Work and twerk session: Adam averts Democratic eyes from Gahan's public housing fiasco by yelling "fire" in a crowded school board.

The Floyd County Democratic Party's delightfully hypocritical cognitive dissonance jalopy went into clank-clank overdrive yesterday.

As Deaf Gahan's channeled his inner Trump via the undemocratic Monday Night Public Housing Massacre (the mayor remained home with his prized toy soldier collection), Mr. Disney took to the facewaves to tout a non-binding school board work session.

Kirsten Clark's C-J coverage recaps the evening, including what we're assuming is the city's official position on the work session, given that the quote is from a city employee and all.

Courtney Lewis, a 31-year-old member of Floyd County Young Democrats who graduated from the district said given how difficult it was to get last year’s referendum passed, the district shouldn’t consider gifting money to Community Montessori. She added that some of the schools within the district are in “disrepair” and need whatever capital project funds are available.

“It just rubs me the wrong way that we would even entertain giving money to an entity that isn’t one of our public schools in the way that the rest of the schools are,” she said.

(3) Council work session: River View alterations and photos.

To repeat: River View is now being presented as a three-phase project, with parking first, retail second, apartments third, and condos only at the very end.

Mike Kopp now takes the floor to sell the preceding. He merged Blue Sun with Remax so he could take advantage of the latter's commercial strength, precisely to tie into River View.

Kopp likes the new plans quite a lot. He sketches an optimistic scenario in which every projection being made succeeds, with no hitches and no glitches.

Jon Anderson from Indy explains how the three-step development process was necessary because of resistance from banks. PNC is interested, and Stockyards, BB & T, maybe Main Source and Your Community. Consistent message now is that the scale was too large to ensure financing. However, the city is being relied upon to be perfectly consistent in its TIF commitment.

Jack Bobo really thinks there WILL be interest when marketing packages and loan packages go out. The need a large retail tenant (read: chain), but they'll forge ahead even if they don't get such a commitment.

(2) Council work session: River View project now to come in three phases, parking first, condos last.

Resident parking now separated from general parking. All residential units current have balconies and a river view. Retail also somewhat separated from the residential component.

Also: Despite interest, some people couldn't imagine the financing being gotten, and given the position of banks, now there'll be a phased-in approach.

Businesses being moved to the Main Street quadrant, now the plan is for Retail Phase 1. Now they can begin with the retail , and only phase the residential in slowly over time ... which directly contradicts Mr. Bobo's assertion that the sole reason for the River View project is bringing residential to downtown. Includes all parking, which will be done FIRST.

Phase 2: Apartments, because the market is better for rentals.

Phase 3: Only then, in two or three years, the condo phase is launched. He emphasizes that this phased approach now helps all aspects of the plan, because it "builds on itself."

Which is to say: We can't get all the money at one time. This is a very big change over previous plans.

(to be continued)

(1) Council work session: River View project status report.

All the River View project principle players are here in the comfortable (well, half the room, anyway) confines for a status report.

Jack Bobo starts at point guard. He explains the history of the project and what happened last year.

"What have we been doing?"

In terms of money, he explains that banks are not going into lending again. Condo projects are not popular right now.

“What can we do to make this project more financially appealing to banks and investors?”

Answer: New design that could “really meet the needs” of the project. Yet to be explained what this means.

Mose Putney is out. New architectural firm is Studio A, or QK4, or both. New architect introduces himself, but in the absence of audio, little can be heard. Louisville firm, office in NA. Slick video presentation.

There now is an arch over the plaza area, which makes it look even more like the Ostrava-Poruba socialist realist project I mentioned yesterday. Stone and masonry on ground floors, different bricks on upper floors and stone accent. Rises to five and six stories from three or four toward the center (away from smaller existing buildings).

"Private space, also intended to be a public space." Buildings facing Main Street much less grandiose, scaled to surroundings.

(to be continued)

A parking garage attendant for every car, and other job creation strategies.

