As a reminder, the series introduction is reprinted below. I’ve been unable to attend these past few weeks, but hope to make a regular calendar feature beginning today (July 12).
My hope today is that one or more of the following can be determined. First, how many weeks until the four-day project at 5th & Elm is finished?
5th and Elm speed crater: Have we reached China yet?
Is BOW aware of the trip hazard on the southeast corner of Main & W. 1st?
Is it public art? Is it a street lamp stump? Has the street department even noticed?
And, of course, free admission to BOW’s weekly indoor tent revival inevitably comes accompanied by a sexy floor show.
Irv Stumler set to lecture BOW about property safety on the 200 block of East Main Street. He is not expected to address street safety amid monster trucks.
I’ll be back later today to follow up. My Twitter handle is @newalbanian, and if any actions of interest break through the boilerplate, I’ll post them there.
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New Albany’s Board of Public Works and Safety exists because the State of Indiana says so.
Board of public works and safety; establishment Sec. 5.
(a) A board of public works and safety is established in each city.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), the legislative body of a second class city may by ordinance establish as separate boards: (1) a board of public works; and (2) a board of public safety; to perform the functions of the board of public works and safety.As added by Acts 1980, P.L.212, SEC.3.
As for what the board is supposed to do each Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., you can visit the American Legal Publishing site, search “Board of Public Works and Safety,” and sift through various powers accorded the board over the decades by dint of ordinance.
Exactly how much power does our Board of Public Works and Safety possess?
If Jeff Gahan were to stray from the protection of his Down Low Bunker and comment, no doubt he would assert that the board has just the power it needs. He handpicked it, and he’s perfectly content to see his program implemented by non-elected boards, as opposed to elected officials.
According to Dan Coffey, the answer surely is “too much.” At the city council meeting of June 6, Coffey proposed that our council, as a body made up of elected members, should take back authority ceded to non-elected boards.
NAC agrees.
The Board of Public Works and Safety may be established by state, not city, and it may be appointed by mayor, not council, but the board’s powers appear to derive from the legislative body.
I mention all this as prelude to a new feature at NA Confidential: Ask the Bored.
It has long been NA Confidential’s position that given the board’s accumulated powers — justified or otherwise — and its current function as arbiter of myriad conditions that impact the lives of citizens, for it to hold all its meetings at 10:00 a.m. on a Tuesday meeting is an affront (note that during the Garner Administration, a fledgling but doomed effort to democratize meeting times was made).
However, NAC can attend many, if not all, meetings. Public speaking time is allowed, and on occasion in the past, we’ve used it for the precise purpose of making comments, raising issues or asking questions, so that these are included in meeting minutes and become part of the public record. This way, it cannot be claimed later that “no one said anything.”
Readers, I know you have questions. Many of you cannot attend these meetings, and so when possible, NAC will ask them for you. Generalized questions probably are best, but give us the brief, and we’ll do what we can. Submit them at mayorbaylor@gmail.com … and ask the bored.
