for 19 JUN 06: A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

With all due respect to State Senate candidate Reginald Pugh: this item is NOT about him. Our title is borrowed from his billboard's message - but change can merely come by using a ten-dollar bill to buy dinner.

BLOG EXCLUSIVE: The change we're talking about is about to happen at WRBL. An inside source tells your blog the TV station is about to lose THREE well-known on-air personalities - so I guess they won't be "three on their side" anymore.

I'm hearing WRBL will lose Chief Meteorologist Jeff Donald by the end of the summer. The story is that his contract will NOT be renewed -- although since he works in weather, I suppose there's a 20-percent chance he'll stay on.

Jeff Donald underwent surgery earlier this year, which kept him off WRBL for a while. Now he may be leaving for good - which means he won't be able to compare forecasts with his neighbor down the street. Perhaps you didn't know he lives near Kurt Schmitz's house.... [true!]

So will Darren "Stacker-3" Stack take Jeff Donald's place? Nope, because he's reportedly leaving as well. The inside source tells me he's moving to a TV station in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in a couple of weeks. Perhaps Columbus simply doesn't have enough pancake houses for him.

That would leave only newcomer Harmony Mendoza on the WRBL weather team - and if she's left all by herself, I guess she'll become the Melody instead....

But WRBL apparently has another plan. I'm told a former forecaster at WTVM is in talks to come back to Columbus, and serve as the new Chief Meteorologist. The name of this person has NOT been disclosed to me. But I can't imagine Maria LaRosa would leave Philadelphia, where she's gained a reputation as a hot-weather.... no, wait. Take out that "weather" part.

Based on speculation I've heard over several months, I'm guessing the former meteorologist WRBL is after is Jim Crowley. He was in Columbus for years, then moved to Wisconsin - and now he may be tired of predicting snow more often than severe thunderstorms.

There's one other big name leaving WRBL. Your blog is told Sports Director Dan Edward will depart in the next few weeks, to be closer to his family in Kentucky. The way he's criticized Atlanta's baseball bullpen the last couple of years, I thought he might try out as a pitcher.

At the top of the WRBL News staff, there's already been a change. It turns out News Director Cyle Mims left quietly in May, to take a job with TSYS. So instead of taking credit for the station's success, he now simply processes credit.

We already noted Sunday the shift by WRBL's Chris Sweigart from on-air reporting to being a web site coordinator. But based on all this other stuff we're hearing, Sweigart could be running the entire station before the year is over.

If all this isn't enough, the parent company of WRBL has imposed occasional hiring freezes in recent months. So it's hard to say when all the staff openings will be filled -- or whether Opelika-Auburn News reporters will wind up doing two jobs.

E-MAIL UPDATE: Now for what we thought might be Blog Exclusive #2 - but it turns out really isn't. It relates to the recent fuss of public safety pay and school budgets:

Richard,

We all know that many city workers have been underpaid, but the upper-level managers are not among them. It would look much better if, in implementing a "92% plan," City employees making over, say, $60,000 a year would forego raises. But no, Hugley and others have turned this into a "money grab" for themselves. There is a certain income level at which families can live comfortably, and beyond it, there is diminishing utility from the increased income. In other words, police officers making $25,000 can make better use of a raise than City management.

Note that a few years ago, Hugley was angling for a raise for himself, which was aborted due to the public outcry. Remember how he offered to do the work of a city manager and an assistant for the increased salary? Well, ha, now he will have an increased salary anyway--as will his assistant!

What happened to the benevolent ideal behind public service? You know, where people are willing to work for a lower salary to serve the public rather than the dollar? At $117,000 a year, the city manager job is clearly fungible; i.e. if Hugley were to leave town because of his "below market" pay, I'd be willing to bet hundreds of qualified people would be willing to replace him. Of course, we could define "qualified" as "having managed a lightly used bus service for a few years," and that would restrict the number of people but would also be dishonest.

I do credit that the MCSD has a much worse problem with administrative pay. There, an "Ed.D. in Educational Leadership" from Argosy University in Sarasota, Fla., a online degree program that is not accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools despite being located in Fla., will bring with it an automatic pay raise. See recent appointment of Spencer High principal, who made over $100,000 last year.