Near the bottom of reporter Suddeath's piece is a tally of attendance: "Five of the council’s nine members attended the work shop, as Diane McCartin-Benedetti, Steve Price, Jeff Gahan, Pat McLaughlin and (Bob) Caesar were present."

We don't know what Jack Messer, Kevin Zurschmiede or John Gonder were doing, but rumor has it that Dan Coffey was campaigning door to door, albeit with a curious targeting strategy of only knocking on the doors of vulnerable senior citizens. That ol' copperhead's a real snake oil charmer, isn't he?

The scant majority listened to a description of the River View development project, and the concurrent necessity of building a parking garage. After the excerpt, I have an observation and a question.

New Albany City Council gets better view of $42 million projecy; Vote on city’s role in River View project will come Monday, by Daniel Suddeath (OSIN)
... The multi-use development would feature retail, office and residential space supported by a $12 million parking garage that would be paid for with New Albany tax-increment financing dollars.

Mainland Properties — headed by New Albany native Jack Bobo — is the private firm seeking to build the development. In order to dedicate TIF proceeds toward the project, the council must vote to amend New Albany’s downtown parking garage TIF district to include the River View development.

River View would include up to 300,000 square feet of condominium space, 40,000 square feet of office space and 4,000 square feet of retail space.

The development would be located downtown just east of the Floyd County branch of the YMCA along Main Street, and would include a 6,000 square foot public plaza.

Members of the Mainland Properties team estimated the development could bring up to 400 jobs to New Albany not including laborers who would build River View.

After the merchant's mixer meeting on Tuesday morning, during which the River View project was outlined, the conversation turned to the number of jobs that might be created by this development.

I observed that a major error committed by Ohio River Bridges Project shills was a propensity toward inflating such figures to ludicrous extremes. Remember the asinine 50,000 tout? It seemed for a while that every time the topic was raised, Bridges Authority noses grew longer, and the numbers pushed higher. When asked to provide evidence, the chirpy house of cards quickly fell.

With precisely this in mind, I asked the construction/contracting representative who was present Tuesday morning to estimate the number of temporary construction jobs required to build River View. The response, while approximate, was around 125. It strikes me as a solid and reliable sum.

Last night, Mainland told the council that 400 jobs would be created beyond those required to finish construction. While granting that if fully occupied -- all the condos sold, the vast expanse of retail space leased, the imagined top-dollar restaurant atop the central tower operating, and the conjectured hotel functional -- River View will create jobs, does the guess of 400 withstand serious scrutiny?

From whence comes this number?

Whither River View: Council work session at 6 p.m. this Thursday.

The formatting on Blogger has been utterly cooked. Nothing much can be done on the "Compose" page. Maybe I'll start posting photos exclusively.

The Pander Bear roots through rental property garbage piles as a city council work session ripens.

In False Hopes, False Solutions, Randy "The New Albanist" Smith describes the retrograde action at last evening's city council work session.

C-J coverage is here, and the Tribune's there.

At the end of the second excerpt, Randy posits the shape of a new Gang of Four. Sadly, this seems to be substantive fact, and there has emerged another grouping of regressive-minded council persons, even without King Larry and Bill Schmidt available for duty.

It has been recurringly obvious that if one's sole goal as council representative is to retain some measure of personal influence as ego wash at the expense of the greater good of the commonweal, all progress must be halted, and all economic development must be sacrificed to short-term subsidies that gather votes while gutting the future.

Steve Price's and Dan Coffey's cynical proposal to drain every last economic development funding source available so as to prevent a sewer rate increase is precisely this. By kneecapping development for generations, the Axis of Banal seeks to avert an influx of interloping, achievement-oriented people who cannot be controlled by their traditional shell games, dolteries, voodoo and nutjobberies. Doing so "sticks it" to those in the city who understand the difference between a legitimate policy statement and an intentional whopper of a lie that originates in deep-seated feelings of social inferiority.

