Term Limits?/Sheffield Founders On

Our friend the Midnight Rider has recently written two excellent articles for us. We are going to take exception to his take on term limits. All things considered, term limits do not solve the majority of problems and create many more.

The example was used of the office of U.S. President. Our president is "on" 24/7. Local officials? Unless the Martians land on Court Street, Mayor Holt will not be called to his office at 3:00 a.m. Unless the Ruskies bomb Ivy Green, Mayor Underwood will not be required to remain in in his office three days straight without a decent meal. No, municipal, state, and even many federal offices are not a 24/7 proposition and don't take the toll of a presidency or cabinet membership.

If Sheffield ever elects any fantastic council members, let's hope they remain as long as possible. The problem seems to be that no one wants the jobs. Remember, if you don't offer your services, you can't complain about those who do.

The City of Sheffield has now begun a series of meetings on the new smoking ordinance. At least we think it has. Maybe that was just a recent cable rerun of a Mad TV episode.

Stock up on popcorn, this could go on for quite a while...

What Is Shelton Publishing Up To Now?

Decatur's Shelton Publishing owns the TimesDaily, Decatur Daily, and some smaller publications. Both the TD and the DD use the same software and share many of the same articles...for better or worse.

A few years ago, the TD opted to limit readership of its online site. If a viewer didn't subscribe in some manner, the limit on articles was five per month. After a relatively short time, this policy was changed to another type of pay to play in which one answers surveys in order to access the content.

Now the Decatur Daily is implementing a strict subscriber policy in which one may read only one article a month without paying. Will the TimesDaily be far behind in reinstituting this policy?

Many news publications offer free online articles. Locally there are two reputable publications, the Quad-Cities Daily and Pen-N-Sword. Remember, wanting to know if your neighbor is a car thief isn't about gossiping, it's about being proactive in preventing a loss you and your insurance company shouldn't have to endure. 

Unlawful Deficits at Lauderdale County Schools

We've published guest blogs from this author before. Now "The Lauderdale Luminary" joins us for the long term. It promises to be a bumpy ride for the Lauderdale County Board of Education...

Lauderdale County Schools continue to post unlawful athletic operating deficits. This condition has existed for many years but only in the last two routine annual audits have the Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts chosen to cite the Board for this practice, apparently out of frustration from having their informal recommendations ignored for the better part of two decades. Despite the urging of the district's former and current CFO, the unwillingness of school administration to impose budgetary discipline on athletic staff and the unwillingness of the Board and district administration to address the issue on either a funding or policy enforcement basis has only allowed the condition to fester and metastasize.

The bottom line to all of this is that the athletic operating deficits throughout the district serve only to encumber school funds raised for other purposes such as classes, clubs, and other extracurricular activities, so that the balances in these ancillary accounts are not fully available for the purposes for which they were collected, raised, or otherwise received.

In simple terms, the entire balance of the scholar's bowl fund is not available to that group because the football team is using some or all of the scholar's bowl's balance to offset their own red ink. The Board and the district's executive administration have been repeatedly and strenuously advised by past and current financial administrators to use appropriations to eliminate the school athletic deficits and to thereafter impose budgetary discipline upon the various athletic programs. The Board would apparently prefer to remain in violation of Alabama law as cited in its 2016 and 2017 audit reports.

Sadly, all these admonitions have fallen upon deaf and apparently obtuse, incompetent ears. It seems that the Board has priorities superior to the solvency of its schools' athletic programs, like an unnecessary land purchase that more than doubled the size of the Board's administrative office campus, or like surrendering a quarter of a million dollars a year of TVA tax revenue to the ill-conceived Ag Center Consortium in order to guarantee pocket lining for related land owners, developers, and contractors, or like wasting taxpayer funds defending against a gender equality lawsuit the Board will obviously lose, rather than doing the right thing and settling the suit. Oh well, we shouldn't expect many intelligent decisions from this dim-witted wad of flotsam, most of them are "educators" after all, without an ounce of real-world business acumen among them.

Humbly submitted for your consideration by,

Sheffield: A Fix to its Problems

First of all, I want to say that I believe Sheffield can be fixed. The City can make a comeback where people want to visit as well as spend their money there. Sheffield is full of History as well as Heritage. It can become the center of the Shoals Area that it was before.


