Jeffersonville Mayor

Four Moore Years?

I'll be the first to admit that I don't always agree with every single stance our Mayor makes or how he handles every situation. But I will say, in my opinion he's done a good job overall.

Thinking back on his latest fund raising golf outing, I have to wonder:

Could this be the last go?

Two terms has to take a toll on a person serving in this capacity let alone three. Let's be honest, there are not that many people who REALLY know what it's like to Mayor. If you love our city, like this Mayor appears too, it's probably a pretty good job to go to everyday. But with any job, I'm sure it has its major struggles as well. Struggles that challenge your core beliefs when you recognize how your decisions impact other people in a very real way. 

With Mayor Moore clearly primed to easily take a victory for his third term, I do not see a clear path for anyone to over take him, regardless of party. That speaks to the Mayor's strength.

Now, once that third term is up and assuming he doesn't run for a forth, who's in the pipeline? Only time will tell. I suspect when the time comes, it will be packed house to file for the paper work to be a candidate for the next Mayor of Jeffersonville.

What's your thoughts on Mayor Moore? Good, Bad, Neutral?

Stop GCCS Wasteful Spending:

Part of the Solution or Problem?

So I've been seeing the Stop GCCS Wasteful Spending facebook page.  Seems to have a lot of sponsored ads someone is paying for. 

As I read through that page, it is all SUBJECTIVE! Everything is based on opinions with very little facts. If these people, especially Alice Butler have such a passion, step UP TO THE PLATE ALREADY and run for School Board! 

Everyone has an opinion. I get that. And by all means, feel free to express it. But the way the hateful, fear mongering, spiteful, one sided unwilling to compromise bullheadedness and childish way they are going about getting the point across is, in my opinion, hurtful to their cause. Wait, people are banned from their page for having an opposing view? Nice. Isn't that cute? So they have a problem but don't want to hear other points of view or have anyone challenge them with facts.  

Don't get me wrong, when their (Stop GCCS Waste...) facebook first started, it was for good reason. A person or group had an opinion and need to organize to spread the word by sharing information.

But now, it seems they've taken a good cause and shaped it into something ugly: one sided, not really wanting to make positive change because they'd lose their "fame".

So SAD. Once the personal attacks started by "Stop GCCS" facebook page, it's been all down hill from there. Not only that, their supporters have picked up the personal attacks which, as everyone was taught in first grade knows, only prevents meaningful discussion from happening.  

Now they have taken to attacking Mayor Moore? Why? Because he found a solution they don't agree with? So he put out a video laying out a solution he supports and these people attack him for it. If he didn't get the word out, the same people would attack him because he's conspiring behind closed doors with the schools. Give me a break already.   

This kills me! I bet if you gave them a stack of $100 bills, they'd complain how it wouldn't fit in their pocket! 

Here's my thing. I'm all about people having a problem. I'm all about people whining and complaining about said problem.

What I'm not about is people C O N T I N U A L L Y complaining about a problem without being open to or recommending solutions. It even fires me up more when, not only do they not have a solution, but they refuse to work with those elected to decision making positions to create one.  

com·pro·mise

[ˈkämprəˌmīz]

NOUN

compromise

1. an agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions:
   "an ability to listen to two sides in a dispute, and devise a compromise acceptable to both" 

The school board has the job of making the best decision for the school district's tax payers and children. JUST BECAUSE YOU DO NOT AGREE DOESN'T MAKE THEM WRONG - or corrupt - or unwilling to listen

If you truly feel they are, then put your money where your mouth is and RUN FOR THEIR SEAT! 

No matter what either side does at this point, the 2 schools are closing. PERIOD. The school board felt that was the best choice to make. PERIOD. 

Now, those people who are only making personal attacks while not working towards a solution can either:

1. support the new school and kids have a place downtown
2. not support and by default support the kids going on a 2 min bus ride to other schools.

Those are the solutions. PERIOD. Pick one and let's move on to making the future for our community brighter. 

Reflections

What IS and what COULD be...

This past weekend was beautiful! So we spent a good part of Saturday at the Greenway. Great views. Flowers along the path. Wildlife could be heard in the breeze. Just an overall good day.  Nothing exciting happened but after, I reflected on all I had seen... What a nice addition to the community. While we rode our bikes, EVERY SIGNLE PERSON that passed us at least said "Hello". 

There were men. There were women. There were children. There were white people. There were black people. There were people from of every color in-between. There were young people. There were old people. There were single people. There were married people. There were walkers holding hands. There were runners keeping pace. There were hardcore bikers clicking away the miles. There were dads teaching their kids how to ride on the path. 

My point is this...

Nowhere else in our community is there such a diverse mix of people who can come together and take advantage of an asset while being so friendly. 

Now, what's next?

Who is going to lead the way to take the next big step? Jeffersonville stepped up with the Walking Bridge and Big 4 Station. Nobody believed it was worth the investment, but look at how it has transformed Jeffersonville. The Ogle Foundation has dedicated untold amounts of money to projects that have helped transform our community as has the Horseshoe Foundation and Community Foundation. Thank you! 

With so much on the horizon for our area, now is not the time to say "That will never work." Now is the time to believe in our future and figure out a way to make it work. Our local cities, towns, and counties have a vision of how they want their community to grow. But they cannot and should not do it alone. 

Partnerships between government and investors can (and maybe should) be the way forward. While investors in a project to have the freedom to do as they want with their project, fitting the vision of a community should be part of the consideration. And while local government should be welcomed to the table, they have to be realistic in their expectations by not holding investors to such high demands that it kills projects. But killing a project that is allowed legally is not the role of government. 

A great example of a recent partnership can be seen in this news piece from July 26th: Click here 

While this developer could have went on to build this neighborhood without input, they recognized the city would like to have a park there, took initiative to approach the city (not the city to the developer) and come up with a mutual beneficial plan. 

Hats off to Mayor Moore and Premier Homes for coming together. This is a great example of what can happen when government and private investor both know their place, don't over step, and let investment happen.

But I digress

Let's be real here. Government does not know how to run a business. Government does not know how to spend your money better than you.

Government's job is to         (....wait for it......say it with me......)          GOVERN.

However, working together with someone who does know how to spend money and run a business to be sure the interests of the community are met is their place. Demanding frivolous investment and spending for pipedreams that prevents a return on investment by private business is NOT where Government should operate. Unfortunately, that's were they operate most of the time without realizing it.

Local government is the worst of all because they truly don't know what they don't know and (at least some of them) let ego's get in the way of understanding that. At least at the state and federal level they have resources available to them to be educated on a topic. Locally, they just go on their merry little way because "I was elected as (insert any random governing office)!" 

Time for some of our local elected officials to wake up understand they cannot govern on principle (some would say PRIDE) alone. Wisdom has to have a place in the equation. Asking someone who is smarter than you about something you know little about is a good trait in a leader.