14 NOV 06: WHERE "HAS" ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?

"I have no idea where that came from." That's what Muscogee County Schools Athletic Director Charles Flowers told your blog Monday, when we asked about rumors involving his future. No, he has no plans to step down or change jobs. Whoever tried this "psych job" may have forgotten he doesn't coach Shaw High School football anymore.

We had received another e-mail rumor involving Muscogee County Schools. This time, Charles Flowers supposedly was about to give up the district athletic director job to move to Carver High School. This rumor apparently started at Shaw High - where you'd think they'd try to spread rumors to bring him back.

The rumor passed on to me went all over the place. It involved coaches who supposedly are not fully certified, yet keep coaching. It involved supposedly unpaid bills for state championship rings. And most seriously, it involved Charles Flowers's family. If the old series "Boston Public" had a plot like this, it might still be on the air.

But I was focused less on the soap opera and more on the job situation - because if the facts were wrong about Charles Flowers's job, could I really trust any of the other stuff? Well, I suppose a chicken CAN keep running for a while with its head cut off....

Charles Flowers strongly indicated to me the rumor about an upcoming job change was wrong. So maybe the rumor-spreaders should get their evidence together, and spread it before the school board - because last time I checked, we don't elect athletic directors in Columbus.

The timing of the Charles Flowers rumor is interesting, as both Carver and Shaw are preparing for the high school football playoffs. The AAA bracket actually makes it possible for Carver to face Atlanta's Carver High in the quarterfinals. Maybe the tiebreaker in that game should be a peanut invention quiz.

Shaw faces a long road trip to open the playoffs. The Raiders play Friday night at South Effingham -- which makes me wonder if the bracket-maker owns a lot of oil company stock.

Several area teams remain in the Alabama high school football playoffs. There are Auburn and Opelika in class 6-A, Eufaula in class 5-A, along with Lanett and Loachapoka in class 2-A - where you'd think a high school named "Holy Spirit" would have had the power to make the second round.

Our check of the football pairings Monday night uncovered a local group of state champions you may not know about. Congratulations to Columbus High, which won the Georgia AAA title for one-act plays. The group performed "The Grass Harp" - and somehow the Metro Narcotics Task Force never knew about it.

BLOG SPECIAL EVENT: Thanks to all the blog readers who called Monday, when we made a second appearance on WLTZ's "Rise-N-Shine." And my apologies again to the people of Chattahoochee County - as I hope the county police cars come out of hiding very soon.

A Chattahoochee County Commissioner called Rise-N-Shine to say I'd made a "potentially libelous" comment about vandalized police cars, and should apologize for it. I'd basically repeated a line we posted here last month [26 Oct] -- but I knew I should have taken my bell to ring, so everyone was clear about when I told the jokes.

Rise-N-Shine host Calvin Floyd told me the few Chattahoochee County police cars had disappeared from view in recent days. Some might think it's because of the commission election, with voters supporting the county sheriff. But I offered my own theory: "It's called undercover work."

In case you missed Rise-N-Shine, the "open line" hour touched on many things - besides a couple of plugs for my album:

+ Two callers disagreed about what women face in the Darfur region of Sudan. This was a pretty serious international topic, for a Monday morning at 6:00 in Columbus - and I wondered if these callers had been unable to get through to C-SPAN.

+ Bert Coker called to discuss his failed write-in campaign for mayor. He promised to campaign next time under the name "Tyrone the Tiger." He might do better moving to Tyrone, Georgia, near Peachtree City.

+ The walking government magnifying glass also called. Paul Olson claimed Pastor J.H. Flakes is breaking the rules for non-profit groups, by making calls on behalf of One Columbus, Inc. endorsing city candidates. Of course, if we really WERE "One Columbus," there would have been no need for an election.

(By the way, if Paul Olson is finally reading the blog today - are you going to report Bert Coker? His big campaign sign hadn't come down from outside your business Monday morning, and it's six days after the vote.)

+ A woman spotted something about the telephone listings for Glenwood School we admittedly overlooked. The spelling may be right now - but the location is listed as both Phenix City and Smiths Station, depending on which line you read. Maybe the administrators are hedging their bets, until the next Phenix City Mayor receives that big raise.

+ But perhaps the thing which amazed me most was the topic absolutely no caller brought up - Georgia's big win over Auburn.

