Friday, August 31, 2012

Your Labor Day Weekend Weekly Review

It is the great American holiday Labor Day.  For most people this means many things.  First its a three day weekend that gives Americans one last chance for summer parties and get-togethers. 

It also marks the end of what most people consider summer time.  Pools close up for the year.  Amusement parks mostly go to weekends only.  And college students will most certainly be back at it by Tuesday. 

And it also is when wives lose their husbands for the next 7 months to sports.  College football starts this week.  NFL next.  Followed by MLB playoffs, the NBA season and finally college basketball.  Men will be using every excuse, or the blunt truth, to be parked in front of a TV or with friends at a bar until March Madness concludes early next year. 

When Matthew Maguire first proposed the holiday in 1882 to celebrate all that the American worker provides, both for family and country,   he never could had foreseen what a pivotal point it would become on the calendar.

Enough with the half assed write up, lets get to some brief notes for your holiday weekend:

-The biggest news of the week was that ground broke on the first project related to the east end bridge.  This is huge for all people who have been living here as the east end bridge is kind of like myth or wives's tale.  Everyone heard of it for years but never actually confirmed it was going to happen.  Between this ground breaking and a completion date set for 2017/2018, the myth is much closer to becoming a reality.


-The deck of the Big Four bridge is complete.  Don't put on your walking shoes just yet.  There is still more work to be done including the Indiana ramp, but another big project is that much closer to being completed.

-A councilman responded to Mikey's pleas to keep politics out of the naming of basketball courts.  While I wont go into great detail as you can scroll down for the story and... well I left my notes at home, I will say that Mikey once again got caught lying and tried to spin the story to make himself the victim.  No, Mikey, we ALL are the victims and will be for the next 3 years.

-I'm hearing there may have been some problems with the sewer billing system this month.  I have heard several complaints of very high bills being received this week.  Probably nothing more than a billing error, but with the holiday, it wont be able to be resolved for residence until at least Wednesday.

-Crews were out this week in advance of the rains expected, making sure that storm drains were clear and asking residents to do the same.  While the forcasted totals have dropped slightly and the ground is dry, there is still a high risk of extremely heaving down pours from time to time that could still cause ponding near drains if they were blocked.  I would also expect to hear the usual CSO tweet from the city.

-Finally, the old R&W was razed this week.  Thank God.  Nice to have that eyesore gone from our city's entrance.  Now if we could just get that sign put in that would draw attention away the pumping station we would have a wonderful gateway to our city.  But alas, Mikey, much like his supporters is very short sighted.

Enjoy the holiday weekend everyone and I will be back about Wednesday or Thursday.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

A Couple Of News Items & Holiday Schedule

- There was a ground breaking ceremony today for the extension of Old Salem Road.  Why is that important you ask.  It is the first construction project associated with the Ohio River Bridges project and thus serves, if only in ceremony, the ground breaking of that project.

-The city of Jeffersonville is preparing for the weekend arrival of Isaac.  The city is out making sure storm water drains are clear and are encouraging residents to do the same in there neighborhood.  Some services have the area receiving up to 7 inches of rain and with some very heavy downpours possible making the risk of flooding and flash flooding a real possibility.

Here's one rainfall outlook for the weekend:



- Finally, I'm taking an extended 5 day weekend from the JAML Corporate Headquarters and heading to sunny and tropical climates.  Although less tropical than here as it would turn out.  I'm typing up the week review this evening plan to post it tomorrow before we set sail.  We'll be back at it on Wednesday.  See ya then and have a safe and happy holiday.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Councilman Responds To Mikey's "Sign-gate" Claims

"I was fortunate enough to be raised around Jeff High School athletics since I was 3 years old. Having a father drive the fan bus to all the Jeff away basketball games gave me the oportunity to tag along. It was from those exciting years of the late 60's and 70's that I became a true Red Devil fan.

Over the past several weeks I have been trying to convince the city council to take the opportunity of naming the two basketball courts at Vissing Park after two of the most prominent and respected sports figures in our city's rich history. Tony Winburn, an outstanding player for Jeff who tragically lost his life in the Evansville University plane crash, and our own Mr. Basketball Mike Flynn. Unfortunately, the council declined and said they didn't want politics to play a role in the process.

Of course this frustrated me greatly. Our basketball courts, football fields and baseball diamonds should be named after people of destinction and honor.

Please, let's keep the politics out of this arena."
This was Mayor Mikey's original post about "sign-gate".  Once again playing "I'm a victim of the mean ole council." 

