstatic as Homeless Coalition selects former Indiana Chamber of Commerce staffer to concur with Wendy Dant Chesser’s plans for a regional oligarchy free of the unsightly impoverished.

True, I hadn’t been paying all that much attention to goings-on at the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana, and I missed this passage in a June 5 newspaper article written by Danielle Grady, explaining the departure of HCSI director Dawn Klemm.

Leslea Townsend Cronin, chair of the homeless coalition’s board, said that she could not comment on whether or not the former director, Dawn Klemm, had resigned from her job or her employment had been terminated …

… Stacy Deck, a Floyd County resident, said in a text that Klemm is now a fellow member of an informal advocacy group that opposes a recently passed memorandum of understanding between the City of New Albany and the New Albany Housing Authority board …

… (former coalition board member Virginia) Peck said that she left because she had originally only planned to work on the board for a year, but that she, too, wanted to do more advocacy work that she didn’t feel comfortable with as someone affiliated with the homeless coalition ...

… Peck said that the board was dependent on the generosity of local government. The city councils of New Albany and Jeffersonville voted to each give $75,000 to the homeless coalition to get it started.

“I didn’t want to take a chance on harming the coalition’s relationship by doing the advocacy work that I felt was really needed in our community,” Peck said.

“Sometimes elected officials don’t like it if you disagree with their policy positions and sometimes they are not particularly willing — not willing to work well with you — if you have used them in the past,” she said.

Sometimes they disagree?

An amazing coincidence, but as Ryan observes, the HCSI has quickly filled its leadership vacancy, presumably with someone more in keeping with the tastes of local elected officials.

Elizabeth Beilman explains.

 ... Keeley Stingel, a Washington County resident, replaces former director Dawn Klemm who left her position this spring. Stingel starts her new role June 19.

In her capacity at the Chamber of Commerce, Stingel's work has covered as many as 45 counties. She also brings experience from the Indiana Lieutenant Governor's Office of Community and Rural Affairs and Hoosier Uplands Economic Development Cooperation. She is a member of the Indiana Youth Institute Board of Directors and the Commission for Higher Education 21st Century Scholars Advisory Council.

Stingel holds a bachelor's degree from Purdue University and a Master's in Public Affairs from Indiana University …

… Leslea Townsend Cronin, president of the homeless coalition board, said it's Stingel's experience in fundraising, community building and advocacy that drew the board to her.

"She's incredibly dynamic. We're very excited to have her," Townsend Cronin said in a phone interview. "She's very knowledgeable about funding systems, funding streams, very passionate about the people she's going to be serving."

But will Stingel be able to soothe Interim Redevelopment Procurator Caesar's fevered brow as he frets about playing second fiddle to the imperial ambitions of Dear Leader, without so much as a single paltry vestal virgin to plop seedless grapes into his mouth while NAHA burns and Duggins gets all the credit for the inferno?

How might Caesar successfully mount a future mayoral bid without being able to say it was CeeSaw, not Duggins, who made New Albany luxurious again?

It might be helpful for Caesar to renew his breathless vows with One Southern Indiana; perhaps after Dant Chesser has contrived a second Regional Cities Initiative boondoggle, she can direct her captive RDA to set aside a farthing or two for public transport – in this instance, bovine rolling stock.

Because: As economic movers and shakers will tell you all too readily as you squirm over your third martini and look desperately for the fire escape to offer some way out of this acronym-laden golfing oligarch’s networking hell, it’s all about economies of scale.

Why use separate trains to transport first the homeless, then public housing residents to their peachy resettlement camps located just across the Harrison County line, when all of them can be crammed into cattle cars for a single gala trip, offering a far more efficient photo-op for Gahan, Caesar, Dan Coffey, or any other local politician in need of a platform plank?

And again this reminder: No local elected officials with the possible exception of a typically venomous Coffey have spoken publicly about Gahan's plans for the NAHA. Silence is acceptance, is it not?

They're all imaging the Orwellian words inscribed on the locomotive, right next to the smiley faced mud flat anchor.

“Hop on Board the Quality of Life Express.”

Rather like Petticoat Junction and all that shit.

---

Recent columns:

June 8: ON THE AVENUES: Since 2004, "Two way, better way."

June 1: ON THE AVENUES: Take this cult of personality and shove it.

May 25: ON THE AVENUES: Welcome to wherever you are, and come to think of it, Ljubljana will do nicely.

May 18: ON THE AVENUES: Are dissidents born or made? A humanities major examines his life and locale.

