Mugging
One time-tested method for preventing a mugging is to flood an area with light. Volunteer Hoosier was created to shine as much light into the dark corners as time permits.
There is no doubt that the residents of this city would be appalled if they knew their city was being mugged by a faction on the City Council. So let's shine a little light.
First off, kudos to Amany Ali, The Tribune's City Editor, who first impressed with an outstanding recap of last Monday's council meeting. Throughout the week, Ali has continued to keep the city's crisis on the front page, giving many of the players a chance to articulate their concerns. While some of those are demonstrably irrelevant, Ali's function in this matter is to report, and she has done yeoman-like work this past week.
The Tribune can alert you to which issues to watch, but their less-than-muscular editorial board seldom draws conclusions or offers opinions. Far too often, their editorials on local government are, in fact, news stories watered down so as to not offend any of the powers that be.
So be it. Not every town can have a crusading editor in charge.
Volunteer Hoosier, on the other hand, is a self-described instrument of opinion and commentary. So here goes.
Pleading ignorance, and often boasting about it, members of the City Council have repeatedly defeated or tabled critical appropriations during the first four months of 2005. There is no sign that any of these will be pulled from the table during May, so more than 40% of the year will have passed without council doing its job.
But ignorance is no longer an excuse. A certain degree of caution may have been justified while awaiting the bad news from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, but that bad news has arrived. In anticipation of this, the administration had been doing what-if analyses on a weekly basis, trying to find a solution to a problem left over from the last administration.
Once the budget restrictions were laid out, the administration brought forward the Garry Plan. Briefly, the Garry Plan consists of four parts: 1) Departmental spending restrictions, including a hiring freeze and rigorous controls over discretionary expenditures, 2) The allocation of a one-time disbursement from the state of excess CEDIT collections, 3) A deep dip into the so-called "Riverboat" fund, which contractually generates between $600K and $1 million each year from Harrison County's casino tax collections, and 4) A reallocation of city money from the city-owned sewer utility.
Each of these measures is strictly legal and approved, in principle, by the state. Nothing about them is imprudent, in light of the severity of the crisis. In fact, the mayor would have told you this is, in fact, not a crisis. Would have. Now, in the face of the intransigence of certain council members, it has become a crisis that threatens the entire structure of city government and city services as we know it.
This intransigence is already costing the city money and failure to pass the Garry Plan will cost the city even more. The prospect of reducing city services to emergencies only is a horrifying one that will, in the end, cost the city more than any single line item in the budget. The failure to replace city vehicles at the end of their life-cycles is costing us in excessive maintenance. That's an operating expense that, in large measure, draws down the city's general fund. That fund is the one that is in crisis. The capital expenditure fund, while it would be depleted significantly under the emergency Garry Plan, would allow the city to make disbursements from its more robust capital funds.
The city's liabilities to its employees is one I can't even estimate, but if the city begins shutting down departments, as it must do without council's approval of the Garry Plan, they will be gargantuan. The unintended consequences of shutting down departments will be staggering.
Amazingly, for some in this city, that is a desired objective. Crippling the city is their solution. Holding back the city from moving into the future is a heartfelt goal.
The development of Scribner Place has been dragged into this discussion, too. It is not relevant to this issue, but to further their political goals, some council members have muddied the waters with an attack on that worthy project.
If the business leaders of this community don't raise a hue and cry about this threatened atrocity, I'll be stunned. Voters need to review the campaign literature from 2003 to see which council members then said they supported this vital redevelopment project, and which are using it now to deflect council from the real issues.
Item number 4 in the list above is a critical element, particularly in light of the council's inability to move any appropriations this year. Kay Garry, the judicious city controller, doesn't want to run the city's Riverboat fund down to zero. Since the city has the cash in hand (in the city-owned utility's accounts), she insists that the only prudent solution is to keep a reserve for capital expenditures in hand.
Having watched this council closely, Volunteer Hoosier shudders to think what shenanigans will be pulled if this measure is "deferred." Face it. Everyone involved knows this whole thing is a farce. Certain council members, several of whom must share responsibility for the crisis, are using this as an excuse to paint the incumbent mayor in a bad light. Rather than address the issues responsibly, they resort to diversions and demagoguery, all but calling the Mayor and Mrs. Garry liars.
The hypocrisy is astounding. Fellow blogger NA Confidential provides additional commentary on some of the motivating elements of this in his Monday morning posting.
Contact your council member and each of the at-large council members to let them know you're tired of this. Urge them to approve the Garry Plan in its entirety.
At-Large - Donnie Blevins, 1548 Corydon Pike (812) 944-4856
At-Large - Jack Messer, 1906 Carriage Court (812) 949-9638
At-Large - Mark Seabrook, 1130 Eastridge Drive (812) 944-9644
1st District - Dan Coffey, 425 West Seventh Street (812) 949-1262
2nd District - Bill Schmidt, 202 Ellen Court (812) 945-7386 e-mail: schmidts@aye.net
3rd District - Stephen Price. 112 Butler Street (812) 941-9032
4th District - Larry Kochert, 2236 Shelby Street (812) 945-7652
5th District - Beverly Crump, 1510 Star Haven Dr. (812) 948-2603 e-mail: bcrump@iglou.com
6th District - Jeff Gahan 1122 Eastridge Drive (812) 949-9314 e-mail: gan2020@aol.com
---------------------------------------
Randy Smith, destinations@sbcglobal.net
There is no doubt that the residents of this city would be appalled if they knew their city was being mugged by a faction on the City Council. So let's shine a little light.