The mayor presented a story of a very "Mayberry-Esq" request he made to the council, off the record.  He  tells how he had a feel good plan for the names of the basketball courts that the whole city could rally around and be proud of.  Then apparently didn't receive the response he was hoping for and told the CCC that he was the victim of the council not liking him and another one of his ideas.  Then he pleads at the end of his post to "Please, let's keep the politics out of this arena."

One problem.  It seems that politics were in his original proposal.  That's probably why it was proposed off the record.

Today one of the council responded on the CCC with the following post:

"I was one of the council members that was approached to "gauge" my support, and my memory seems to be a tad bit different. As I recall, the conversation was more of a "quid pro quo". We were asked if we would support you naming the fields and courts and in exchange you would:
* release the funding you had already promised for Vissing Park
* you were willing to contribute more funds for new sidewalks, but only if you had the say as to where 75% of the sidewalks were to be

Never, I repeat never, did any of the council members say or give the incllination that they didn't support the names you listed above. BUT, we did agree that no single person should be given complete autonomy to name any park or field. These are city parks, funded and maintained by residents tax dollars, should they not have any say? Should the Mayor be given complete autonomy to name these parks? Wouldn't it be more prudent to vet these names with a group of people and receive feedback?

Personally, I'd like to apologize to Mr. Flynn and Mr. Wilburn. If their names would have been chosen, it would have been a time to reflect and celebrate the great contributions they've made to Jeffersonville, but to no fault of their own, they've been entwined in a political mess.
Bryan Glover
Council District 6 "
It seems Mikey was once again trying to pull a fast one by trying to convince his followers that he was a victim of politics where politics had no business being.  Turns out he was just lying again.  He wanted a compromise with a little give and take.

Two problems with this. 

Number one, I actually have no problem with the mayor compromising.  My God.  That's what intelligent people have been hoping for since the very beginning.  But little Mikey has shown no interest in this what so ever until now.  Now, as I said, I have no problem with compromising and some give and take.  But when the whole basis of your original statement to the CCC was lets keep politics out of this, well that makes your whole premise for the post highly disingenuous.

Number two.  It appears that Mikey has never read "The Art Of The Deal."  Or maybe he did and just thought that the council was full of complete moore-ons.  When trying to strike a deal, you should be giving something up to obtain something else.  Instead it seems that Mikey was offering something he had already promised and trying gain more control over another project.  Gee, I cant imagine why the council wasn't jumping at the chance to cut a deal with him.  Especially when they can do it without him without having to give up control of something.

I'm now stuck trying to figure out how dumb Mikey really is.  Is he dumb enough to think that the council would take that deal?  Or is he dumb enough to think that no one on the council would respond to his mudslinging? 

Either way, I'll stick to my original thought that this was just a petty PR move.  Might just turn out that it was apparently firing in several directions.

(you can read the whole thread on the CCC here.)

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Your Weekly Report

FYI, all future weekly reports will start with a brief summary of some historical event or person who celebrated a birthday.  Or maybe even an off beat item that ties into local events (I came very close to doing football with sign-gate and the start of college and pro season's approaching).  The title's will reflect that.  But I didn't want any confusion for the first one so just went with the generic title.

While I considered many items for the inaugural weekly round-up, including football, Sean Connery and a few others.  As I watched the news late week, we had a clear pick.  This past week was the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew.  One of the most destructive weather events in U.S. history and the last Category 5 to hit U.S. soil.


It struck south Florida early in the morning of August 24th, with winds of 165 mph.  While Miami was spared the worst of the damage.  Homestead Fl., just a few miles away was leveled.  Over a 177,000 people were left homeless by Andrew through out its path (it would later affect the Gulf Coast)  and 65 people lost their lives.

It was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history at the time and still ranks third.  The fact that it still ranks third after 20 years of inflation and some of the most active tropical seasons in recorded history is a testament to its destructive power.  It is the only hurricane not in this century to be ranked in the top ten costliest.  And for most people still ranks high in peoples minds when the word hurricane is spoken.

Now on to the news.

-One of  two  three  several big stories for the week was the removal of the sign designating a football field "Thomas R. Galligan Field" by mayor mikey.  At first I deemed it just to be a petty move to give some of his pettiest supporters something to hang their heads high about.  And I'm not yet backing away from that.  But mikey informed the people of the CCC that he had replaced the sign as was and was just doing it to teach the council a lesson for not being overly enthused, in his opinion, of some names he had chosen for some basketball courts. 

Truth be told though, he probably saw some of his reasonable supporters on the Chatter objecting to it on top of the council's letter to him and decided "I best be getting that thing back quick."