Sheffield Shelly made some comments about the School System of Sheffield. While I am not familiar with that aspect, I will defer to her to make a suggestion on how to fix that problem. We listed 10 problem areas that we saw from the outside looking in. This article addresses these areas with a possible fix.


Furthermore, all of the problems listed can be found in the Times Daily newspaper or on Facebook. Nothing stated about the problems is not public knowledge. As stated above, I am outside the box looking in. I do not live in Sheffield, nor have I ever. I am a citizen of Colbert County but do travel (for the moment) to Sheffield for a doctor visit.


...and here we go…


The Problems & Fixes:


Inspiration Landing. I believe Inspiration Landing could save Sheffield. However, with the stated dates of ground breaking coming and going, people are starting to lose interest. I also believe that the City of Sheffield should stop putting money into this project until John Elkington starts showing results and/or putting his own money into the project. If this venture does come to pass, it will help the City of Sheffield. Just don’t put the cart before the horses.


The Police Chief Situation. As stated in the original article, I do not know Chief Terry. However, he was the pick of the Council. Here is an idea. Why don’t you let him do his job? From reading in the Times Daily, he has done more good for the Police Department than the previous Chief. Give him a year to show you what he can do. If after that you are not happy, take applications for a Police Chief. However, the solution is to hire a police Chief who doesn’t know anything about Sheffield or is not from this area. That way that person can lead by their way and rules, not just being a “yes” person. It doesn’t matter if that person is White, Black, Male or Female as long they have the credentials for the job. However, you should give Chief Terry a chance first. You might be surprised and happy with his leadership skills.


The Police Department. The above solution goes along with this problem. You have to have stable leadership to run a Department. That doesn’t take rocket science to figure out. The pay should upped to a standard of other Departments in this area. Promotion should be on skills not by seniority. 


The Fire Department. See the above quote. It is time for a new leadership as well as get the pay up to the same as other Departments.


The Smoking Ban. This is going to come back and bite the Council. The people should have decided this by a vote. Repeal the Ordinance and let there be a public vote. That way, the citizens have spoken.


The City Council. They need to listen to the Citizens whom they represent as well as take into consideration what is best for the City. Using the Smoking Ban as an example, Florence, Muscle Shoals and Tuscumbia have refused to vote on it. That should tell you something. This is probably going to rub someone the wrong way. I believe there should be Term Limits for the Council. If it is good enough for the President of the United States, it is good enough for Sheffield, AL.


Businesses leaving. If you have businesses leaving, your tax income goes down. No business, no tax money. The business owners such as the owners of Cajuns, Casa, Fiesta and Mrs. Logan have told you that their businesses have suffered since the Smoking Ban was passed. What would you do if Mrs. Logan pulls all her money and businesses out of Sheffield and takes them to Tuscumbia? I will bet you that Tuscumbia would welcome her with open arms and Sheffield would lose a major part of its income.


Reduced Tax Income for the City. This is a no brainer. No tax income, no money to pay for stuff. Duh.


Useless spending of money. Times are tough. Money is stretched. Think about what you are going to spend money on. The more money that you can put in good projects that help the City, the better.


Trains. Everyone is saying build an overpass. This IS NOT the answer. If you built an overpass on Montgomery Ave, the on and off ramp would take traffic away from the businesses located there. The ramp to the overpass (going north) would probably reach past 3 blocks which knocks businesses such as Sonny’s Pawn Shop, 2nd & 13 Sports Bar, etc, out of people traveling in front of their businesses. The answer is for the railroad to reroute the tracks around Sheffield.


So there you have it, my ideas for helping the City of Sheffield. The only other thing I can see is to unincorporate the City. Let the County take it over. Furthermore, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals could take it over. I would guarantee that both cities would love to have the businesses as well as the taxes they produce for their city.


That’s it for now. But remember that the Midnight Rider will always be around to voice his/her/their (?) opinion.

I am and always will be...

The Midnight Rider

Ed Henry Pleads Guilty/Sheffield Shelly Tells It Like It Is

There are many homilies about doing good where you can. An example is one may not be able to save all the whales, but can save a single whale. Similarly, most of us can't change everything for the better, but we can change some things.

