How Much Respect for Lauderdale's Dead?

 

If you read AL.com, you've noticed that once or twice a month that publication will feature photos of Birmingham area dead who can't be identified or for whom no relatives can be found. Did you ever consider what happens when the homeless die in the Shoals? Within the past year, we can recall at least three "street people" who died in accidents. While their deaths made the news, there was no obituary or death notice.

If the bodies aren't claimed, what happens then. Years ago there was a "pauper" section at the city cemetery on East Tennessee Street. We have no idea if that is even used at this time. No matter how few frills are involved, properly disposed of remains cost counties money. Most entities today cremate unclaimed bodies and store them in hopes relatives will eventually be contacted. With that in mind, here's an interesting tale that we present in the, ahem, fiction department.

There's a new coroner in town. He is given the vehicle used by the former coroner and immediately discovers boxes of cremains inside. What should he do?

When he asks a county support worker, he's told simply to take them to the dumpster in the back of the courthouse. Before this can be done, the head of another department hears of the situation and stops the new coroner from carrying out the ignominious disposals.

Just to add more drama to our little story, what if we make the support worker one who previously announced no concern for freezing animals who face almost certain death?

We live in a cruel world. Perhaps added to an IQ test on employment applications, we should add one for empathy and compassion?

Lauderdale is Tops in What?

What do you visualize if someone says "chemical endangerment of a child?" Originally, the Alabama law was designed to bring charges against individuals who manufactured methamphetamine in homes with small children present, or perhaps who left drugs indiscriminately lying around their abodes. Somehow the charge came to be extended to pregnant women who were known to take drugs.

Yes, a pregnant woman arrested for drug use can also be charged with endangering her fetus. Other times, the arrest comes after the woman gives birth and then tests positive for illicit drugs. Is this a good interpretation of the law or not?

We'll leave that to the legal experts, but one result of this unintended result is the disparity found in these prosecutions. Which counties in Alabama regularly prosecute these women? According to one legal watchdog, only three: Marshall, Morgan, and Lauderdale. Prosecution in larger counties is practically non-existent. 

Is there a moral here? There's a slight geographic pattern, all these counties being in the northern part of the state. Beyond that, what are we missing? Why does Lauderdale County prosecute these pitiful women and Colbert, Franklin, etc. do not?

Comments welcome...

Opening Act in Equal Justice for All

Bureaucracy--You Gotta Love It!

Is There Any Intelligence Left in Government?

J.J. Ray

Recently I had to make a trip to the Alabama State Troopers office to get my drivers license renewed. The wait was only an hour, which for them was almost instantaneous. I sat down in front of a nice looking woman who directed me to the eye test machine. She tested both eyes and proclaimed I had twenty-fifteen vision in both eyes. Then the fun began. She asked where my glasses where? I explained that I had eye surgery and no longer had to wear prescription eye wear. Then I asked her about the eye test and my passing.

She explained even though my vision was better than most that I could not get a new license until I had some eyeglasses. I then explained my cataract surgery and how they fixed my eyes. The examiner listened attentively to my story and said, “Take the lenses out so I can verify that you have them in”. I was shocked. “Ma’am I just told you how they did surgery on my eyes and showed you my cards, the lenses do no come out”.

Her retort was, “If I can’t see them you can’t drive without your glasses”.

I felt like I was listening to a Yogi Berra commercial. Once again, I tried to reason with her explaining that I had passed the eye test and there was no reason to wear glasses. She was very rigid and explained if I drove without my glasses, I would be ticketed even though I no longer needed them. I had to call my son to come and drive me home.

Sounds like the end of the story but it gets worse. Arriving home, I called the State Troopers office in Montgomery. After being placed on hold for forty-five minutes this authoritative woman answered my call. Once again, I related my experience. After a brief pause where I was once again put on hold so she could check with a superior, I was told that no new license was forthcoming unless I could produce my eyeglasses and pass the eye test. Once again, I explained that I had passed the eye test without my glasses and that my vision was twenty-fifteen. That did not matter, my old license was restricted to prescription eye wear and that was that. My wife hearing this conversation suggested calling the governors office to ask where they were getting their employees. She suggested perhaps it was a foreign country where no one understood English. Coffee was in order so I sat down to decide on my next course of action. So far, I was batting zero using common sense.

Running out of options, I found the number on-line for the director of the Alabama State Troopers. After explaining my predicament, this nice woman once again put me on hold so she could check with a superior. Ten minutes later, she said that if my doctor would fill out a form or send a letter they would the issue a new license. Hallelujah, I proclaimed hanging up the phone. My wife came running into my office expecting me to have had a new spiritual awakening. Boy was she fooled. More phone calls to the doctor and a fax to Montgomery and a week later it was done. I was legal once again.