The question isn't whether Price and Coffey believe any of this, or why they do. Those issues are settled and beyond dispute. The real issue, one sure to be debated by New Albanians for years to come, is this:

Why have Jeff Gahan and Pat McLaughlin fallen so readily for it?

Back to Randy:

Tuesday evening, the powers that be (elected and appointed) put on a show where they pretended to solve a critical sewer funding problem. Although no decisions were made, much pandering took place. Of course, Steve Price put on the greatest display of ignorance, but that’s to be expected any time the council gathers in front of the press or the public ...

... The whole evening was an exercise in implausibility, buck-passing, blaming of previous administrations, vituperation from CM Price, and good old pandering most applicable to a “presser.” The PR value on Wednesday ought to be bankable.

Here’s my take on the visible consensus [though I have independent evidence that much of the evening's performance was just for show...you'll have to take my word.]

The consensus is to put city finances
Into voluntary servitude
To benefit ratepayers at
The expense of working taxpayers
To benefit businesses at
The expense of working taxpayers
To benefit fringe property owners at
The expense of working taxpayers
To benefit landlords at
The expense of working taxpayers
To benefit profligate users of water at
The expense of working taxpayers.

Thus cutting off opportunity
Flexibility
Equity.

Handcuffing all New Albanians in the future.

JUST THE WAY COFFEY, PRICE, GAHAN, and McLAUGHLIN want it.

Part Four of semi-live blogging: City council work session, Georgetown and sewage rates.

The senior editor is relaying the Bookseller's live report from the city council chamber and tonight's work session about Georgetown, New Albany and the sewer system that binds.

----

Don Lopp, county planner, is designated to speak for the county. This despite the fact that Georgetown has asked the county to butt out of the matter.

Lopp: We've applied for federal money. Minimum 7 months, practically 13 months before they can proceed to purchase properties, which the county has agreed to pay for under the settlement agreement dumping the Edwardsville/O'Brien property that faced such opposition by residents who opposed annexation...and that Judge Cody pretty much supported under the law.

Three western sites have been identified. Stimulus funds answer should come in ????? Site reviews, geology, environmental impact statement PROCESS has been initiated. 7 of 9 of the processes are under way....DNR, etc.

Lopp: County invited River Hills to contribute an income survey to get entitlement (CDBG) monies. Claims that Georgetown is just short of qualifying for CDBG money unless they find more poor people.

Locating plant outside corporate limits is no longer being litigated. Settlement pays for site acquisition.

Lopp still speaking: Riverboat money will pay for site up to $1.4 million. If rural development money is available, perhaps an option to buy $350,000 site for land acquisition.

Caesar: We need unified government. But...is $1.4 million enough to do this? Lopp: That price buys out the O'Brien property AND the site acquisition, plus $1 million already expended by Georgetown (which is built into the current rates to households).

Andrews assures that a revenue bond, supported by rates, will be forthcoming once a site is acquired.

Gonder: What about the bad, low-flow, tiny pipes? Andrews: Over time, we'll have to rip up the whole city and re-pipe it. Cost - $3.5 million just to build the sewer plant.

Messer: How close to making this happen? Andrews/Lopp: Town is holding up the rural development application. The county has done everything necessary to get the River Hills money.

Price: Sounds to me like they can't afford this. Commissioners, have you considered a global problem.

Freiberger: That's why we opposed the O'Brien site. The western side of Georgetown is where you want to put a FLoyd County sewer plant.

Messer: How long until plant is running? Andrews: Best case, three years, and we've already begun.

Coffey defers to sewer board to decide whether an accommodation can be made.

Much discussion of "secret" proposals made by Georgetown, which council, council's counsel, and sewer board president say they've never seen these secret proposals.

Coffey DECLARES 60-day moratorium on imposition of billing to Georgetown. No one seems to object, except Lopp insists that county be included in negotiations.

Stewart: If we can take away the fine of $450,000...

Messer says you've been given a break already.

