RALLY IN INDY 1/15/08

Our friends over at Freedom of Speech have an article about the State of the State address that Governor Daniels will be giving tomorrow evening at 7:00 at the Capital.

Many Hoosiers will again be making the trek up I65 to tell Gov. Daniels and other state officials how they feel about our property tax crisis. I will not be able to join my fellow Hoosiers but my thoughts and prayers are with them. I hope that the readers of this blog feel the same way. These people are representing the rest of us. They are taking time away from work and other obligations to be present at this event.

If anyone in this area is able to join this group please do so. We taxpayers need all the help we can get.

My sincere thanks to everyone who will be attending this rally.

HOW LONG WILL THE HONEYMOON LAST?

Monday night's City Council meeting was short and sweet. The first order of business was the election of the Council President and Vice President. The members chose Jeff Gahan to lead the council again, good idea. And Dan Coffey resumed his role as Vice President. He leaned over to Mr. Gahan and told him to make sure he was not absent at any meetings. I can't say I blame him.

Everyone was so courteous it was a real pleasure to be in attendance. Coffey and Messer did not even have a small squirmish much less a battle. Blevins was not there to argue with Zurschmeide. (Nothing against Mr. Blevins).

Everyone seems to be talking about Diane Benneditti and her decision not to recuse herself or abstain on the matter concernig her brother. This aside, she seemed to have done her homework and was not afraid to ask questions.
I don't know much about her but I was impressed. She seems to have opinions and is not afraid to express them.

Our "re-new" mayor was very jovial also. He talked mainly to the citizens in attendance instead of the council. (He did apologize to the council for turning his back on them). His main concern seemed to be that the council and the attendees respect each other. I could not agree more. The last four years were a real circus as everybody knows. Maybe everyone will grow up and act like adults.

As I said, this meeting was short and sweet. Maybe this is the beginning of a long friendship.

WHAT WILL GOVERNMENT REFORM MEAN TO US?

The Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform released the results of their report today on streamlining local government.

Members of the commission included former Governor Joe Kernan and Justice Randall Shepard, each of whom were co-chairs.

Governor Daniels formed the committee in July, 2007 to "recommend ways to restructure local government to increase efficiency and reduce the financial burden on Indiana taxpayers"

This sounds good but which offices will be eliminated? How many government workers will find themselves out of a job at the end of the officer's term?

"If enacted, the recommendations would reduce the number of local government units from 3,086 to 1,931--a 37% cut, and the number of elected officials from 11,012 to as few as 5,171--a reduction of more than half."

If you read the recommendations you will notice that the offices they are discussing eliminating are mainly city and township offices. Is this a prelude to a merger between cities and counties? If some of the offices are eliminated, how much access will citizens have to their councilpersons and other office holders? Saving money is always a good idea but at who's expense?

Following are quotes from the press release sent out today:

"We have lots of good people serving in local government in Indiana, but their ability to deliver great public service is limited by an antiquated system" "said Kernan"

"Among the commissions recommendations:

• County governments would be led by a single, elected county executive and a stronger county council, to which professionally qualified administrators should report and be accountable.
• The services performed by township personnel should be transferred to the county governments.
• All local public safety services should be coordinated countywide and regionally where appropriate. Emergency dispatch must be centralized, at least countywide, using the compatible 800 MHz system.
• Only elected officials should have the power to levy taxes.
• Indiana's school districts should be be large enough to gather sufficient resources to educate our children for 21st century life.
• All spending, including school spending should be subject to more rigorous examination by elected officials.
• A statewide office should be designated to provide technical assistance to help local governments make recommended changes."

If you wish to read the entire report the website is: http://indianalocalgovreform.iu.edu/.

LOVE NEW ALBANY

I heard about a Courier Journal article the other day that sounded good for New Albany also. It said that Louisville was planning a day called "Love Louisville" where people did random good deeds for others. Most of these ideas were very simple and required little time and no money. They included taking out a neighbor's trash, giving a bottle of water to a runner in the park, doing yard work for a neighbor, hosting a free "yard sale", just to name a few.

This sounds like a wonderful idea to me. Maybe we can stop fighting for a minute and work together as a community. I know many organizations do a lot of community service and they are to be commended for that. But this is for everyone and does not require meeting at a designated area. All we have to do is one simple deed for someone else. New Albany, let's think about this please.

CONGRATULATIONS

I want to offer my sincere congratulations to our new Mayor, City Clerk and City Council.



Best Wishes to all:



Mayor Doug England



City Clerk Marcey Wisman



First District CM Dan Coffey



Second District CM Bob Caesar



Third District CM Steve Price



Fourth District CM Pat McLaughlin



Fifth District CM Diane Benedetti



Sixth District CM Jeff Gahan



At Large CM's John Gonder, Jack Messer and Kevin Zurschmeide



Please try to continue to get along with one another, and work for the benefit of New Albany. We citizens are counting on you.

ENOUGH ALREADY!

I will be so glad when November 6 is over.



David Matthews has another letter in the Tribune slamming Doug England. As they say "desperate times call for desperate measures". Obviously Mr. Matthews is desperate.



The funny thing is that I keep hearing how Randy Hubbard is not even interested in being the Mayor of New Albany. If this is true, why did he even enter the race?



I believe the voters need to give Mr. England another chance. He is not afraid to admit that he made mistakes in the past. In my opinion that shows more character than all of Mr. Matthews' rhetoric about his candidate. I also believe the majority of voters feel the same way as I do and Doug England WILL be our next Mayor.



Of course Shirley Baird's endorsement does not carry 1/1000th as much weight as Baron Hill's endorsement but I just had to have my say anyway.

OBSERVATIONS

During my absence from posting the last few weeks I have been reading various blogs as well as the Tribune. Obviously there has been a lot going on lately. Some issues seem to stand out.

First of all I want to express my deepest sympathy to the Stewart family. Dick was a great guy and he will be missed. I regret that I did not visit him during his illness.

Now on to the redistricting problem. Please, Council, decide on a plan. And please, plaintiffs, try to work the the council. No plan will be perfect so try to compromise and let's put this thing behind us.

The mayor's race is getting ugly. Why is Hubbard even running? Even some Republican people have told me that all he wants to do is retire to his condo in Florida. I cannot understand why a person would put himself out there for all of this criticism for a job he doesn't even want. And according to the on line forum on the Tribune Special Agent Capehart is going to submit an article concerning his termination when he was called up to serve in the military.

Welcome NA Shadow Council blog. The articles have been interesting so far. Just one question though. Why does Shadow5 not allow anonymous comments when he/she chooses to remain anonymous?

There has been a lot of discussion about the beer walk during Harvest Homecoming. Since I have never participated I can't say a lot. But if it benefits the various bars which are local businesses, it does help the community. Someone mentioned on "New Albany Confidential" that people were walking around with drinks in their hands Saturday evening. I thought this was just a Friday night event. Maybe it should be restricted to Friday night so Saturday can be more of a family day. As a side note, I don't claim to be a beer expert but I am sure a person can get just as drunk and obnoxious on imported "quality" beer as they can on Bud Lite.

It is a shame the Bistro had to close. Even though I only went there a time or two it was a neat place and the atmosphere was welcoming. We need more places like that in New Albany.