Jackie Jives & Michelle Remains Loyal to District

 

Reverb Atlanta - Kalamazoo Still Nonexistent

FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES? 

The August 6th meeting of the Florence City council was not the “thriller” it should have been given all the controversy that led up to it. It was the first full meeting with Dick Jordan’s replacement, Jackie Hendrix Jr., as representative of District 2. I did not know what to expect given what had been exposed about his connections to developer Eugene Sak and some of the actions he took leading up to his appointment. After all, he was “appointed” not elected so there was that little matter. Being called the “hand-picked” successor of Dick Jordan did not help in my formation of a favorable opinion of the guy. Granted, I had never met him, but anyone associated with the Jordan name to me was suspicious. And given Dick’s past “friends and family” plans for favoritism in governing, I was expecting the devil himself to be sitting in the far-left seat on the dais.

For all the suspicion I had, the man who presented himself at the meeting was doing a good job of concealing his horns. He came off as soft-spoken and well educated with a genuine willingness to listen to the concerns of those in the district. He acknowledged that he had not been elected and went on to offer his help to other council members and citizens from all areas of Florence. He came off as a nice guy. Granted, it could be an act, but at least he tried. Of course, I was saddened but not surprised when he did vote for “Sak’s hotel deal”. Eugene Sak owned Grand Rental Station, the predecessor to Jackie’s business Party Pros. Jackie was the store manager at GRS before he bought Sak out. I was hoping he would recuse himself to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest towards his old boss. But evidently, he was not going to be THAT much of a do-good council member.

The council approved the resolution to have a public hearing and draw up some kind of agreement with regards to the Eugene Sak/Hard Rock/Reverb hotel. They ALL, except for Michelle Eubanks, approved of this action and each council member emphatically stated that the action they were taking was in no way an approval of any rebates or help financially to the construction of this hotel. This was only a “first step”, was repeated several times. Mrs. Eubanks summed up the process of this agenda item for me with her statement: “It is like building an airplane as we are flying it”.  Well said, Michelle. Well said.

So, we are in a “wait and see” holding pattern on the entire deal for the hotel. Much has been written and more has been revealed about all parties involved. But for all the things that have been discussed it seems this “project” is still being formulated. The airplane is still being built. Let’s hope a door does not fall from this “air coach” in mid-flight. The rest of the council can hammer away, nobody can accuse you of being “Rosie the riveter” on this project, can they Michelle?!