The question is simple. Is there no common sense left in Montgomery and/or intelligence? Perhaps we would be better off if the driver’s license division was outsourced to India. At least there, they do speak English, sort of.

*****

Unfortunately, J.J.'s experience is not uncommon. We personally know of the following:

A person attempting to acquire a marker for a Revolutionary War ancestor was asked by an individual with the Lauderdale V.A. office if she knew her ancestor's Social Security number.

A person seeking a title for an inherited vehicle was asked if her relative would again drive the car. We're pretty sure the man in question planned on staying dead.

A woman working in the motor vehicle licensing division at the Florence-Lauderdale Government Building couldn't think of the name of the facility. When another customer offered the name, the clerk replied, "Yeah, what she said." The clerk then went on to tell the customer that he couldn't purchase a business license until after September 31st. We imagine he's still waiting.

We pay the salary of these state/county employees--depressing isn't it?

*****

So firefighters are political...who knew? Many months ago, we mentioned a future blog on Lauderdale sex offender Lloyd Hayes, a former Florence Fire Marshal. We had previously mentioned Hayes in a series of articles on a man indicted and tried for rape; at that time we had many requests to do a story on Hayes. Ultimately, we decided since Hayes had been in no documented trouble since his child pornography charges, we would not do the column.

With local firefighters again in the news, especially in Killen, we've once more received requests to do a column featuring a timeline of Hayes' fall from grace. The story of child pornographer Lloyd Hayes should be published in the next few days, and apologies to those who thought we were giving him special treatment in not offering it sooner. We certainly have no intentions of glossing over any city employee who uses our tax dollars to store photos of the sexual torture of children.

*****

Shoalanda

The State of CITY

The Alabama Board of Education has not yet pulled the plug on the CITY program, but it has drastically cut funding to the beleaguered entity, the most recent cut lopping 75% of the organization's workforce. In Lauderdale County, the state's most recently opened CITY site, only director Rhonda Bogus (pictured at left) and one instructor will remain.

Franklin County has been hit equally hard. Both State Sen. Roger Bedford of Russellville and Lauderdale Circuit Court Judge Jimmy Sandlin have vowed to save the program. This may not be easy.

From what has been reported, the Florence CITY program, begun in 2007, has a budget of $500,000.00 and is already $1,000,000.00 in debt. In other words, the Florence based program would not hit the green until October 2011, even if they spend zero dollars until then. Where has their money gone? Did I say their money; excuse me, where has our money gone?

The program is worthwhile, but does consist of duplications of services offered elsewhere. It's certainly admirable to give youths a second chance, or a third, or...whatever it takes, but unfortunately most of us do not receive that second chance without paying for it. My friends who have changed careers in midstream have worked odd jobs or slung hash in order to obtain the second chance they so wanted. I believe they appreciate it more.

Local personnel with the program have gone on record that it now may become nothing but a babysitting service when the reduction in personnel is implemented. Do we the taxpayers wish to pay $500,000.00 a year for a babysitting service for wayward youth? I think not.

What about the money already spent on this endeavor? A local pundit in the legal field has stated that Rhonda Bogus' salary is "off the charts." I have no idea the actual amount of her salary, but I intend to find out. Is it off the charts? Well, I have a friend with a master's degree in social work who by day is the assistant director of a facility for the handicapped in Franklin County, yet by night she toils as a Wal-Mart door greeter in order to make ends meet. This is Alabama, and this is a public job, not a position in the private sector where most of us work.

As for Ms. Bogus' qualifications, looking at her Plaxo resume' online, she lists only the CITY job; nothing about Ms. Bogus is made public before 2007. What are her qualifications? How did she learn of the position? Who hired Ms. Bogus?

If you value your tax dollars, these are all questions the citizens of Lauderdale and Franklin Counties should be asking.

Tomorrow: An open letter to a judge

Sunshine Week

Today is the first day of Sunshine Week, an annual event designed to focus on not just transparency in government, but accountability as well. The emphasis of this year's campaign is local records, particularly those posted online. So how does the Shoals stack up?

If you live in Franklin County, not technically a part of the Shoals, you have absolutely no online access to public records. Neither Franklin nor its county seat of Russellville has an official site where records are available for public consumption. This survey (see link below) did not consider privately funded websites or sites erected by such public entities as fire and police departments.

Looking north to Colbert County, we find a website for the county, but not for the county seat of Tuscumbia. The city of Muscle Shoals does provide a site at which some of its records may be obtained; it is the only municipality within Colbert to do so.

Moving on to Lauderdale County, the availability of online records increases, but is still found to be wanting. For instance, the website connects to one offering court dockets, but once there we find only the most recently completed docket, with no information concerning future trials. Inside Lauderdale, only the county seat of Florence provides a website where any such records may be easily obtained.