Putsch: The agenda of Gahan's handpicked public housing flunkies remains, "Do as we say, not as we do."

Welcome to another installment of "Clear Out the Poor People to Make Way for Luxury," in which beguiling sycophant Irving Joshua somehow mentions the words "conflict of interest" without a laugh track.

But as Mayor Jeff Gahan once said, "Nobody reads the paper."

David Duggins once told me that he was taking a substantial pay cut to work for City Hall, compared to what he might earn in the "private" (read: government-subsidized) sector of the economy.

Five and a half years on the public teat is ample time to make up ground, and a $30K pay boost overnight is merely icing on the cake. Never, ever forget that a rookie will be awarded the same pay packet as a man with 15 years of experience.

As NAC told you a month ago, public housing neophyte David Duggins will be the interim director of NAHA -- and at Bob Lane's pay grade.

Since those words of Duggins were spoken to me, the city of New Albany has funneled so many contracts into the gaping maw of HWC Engineering (by sheer coincidence, HWC employs Duggins' wife) that the firm now has an office within spitting distance of City Hall.

Irving Joshua remained silent about this conflict of interest.

Jeff Gahan already had appointed his son-in-law to manage the flood wall -- and not a word emerged from Irving Joshua's mouth.

A major Democratic Party donor (Terry Ginkins) and the city engineer's mother were placed on the NAHA board to rubber stamp Duggins' public housing putsch diktats.

Irving Joshua remained mum throughout. After all, he was appointed to guide the same board.

As for Duggins and other city employees, don't rule out the existence of sideline "consultancy" LLCs for the diversion of the residual slush generated by all these projects.

As we observed yesterday, Duggins needn't know HUD from MUD to do what's expected of him: dismantle public housing and make room for luxury development on properties soon to be divvied up by the very same construction and development interests who would have made Duggins' career in the "private" sector so lucrative ... and still will, as he directs cash-stuffed envelopes to the key players.

I wouldn't look for Joshua to mention conflicts of interest in his manner, given that a clam's demeanor suits his own.

Look for Gahan to appoint his educator wife to the soon-to-be-vacated position of NAFC superintendent of schools, and Adam Dickey to become economic dishevelment director, replacing Duggins.

No, Irving Joshua won't say a goddamn thing about it, but here's the rub. Neither will a single city council member, nor a major party official. So-called community "leaders" will say as little as Joshua. Unless they publicly take a stand, every last one of them is complicit. Why should we vote for any of them in 2019?

Care to comment, pillars?

New Albany housing board appoints city redevelopment director as interim housing director, by Elizabeth Beilman (Hanson Doesn't Care About Any of This, Either)

David Duggins to leave city role

NEW ALBANY — New Albany Redevelopment Director David Duggins will serve as interim director of the New Albany Housing Authority, following the board's decision to fire the previous director.

The board appointed Duggins during its regular meeting Monday with one abstention. Duggins will have to leave his role as city redevelopment director to avoid a conflict of interest, board President Irving Joshua said.

Some board members said Duggins' familiarity with New Albany and expertise in redevelopment make him a good temporary fit.

"We had a letter from [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] that recommended that we select someone," board member Terry Ginkins said. "He'll be a good choice until we find a permanent director ... he knows the ins and outs [of the city], and he deals with a lot of federal money."

---

As an addendum, NA Confidential has been unable to confirm whether New Albany Mayor Jeff M. Gahan or anyone working in the city's administration is under federal investigation or indictment for corruption, bribery or racketeering. It is standard policy of the U.S. Justice Department to refuse to confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of investigations or subjects of investigations. A similar policy exists at the F.B.I.

And we have a winner in the Greenway Landing caption contest.

Congratulations to Stephen Scott, the LeBron James of NAC caption contests.

But Mark Cassidy's is pretty good, too.

Great minds satirize alike, don't you think?

NAHA's board of cherry-picked and abjectly groveling sycophants assigns dictatorial duties to Irving Joshua.

Cappuccino wants it so bad he almost wet himself.

Wait -- it's not "dictatorial," is it? It's directorial. An easy mistake to make, here in New Gahania.

New Albany Housing Authority Board assigns directorial duties in absence of a director, by Danielle Grady (Make Alabama Pensioners Great Again)

Commissioners continue their search for interim replacement

NEW ALBANY — As the New Albany Housing Authority Board of Commissioners continues its search for an interim director, the board voted to assign a couple of duties normally taken care of by the executive director to the board president and a NAHA staff member.