So our choices for his reasoning are petty PR move or "I didn't get what I wanted so I threw I fit."  Feel free to pick your favorite.

-Another big story was that Glen "Tubby" Muncy is suing the city for items he lost when the city of Jeffersonville demolished the old "Tubby's" building earlier this year.  He has set the initial dollar figure at nearly $173,000. 

While the city settled with his brother who was the owner of the building and property, Glen is claiming that he had personal property stored inside the building that was destroyed when it was demolished.  Wasn't one of mikey's claims heading into the election that he would save the city from all these lawsuits?  Hmmm.

I will freely admit that I'm no fan of Glen Muncy either and this whole ordeal just makes want to take a six-pack and bag of popcorn down the old site and watch these two have at each other.

-Speaking of lawsuits, Mindy Christian is also suing the city.  She claims she owe over $100,000 in overtime pay she should had received while being on-call. 

Mindy was the emergency coordinator for the city and left to take a job in Louisville earlier this year.  The dollar figure would seem to indicate that this would go back to the Galligan Administration as well. 

Several questions for this matter include:  Is she legally owed money?  Is she owed this amount?  Is she bitter over how she was treated by her new boss and it has led to this lawsuit? 

This one is much more complicated than the previous lawsuit but I would expect we will find out most of it in the coming months and would actually bet on a settlement.

-Also this week, Matt Owen requested a history of the city's computer activities.  While nothing has been confirmed, most believe this to be the pending scandal that  Oracle and Goliath had been telling us about.

Most also believe (although with no evidence really) that has to do with the old J-pol site that shut down recently and was little more than place to push mikey's agenda and bash all that would stand in his way.  It was shut down after it went after Vickie Conlin shortly after it was mentioned that she could be considering possibly running for mayor in 3 years.  It really back fired and the site was shut down. 

This is number one on the "Must Watch" list.

-Also this week the council has made it so that they have final approval over all capital purchases made by the city.  The explanation was that this is a safe guard from departments getting cheaper than estimated purchases and then using the money elsewhere. 

While we can all agree this is a fiscally responsible thing to do, I have to wonder if this is also the council tightening the leash even more.

-This week the city also received a grant to help with the Big Four Bridge project.  I'll give credit where credit is do.  This is a good thing. 

-Finally, mikey wants to do something more to hide the pumping station at the entrance to the city on tenth street.  The problem is the city does not own much more of the land except what the station sits on.  Several options are being looked at.

Now only if we had something across the street to grab people's attention away from the station...

More to come later this week as I hope to set some what of a schedule for post and have some ready to go.  And as always you can keep track of the post by liking the FB page here.

Friday, August 24, 2012

The Pettiness Of Politics

So mid-week news broke that mayor mikey had taken down a sign that named a local football field "Tom Galligan Field".  Then word also broke that he doesn't have authority to do this and has been told to replace the sign.

First let me say that words are not capable of describing how petty an act this really was.  Bashing during a campaign is one thing.  Constantly telling citizens how your administration is do things a lot better than the previous one is completely petty and serious overkill.  But removing the name of a man from a field who greatly contributed to the improvement of youth sports in the city is actually beyond words.  The best analogy for this would be mikey went up to Tom and just kicked him square in the nuts, on a personal level.

But maybe this was just a little more than a petty move.

Little mikey has proven over his few months in office (and even before if you go back to the Buckhead's fire before he took term) that he never willing to pass on a PR stunt or play to his audience.  And this could have been an attempt at one.

Lets face it.  Mikey's first 8+ months in office have been anything but smooth.  Mostly by his own making.  I could list all of his follies. But talking about overkill.

The fact remains that he has lost voters already.  Not all.  But I've already heard from a couple who knew I was pro-Galligan who have told me that voting for him "looks like a mistake."

How big a group has he lost? 

Well between his constant blunders and the fact that a lot (and I mean A LOT) of people voted for him because he said he could, or at the very least implied, that he could lower sewer rates, I'm willing to imagine that number is reaching worrisome territory for the Moore camp.  And while he has a little over three years to obtain a winning margin for the next election, the last thing he wants is to be a lame duck mayor, with no political leverage to bargain to the city council with.  If they have no incentive to back any of his initiatives due to low public approval, well the rest of the ship will sink even faster.  Imagine Titanic after it split in half.

So what does all this have to do with removing Galligans name? 

