Same Muscle Shoals City Council?

At the meeting on 4/16/2018, the Muscle Shoals City Council voted to eliminate the term limits for the North Alabama Gas District. All other boards come under the two term limit rule. We must ask why? Well, the answer is probably quite simple. The council says it’s because two members of the board are appointed by the Madison City Council and Madison doesn’t impose term limits. Good try fellows but this answer doesn’t pass the smell test. Muscle Shoals has absolutely nothing to do with the Madison appointments and Madison has absolutely nothing to do with the Muscle Shoals appointments. So then what could possibly be the reason…hmmm… Well, looking at the makeup of the City Council and certain employees of the North Alabama Gas District, we can begin to see what’s going on.

Just so happens that a certain long time councilman’s (Councilman A) son works for the NAGD…Oh but wait, we’re not through, another long time councilman’s (Councilman B) son also works for the NAGD. But of course neither councilman had anything to do with their sons being hired. Sorry guys but that won’t pass the smell test either because a NAGD board member at the time councilman A’s son was hired made the mistake of bragging (while somewhat intoxicated) how he got the boy hired. But then this member was removed from the board when the council passed the rule that board members couldn’t be related to employees of the board they serve on, so the board member was immediately placed on another prestigious, money paying-free vacation board. Councilman B said he knew nothing about his son even seeking employment with the NAGD and that the boy just walked right in the NAGD office and convinced the manager that he should hire him and he did. Well, that doesn’t pass the smell test either because the manager tells a completely different story of how Councilman B continuously contacted him about hiring his son. So, let’s see if you really plan to do the right thing. Term limit resolutions mean nothing because your individual vote determines the number of terms for each member. So guess you’ll have to try again to avoid exposure to your underhanded deed. GOTCHA!

Same City Council voted to impose two term limits on all municipal boards. However, the meeting prior to passing this resolution, two members were reappointed to the Electric Board – another money paying-free vacation board. Problem was, one of the newly reappointed board members couldn’t keep a secret and told that he had been in conversation with some of the city councilmen and that he and the other board member had nothing to worry about because they wouldn’t pass the resolution until they were reappointed.  Matter of fact, the individual had no idea one of the people he was telling had his phone on record…oh the beauty of today’s technology.

Same City Council, with the exception of Mr. Chris Hall, voted to send a request to the legislature which will place an additional 5 mil property tax on Muscle Shoals residents. Council members say we are the lowest mil rate in the area…THEY LIED! Check with Revenue Commissioner Oswalt and you’ll see we already pay 16 mils. When asked where they got their info, ready for this answer…BOE Superintendent Brian Lindsey told them it was 7.5…HE LIED! Four of the five (3 of which have served multiple terms) had no idea what the millage rate was…and guess what, they don’t care. You ask why pass such a resolution requesting the mil increase??? Their answer, because BOE Superintendent Brian Lindsey told them they had to have it.

Same City Council, with the exception of Mr. Chris Hall, would not honor the request of a citizen’s group to request the legislature allow Muscle Shoals to have an elected BOE. The fantastic four said they’re pleased with the way everything is being handled at the BOE. Of course, 3 of the 4 have spouses that either currently work for or have retired from the MS school system. OK to tax us but not OK to give us a referendum for an elected BOE.

Same City Council, with the exception of Mr. Chris Hall, voted to reappoint embattled BOE member Clayton Wood for another 6 year term. Councilman Ken Sockwell personally told several of us who spoke with him that he was not supporting Mr. Wood’s reappointment…but guess what…HE LIED and voted for Wood!    

Well the list could go on and on but we’ll stop here and let these sink in for a while. People of Muscle Shoals surely expect much better than this. We dare any member of the council to deny any of the above facts because we won’t hesitate to publicly bring forward the proof positive. First, we’ll work to defeat the mil tax and then we’ll work to remove Noles, Willis, Lockhart and Sockwell. Good news is, there are already individuals lining up to run against Lockhart and Sockwell so now all needed are opponents for Willis and Noles.  More to come...stay tuned! 

A Muscle Shoals Citizen

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The above letter is extremely interesting. We took the liberty of putting the most interesting paragraph in red. If we lived in Muscle Shoals, we would be contacting not only our council, but Brian Lindsey.