Gary Brinkworth (sewer board member), explains the so-called "penalty." Georgetown decided to stay on the system. Pay $800,000 to extend, then pay us for the sewer credits we've given up. This is not a fine. It is the cost of sewer credits. Part of the $450,000 is a $100,000 arrearage unpaid, but delayed. So now it's $350,000, instead of $700,000 that would have been paid to set up Georgetown for full capacity.

This is not a penalty. It's the unpaid billing that would have been forgiven if Georgetown got off of New Albany's system.

And that's it. Fairly anticlimactic, yet filled with interesting tidbits of attitude, fact, and long-term political objectives.

I hope I've given you a fair verbatim recap of the evening.

No one spoke for the residents of New Albany. I would invite readers to mine the gems from this.

Unfortunately, this city has no verbatim transcript that is publicly available. No radio, no TV, just the minutes taken by an overburdened transcriber, the city clerk.

As Mr. Suddeath said this week, too bad no one from New Albany was present. Lots of folks from the origin city of NAC's senior editor, but no stories from them.

hnnnnnnnnnnnnh.

Part Three of semi-live blogging: City council work session, Georgetown and sewage rates.

The senior editor is relaying the Bookseller's live report from the city council chamber and tonight's work session about Georgetown, New Albany and the sewer system that binds.

----

Now, at last, the attorney for Georgetown takes the podium and asks for a slowdown, a Q & A process.

Basically, he says its regrettable that there wasn't much cooperation and that we need a global, consultative process where we're not shooting each other up.

Missed opportunities. New Albany Sewer Board was too antagonistic to Georgetown. Can't we all get along? More listening? More cooperation between city and county and let little Georgetown get off the hot plate?

"Our budget is minuscule. WE CAN'T GO TO OUR EDIT rate to subsidize sewer rates."

Editorial: That's the point.

Mr. Gonder: Isn't the per capita income in Georgetown higher than New Albany's? Yes, it is, all concede.

But, says attorney, it's a hardship to the poor people. Something should be done. That would have to be picked up by the other people some way.

Editorial: The obvious conclusion is that NEW ALBANY's people should pick up the slack.


Lawyer calls for "Q and A," while filibustering and making his closing argument.

Still waiting for Qs.

New Albany charges Georgetown, not the households. Georgetown has to pay for everything.

Georgetown says they will pay more, to the extent that they can. At the same time, lawyer is saying Georgetown should be paying less.

Georgetown budget for internal sewer operations is $85,000 a month. Yet, G-town pays $3,000 a month, out of altruism, not contract, for chemicals to treat their effluent. All done "to accommodate New Albany," and oh yeah, to keep our pipes from corroding.

Stan Robison asks why city council is involved, as a legal matter. Buchanan says the council is not being asked to raise a rate, under the statute, but rather to affirm the contractual change of Georgetown from wholesale to retail.

Lawyer Andrews (!): Georgetown doesn't have the money to pay its contractual obligations. Therefore, Georgetown's position is they will sue and allege that the contract is illegal.

Robison says his job is to counsel the council and he does not know why "negotiations" haven't come to the council if this is a council problem.

Editorial: The question arises. Is this a "rate increase" under the statute?

Mr. Coffey says the council sympathizes with Georgetown, but asks Andrews to stick to the legal issue of the rate increase.

Andrews: One county where we all live. We ought to be talking to each other.

Zursch: How can Georgetown afford a plant of their own if they can't afford to pay these fees?

Andrews: I think it's better for Georgetown to work with New Albany (stay on the system), take advantage of the economies of scale of New Albany, and drop the whole idea of an independent sewer system.

Gonder: Is Georgetown out of sewer credits? Andrews: We're almost out. We're committed, long-term, to giving out all our credits once all developments are completed.

Robison: Is it your position that the contract is illegal? Andrews: No, No, No. I apologize for implying that. The rate provisions, by "doubling" them, are unjustifiable.

Robison: Why are we here?