Well, sadly, one of mikey's main running points was that he "wasn't Tom Galligan".  Even sadder is that was good enough for some people.  Those people who just have nothing but hate for Galligan no matter what he did.  A hate some hold even to this day still.  Even though he's been out of office for over 8 months.  Some of those are his core group.  The ones that want to believe in him till the very end.  A group that if he were to lose them, he might as well not pay for one sign for the next election.

And this act of pettiness may very well be for them.  An act to give them something to cheer for him about.  Don't believe me?  Just head over to the chatter or gawnews and see some of the post from that group regarding this act.  It worked for some.  They see this as a good move that they can stand behind, because they just plain hate Galligan. 

And given the week he's had (and had to know was coming) with two lawsuits and council reportedly interested in seeing if the now defunct "J-pol" was run from City Hall on taxpayer time, he's given that core group of people something smile about and pat him on the back for.  He's given them a distraction from the constant bombardment this week was going to be.  Had he not, there is a better chance that it would have worn on them even worse. 

Of course, this only helps his core group.  Sure they're patting him on the back.  But others are beginning to grow weary of his antics and the consequences of those actions.  And if the "New & Tribune" ever decides to report on this story (I'm not holding my breath) it may wear even thinner on more of his fringe supporters.  In which case, we undoubtedly will be placing this in the "I could name all his blunders.  But that would just be overkill." category.  Kinda like going to get the flag out of Tubby's before he tore it down and now facing the lawsuit from tearing it down.

Like using bubble gum to patch a whole in the dam.  It'll help you now, but will hurt a whole lot worse later.

We better get a big file folder for that blunder category of his. 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Matt Owen Doing Some Investigating!

Seems Matt Owen is interested in what was going on with city computers.  Gawnews has the request here. 

If this has to do with J-Pol, I cant say I blame him one bit.  He was attacked pretty personally on there.  Here's wishing good luck to "The kid with a big game"!

Comments

OK, I did some fiddling around today and got it set up where anyone cant post comments without being a google member!  So have at it! 

I welcome both complimentary comments and idiotic   opposing view points as well.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

My Appearance On The Oracle's Lounge Live!



A little fun to start off the blog!

About The New JAML Blog.

So here we sit.  We enter the dawn of a great new era in the Jeffersonville political world.  An era that has the bad guys shaking in fear for what is to come and the consequences that.  An era that has the good people of Jeffersonville looking out their windows and opening their doors and seeing an immaculate sunrise for the first time in almost a year. 

Yes my friends, Jeff All My Life has started a blog.

A couple of things that I want you to know about what this blog is and will be:

1.  This blog will be mostly reactionary.  Quite frankly while I know a few people who have inside knowledge of whats going on in Jeffersonville politics (and we may venture further out from time to time), I do not have the resources or contacts that the likes of Oracle, Goliath, Mike Hutt and others have.  I'll never pretend that I do.  But don't let that mislead you.  While I may not have the means to "break" the story like the previously mentioned, I do have enough to have a working knowledge of what I think events mean and what is good or bad for the people of Jeffersonville.  And I will explain why here on this blog.

2.  I will discuss the news that happens in Jeffersonville.  When something happens that seems  interesting, you will find it here.  If you look and its not here, that probably means its not interesting.  Sorry.

3.  I will discuss (and sometimes destroy) other political posters to other sites comments and theories.  I have no hesitation about this.  I already have a few ideas for this and no one is safe!

4.  I will have something of a schedule.  Right now, what I'm thinking is something along the lines of a Weekly Recap/Look Ahead on Sunday night or Monday.  With one or two regularly scheduled post the rest of the week.  And then when ever news breaks I will post then also.

5.  I have a Facebook page.  I'll be using this to alert people of new posts.  So like it!

6.  I have a spouse and we have lots of family. We both have jobs. We also have our high class champagne drinking friends.  It is likely that this will, from time to time, interrupt the schedule of the blog.  Don't complain if and when it does.

7.  I'm a terrible speller.  That's why God invented spell check.  But even it doesn't catch every thing.  Don't tell me when it doesn't.  Just get the point of the post and react to that.  Not the spelling.

8.  Finally.  I have been considering starting a blog or website for some time.  My first choice would actually be to do a sports blog.  But the time that it would take to make that a success I don't have right now.  I tell you this so that you understand how serious I take this.  I've mulled this over for some time.  The reason I chose to do this was because it was something that I could do in my available time, but that would give me the material necessary to have regular posts.  I in no way wanted to start a site that would go dormant for weeks because of a lack of material.  But after seeing the events recently, with the prospect of more to come, I can tell that little Mikey and his band of moore-ons will provide me more than enough material.

So sit back.  Enjoy.  Like the Facebook page.  And get buckle up!