Finally it can be stated without irony that a City Council meeting ended on a positive note.
For the record, mechanisms for ordinance enforcement and the position of enforcement officer were approved and signed; a full-time economic development director was hired; and the mayor’s choice for building commissioner was announced.
Our local newspaper reporters both provide excellent coverage of Thursday night’s meeting:
New Albany leaders agree on ordinance enforcer, by the Courier-Journal’s Ben Zion Hershberg
Positions approved during raucous council meeting, by the tribune’s Amany Ali
Here’s an excerpt from the Tribune article that explains Mayor Garner’s view of his constituents, as revealed from his usual secluded corridor vantage point:
“Garner said he believes some people address the council with legitimate concerns and hope to have their questions answered. He said others go before the council for other reasons.
“‘Some of them are here just for the theatrics,’ he said.”
In an accompanying article, NA Confidential discusses the Mayor’s own role-playing at the Circus Maximus.
What did you think of Thursday's meeting? Post here (with registration) or e-mail NA Confidential privately (address in the profile section).
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4 comments:
Many citizens departed the meeting at the recess, but those who stayed until adjournment might not agree that the meeting "ended" on a positive note.
Tension reasserted itself rapidly in inverse proportion to the number of citizens in the room when the Mayor pointed out that his nominee for the building commission would now be left on the table for two consecutive meetings without action by the council.
Building Commission member Steve LaDuke pointed out to the council that his body continued to have a problem raising a quorum while two positions remained vacant. CM Gahan suggested that the mayor simply see to it that all appointees show up and that would solve the problem.
One commissioner works as a utility company lineman, so let's pray for light winds, no ice or snow, and no other emergencies that may prevent the building commission from even electing its own officers to begin the year.
Apparently, a private deal was worked out by council members to slide that item off the agenda without telling the mayor or anyone else, then to wait until after the recess to discuss it. Here's irony for you. The fact that the citizens had departed at the recess was used as an excuse to refuse the mayor's request. And this is for an appointment that clearly had unanimous support among the CM's.
Could someone be trying to yank the mayor's chain?
Technically, the meeting ended with the opening of bids to lend the city $4 million in short-term financing, with PNC Bank blowing all other bidders out of the water. PNC's interest rate was so much lower than all the others that when CM Gahan misread one bid, CM Seabrook interjected that the corrected bid amount "doesn't really matter."
Thanks for picking up the ball with the rest of the story. For those who weren't present, the "recess" came between nine and ten. NA Confidential definitely chose the opportunity to vacate.
Strength in numbers, i.e., at least one wide awake observer, certainly is a good thing.
The blog is a wonderful tool for the Tom Paines of this world and from time to time it will produce a "Common Sense."
They can be even better when a newspaper encourages its reporters to create their own Web logs. The Poynter Institute (www.poynter.org) has covered this at length, particularly on the ethical aspects, and it's being done here and there.
Most reporters are constricted by space and time (well, I guess we all are, if Einstein was right). So many inches, by such-and-such a time. So when a reporter like Amany gives us the news in the order she and her editors judge to be priorities, when the space (or time) run out, she's done.
Wouldn't it be great if The Tribune encouraged its reporters to drop those extra little items onto an online version...the things that are less important, but still necessary to get an accurate picture...the things the reporter finds compelling but that are cut for space...the sidebar that a story cries out for...the funny tidbit that doesn't belong in a "news" story but that would help citizens know what's really going on.
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