Will Motlow/Tourism Board/Canada Rob

Yesterday we published a bio of William Smith. Today we present the political bio of the second Republican candidate for Lauderdale Probate Judge, Will Motlow:

FLORENCE – Lauderdale County Probate Judge Will Motlow has announced that he is seeking another term.

Motlow said that he is seeking the Republican nomination in the June 5 Primary Election.

“It has been an honor to serve the people of Lauderdale County as their Probate Judge,” he said. “My friend and predecessor, Judge James Hall, did a great job as our Probate Judge. Because of him, the Probate Office was in good shape when I took over. I have done some things to build on that strong foundation and believe that I can continue to serve the people of Lauderdale County at a high level.”

Motlow was appointed Probate Judge in May of 2015 after the unexpected passing of Judge James Hall. He is a 2004 graduate of the University of North Alabama with a degree in History and Economics. He graduated from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in 2007.

After graduating law school, Motlow entered private practice as an attorney in Florence. In 2010, he was appointed as the Prosecutor for the Town of Rogersville. In 2013, he became the Judge for the Town of St. Florian. He held both of those positions until taking office as Probate Judge.

He is a member and Past President of the Kiwanis Club of Rogersville. He is also a member of the Florence Rotary Club, the Natchez Trace Parkway Association, the Shoals and Rogersville Chambers of Commerce, and the Lauderdale County and State Republican Executive Committees.

Motlow’s wife, Amanda, is the School Counselor at Lexington High School. She is a graduate of Freed-Hardeman University and obtained her Master’s Degree from the University of North Alabama.

He cites technological upgrades and the expansion of the Mental Health Officer program as some of his accomplishments since taking office.

“Our land records are now accessible online,” he said. “Those records are available through syscononline.com. There is a fee to use the service, but it costs the county nothing. The good thing is that the people who use it pay for it. This added service came at no additional cost to the taxpayers.”

Motlow has also been proactive in dealing with mental health issues.

“We have a unique model of using only law enforcement officers as Mental Health Officers,” he said. “The program has been expanded under my direction, thanks to the cooperation of Florence Police Chief Ron Tyler and Sheriff Rick Singleton, to include both the Florence PD and the Sheriff’s Department. Several other counties and municipalities have asked us to teach them what we do. We have a program here in Lauderdale County that is a model for the rest of the State.”

Motlow describes himself as a pro-life conservative who believes that the role of a judge is to interpret the law, not make law from the bench. He and his wife, Amanda, live in the Pine Hill community and attend Magnolia Church of Christ.

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Just my opinion...

Tourism in the Shoals area has been one of the biggest contributors of the local economy since the early 1990s when tourism branched out from under the helm of the Chamber of Commerce. After that move, there was a huge push to bring organized fishing tournaments to local lakes which exposed fishing in Pickwick Lake, Wilson Lake and Wheeler Lakes to the rest of the United States.  The rest is history.  

Until the last 5-10 years, the Florence Lauderdale Tourism department has had excellent representation on their Board of Directors.  Typically a board of directors of any organization are made up of a diverse group of individuals who are somewhat related to or familiar with the industry it represents.  How awkward would it be for a group of lawyers or teachers to be on the board for a union of ironworkers or plumbers, unless they had a great deal of knowledge on the subject?  How about a hospital board?  Would it make sense that street workers or factory worker to be asked to sit on a hospital board?  Well, only if those individuals were familiar with that industry would that make sense.  

So why do we put a group of old men on this board?  They have never worked in the tourism industry, know very little about tourism and are obviously controlled by whomever appointed them to be on our local tourism board ????  Why are these old men so afraid to have any representation from the industry they are appointed to HELP????  What are they hiding?  Why do they fight this so hard?  

Why did this board opt to hire a guy from Canada to run the tourism department? (why would a guy from Canada want to come to Florence, Alabama, is also a question we ponder but that answer is clear…it was close to Nashville TN.  His true passion is singing and song writing and one day moving to Nashville.  He spends more time in Nashville than he does Florence now anyway.  However this is not his fault.  He saw an opportunity to make $100,000 plus a year and took it….lucky for him there are no expectations except to “do as I say” so its a win-win for Canada Rob). 

Perhaps TOTAL CONTROL is the answer to all of these questions.  

The question we ALL have is why are there still 2 tourism departments in the Shoals area?   What a waste of resources.  Its time to re-evaluate the way we promote tourism in the Shoals. Combine the 2 offices and put them back under the helm of the Chamber of Commerce.  Have "welcome to the shoals" centers at the major entrances of Colbert and Lauderdale Counties showing that we are one big area working together to invite visitors to come see us and stay a while.  Together we can do a lot more that benefits everyone, not just a few of the long time Florence City Councilmen.