for 21 DEC 07: COPPER FOR THE COPS

Instant Message to St. Luke United Methodist Church: About the sermon title you've posted for this weekend, "YES, YES, YES, YES" - are you aware the one-cent sales tax vote for public safety probably won't happen until next summer?

Mayor Jim Wetherington officially launched the drive for a one-cent public safety sales tax Thursday. He told a Columbus Chamber of Commerce breakfast he'll bring the idea before Columbus Council for a vote next month. That's one way to make sure Councilors get plenty of e-mails over the holidays.

Mayor Wetherington cited several places in Columbus where more police officers are needed....

+ On the Riverwalk. Well, OK - as long as they're on bicycles, and not those buggies which leave fumes in front of us joggers.

+ Downtown. Send those late-night MP patrols back to Fort Benning, to watch for sneaky protest marchers.

+ City parks. Huh?! Several squad cars are parked at Benning Park now - and still vandals spray-paint the racquetball courts, while those officers are at their desks.

Police Chief Ricky Boren noted after the mayor's speech that the Columbus city budget has room for 388 officers. Boren says that number hasn't changed since 1994 - so be thankful there's no way the city can annex land outside Muscogee County.

Chief Ricky Boren says we need a one-cent sales tax for public safety, because he can't cut the police budget anymore. The Public Safety Center had to close to the public on weekends a couple of years ago. Any more cuts could mean your "citizen arrests" will have to be filed online, with the suspects taken to Recorder's Court from your garage.

But if you think all the money from a one-cent sales tax will be used for more police officers, think again. Mayor Wetherington explained some of the money would be used to build new precinct stations. And keep another important expense in mind - in 14 months, police stations will need high-definition TV's to watch "America's Most Wanted."

Mayor Wetherington added some of the public safety sales tax money would be used to expand the Columbus city jail. I don't know how crowded the jail is now - but I doubt the staff serves sardines to inmates, to remind them of how packed things are.

The evening news raised one big challenge Columbus city officials will face in winning a public safety sales tax vote. It's the question of trust in city government. I can almost see Paul Olson now, taking a mug shot of Officer Larry Lightning to Kinko's....

THE BIG BLOG QUESTION suddenly is a busy thing - and we're asking now for your early vote on the "copper for the cops" question. Would you support a one-cent city sales tax for public safety? Or are you waiting for some kind of promise from the mayor that parks will be built around new precinct buildings?

(By the way - yes, I know they don't make pennies out of copper anymore. But the police slang word "cop" came from the fact that officers wore copper badges long ago. Maybe some of the sales tax money will buy new badges as well - maybe even with built-in Tasers.)

The mayor's address to the Chamber of Commerce was billed as a "State of Columbus" speech, so Jim Wetherington touched on other topics. He said more than 100 new business permits have been issued in the city this year. As someone who's purchased those permits, I can tell you this translates into more than 1,500 unwanted sales calls from Pitney Bowes.

Mayor Wetherington also noted how full restaurants are on Friday nights, on the north side of Columbus. He joked, "I don't think anybody cooks anymore." Believe me, Mr. Mayor, some people still do - and along Cusseta Road and St. Mary's Road where new restaurants are lacking, they really do.

E-MAIL UPDATE: Back to that trust thing, involving city government....

Who you know, or ?????????????????

I'm very curious as to why some city employees like Zach are given a "free" pass to break rules & laws that go against everything he was sworn to do just like a lot of our police officers who beat their wives and sell drugs. However, when a hardworking, honest, dependable officer who has dedicated his life to the profession, arrests someone; and that someone makes up ridiculous and exaggerated complaints; the officer is humiliated, disgraced, and punished by removing him from the streets for OVER a month while it is "investigated"....... We need more police like him. Close this ridiculous case, and re-instate him before he gets fed up and goes to a REAL police dept.

I'm not sure which police case this is about - but why is working at an office desk considered "disgrace and punishment" for a police officer?! Someone has to work there, to keep the department running properly. Or does a cubicle remind some officers too much of where they want to keep criminals?

As for Zachary Allen: Thursday's Ledger-Enquirer revealed he applied to work with the city of LaGrange earlier this year - and offered a reference letter from Columbus Assistant Fire Chief David Starling. Trouble is, Starling says he never wrote the letter.

Wednesday's Blog Special Event based in Atlanta brought a comment as well:

You really hadn't heard the Techies sing the Bud song before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Tech_traditions#Budweiser_Song

North Ave Trade School ain't much of a school - you noted the main words of the fight song (they just can't get past how much better The University of Georgia is) and words the sing to Budweiser are pretty weak as well. You gotta hand it to them for their speedy sliderule use however.

