However, the story has all the intrigue of an Ian Flemming novel with a healthy dose of principle thrown in, something rarely seen in local government around these parts.

The story starts with a phone call from the mother of Nicole Brown, just a worried mother hoping to get some legal advice from a noted local attorney. It seems that her daughter had been having a “romantic” relationship with Buie and discovered Buie with another woman, apparently the relative of a downtown merchant. Apparently, during the conversation, Brown revealed that Buie had given her a check for $2,000 but Buie wanted $1,600 back. Brown’s mother told Brown that it was wrong, and then decided to seek legal advice.

Cannon asked the mother if she realized that he was on the ADICA board, to which she replied that she didn’t. Cannon claims that he told her, “this is serious.” With all that was mentioned, Cannon knew he needed to speak to Brown in person. “I said, ‘I need to hear this from the horse’s mouth.’”

On June 24, at 3:25 PM, Cannon receives a message from Nicole Brown, the call still in his iPhone, and discussed the situation. Brown allegedly gave Cannon the same story he had heard from her mother previously. Cannon felt this was a serious matter, and sought out advice.

After talking with Wes Smith, Cannon then sought out ADICA attorney Jay Reynolds but was unable to get hold of him. The next day, he had several conversations by phone with Brown, but unfortunately still no word from Reynolds.

Cannon, while talking with Brown, outlined the possible scenarios during the investigation. One was that the GBI would drag her out of work to talk to her, or she could sign an affidavit. Browns response according to Cannon? “I like that last on.”

An appointment was made and an affidavit was filled out. Brown came to Cannon’s office late, but did arrive. After reading over the affidavit, Brown made some corrections, the new version now including a trip with Buie to Wal-Mart to send the $1,600 to his estranged wife. She read over the new version to verify and signed it.

Cannon mentions a series of questions that are asked when someone is signing an affidavit. The most important one is “is anyone coercing you to do this?” Now, however, Brown is claiming that she was, in fact, coerced to sign the affidavit.

Cannon, however, questions how he possibly could have. “I have never laid eyes on Nicole Brown.”

Cannon handed affidavit to Wes Smith. Smith had spoken to several people and advised Cannon to take to Jay Reynold’s office. Reynolds later calls back and says that had faxed it to the GBI. The rest, as they say, is history.

When asked about the allegations against him that he coerced Brown’s testimony and is trying to frame Buie, he says not only is it impossible that he coerced her since he wasn’t there,but also that Nicole’s mother had confirmed it was the same story. In addition, he flatly denies disliking Buie, but for a while he had been receiving information that people were passing cash to Don at First Friday. This led to Cannon asking for more information regarding ADICA business such as what checks were for and other kinds of oversight. “I had been doing my job by being more diligent.”

Then how does someone who’s just being diligent in their oversight responsibilities get this kind of information? “This just happened to fall in my lap.”

Cannon makes it clear that he doesn’t believe Brown did anything knowingly illegal or immoral in regards to the money. In his understanding, Brown initially thought the $2,000 check was a bonus and was thanking Buie when he told her that only $400 was hers, the rest came back to him. He also believes that Brown believed the $1,600 was on the up and up as well.

Here’s the thing though. ADICA never authorized Buie to “hire” Brown for any reason. This, if accurate, would raise a few new questions as to why Brown was contracted and by what authority. Unfortunately, ADICA hasn’t been able to answer those questions just yet.

It seems that Buie canceled the last ADICA meeting without telling Cannon. He was at the location, but sitting there alone until Buie’s assistant came by to put up a sign stating that the meeting had been canceled. Buie had apparently emailed all the ADICA board. Well, everyone but ADICA Secretary Phil Cannon that is.

When asked about the reasons given for Buie not being suspended, Cannon tells a slightly different story from City Manager Al Lott that seems more in keeping with Commission Bob Langstaff’s version of things.

Cannon’s understanding is that Buie is not suspended is because the allegations are based on Brown signing an affidavit on one day and then turning around and issuing a statement a few days later claiming that affidavit was inaccurate. Therefore, they have conflicting statements so they err on the side of caution.

Cannon confesses that he doesn’t know if Brown told the truth or not, only what she told him which can be confirmed by what she told her Mom as well. He’s only doing what he believes is right.

My opinion of the 6 million dollar Bond issue for Downtown Albany
Revitalization: (This is longer than a “Blog” but is the only way I can offer my own explanation.)

I understand the issue regarding the public feeling like they are being asked to fund a 6 million dollar bond issue without being told the purpose of the funds. To me, that is not a reason to object to the issuance of the bond. The use of the bond money is more important than not knowing.

I agree more information needs to be disclosed. I agree ADICA’s current CEO should not be the person in charge of using the money. I agree there needs to be an accounting, check writing and a check and balance system put in place before the money is received.

