By DAVID A. MANN
When Mayor Tom Galligan came back into office in 2008, he said he knew there were sewer problems to be addressed.
What he didn’t know was that negotiating a consent decree between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the city of Jeffersonville would consume most of the first two years of his term. In fact, the mayor estimated in a recent interview, between 50 percent and 60 percent of his time during the first two years of his current stint has been in someway associated with sewer projects. And as Galligan rounded the half way point of his term, he believes “we’ve accomplished quite a bit.”
He admits that the effort was not without stumbling blocks. Specifically, he acknowledged that Springdale Drive sewer project has gone on for months longer than expected. And, in 2009, he spent hours in a county courtroom defending the city’s takeover of the sewer treatment plant.
The city had a contract with Environmental Management Co. to run the plant until Galligan — saying he was unhappy with the company’s service — showed up with a police officer one morning in December 2008 and removed the company. A breach of contract lawsuit ensued from EMC and a judge’s ruling is pending.
All of the above has been associated with an effort by the EPA, the city and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to quell sewer overflows. As a part of the consent decree, the city had to perform numerous upgrades and is subject to new reporting requirements on the condition and performance of the collection system.
In order to finance those upgrades, the Jeffersonville City Council approved an about 200 percent increase in sewer rates, at Galligan’s behest.
Asked if he lamented such a increase on his watch, Galligan replied, “it’s just a part of the job.
“Sure nobody likes to do anything that’s going to be politically controversial,” he said, adding in contrast that “not doing anything is a bigger mistake.”
Other political leaders offered similar opinions on the timing of the sewer rate increase.
Rod Pate, head of the Clark County Democratic Party, said a tax increase — or, in this case, a fee increase — “is political suicide.”
“But, you got to do something,” he said. “And you got to respect someone who at least tries to fix the problem.”
Galligan is a Democrat as well. Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jamey Noel was contacted for this article, but declined to comment.
Ron Grooms, a Republican member of the Jeffersonville City Council, offered commentary similar to Pate’s.
“I have to give him credit for responding to that issue,” Grooms said. “It gives Jeffersonville the infrastructure it needs. We will be able to take on new growth.”
OTHER ISSUES
The mayor admits that the focus on the sewer system took the focus off other projects.
“I really want to get a big park,” he said. “But with everything we did — I didn’t get that done.”
And other efforts have not gone as planned. Attracting business to the Jeffersonville Town Center — a proposed high-end shopping development on the Jeffersonville side of Veterans Parkway — was all the talk during the 2007 elections, but very little has changed there since then.
Galligan noted that the city added signals and turning lanes to Veterans Parkway to help the development. However, he said, the lack of growth can be attributed to the nationwide recession that’s taken hold since he’s come to office.
“We were in about 9 months — and then bam,” he said.
Grooms agreed with the mayor’s assessment on the town center issue, as well.
“The mayor gets the benefit of the doubt on that one,” he said.
Both the park and the shopping development will continue to be priorities during the next two years, Galligan said. A project to widen and resurface 10th Street between Dutch Lane and Reeds Lane also will be on the list.
CONTROVERSIAL PROJECTS
Galligan said that he’d also be devoting much of the next two years to some of the projects that have attracted controversy during the last two.
One such proposal is a downtown canal. The mayor argues that a means of handling stormwater has to be built anyway, as a part of the EPA negotiations. That could come either in the form of a large underground pipe or an open-air canal.
The latter of the two, Galligan argues, would not only be less expensive, but could also be an economic-development tool that would attract business. The canal would run from an under-construction stormwater drainage area off of Seventh Street toward the Ohio River, generally following Mulberry Street.
Since the proposal has surfaced, it has had plenty of detractors.
“I haven’t really studied that,” said Grooms. “I’m not even sure it’s a workable project. That’s not something I’m interested in pursuing.”
Galligan said he also plans to move forward with an extension of Main Street through the America Place industrial park. That proposal has been met with protest by nearby residents, who have called it both unnecessary and damaging to their neighborhoods.
Galligan, however, believes the reaction to both proposals is less about negativity than it is about uncertainty.
“I think it’s a fear of the unknown,” Galligan said. “Every time you change something, there’s negative comment because people fear the worst.
“When I bought the Quadrangle — that was a bad idea,” Galligan said sarcastically, referring to the refurbishing of an old U.S. Army property, including moving city hall there.
“You’ve had lots of horrible ideas,” Communications Director Larry Thomas joked to the mayor as he sat in on an interview.
21st CENTURY POLITICS
The Evening News’ Web site, newsandtribune.com formerly operated an online forum and Galligan had been critical of the paper because of it. However, in 2009, the paper’s parent company, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., removed forums from its Web sites nationwide. Shortly after that move, a new forum, clarkcountychatter.com, began a similar operation.
After being asked about it, the mayor said online comments have had no affect on the way he conducts himself politically.
“There’s not enough people that read the forums to even deal with,” he said, adding that posters there had attacked him and others without any evidence.
One online poster is Clark County Commissioner Mike Moore, whom Galligan brought up when asked about his political detractors. The mayor has publicly alluded to speculation that Moore would challenge him during the next mayoral race.
He said Moore routinely shows up at Jeffersonville City Council meetings for publicity rather than with legitimate debates about issues.
“Anybody who wants to grandstand and get their name in the paper — I don’t want to deal with,” Galligan said.
Moore wouldn’t say anything definitive about a run at the mayor’s office, adding he was focusing on being re-elected to his county commissioner seat this fall.
“Any speculation that I’m running for mayor is just that: Speculation,” Moore said.
He also said that as a resident of Jeffersonville — as well as a business owner in the city — showing up to council meetings was his right and that he would continue to do so.
The next mayoral race is in 2011. Moore and Galligan are Democrats, so if they were to meet in a race, it likely would take place in May of that year.
Moore has filed for re-election of his commissioner seat.
SO YOU KNOW
• WHO: Tom Galligan
• POSITION: Jeffersonville mayor
• AGE: 63
• PREVIOUS TWO TERMS: 1996-2003
• CURRENT TERM: Runs through Dec. 31, 2011
