FRIDAY MARCH 27

Just a scatter of potpourri. March Madness which refers to the men’s NCAA basketball tournament has now reached its round of eight. Next weekend will be the semifinals and on Monday night in prime time the Championship game.

That Monday night is also the Council’s Agenda Fixing Session. It would have been a tough choice between an unbelievable circus and what could be a great game, but since the semiprofessional Kentucky team seems to be a cinch and that game can be ‘taped” it is obvious where my priority is.

It is to be expected and hoped for that council President Rivers will present a resolution calling for an in depth investigation into the entire history of the North Ave. building from the time of the fire to the awarding the contract to Yates.

Unfortunately her motivation will not be as it should be to expose corruption but rather is for political revenge. Until this Council with the City Party’s support will admit that the past Administration showed no concept of fiscal responsibility, and in fact seems to have been guilty of irresponsible malpractices which must be exposed and dealt with.

Other happenings this week included the unimaginable murder of 150 humans by a suicidal pilot. The gas explosion last night in the East Village with the destruction of four buildings. The ISIS activity in Yemen and Libya. Obama’s irrational Mid East foreign policy of which I should take at least one blog to discuss.

As to the ISSIS situation; "Saudi Arabia began its military intervention in Yemen last night with a series of airstrikes initiated around 2 AM local time. Nine countries have said they are participating in the intervention, including five members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt, Pakistan, Morocco, and Sudan. The United States is not participating in “direct military action,” according to a statement by the National Security Council, but is assisting with “logistical and intelligence support.” According to Saudi reports, the Kingdom has mobilized 100 fighter jets and 150,000 soldiers for the intervention, though there have been no reports of Saudi ground forces in Yemen yet." (Foreign Policy -3/25/15)
And then is this seeming innocuous legislation noted by American’s United which really is permission for bigotry related to sexual orientation and religious belief giving organizations and individual the right to discriminate which is counter to our Constitution.

“Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Thursday signed into law a bill that would prohibit state and local laws that “substantially burden” the ability of people — including businesses and associations — to follow their religious beliefs.”




\We must always be on our guard to prevent the dogmatic right from rewriting  the 1st Amendment.

EXCUSE

A very busy Thursday. Printer finally decided to work right, and errands to run. Lost into that cyberspace material I had collected for this posting. Also it is the Sweet Sixteen; go ACC.

Will post by noon Friday.

THAT DEMOLITION

Some thoughts about Monday’s fiasco.

What happened can be directly laid upon BOTH the Administration and Council.

Administration although calling for a Special Meeting did not inform the Council beforehand the reason for the meeting. Moreover the action that was to be approved was accomplished two days before. Council was being presented with a “fait accompli” in the anticipation of acceptance of the fact.

Administration did not release any details to members of the public until 90 minutes before the meeting via email. This 17 page document is incomplete; the All Action Demolition proposal which was dated 3/4/15 does not include the invoice,we have only Watson’s word. Yates proposal is dated 3/17/15 and there is no mention of qualifications, insurance coverage except a vague documentation about a binder a day later with out contents.

There can be no doubt that Yates’ proposal was after AAD’s was received and made public. Supposedly 6 contractors were contacted, but Watson did not name them or when they were contacted. If AAD submitted a proposal on 3/4/15 that meant that the emergency existed at that time.

City Administrator Smiley could not answer questions about the process of selection, or why the delay from the 1/6/15 “notification of imminent hazard” on the need to demolish the building or Remington & Vernick’s 2/2/15 that the structure is “beyond repair and in imminent danger of collapse”. Or why the Historic Preservation Committee had not been notified and why the Planning Board Director had not received State approval until the day before the demolition took place?

Neither Watson nor Smiley gave satisfactory to questions from the public or the Councilors, except noting that Yates did not have a contract when the demolition took place but were acting on their proposal. I am sure one responsible in Administration ever saw an insurance policy or even a clause holding the city not responsible in case of accident in the proposal or the not completed contract.

There are too many unanswered questions or unacceptable answers from Administration’

On the other hand Council and Council President Rivers despite justifiable complaints decided to turn this into a political issue. Despite Alan Goldstein’s suggestion that they table action for at least a week so they could get an understanding of the circumstances; Rivers, Brown, Taylor, and Tolliver voted to not approve of the resolution declaring the emergency. This would have validated the demolition. Instead Council burned its bridges for political reasons. Greaves was proper in Abstaining.

The non-approval of allocating money for the demolition and the employment of Yates were properly defeated with only Williams voting yes.

But Rivers went further and demonstrated her agenda by suggesting that the Council pass a resolution to hire their own attorney to investigate why Yates was given the Job. She was informed by the AJ the City Clerk that a special meeting had to be limited to the stated agenda.

Rivers comments were that the Council had hired its own attorney several years ago to investigate the spending of $25000 (verbally corrected by former Mayor Robinson-Briggs to $20000.00) on a meeting about Crime.

The fact that Rivers was comparing a horse with a donkey was immaterial; the question at that time had been the legitimacy of the Mayor’s using illegally funds designated specifically for another purpose without Council’s approval. No one on this Council raised the question why the previous administration in 2012/13 did not take action on this building, or why the present administration had waited so long.