Pat Mac: Why are we doing this when we're in the midst of a lawsuit against our own sewer board?

Robison: It's not really litigation. We're asking for an interpretation of statute.

Buchanan: We're not setting rates (here), we're changing classification of Georgetown, by agreement. That's all.

Price: WHy are your rates so high?

Andrews: We don't pay down the rates with tax money like New Albany. Your ratepayers don't appreciate you enough for keeping those rates low.

INSERT Editorial comments HERE.

When Mr. Price starts talking, you know the meat has been plucked from the bone.

Mr. Andrews: We should build a county site that's most efficient. Spend twice as much money

Mr. D.A. Andrews, attorney at law, is a smooth, obviously intelligent attorney. He also is obviously representing his client aggressively and at the same time trying to set countywide policy.

Little violins come out now as Mr. Andrews talks about how Georgetown must battle through litigation (annexation). He says "maybe" someday it would make financial sense for Georgetown to go off the system, but concedes it doesn't make sense now. Nonetheless, he pleads for city-county cooperation to save the ratepayers of Georgetown.

Ron Carroll, sewer board president, wants to know where is your site?

Andrews says that under federal law we can't even negotiate a purchase agreement until federal money is locked up. G-town is days away from completed appraisal on one site.

Coffey: Mr. Carroll is "very astute businessman." In all fairness, sewer board MUST have benchmarks before conceding on contract.

PatMac: Give us something concrete.

DianeB: Do you want the plant or not?

Andrews: The residents just want lower sewer rates. They can't walk away from investment. They want autonomy. They want to pay their own way. (But they want New Albany to pay for it.)

Carroll: Plant enables growth. Georgetown can't grow without a plant. G-town must make the investment.

Part Two of semi-live blogging: City council work session, Georgetown and sewage rates.

The senior editor is relaying the Bookseller's live report from the city council chamber and tonight's work session about Georgetown, New Albany and the sewer system that binds.

----

NA Sewer board has no idea what the G-town sewer capital sinking fund applies to user rates. $6 million? $18 million?

"We are not the reason their rate is rising toward $100."

That was Ed Wilkinson, who recently joined the board for the sewers.

Sulfides and ammonia are very high (I'll resist the diet jokes).

For whatever reason, Georgetown's effluent contains VERY high toxics that must be removed. Why? I dunno.

Mr. Gahan asks: This increase is about $15 per household? Yes, says Mr. Wilkinson.

Ah-hah. Flat system, slow flow, the longer it's in the system, the more decay, the more toxic chemistry. That explains it. Not the ingestion of unusual substances, but the "long pipe" decomposition.

I'm trying not to inject my opinions here, but just report undisputed facts.

In NA, there are multiple pumping stations. The Georgetown system, primarily, is gravity-fed. The slowness adds to the decomposition and corrosion. Nonetheless, it all flows downhill.

NOW

The county commission defers to the Georgetown town council member, Mr. Stewart.

G-town rates are "set" by Umbaugh, as an independent accounting firm.

Base rate is $27.65
plus $9 unit rate, based on 5,000 gallons of effluent per month.

OK, I'm already lost. Georgetown, we're told, has an old, rundown system. Operating their system is costly. $89,000 plus per month to operate. Added to that is the New Albany charge for actually treating the system.

So, 90,000 dollars divided by 1,200 people = $10 a month, plus, per ratepayer/householder.

$1.5 retirement bond on old sewer system...
plus bond anticipation notes on future system

Arrgh!

I'm sorry, my mind is much more lineal than I thought. Maybe the council can understand this...I can't. It's too disjointed and all over the map for me to follow.

Mr. Stewart says fair rate is significantly cheaper than even what we pay in N.A. He says it should be $1.09 per unit.

LAWSUIT THREAT. That's the first one tonight. Stewart threatens lawsuit that will hold off any payment for years.

190,000 gallons a day sent from Georgetown. Of 8 million gallons per day for the whole system.