Let me take a moment and explain why I agree with the bond being issued.

Downtown Albany is the central part of the Capital of Southwest Georgia.

Think about it, we are the biggest city in a 100 mile radius. We have the biggest shopping areas, the most places to eat and the best choices to shop.

Albany relies heavily on outside people shopping and paying sales tax dollars in Dougherty County. Think about Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Macon, Augusta (How many of you ever saw their downtowns in a blighted state?) Those cities allowed the downtown areas to become high crime, drug use, prostitution laden, homeless living places that just fell apart. When the center of a community reaches this stage, this type of activity stays until it is stopped. Criminals attract criminals. At some point this activity begins to spread, it only has one way to spread, OUT. Where is out? Into the more prominent areas of our community that have grown up over time.

When the central area is allowed to reach this cess pool state, How much money will it take to then, clean out the homeless, clean up the prostitution, clean up the drugs, repair sidewalks, lighting and every other item that is broken? Think about how much further dilapidated our buildings would be with homeless people, drug users and prostitutes coming in and out.

If we allow the central part of our community, the central part of Southwest Georgia, to reach this stage we will have a cancer in our heart that will stifle the remainder of Southwest Georgia, a cancer that will spread until someone or some community says enough is enough. This is exactly what has happened in the communities I mentioned above, the hearts got so over ridden and dilapidated money had to be spent to clean it up. Downtown Albany at this point, our heart, is no where near the condition of these other cities when they decided it was time to clean up. We don’t have to spend the money to clean out the cancer because it is already clean. The only issue that remains in Downtown is the age of the buildings. In my opinion, we can’t just demolish over 100 year old buildings. That would be a travesty. We have to find some way to take what is here, bring the buildings up to code and make the investment viable for a private entity.

Right now we do not have enough foot traffic at night and on the weekends to make a business profitable. We have plenty of traffic downtown from 8 to 5 Monday thru Friday. This is a set amount of traffic and set amount of dollars. Expanding more businesses in downtown while relying on the same number of dollars only splits those dollars between more businesses. All this is going to do is make every business fail because the same dollars can’t support more business. We have to attract more traffic.

Private investors won’t come downtown because they know they can’t profit.

The few that have examined the issue have realized that bringing an older building up to code adds so much expense to the project that enough rent can’t be charged to make the venture profitable, therefore the investor backs out. The thought with the bond issue would be to obtain a building, bring it up to code for electrical, plumbing, fire etc., and basically sale the property to a private investor without consideration of the amount of the bond money invested in the property. In other words, the private investor pays FMV for the property which in all likelihood, the first 2 or 3 of these projects, FMV will be less than the bond money invested in the property. But, what does this do? It brings a private investor into downtown, puts the property back on the tax roll, opens up the property for use, makes the venture profitable for the investor, which in turn, means the FMV of the surrounding properties increases, which means a private investor at some point will be able to purchase a building, do all of the code work on his own and still make a profitable return on the investment. The purpose of the bond issue is to jump start the investment using this theory.

I do believe, before this is done more discussion needs to be done on what we want our Downtown to be. There is no one consensus of where Downtown is going. No one, including myself, knows if we are trying to make an entertainment district, a college student area, a place for doctors and Phoebe nurses to live and walk to work. I do know that we cannot allow the 50 million dollar investment already made go to waste by allowing the blighted property to remain. I do know we cannot allow the cancer of crime to grow in the heart of our community. I do know we need to build on our river walk. I do know we need to capitalize on our position of being the Capital of Southwest Georgia. I do know we need to continue being the central place where our surrounding counties come to shop and play.

If we don’t protect our heart we will only being cleaning it up in time.

A lot of concern is also placed on the potential millage rate increase to repay the bond. The repayment of the bond will take place from the TAD money. What is the TAD? The best way to explain this is by example–Lets say right now the total tax property value of all property in the TAD (basically the TAD boundaries equal Downtown Albany) is 1 million dollars, we invest the bond money to get the blighted property cleaned up, in private hands and back on the tax roll. In 5 years the FMV of the property in the TAD is 5 million dollars. (and remember, the new Wal Mart that will soon be built in East Albany is a part of this TAD) The property taxes paid on the first 1 million continue to go to the general fund, however the taxes paid on the 4 million increase in fair market value can only be spent inside the TAD. Therefore, the money is paid back not by the tax payers of the community, but by the increase in the fair market value of the property within the TAD. And, the increase comes from the investment of the bond money. This means, the bond money must be used wisely and we must get the most bang for the buck to make this work.

I have no explanation of the secrecy some have placed on this bond issue. I don’t agree with the secrecy and intend to make all of it as public as I can.

I look forward to the debate this will inspire.