Obviously, this area has far to go. I think it's safe to say it won't improve until we call our elected officials accountable and demand an increase in easy access to these public records.


To see how other Alabama counties stack up, check out this year's Sunshine Project from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa: http://chrisrob.com/sunshine

Florence-Lauderdale Government Building

When changes in the economic climate necessitated that First Southern Bank move to smaller headquarters, both Lauderdale County and the city of Florence viewed purchasing the multi-storied building then housing the bank. Situated immediately to the north of the courthouse and east of the Municipal complex, this building was a natural choice for an addition to either entity. Unfortunately, neither the county nor the city could afford to purchase the building on its own.

Combining funds to make the purchase seemed the ideal compromise. Cities and counties working together is not a new idea, but it has unfortunately been a rare occurrence in northwest Alabama. Now the building is ready for occupancy, but apparently not without some throwbacks to past rivalries.

It seems that in a effort to distribute space fairly, county and city governments will alternate floors. While this is an equitable settlement, one has to wonder how such an arrangement will look to outsiders seeking an area in which to locate new industry. As someone who visits the courthouse frequently, I can attest to the fact that this arrangement does not make it easier for citizens to conduct county business. Hopefully the rest of the transition will go smoothly, and all Lauderdale/Florence residents will be able to enjoy better services from these two entities.


What's up with this: Speaking of Florence public buildings, anyone conducting business in the Municipal Court offices on South Seminary Street will be met with some very disorganized and even filthy conditions. This building does not speak well of Florence.

Lack of County Mental Health Officers

Most larger Alabama cities and towns require a trained mental health officer to be on call at all times. Unfortunately, this is not the case with many county law enforcement departments.

In 2003 this situation proved deadly for Lauderdale County resident Brian Long. The 46 year-old son of semi-retired surgeon Robert Long was a paranoid schizophrenic and off his meds when Dr. Long called authorities for help. Deputy Jimmie Ray Slaton Jr. responded to Dr. Long's call, leaving his patrol car door open and keys in the ignition as he approached the younger Long.

Deputy Slaton, according to Dr. Long, then approached Brian, presented handcuffs and announced that he was taking him to jail. Obviously this is not the right approach to take with a paranoid individual, but Slaton, untrained in mental health procedures, stated he was not aware of that at the time. A panicked Brian Long ran to the open patrol car, locked himself in, and proceeded to back out of the driveway. Jimmie Ray Slaton then fired three shots, not at the tires, but at Brian Long, who was killed.

Robert Long sued Lauderdale County and Jimmie Ray Slaton Jr., but his suit was later dismissed. The judge ruled that Slaton could not be expected to know mental health procedure and was attempting to prevent Long escaping into the community. One can only imagine what the judge and Slaton's superiors privately thought about such carelessness that resulted in the death of Brian Long.

Obviously all law enforcement agencies need a mental health officer. This is something for which the National Alliance for Mental Illness has long lobbied. NAMI in the Shoals is represented by Roy Skipworth (766-0306) and John Pinion (766-3966). Anyone wishing to help this organization with its fight for improved mental health laws or in need of assistance with a mentally ill family member is urged to call.


What's up with this: The Muscle Shoals intersection of Avalon and Broadway has been closed due to construction for almost a month, yet the traffic light remains functioning. Perhaps the powers that be in Muscle Shoals just want to be sure passing motorists have ample time to inspect their tax dollars at work?

Lauderdale/Colbert Superintendent Races

As with state judges, county Superintendents of Education are elected in Alabama. This year both Lauderdale and Colbert races are hotly contested, each having independent candidates attempting to unseat the incumbents. While Lauderdale County has one city system, Colbert has three, and voters residing within these city systems may freely vote in the county elections. In other words, the system has been broken from day one and is not serving the needs of families living in rural areas.

In Lauderdale, the current superintendent has only a masters degree and has been accused of favoritism. His opponent has even less education and has been accused of riding on his semi-famous father's coat tails. The Colbert election has also garnered wide attention from the voters; rumors rampant on both sides, with the race issue adding fuel to the mix.

In the four local city systems, the practice of appointing superintendents has worked well for some time. These appointed officials are free from much of the political influence that dominates the county offices and serve much longer terms. Continuity in such offices is essential for efficiency.

Each registered voter should research his/her choice thoroughly before voting, but more importantly, the voter should write his/her state congressman and senator requesting a change in the manner of County Superintendent selection. Alabama's children deserve no less.


What's up with this: Responding to a recent question, former Franklin County District Attorney John Pilati is currently residing in Seagoville Federal Prison in Texas and is scheduled for release on March 24, 2011.