E-MAIL UPDATE: We know important people watch NBC-38 in the morning, because we heard Monday from the woman in charge of Midtown Inc.:

Richard - Enjoyed seeing you on Rise-n-Shine. Appreciate the service you are providing. I also appreciate your attempts to stop inaccurate spin. I am interested in the criticism of Councilor Suber's voting against an internal auditor. I do think that his detractors are misconstruing that vote as being against having an outside or independent auditor, which is a completely different thing. An internal auditor is certainly not independent, like an outside auditor. It can be said that an internal auditor is redundant of the services which are being providing, or should be provided, by the Finance Director. In fact, the internal auditor we previously had either missed the Dumping Fees issue or handled it improperly, giving rise to the question of whether an internal auditor is a functional or efficient position in our city structure. I wonder why the council did not suggest that the Finance Director (who has more accountability than a lower ranked internal auditor) was not given the internal auditor oversight and required to report to council directly 4 times a year. That certainly would have resulted in less overhead for the city in creating a largely redundant position of internal auditor. Seems to me that Mr Suber had the more efficient solution to the problem by voting to maintain the outside, independent auditor and requiring the Finance Director to oversee internal audit functions. That certainly costs the taxpayers less and would be more efficient. It also seems to me that Mr. Suber's detractors are misleading the public into thinking that the councilor voted against an independent auditor, which is incorrect.

Teresa Pike Tomlinson, Esq.

We should note Ms. Tomlinson is an attorney - so if that libel suit is filed in Chattahoochee County, we're ready.

This issue came up during Rise-n-Shine, and my main question was which sort of auditor would cost the city more money. I'm no Jim "Mr. Common Sense" Wetherington, but I'd think an internal auditor would cost less - so is Nathan Suber repenting of being a big-government Democrat?

Yet another discovery was announced Monday night, where a city auditor could have come in handy. The evening news reported METRA has failed to collect fines on more than 21,000 parking tickets, losing more than $500,000. The big long buses simply can't chase down those violators who speed away.

Speaking of Nathan Suber's "detractors," runoff opponent Jerry Barnes gained the endorsement Monday of third-place candidate Charles Weaver. Isn't this touching to see? Weaver is Vice President of the New Joshua Generation - yet he's still willing to back someone nicknamed Pops.

One other e-mail reached us Monday - as another area blogger says we're wrong again:

No Phenix City businesses congratulating the Little League champs? Don't you ever drive US-80? The Spectrum (or whatever it is) at Auburn Road had one up for a long time. Heck, maybe still has, I need to check when I head to work this AM.

Seem to recall more, but I can't pinpoint any. Could be wrong.

Basil

Yes, I do drive down U.S. 80 once in awhile - but west of U.S. 280 after dark, I'm sometimes distracted by other things. Like making sure I don't run off the dimly-lit road....

Come to think of it, there might actually have been one sign in Phenix City honoring the Northern All-Stars - but I don't think it was anywhere close to the Ladonia sports complex.

Thanks again to all who provide us feedback - and now for some closing memos from Monday:

+ Gas prices in Columbus jumped for the third time in about a week, to $2.14 a gallon near the Civic Center. That'll teach some of you to vote the Democrats into control of Congress.

+ Golden Corral offered its annual free thank-you meal to veterans and active-duty military personnel. It had to take some work to prepare those MRE's for the buffet - you know, Meats Ready to Eat.

+ The Georgia NAACP staged a protest at the Taylor County Courthouse. The county commission apparently still hasn't installed the promised "integrated plaque" listing the county's World War II veterans. So why the delay? Are they having trouble finding an integrated company to make it?!

+ Carmike Cinemas executives told WRBL they hope to make all 15 screens at Columbus Park Crossing digital by January. Those of you in Phenix City will have to go next door to hhgregg, to buy a digital screen of your own....

+ Instant Message to whomever drove a four-by-four on the Phenix City Riverwalk Monday night: First of all, you barely left me room to run. Second of all, I'm not sure that wooden ramp south of 13^th Street was strong enough to hold your vehicle. And third of all, driving with no lights on at around 7:15 p.m. will NOT end our addiction to oil.

BURKARD'S BEST BETS: FREE "Holiday Fest" food samples at Publix stores from 4:00 - 8:00 p.m..... "Preview Day" for Wednesday's one-day sale at Macy's.... and "Mix it Up" day at Northside High School, where we hope students don't organize a fight club....

COMING THIS WEEK: A book war erupts in Columbus homes....

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