Stewart: We treat our sewage not because we're required to by contract, but because we're nice guys. New Albany asked us to do it, and we did it. We don't have to do so, no matter how corrosive it is.

I'm honestly lost. I'm trying to "live-e-mail" this thing, but I'm hearing gobbledygook.

"Horrible" penalties, horrible rates. Assertion by Stewart that these rates are illegal. If we signed it (old town council), it was illegal. YOU CAN'T ENFORCE IT.

This parrots the legal position of the town's lawyer, who clearly intends to challenge it as "illegal" to treat Georgetown as a retail account.

Sorry...the last ten minutes have been a blur. I checked my e-mail, read the NA Confidential blog comments.

Now, Mr. Price is up for his first at-bat.

"It's steel, politics." Six days before the election, Georgetown agreed to this contract.

Per Stewart: Original contract: $1.9 million a year for 500,000 gallons a day flow.

Georgetown then realized they could do it themselves for less money and asked out of the 25-year contract.

To do so, they were required to pay $800,000 to New Albany, which they did, to unwind a 25-year commitment. In addition, penalties and rate increases would be applied if Georgetown didn't get "off" the system.

Georgetown now says the county should pay to move the plant to the west of town instead of building it at G-town's "Edwardsville" site.

The Edwardsville site is dead, died, and gone. The annexation won't happen. This is me, Randy, saying this. That dog won't hunt.

The west o' town site is the only site. As we listen, there is no plant designed or being built.

Stewart: Give us more time!

Mr. Stewart, as before, is begging, threatening, and poor-mouthing. Claims if anyone sues Georgetown, they have a four-year get-out-of-free card in the contract.

Diane B: DO you actually have a site?
Stewart: No. We have three sites we've talked about that we might offer on, as of May, 2009.

OMG moment!

Stewart: Georgetown doesn't have $350,000 to buy a piece of land. Unless the county pays for it, we can't buy land to build a sewer plant.

Mr. Z: What assurances can you give New Albany?
Stewart: Everything legally possible?

Mr. Z is taking the G-town attorney to the woodshed right now.

A thing or two about flushing to teach them people in Georgetown.

The city council will hold a work session tonight to discuss the city's default topic of this and all other millennia, the monetary impact of effluence, i.e., the sewers.

In this case, it's all about sewer rates, and what Georgetown should be expected to pay.

Speaking of misspent EDIT monies, does anyone (Dan Coffey? Jeff Gahan?) have a current estimate as to how many economic development dollars are wasted on politically-motivated sewer rate subsidies in New Albany?

Doesn't Georgetown have economic development monies that it might merrily flush downhill in similar fashion? If so, couldn't the town use those funds to subsidize its own rate payers by turning over the cash to New Albany, where these nickels and dimes could join our own misused EDIT proceeds in not being used for economic development, but rather as de facto provender for future mayoral campaigns on the part of current councilmen?

That's a need, not a want -- right, Mr. Price? And we'd be getting twice the non-bang, non-development for our bucks that way, wouldn't we?

It's just a thought.

Open thread: City council work session on paving options.

For a summary of last evening's council work session, visit Mrs. Baird's blog: "LET'S PAVE SOME ROADS".

Plan A: Pay as you go, use available T.I.F. and EDIT funds (not completely drain these funds) to cut down on debt and pave the streets over time, approximately 3 years.

or

Plan B: Obtain a draw bond (similar to a line of credit) and pave as many streets as possible in as short of time as possible.Either way, the streets need to be paved as we all know.

Additionally lower fuel prices mean lower prices to blacktop the streets so time is of the essence.

Feel free to discuss.

Tonight's city council work session postponed.

I'm bringing this comment up to the marquee. More pre-meeting medicating time? Regular session starts at 7:30 as always.

Daniel S said:

Hey all. The work session at 6 has been postponed. Due to the building closure last week, an advertisement for the meeting wasn't placed in time. I don't know when it will be rescheduled or if this means the vote won't be taken tonight on first reading.