14 MAR 07: THE BUBBA-FREE ZONE?

A Phenix City Council member revealed Tuesday the City Manager has been asked to resign. But the request didn't come from that Council member - it came from Mayor Jeff Hardin. This could be a rare case where loose lips actually save a ship.

Phenix City Councilor John Storey spilled the beans to TV stations, claiming Mayor Jeff Hardin gave a letter to City Manager Bubba Roberts Monday asking for Roberts's resignation. The reason reportedly involves a lack of communication - and if the Mayor is sending letters instead of making phone calls, we may have the proof.

John Storey notes if the Phenix City Manager does not resign, it would take three votes on the City Council to remove him. Storey says the mayor does NOT have those votes right now. This seems to put Bubba Roberts between a rock and a Hardin place.

John Storey admitted to WRBL this is a bad time for Phenix City to have division between the Mayor and City Manager. The Mayor should learn from Columbus about this - because Mayor Jim Wetherington still hasn't found a good time to disagree with City Manager Isaiah Hugley.

Councilor John Storey also said Phenix City Manager Bubba Roberts should be "left alone to do his job." Well, hold on here - doesn't the city manager face job reviews by the City Council? Leave him alone, and he might start working from home in his pajamas.

If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, it should. The Phenix City Council tried to abolish the City Manager's office a few years ago - and attempted it while Bubba Roberts was away, serving in the Alabama National Guard. Roberts left to fight terrorism, and discovered John Murtha and Nancy Pelosi wanna-bes were left behind.

At least this time, Mayor Jeff Hardin is going after the City Manager while he's actually in Phenix City. And this time, he's ASKING for a resignation - so Bubba Roberts can't join one-time Acting Mayor Max Wilkes in a class-action lawsuit.

But this is yet another example of a "power play" by Phenix City's Mayor. Remember the talk last year about quadrupling Mayor Jeff Hardin's pay? [8 Nov 06] It was approved, then taken back. You're left wondering if the mayor is trying to free up money in the city budget to get that raise again.

No one would dare mention another possible reason to change the Phenix City Manager - and that's the man's name. How many visitors have come to our area, learned there's a City Manager named Bubba, and gone home cracking all sorts of redneck jokes?

Let's be real here: Bubba is one of those names which often gets associated with the South - and often not in a complimentary way by Northerners. It takes a certain amount of toughness to go through life with a name like Bubba. And why Bubba Smith isn't in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, I have no idea....

(For the sake of being REALLY real: My late Dad called me "Butch" all the time. I really didn't know why, I didn't appreciate the nickname very much -- and I actually tried to avoid getting in fights behind the junior high school.)

Yet did you hear about the New Mexico truck driver who wants to be called Bubba? He's filed papers to legally change his name to "Ynot Bubba." [True/A.P.] So at formal occasions, he would stand out from everyone else - because he'd be MISTER Bubba.

BLOG CORRECTION: This blog apparently irritated some people Tuesday, and NOT at The Valley Partnership. (At least no one there has written us yet.) So today we'd like to issue an apology. Not a statement of "I regret I opened my big mouth" like General Peter Pace or former basketball player Tim Hardaway, but an apology....

This blog was singled out by the Sin City Inquisition and Bar B Q blog of Phenix City, for several reasons. For one thing, we used the word "predictions" to describe what the Sin City blogger considered questions based on facts. For leaping to conclusions based on a blog's tone and usual theme, we apologize. We should not look cynically on a writer who uses "cynicism" in his statement of philosophy.

This blog further disappointed the Idle Hour Webs "Redneckin" blog of Phenix City, by suggesting it made predictions about new job development as well. For leaping to conclusions based on a mock billboard with what some might consider a slurring word, we apologize.

The Sin City Inquisition and Bar B Q blog also considers it a "queer habit" that this blog has not specifically named it here on a regular basis. For presuming readers can figure out the name of another blog based on the links we include, we apologize.

The above-mentioned blogs also do not like our occasional references to them as "competition." For misunderstanding that their often-conservative entries actually are in the pursuit of equality and socialism, we apologize.

And for not "being on top of things," as the Sin City Inquisition and Bar B Q blog stated, we apologize as well. In the future, we will reference that blog's post in our next immediate entry - or not reference it at all. After all, blogs should be immediate. If only some public officials acted the same way in releasing vital news....

We'll probably have more apologies to offer in the next couple of weeks, so keep watching for them. Now let's check other Tuesday news:

+ Columbus Police arrested a man on burglary charges - and one of the counts involves ruining the Bradley Theater's air conditioning unit by stealing copper. The damage is estimated at more than $300,000. Maybe now downtown residents will let that theater serve alcohol at parties....

+ Columbus Council approved money to add six more soccer fields to the Woodruff Farm complex. The Ledger-Enquirer reported each field will cost $100,000 - which means they'll apparently use the most expensive oil-based paint for lines on the planet.

+ Russell County Sheriff Tommy Boswell asked the county commission to endorse a proposed $11,000 raise. The raise is part of a bill in the Alabama Legislature - and since lawmakers already voted to give themselves a 61-percent raise, I don't know why the Sheriff really needs to ask the commission for this.

+ Instant Message to my alma mater Kansas's men's basketball team: OK, we now know we're facing Niagara in the opening round of the playoffs. Go forward remembering the infamous words of Senator Robert Kennedy - "It's on to Chicago, and let's win there!"

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