Go Dawgs! (like you hadn't guessed)

No, I'd never heard it before. The Georgia Tech radio broadcasts usually are in commercial breaks when it's sung - but Bud Light has yet to make the inventor of the slide rule a "Real Man of Genius."

That Budweiser jingle became popular in the 1970's, when my alma mater Kansas had a star basketball player named Bud Stallworth. I simply swapped names, when the K.U. pep band played the song at games. But I was a teenager - and probably very naive....

Let's see if other news items from Thursday make you break out in song....

+ Talbot County Chief Investigator Charles Ashley told WXTX "News at Ten" Sheriff Bill Johnson asked him to resign, and he doesn't understand why. Could this have anything to do with the decision not to press charges at the Box Springs junkyard? [6 Dec] Or is talking to a blogger about it suddenly a violation of county policy?

(Sheriff Bill Johnson explained Charles Ashley did nothing illegal - but there was a "pattern of behavior" he didn't like. Maybe this is one Sheriff who still wants his officers to wear neckties on the job.)

+ Several Peachtree Mall merchants told WLTZ year-end sales are slow this year. Isn't this great news? Everyone will be able to park close to the door this weekend....

+ Georgia Public Broadcasting presented a 2002 documentary on the late House Speaker Tom Murphy. Former Columbus House member Tom Buck said during the program Murphy was willing to correct himself, if you could show him he's wrong. Well, maybe if you were a Democrat - because Murphy considered Republicans wrong from the outset.

(Tom Murphy's body will lie in honor today at the Georgia State Capitol. We hope all the mourners behave themselves - and none of them are tempted to shout, "Sine Die!")

+ Atlanta Police admitted about 500 parking meters have been stolen in the last year. Some people simply are too desperate for quarters to use at coin laundries....

+ The University of Alabama announced fewer than 1,000 tickets remain for the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana. What I feared is coming true -- some Crimson Tide fans have joined a cult, and will follow Coach Nick Saban any old place.

2007 IN REVIEW, CONTINUED: April began with news that former Muscogee County School Board President Mary Sue Polleys was joining Georgia's state school board. Maybe next year she'll have an impact on local schools - other than spreading the news about that expensive administrative building.

The Muscogee County School Board voted in April to make the King James Version its official translation for "Bible Literature" courses. Hopefully no high school students have asked when basketball star LeBron James wrote it....

The principal of Pine Ridge Elementary School in Harris County was named Georgia's "Principal of the Year" during April. This gained him extensive news coverage - so he was a principal plus interest.

Muscogee County Judge Haywood Turner pleaded guilty during April, to an act of reckless conduct on the J.R. Allen Parkway. Rumors that Turner would retire proved untrue - but I wonder if fellow Judge Bobby Peters cried about it in private, the way he did publicly in open court the other day.

A strange case was closed at the Muscogee County District Attorney's office in April. Gray Conger handed over the remains of murdered Fort Benning soldier Richard Davis - remains he reportedly kept in a box in his office for months. The daily spraying of disinfectant probably has stopped by now....

A stunning April cold snap left Columbus morning temperatures near freezing, and Atlanta with snow flurries. So as you consider Thursday night's welcome rainstorm, don't look on it as global warming - think of it as winter coming a few weeks later nowadays.

In a sign of trouble to come, Summit Hospital announced the closing of its obstetrics unit in April. Phenix City residents probably should NOT expect it to come back - especially since Hughston Clinic doesn't have a pediatric ward.

East Alabama Medical Center also made news in April, by reaching a legal settlement with the Mayor of Hurtsboro. Sandra Tarver-Yoe had to pay more than $12,000, for bills at the adult day care center she owned. The mayor no longer works at that center - as perhaps she developed the same problems as the Hurtsboro city garbage truck.

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited Columbus in April. His topic was diabetes education. Some Republicans have been stunned in the last eight months - because that's really all he wanted to talk about.

An era ended in Columbus radio during April, when WRCG canceled "TalkLine." And then people wonder why Paul Olson and Bert Coker talk on and on at Columbus Council meetings - they hardly have anywhere else to go.

(I don't think I'm out of order in revealing now that TalkLine host Robbie Watson applied to be part of WLTZ's news team later in the year. She certainly could do a sports report much better than Jeremy Moss -- and show videotape from local football games, too.)

Another end came during April, as Columbus had no Riverfest. While the weekend fair now is out of business, at least this year it was replaced by Garrison Keillor and "Prairie Home Companion." Too bad a spectator decided she wanted to be Keillor's companion, and sent him strange e-mails.

George Del Gobbo marked 20 years with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in April. If I know his curious sense of humor, he'll mark 21 years this coming April by holding a blackjack night at the RiverCenter.

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