At a special meeting on Tuesday night, the board unanimously voted in Irving Joshua, the president of the board, as an interim contracting officer, giving him the ability to sign documents for NAHA staff that NAHA’s executive director normally would have taken care of. Board member Bob Norwood did not vote as he was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

Joshua said he was already signing documents for NAHA staff, but that the board wanted to make his duties official.

Phipps, McLaughlin pleasure mayor, oppose Blair's 6th district stormwater impact efforts, but the investigative measure passes council anyway.

The major story to emerge from last week's city council meeting was final approval of an ordinance establishing annual sewer rates increases.

Amid the inevitability, as we debated the suitability of pseudonyms like "bump" and "nudge," City Hall proved that in spite of perennially stunted bunker staff vocabularies, it can play the propaganda game adeptly:

Proactive Steps Taken to Protect New Albany Citizens

George Orwell would be so very proud. Proactive protection! Like a condom to guard against what's going to happen, anyway.

Safeguard residents and businesses against large sewer rate increases by assigning the Consumer Price Index for future rate changes.

In other words, we're safeguarding you against "increases" (not even bumps or nudges) by regulating rate "changes."

Timeless and masterful fecal matter from the business end of a male cow, although I'd like to know how much the imported ghostwriter cost. After all, they're nowhere near this clever, are they?

Okay, okay. I know, so on to Door Number Two.

Representatives of the usual engineering suspects and a handful of civic appointees were on hand at the council meeting to reiterate the municipal party line: As it pertains to stormwater, those Mt. Tabor area residents who insist on trusting their own two eyes instead of the mayor's should be ignored, and The Plan allowed to proceed.

And it probably will, but CM Blair's principled resolution carried, and there will be a stormwater study. It's a rebuke of sorts to the Dear Leader, but he can take heart in the unswerving loyalty of councilmen McLaughlin and Phipps.

Can someone loan me a bucket?

Echoing Hemingway's description of the bottle, a bucket is an agent of sovereign action. You can use it to bail stormwater runoff, vomit into it or toss it a timeserving functionary.

Study to look at Mount Tabor Road project impact on flooding in New Albany, by Elizabeth Beilman (N and T)

Despite city's stance, councilman checks on drainage effects of road project

NEW ALBANY — A stormwater study initiated by New Albany City Councilman Scott Blair will determine whether flooding will worsen for Mount Tabor Road residents because of a nearby road reconstruction, though project officials assure that it won't.

Blair, whose district includes the project area, brought the proposal to the council last week, when it passed with a 6-2 vote. Councilmen Pat McLaughlin and Greg Phipps voted against it.

"This has been a long-term issue," Blair said Tuesday. "A lot of folks who live in the Farmgate neighborhood have experienced flooding in their homes and their back yards."

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Sycophant.

Welcome to another installment of GREG's SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.

But why all these new words?

Why not the old, familiar, comforting words, like the ones you're sure to hear at the gold course when brothers-in-law casually chat about their millions in epochal development plans for an unstable hillside?

It's because a healthy vocabulary isn't about intimidation through erudition. Rather, it's about selecting the right word and using it correctly, whatever one's pay grade or station in life.

Even remuneration-engorged municipal corporate attorneys are eligible for this enlightening expansion of personal horizons, and really, as we contemplate what they knew and when they knew it, all we have left is plenty of time -- and the opportunity to learn something, if we're so inclined.

Today's word is sycophant, one of my personal favorites. Note the preferred pronunciation: SICK-uh-funt, or thereabouts. At the same time, you'll occasionally encounter a PSYCHO-funt, but usually only at Democratic Party costume balls.

sycophant

[sik-uh-fuh nt, -fant, sahy-kuh-]

noun

1. a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.

Origin of sycophant 

1530-40; < Latin sȳcophanta < Greek sȳkophántēs informer, equivalent to sŷko (n) fig + phan- (stem of phaínein to show) + -tēs agentive suffix

Related forms
sycophantic, sycophantical, sycophantish, adjective
sycophantically, sycophantishly, adverb
sycophantism, noun

The list of synonyms for sycophant is especially entertaining and colorful: Yes-man, bootlicker, brown-noser, toady, lickspittle, flatterer, flunky, lackey, spaniel, doormat, stooge, cringer, suck, suck-up.

There's even an academic article: "Grovelling And Other Vices: The Sociology Of Sycophancy." Here is a sample sentence:

When the sycophants start calling call you a malcontent, there is a sense of pure vindication.