For years I had heard that you just can’t fight City Hall. In a lot of ways, it’s absolutely true. City Hall has a pile of resources at their disposal that you and I just don’t have. They have their own, full-time attorney and the means to hire outside council as well. The elected officials in any municipality have a disgusting tendency to ignore the voters and do what they want anyways. Fighting City Hall is like herding cats…or managing Libertarians.
But that’s changing.
There have been two significant victories lately that, while not complete, have been a great start. Both of those came from regular folks fighting City Hall. The sign ordinance is getting another look, and Don Buie has lost is spending authority. Neither are complete victories, since Buie is still on the job and the sign ordinance is still in effect…but it’s a start.
The sign ordinance is a point that I probably disagree with most prominent Albanians on. Most seem to concede that one is indeed needed. Me? Not so much. However, I’m willing to take a pragmatic approach and concede to the will of the majority on this one. I’ve even contacted my Commissioner and volunteered to serve on the new task force. Will anything come of it? Probably not since I’m on the record as opposing sign ordinances in general, but I would rather see it’s impact on business be minimal than to let a crew not that different from the last one put forth a proposal that kills even more commerce in this city.
Luckily, the sign ordinance is handled directly by the City Commission. Why is that lucky? It’s because everyone who sits on the Commission is elected, which means they can be unelected. We have direct control over who sits at that table on Tuesdays and we are the ones who can change it.
However, when it comes to employment issues like Don Buie, it’s time to look deeper. Buie’s alleged conduct is a disgrace. Each and every one of us knows this, and most of us believe it to be true. We have voiced our displeasure to the City, and now Buie has lost his purchasing ability. The problem is how long it took for this to actually happen. Why wasn’t this laid out the day after the GBI investigation? This is an internal matter, and not something he could readily file a lawsuit over. So why in the hell did it take so damn long?
Of course, should we really be surprised? The same person responsible for making the decision to limit Buie’s spending ability is the same person who, in his infinite wisdom, kept Rod Jolivette on the City’s payroll. The letter to Jolivette perfectly laid out the case for termination, and yet Jolivette is being permitted to keep his job. Whether Jolivette takes it or not is kind of irrelevant for this particular topic. What is relevant is that he is being allowed to return to the Albany Fire Department. With a decision like keeping Jolivette on the payroll, should we really be that shocked that Buie is still sitting there and that it took so long to make a determination that he should be allowed to spend city money?
No, the tree of government in this town seems to have bad roots. It’s past time to fix them so that the tree can grow up strong and proud. Ever since Firestone closed down, this once proud city has faltered and failed, a blight on Georgia. While other towns have succeeded and thrived, Albany has stagnated. Horribly.
So can we fight City Hall? We can, and we must. We have to fight it to take back our town and push through these tough economic times. We have to attract new businesses to town and offer them something that they won’t get elsewhere. We need to provide the current businesses with proper incentive to stay. We need to fight the crime in this city vigorously and effectively (it seems like the new chief is doing that so far). What we need most is effective, ethical and insightful leadership at City Hall. So far, that seems to be lacking. Hopefully, we can get it there soon enough.
