No Difference in Resume' and Ballot except Voters

 

On July 30th, the five current members of the Florence City Council will select a new member to represent District 2. Yes, that was five...5...FIVE. That's in opposition to the over 2K who voted in that district in the last municipal election. Basically the only difference in the election processes is the numbers...and of course the fact that none from the council actually lives in District 2.

Now, let's look at something very odd. We profiled all five candidates, numbering them in alphabetical order. We had much more data on two of the candidates than we did the others. Our published info came from the candidates themselves and/or previously published biographies.

On July 13th, we profiled candidate Jackie Lloyd Hendrix. Five days later we received two disparaging comments - one from a member of the Alabama State Legislature who resides in a Colbert County town and one from a laborer who resides in a Lauderdale County village.

Both our posters, even though they were at opposite ends of the socio-cognitive spectrum, took umbrage at us mentioning the candidate's family before he was even selected. Let's throw some logic into the mix; families and their associations can make or break an election. We seem to remember the Colbert County reader mentioning his family when he ran for the state house.

There was one dramatic difference between the two criticisms: the Lauderdale manual laborer called our bloggers a vulgar name. Yes, he's banned.

Many who live in District 2 have waited years for a council member who isn't given to special interests and who truly cares about the area. Let's not mess it up with Dick v. 2.0!

Who Wants Info about District 2 Candidates Hidden?

 

We recently ran short bios on the five candidates for the new District 2 Florence rep. All information came from public bios with the exception of River Zurinsky's. River was kind enough to send us the same bio he used for his application to replace Dick Jordan.

As we do with all our blogs, we linked these candidate bios to Facebook. Now FB has removed two as Spam. Why?

The first was Mr. Zurinsky's. It was long, but we have no idea why FB's new AI editor would consider it spam. The second was Inga Carroll-Harden's. We did mention the name of her downtown business; is that spam? 1984 is here; it's just 40 years late.

We've had some public comment on our bio of Jackie Hendrix. Horrors, we mentioned his family. Politicians usually mention their families in their press releases, and Hendrix has the most PUBLIC info of any of the candidates. Jimmy Hickman has the least public info, so his bio was the shortest; if we had known more, we would have published more.

Whoever the lucky/unlucky winner of the private selection is, we will be doing a much more in depth blog on their background. This is common in politics in a world where senators and their wives take bribes and local representatives give their entire families jobs at taxpayer expense.

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While on the subject of politics, we received some criticism for mentioning many can't spell J.D. Vance's last name. It's both sad and humorous and has nothing to do with Vance himself. This just shows how so many take offense at the slightest statement. 

The candidate was dressed in blue? Hey, what's wrong with blue?

This country needs to see the bigger picture and very quickly.

Five Candidates for Florence District 2 Rep

 

The deadline for submission of resumes for Florence City Council District 2 was yesterday. According to the city clerk, there were five submissions. Who were they?

1. Inga Carroll-Harden

2. Jackie Hendrix

3. Jimmy Hickman

4. Billy Ray Simpson

5. River Zurinsky

In the next few days, we'll be posting short bios on these five.

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For the one person inquiring, ZAR is not new to our blog. We published his first column in March 2019. If he is annoying, or if we're annoying, we suggest you never darken our cyber page again. Fair enough?

We'll add that sexual harassment is never funny. If you find it so, the problem lies with you.

Florence District 2 Needs Its Own Attorney

 

Mail from our readers is indicating a "No" to the possibility of Jackie Hendrix as Rep. Jordan's replacement by four to one. Could this happen legally? We believe it could not, but District 2 obviously needs its own attorney to sort through this.

First, Florence is a Class 5 municipality. Cities with over 12K residents do things differently from smaller towns. Looking at the Alabama Code, it appears an election is called for.

While that should be the definitive answer to the problem of replacing District 2 councilman Dick Jordan, some suggested consulting the handbook for Alabama municipalities. The handbook was updated in 2020; however, part of the entry on replacing a Class 5 council member refers to a 1957 court ruling. This does not inspire confidence in its interpretation of the law.

Surely there are a number of legal eagles living in District 2 who would be willing to attend the Tuesday, July 2nd meeting where fireworks are expected. No one should want Tricky Dicky v. 2.0 as a replacement for Mr. Nepotism. 

Don't say "Let George do it." George left with the brain drain three decades ago.

Look into my eyes. I know what's best for you.