Regards,

Thomas

I'll take your word for it, Thomas, when you say there's "a certain income level at which families can live comfortably." Maybe you've found it, but so many people I meet in Columbus still haven't....

If City Manager Isaiah Hugley is offered a raise by Columbus Council (and remember, it approved the entire pay plan from top to bottom), it's easy for us to say he should turn it down or give it to charity. But I don't hear people making that sort of complaint when Atlanta sports teams sign big-name stars. And by the way, where should the Russell County baseball players donate their signing bonuses?

Thomas sent me running to a dictionary when he declared the City Manager's job is "fungible." I'd never heard Isaiah Hugley compared to fungi before in my life....

But no: "fungible" means according to Webster's New World Dictionary: "designating goods, as grain, any unit or part of which can replace another unit, as in discharging a debt...." Councilor Nathan Suber tried to apply that definition to the Marshal's Department, and was voted down at the polls. At least Mayor Bob Poydasheff didn't try to become City Manager when Carmen Cavezza left.

The potential Blog Exclusive came from Thomas's last paragraph. I couldn't find the resume of new Spencer High School principal Isaac Neal Jr. online Sunday, to verify his doctorate. The Muscogee County School District's web site doesn't even have the minutes of its May meeting posted yet....

But is Argosy University a "diploma mill," as Thomas seems to be suggesting here? The Argosy web site indicates to me it's not. The accreditation comes from the "North Central Association," which is the Midwestern version of SACS - so let's keep our Southern elitism to football here.

BLOG UPDATE: More details surfaced Sunday about the closing of Peachtree Mall stores. It turns out mall security called for the closures, not Columbus Police. The security staff is also the reason why TV cameras have to point toward the mall from Burger King, across Manchester Expressway.

(Really now - the only time you MIGHT see TV reporters inside Peachtree Mall is on the Friday after Thanksgiving. If you didn't know better, you'd think Dillard's and Parisian were controlled by a strange religious cult.)

Columbus Police say a kiosk at Peachtree Mall was damaged in the food court fighting, before stores were closed. If the Swiss Colony stand was there 12 months a year, it could have turned into a sausage fight rivaling a Jerry Springer Show.

One witness claimed at least 13 Columbus police cars responded to the unrest at the Peachtree Mall food court. Obviously there was reason for concern - since the Taco Bell versus Chick-fil-A rivalry has been simmering for years.

For all the tumult in the Peachtree Mall food court, it turns out only two people were arrested for disorderly conduct. Next time, those people should be pointed in a different direction from "Family Day in the Park" - toward the Sports Arena where they hold pro wrestling matches.

So should Davis Broadcasting be blamed for the Peachtree Mall trouble? The staff there probably would say no, explaining they can't control what people do after Family Day in the Park ends. And let's face it - the mall is much farther away from Cooper Creek Park than the parking lot of The Fire House club was.

Now for final thoughts from Father's Day 2006:

+ A party at Lakebottom Park wished the Chattahoochee Valley Vipers well in their first playoff game tonight at Rome. The indoor football team had to be disappointed, because the crowd was much smaller than for Family Day in the Park - and the Three Six Mafia didn't do a rap tune in their honor.

+ Indiana University golfer Seth Brandon won the Southeastern Amateur tournament at the Country Club of Columbus. He's an amateur?! At least he shot under par - while those so-called pros at the U.S. Open had trouble breaking five-over.

+ Instant Message to the Georgia Lottery: I don't get it. You had several scratch-off tickets for Mother's Day, but nothing for Father's Day?! Aren't some dads more likely to buy those tickets -- perhaps to avoid paying child support?

BURKARD'S BEST BETS: Gas for $2.61 a gallon at Dolly Madison on Victory Drive.... skim milk for $1.43 a half-gallon at Piggly Wiggly.... World Cup matches in Spanish on "Viva 1460" AM, the way soccer is meant to be presented (and who cares who's playing, the announcers are wonderfully excited)....

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