Down on the Drag with Bare Facts and Even Barer Bottoms

 

The Florence city council meeting for 06/18 had what seemed like very “diverse” topics. First off, there was a request for a rate hike on utilities from manager Mary McDuffa at the work session. This was in conjunction with an item on the consent agenda titled “Resolution to approve the Retail Rate Schedule Substation Agreement”. She was quick to point out that this was “something the utilities committee approved and was necessitated by TVA. It would be approximately $5.00 a month more for commercial customers and $3.00 a month more for residential. The council all seemed to wholeheartedly agree it was the fault of “mean old TVA” that caused this rate increase. Nobody seemed to hear Ms. McDuffa state “something the utilities committee approved”. She further stated it could have been done all at once, but the utility department had decided to “phase the increase to the customers in stages”.

The council seemed to almost praise her for this action. Bill Griffin went as far as to give an example of how Florence utilities lost close to one million dollars in revenue when the city was caught in a snow event which had the area without power for 7 to 10 days. “TVA had raised rates, but Florence had not” he said. Ms. McDuffa backed this up and further stated that due to the heavy volume during the cold weather when the rates went up the utility department had to pay the difference between the TVA rate and what was charged to the Florence utility customer by paying out of “their own funds”. WHOSE FUNDS? Are they not ALL taxpayer money paid to the city. This was a very enlightening little conversation, and I would highly recommend that everyone reading this watch the recording of the live stream on the city of Florence Facebook page. Also, a reminder, Mr. Griffin wants to replace Andy Betterton as mayor. Kaytrina Simmons said while she understood the utility department’s position, she represented a district with many poor and elderly residents. She would vote no on the rate hike. She was the lone dissenting vote. Be prepared to pay “a little more” as Mary McDuffa sold it from the podium.

Two more points of interest in the work session. One was a “change order” from Bill Jordan, department head of parks and recreation. This was for an additional amount of $100,000 to be added to the cost of construction of the “tennis & pickleball” complex at Veteran’s Park to be paid to Craig construction. Mr. Jordan explained that a post that somehow would be obstructing the view from one of the courts needed to be moved. This was somehow going to obstruct vision while “playing” one of the “sports” and presented a safety hazard. I was confused as to why this was a problem and still do not know what blocked a player's vision. 

Nonetheless, the item was immediately brought up for approval of the council by Jimmy Oliver. It was seconded and passed unanimously. So, add another $100k to the $9,000,000.00+ that is being spent on this “project”. The second item of interest for me at the work session was really confusing. Andy Betterton sponsored a resolution to establish a “public education building authority” with UNA. The lawyer for UNA, Amber Fite Morgan came to the podium and explained this was an agreement with the city for UNA to create a “real estate” foundation named “1830” to fund the new stadium. No explanation was given as to where the name came from*. Ms. Morgan said this was a funding mechanism that would help with raising the capital for building projects at UNA, specifically the stadium. She further stated that a resolution from the city was necessary since the stadium was being built within the city limits. The bottom line for her “pitch” was that this resolution would in no way obligate the city to spend any taxpayer dollars to fund the foundation. Think Eugene Sak and his pitch at the last council meeting for the REVERB hotel. Once again, to this reporter the parable of the old woman and the snake come to mind.

The meeting itself sailed along smoothly with the council passing all the consent and regular agenda items without much discussion and controversy. That was reserved for the remarks from the public when David Carson came to the microphone. June is gay pride month. It is celebrated by gay people all over the world with parades and gatherings. For the past few years, it appears there has been some sort of celebration in Florence. On June 8th the Shoals Diversity Center had a gathering to celebrate “Pride” in Wilson Park. Part of the festivities was a drag performance in which a female impersonator performed. The “show” was recorded and posted on You Tube. In the video, the “drag queen” can be seen lip syncing to a song in front of the fountain at the park. In his remarks, Mr. Carson made it clear he did not approve of celebrating being gay period and “drag” shows in general. But, to him the attire the performer was wearing was the most offensive. In the You Tube video; it can be seen there was some type of see through cape revealing a prominent view of “the performer's” bare behind save for a “thong”. During the show several children were seen present in the park. Mr. Carson stated that while he did not approve of the gay lifestyle and “drag” shows, his main concern was that this performance by the drag queen was in public around children in the daylight in Florence. And dressed or lack thereof as shown in the You Tube video. To him a line had been crossed.

When it was Jimmy Oliver’s turn to make councilperson’s remarks, he stated that he had received several complaints from constituents about this performance at “Pride at the park” and agreed with some portions of David Carson’s remarks regarding this entertainer’s outfit. He further stated that there were city laws on the books regarding “how much of your clothing you can remove” in a building. Let alone in a park. Mr. Oliver went on to say that while it appears parents willingly took their children to this event, that does not mean there were not innocent children passing by who were unaware of what was “going on” and would “get an eye full.” He said the council had been made aware of the complaints he had received about this event and hopes to have further discussions about it.

Two subjects that have been in the news lately were not mentioned by a council member or the public at this meeting. The approximately $2.5 million the city has been reported to owe the county in back taxes from retail package alcohol sales and the $70 million price tag as stated to a WAAY 31 television reporter by Tad Cole, water and sewer manager, regarding the cost to remove PFA’s from the drinking water that would be passed on to the consumer in the form of rate hikes. You must have priorities!

* As for the name 1830, that is the year Lagrange College was founded. For sketchy reasons, the University of North Alabama has always claimed that date as well.