NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) — The New Albany City Council is preparing to approve its annual budget, but some members say they can’t move forward without answers from Mayor Jeff Gahan — particularly about how much the city has spent defending lawsuits tied to the Providence Mill Dam.
Council members, community groups and media outlets have all requested the information for more than a year, saying the mayor’s office has repeatedly refused to provide it.
“This is absolutely outrageous,” said Cisa Kubley with Hoosier Action, a nonpartisan group that advocates for government transparency. “The city council as a whole has asked for this repeatedly. Individual council members have filed public records requests. Many media groups have, too. And they just keep getting stonewalled.”
The dispute centers on a lawsuit brought by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The state agency ordered Gahan to remove rocks the city placed in Silver Creek, a case that remains in court. The Indiana Court of Appeals has already ruled against New Albany, finding the city does not own the dam.
New Albany Council members said they don’t know how much taxpayer money has gone toward the legal fight — or if more will be spent if the case is appealed to the Indiana Supreme Court.
“There is some information missing for me as far as approving this budget — the first, obviously, is expenses related to the Glenmill (Providence Mill) Dam,” Scott Blair a council member said during a Thursday council meeting. “I can’t vote for this. We need to have answers. We’ve requested this information over and over.”
Kubley said the lack of transparency is preventing officials from focusing on other urgent issues in the community.
“There’s a good chunk of the council that is really fed up with this because it’s taking all of the focus away from other things that really need their attention,” Kubley said. “We have major issues with affordable housing in New Albany, and we’re being told repeatedly that because of state and federal limitations, there isn’t enough funding to do anything. But here, we don’t even know how much has been spent on this case.”
Despite repeated public records requests from WDRB and others, the mayor’s office still has not disclosed the costs.
“There’s no reason given. There’s just no answer,” Kubley said. “If their whole argument is they don’t need to give us the information because they’re not doing anything wrong, then why are they hiding it? These are public funds.”
The New Albany City Council is scheduled to vote on the budget Oct. 6.
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