House Speaker Glenn Richardson has a reputation as a vindictive control freak.
After seeing this little chunklet of a bill, it’s easy to understand why.
H.B. 854 ostensibly requires labor unions involved in political activity to register with the Secretary of State.
But last week, dozens of local elected officials, including A-CC Mayor Heidi Davison, visited the Capitol to lobby against the speaker’s tax plan. Richardson responded by declaring war.
Following the visit, a Richardson lieutenant, Rep. John Lunsford, R-McDonough, brought the bill back to committee. It contains the sentence, “No public funds shall be disbursed, either through contract or grant, to any organization which engages in lobbying, as defined in Code Section 21-5-70, the General Assembly of the State of Georgia.”
Translation: if you are a local government official or school official, you’re not allowed to tell lawmakers your opinion. I’m sure this is incidental, but the same goes for businesses with state contracts, and the legislature would apparently rather shut down the University of Georgia than allow it to continue lobbying, even if that would mean a sizeable increase over the years in the number of folks requesting Florida and Tennessee car tags.
The bill died 5-6 in committee, so Richardson brought in his hawks to sway the vote.
Commissioner Kelly Girtz’s reaction was priceless. “That’s absurd,” he said. “I don't know what kind of Kool-Aid they're drinking in Atlanta these days."
Oh yeah? Your mama!
If they weren’t too busy selling crack and shooting each other, more Athenians would probably be offended over a comment made by Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry last week.
"Bogart is a quiet, close-knit place, and I can't remember ever having a murder in Bogart, other than a shooting that took place on the Athens-Clarke County side about 15 years ago," he said Friday, in reference to a man allegedly shooting a motorcyclist in the back. "This isn't a drug-dealer murder in downtown Athens."
For one thing, there’s only been one murder downtown that anyone can remember, and it involved an out-of-towner jawing on the street with the wrong guy, not drugs. Most of our half-dozen murders a year seem to be robberies or domestic, not drug-related.
“I could not believe it,” Athens chamber president Doc Eldridge said. “The types of issues he implies, we don’t have those in downtown Athens.
We knew it would rile people up, which is why an editor pulled out the quote. Davison called up to the paper to complain about that.
A-CC and Oconee officials have made a big push in recent years to do a better job of cooperating on issues like water and economic development. The two counties are so small and so close together, they’re much better off operating as a team. But ever since Watkinsville got ticked off that the Clarke County seat moved to Athens and asked for the split 100 years ago, that hasn’t been the case.
Still, while the comment irritated Eldridge and Davison, the damage isn’t likely to last.
“It’ll blow over,” Doc said.
- Blake Aued's blog
- Login or register to post comments
I'll take my chances in
I'll take my chances in Athens where I think I'm less likely to get gunned down by some overprotective, gun-loving freak on the word of some spoiled, overexcitable teenage girls drag racing on their way home from Target.
For one thing, there’s
For one thing, there’s only been one murder downtown that anyone can remember, and it involved an out-of-towner jawing on the street with the wrong guy, not drugs.
HELLO!! Doesn't the ABH at this very moment have a case pending before the Supreme Court of Georgia involving Jennifier Stone, who was murdered in her downtown apartment. How soon you forget. Of course we don't know if drugs were involved or not, now, do we?
Nicky Samuels, shot to death in Bethel Homes, drugs probably involved at some level.
Andre Wade, shot to death in Bethel Homes, drugs probably involved at some level.
Terry Walton, killed on Hull Street, drugs probably involved.
Terry "Frog" Arnold, close enough to downtown to count, drugs almost certainly involved.
Terry Mathis, pretty darn close to downtown. Who knows what was involved in that. Sex, drugs, rock and roll?
Seems like that's enough that the Athens intelligentsia don't need to get all twisted about Sheriff Berry's offhand remark. He could have said "we don't want this to be just another unsolved murder like all those in Athens", and then what would have been the complaint?
Speaking of crime, how come you get a by-line in the police blotter, and the other poor schmucks sorting through the police reports are anonymous?
another one . . .
don't forget TK Harty!
I'll give you Jennifer Stone
I'll give you Jennifer Stone (not drug-related) and Terry Walton maybe, but the rest you mention aren't downtown. TK Harty wasn't downtown either.
I get a byline because I didn't just paraphrase a police report, I did reporting on it.
So Hull Street isn't
So Hull Street isn't downtown any more?
I suspect most of Athens outside the "urban services" (motto: just say "no" to consolidation, let the peasants haul their own garbage) district would categorize Bethel Homes as being "downtown". "Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city "
Point being that Doc was a little hasty in his defense of downtown, and a little less than knowledgeable, now wasn't he. What does this information do to Daivison's complaint?
As far as Jennifer Stone, I'm not asserting that she was involved in drugs in any way, but until some information is released, there's no way of knowing whether her killer was hopped up on something or not, or is the killer was looking for something to steal for drugs, which if he or she was, makes it "drug related" in my little black and white world.
I did reporting on it.
You da man.
BTW did Winders get so winded he can't keep up with business. He's sort of disappeared here. We had some gypsies come by, and they want their clothes back.
Speaking of Davison, tell Winders that she left Dancing with the Stars early, because I know how much he likes that.
The part of Hull between
The part of Hull between Broad and Dougherty is downtown. The rest is not downtown. Bethel Midtown is not Bethel Downtown. It is north of Dougherty. I don't care what those yahoos in the general service district think.