First off, kudos to Amany Ali, The Tribune's City Editor, who first impressed with an outstanding recap of last Monday's council meeting. Throughout the week, Ali has continued to keep the city's crisis on the front page, giving many of the players a chance to articulate their concerns. While some of those are demonstrably irrelevant, Ali's function in this matter is to report, and she has done yeoman-like work this past week.
The Tribune can alert you to which issues to watch, but their less-than-muscular editorial board seldom draws conclusions or offers opinions. Far too often, their editorials on local government are, in fact, news stories watered down so as to not offend any of the powers that be.
So be it. Not every town can have a crusading editor in charge.
Volunteer Hoosier, on the other hand, is a self-described instrument of opinion and commentary. So here goes.
Pleading ignorance, and often boasting about it, members of the City Council have repeatedly defeated or tabled critical appropriations during the first four months of 2005. There is no sign that any of these will be pulled from the table during May, so more than 40% of the year will have passed without council doing its job.
But ignorance is no longer an excuse. A certain degree of caution may have been justified while awaiting the bad news from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, but that bad news has arrived. In anticipation of this, the administration had been doing what-if analyses on a weekly basis, trying to find a solution to a problem left over from the last administration.
Once the budget restrictions were laid out, the administration brought forward the Garry Plan. Briefly, the Garry Plan consists of four parts: 1) Departmental spending restrictions, including a hiring freeze and rigorous controls over discretionary expenditures, 2) The allocation of a one-time disbursement from the state of excess CEDIT collections, 3) A deep dip into the so-called "Riverboat" fund, which contractually generates between $600K and $1 million each year from Harrison County's casino tax collections, and 4) A reallocation of city money from the city-owned sewer utility.
Each of these measures is strictly legal and approved, in principle, by the state. Nothing about them is imprudent, in light of the severity of the crisis. In fact, the mayor would have told you this is, in fact, not a crisis. Would have. Now, in the face of the intransigence of certain council members, it has become a crisis that threatens the entire structure of city government and city services as we know it.
This intransigence is already costing the city money and failure to pass the Garry Plan will cost the city even more. The prospect of reducing city services to emergencies only is a horrifying one that will, in the end, cost the city more than any single line item in the budget. The failure to replace city vehicles at the end of their life-cycles is costing us in excessive maintenance. That's an operating expense that, in large measure, draws down the city's general fund. That fund is the one that is in crisis. The capital expenditure fund, while it would be depleted significantly under the emergency Garry Plan, would allow the city to make disbursements from its more robust capital funds.
The city's liabilities to its employees is one I can't even estimate, but if the city begins shutting down departments, as it must do without council's approval of the Garry Plan, they will be gargantuan. The unintended consequences of shutting down departments will be staggering.
Amazingly, for some in this city, that is a desired objective. Crippling the city is their solution. Holding back the city from moving into the future is a heartfelt goal.
The development of Scribner Place has been dragged into this discussion, too. It is not relevant to this issue, but to further their political goals, some council members have muddied the waters with an attack on that worthy project.
If the business leaders of this community don't raise a hue and cry about this threatened atrocity, I'll be stunned. Voters need to review the campaign literature from 2003 to see which council members then said they supported this vital redevelopment project, and which are using it now to deflect council from the real issues.
Item number 4 in the list above is a critical element, particularly in light of the council's inability to move any appropriations this year. Kay Garry, the judicious city controller, doesn't want to run the city's Riverboat fund down to zero. Since the city has the cash in hand (in the city-owned utility's accounts), she insists that the only prudent solution is to keep a reserve for capital expenditures in hand.
Having watched this council closely, Volunteer Hoosier shudders to think what shenanigans will be pulled if this measure is "deferred." Face it. Everyone involved knows this whole thing is a farce. Certain council members, several of whom must share responsibility for the crisis, are using this as an excuse to paint the incumbent mayor in a bad light. Rather than address the issues responsibly, they resort to diversions and demagoguery, all but calling the Mayor and Mrs. Garry liars.
The hypocrisy is astounding. Fellow blogger NA Confidential provides additional commentary on some of the motivating elements of this in his Monday morning posting.
Contact your council member and each of the at-large council members to let them know you're tired of this. Urge them to approve the Garry Plan in its entirety.
At-Large - Donnie Blevins, 1548 Corydon Pike (812) 944-4856
At-Large - Jack Messer, 1906 Carriage Court (812) 949-9638
At-Large - Mark Seabrook, 1130 Eastridge Drive (812) 944-9644
1st District - Dan Coffey, 425 West Seventh Street (812) 949-1262
2nd District - Bill Schmidt, 202 Ellen Court (812) 945-7386 e-mail: schmidts@aye.net
3rd District - Stephen Price. 112 Butler Street (812) 941-9032
4th District - Larry Kochert, 2236 Shelby Street (812) 945-7652
5th District - Beverly Crump, 1510 Star Haven Dr. (812) 948-2603 e-mail: bcrump@iglou.com
6th District - Jeff Gahan 1122 Eastridge Drive (812) 949-9314 e-mail: gan2020@aol.com
---------------------------------------
Randy Smith, destinations@sbcglobal.net
posted by All4Word at 9:01 AM
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