If you want to talk about bad weeks, few of us could really compare to the last couple that the Downtown Manager has had. Don Buie has been accused of plenty, and now he’s had his purchasing authorization stripped as well. The city seems to be outside the walls of Don Buie’s castle with fire and pitchforks, waiting for him to step outside. In one conversation regarding Buie’s potential fate, a longtime Albany resident suggested something involving tar, feathers, and a rail. And no, she wasn’t completely joking. In fact, I’m not sure that she was joking at all.
Obviously, Buie has lost the trust of a lot of folks. Many others never gave him their trust in the first place, but now many of his initial supporters have stepped away as well. Are there people in this town that stand by Buie? I certainly hope so. I’m sure Buie has friends here, and I sincerely hope for his sake they’re not fair weather friends who are only there when times are good. However, how many outside that circle of friends trust Buie at this moment?
The primary thing that any Downtown Manager needs isn’t money, or authority, but trust. They must have the trust of the citizens of Albany in order to function. They need to treat that trust as the sacred offering it is, and nurture it like a garden of rare and fragile flowers. If they do that, then they might be able to weather the storms that come along, but not the hurricanes of accusation surrounding Buie.
We already know that Buie had a “non-working” relationship with Nicole Brown. Many sources cite that as a “romantic” relationship, including the photographs of Brown and Buie together. Friends don’t pose together like that. This alone is grounds for Buie’s termination, depending on the date that it started. Frankly, there’s no one to trust on that issue either. To many people who have shown themselves untrustworthy for us to really believe any of them.
Blind faith was put in Buie to revitalize the downtown, and that needed the trust of the citizenry to work. That is long since gone. Now, there are choices that need to be made. Should Buie remain in his position, downtown redevelopment will always have him as their primary hurdle in the court of public affairs.
So now it’s time for Buie to exit. Even if he’s never charged in any of the allegations against him, the damage is done and he will not be able to successfully navigate the waters of Albany public opinion again. If he can’t do that, then he can’t do his job, and if he can’t do his job, then the city needs to get someone in there that can.
Buie needs to go, and he needs to go quickly. Admittedly, it does make sense to wait until the GBI finishes their investigation. But regardless of the outcome, the city needs to show Buie the door. Even if they have to pay out a large sum of money for him to go, they should do it. That would be a solid investment in downtown for a change.
Not just Buie needs to go. We now know that AT THE SAME TIME as Phil Cannon (ADICA board member) was being refused access to ADICA’s financial records (this itself is scary), Bob Langstaff was posting on this very blog as a cheerleader for ADICA and its “trust us, we know better than you” message.
Obviously, if our elected officials are not honest or competent enough to monitor where our tax dollars are going, they no longer need to be elected officials. Langstaff would look great in tar and feathers as well.
By the way, as an addendum to my last post, it goes without saying that if the “powers that be” think offering up Buie as a sacrificial lamb excuses and whitewashes their own failure to supervise this fiasco, they are sadly mistaken.
The housecleaning shouldn’t stop with Buie.
They should not pay out a large sum of money to get rid of him. That is our money and shouldn’t be wasted. If he did wrong, fire him. If he is unable to do his job, fire him. I’m tired of the law suit threat and we do nothing or pay out large sums of money to get rid of them. If we set a precedence that we will FIRE and FIGHT, there would be zero lawyers that would take on frivolous lawsuits against us. DO NOT GIVE AWAY OUR MONEY!
Another example of the “bait and switch” tactics used by our elected non-representatives is the recent post on Bob Langstaff’s blog regarding property taxes.
Langstaff pretends to show that property taxes in Albany- Dougherty County are actually lower than we think they are due to what he claims are millage tax rollbacks. What he neglects to mention is that the millage tax rollbacks are more than overtaken by the recent upward revaluation of properties to levels that are absolutely inconsistent with economic reality–specifically the collapse in real estate values and the steady bleed of jobs from this area.
Additionally, of course, our non-representatives such as Mr. Langstaff will NEVER discuss millions of dollars of taxable property removed from the rolls by Phoebe, nor will they ever contemplate actually reducing the budget through initiatives suggested on this blog by Cartman and others or by other cost-saving, pro-business moves such as terminating Judy Bowles’ playmate Mike Tilson–an act which would stimulate business and tax revenues, instead of the present policy of persecuting business and lowering revenues.
Shutting down ADICA alone would immediately eliminate a $6 million contingent liability on the “credit line”–not counting what’s being stolen.
Langstaff’s selective presentation of facts on the tax issue is intellectually dishonest. It is also a fradulent attempt to tell taxpayers that they aren’t seeing what they see in their tax bill.
The house cleaning can’t stop with Buie if Albany is to be saved. His enablers and accomplices must be removed from office. Our economy can’t survive much more of this and as much as I dislike and distrust Don Buie, attempting to make him the sole scapegoat for this mess (what I believe is the new plan) is one more attempt by the good ole boys to whitewash their stupidity and incompetence and avoid having actual accountability to the taxpayers.
Jack: I won’t disagree that a lot more than Buie need to be shown the door, but the City Commission is elected, so only the voters can do that without the appropriate causes. Three commission seats will be voted on this fall, so look for candidates for those seats who are willing to run and hopefully able to win.
Debra: Chances are that Buie has a contract with the city. A lot of officials in various positions do, and these contracts tend to be specific about why someone can be fired. Loss of taxpayer trust is probably not on that list. Of course, if the GBI investigation ends up with Buie charged, then all bets are off on that count.