Take Ed Henry. (Insert Hennie Youngman joke here). Ed "tried" for years to ban induced abortions in the state. This member of our state legislature knew that he couldn't do that. He knew that he was wasting taxpayer dollars. Yet he continued. What Ed could have done was to be honest in his personal business practices. Guess what?

Yes, today Ed pleaded guilty to Medicare fraud, among other things. How many of you want to take any advice on moral living from Ed at this point?

One Word: Switzerland!

After yesterday's blog on Sheffield and its problems, we have a word from Sheffield Shelly:

The Midnight Ryder omitted one significant problem in Sheffield-the school system. When 80+ employees leave a system that small within a 3 year period of time, there’s something wrong. When student enrollment steadily declines over the same time period, there’s something wrong. We have a school board made of 5 members. Not one member has a child who attends Sheffield City Schools. Board member Steve Hargrove resigned his position in June, and the Times Daily STILL hasn’t reported that or his replacement, Christy Casiday. Finally, this board, for the second consecutive time, overlooked its own Dr. Carlos Nelson for the superintendent position. Keith Lankford decimated the school system, and now they’ve given it to a man who was asked to step down from his last job.

No town or city is without problems, but doesn't Sheffield seem to have more than its share?

Sheffield: The Problems

The City of Sheffield seems to be on all the media sites.   Either the news channels, newspaper or social media, Sheffield is there and usually it is not good.  Why all of this negative input on Sheffield? Well let’s take a look at it.

At the end of last year, I posted that I was going to tell you the reader the problems with Sheffield and how to fix them.  After thinking over this article over the holidays, I have decided to do it right, it has to be two separate articles.  So with this article today, we are going to talk about the problems.

The Problems:

Inspiration Landing. By reading the Times Daily, it appears to me that the City of Sheffield is putting all of its eggs in the Inspiration Landing basket. The City is singing the praises the Landing will do and all the business as well as jobs that the venue will bring.  Well, there have been three different breaking ground dates and still nothing yet.  I do understand that there were several permits that had to be obtained before the ground breaking. Looking on Facebook, people are getting tired of hearing about the Landing groundbreaking and then nothing. Furthermore, there has been talk that the developer, John Ellington has not invested his money into the project, but the City of Sheffield has.

The Police Chief Situation.  Again, we look back at the Times Daily about the Police Chief. The City Council made Captain Ricky Terry the Interim Police Chief.  Then months later, the same council had a vote to make Captain Terry the permanent Police Chief.  Well, then this Council voted 4-2 to not make Terry Chief. Now wait a minute.  “You” vote the man to do a vote.  He was your pick.  Then you don’t confirm “your” pick.   That doesn’t make any sense.  Then flash forward a few months and the Civil Service Board makes the nomination.  Which of course, makes “You” mad.   So now the process of selecting the candidates is called in question.  Just a thought, but shouldn’t you have thought about that before hand?  I do not know Captain Terry but the way he is being treated as back and forth Chief, I wouldn’t blame him if he said “here, take your Chief’s badge and…!”

The Police Department.  This has become a revolving door.  People are hired as Police Officers.  They get the training and then leave.  There are usually a few reasons why this happens.  Leadership, Working Conditions, or Pay.  We talked about the Leadership above. The Officers don’t know who the Police Chief is that day.  That is not fair to them just like it isn’t fair to Captain Terry. Furthermore the pay seems to be another problem.  Maybe we should look at the pay of other City employees and see what that is.  Maybe look at the Department Heads pay.  That might shed some light.

The Fire Department.  The Fire Department is constantly loosing people.  I hear it is the working conditions as well as pay.

The Smoking Ban.  This really irks me.  Since when does the City have the right to tell a private business what can go on inside their business?  Now let me say this. I don’t smoke.  Don’t care for it.  However, if I was a business owner in Sheffield and owned a business such as a restaurant and the Ban was forced down my throat, I would take my monthly bills to the Council meeting so the Council can pay them since they want to be in my business so much.  The Council should have let the citizens vote on this, not just make a decision themselves.  According to an article in the Times Daily today, business owners attended a Council meeting last night and expressed their displeasure this ban has placed on the loss of their business revenue.

The City Council.   The Smoking Ban is the first item up for discussion.  That was not well thought out. The Police Chief situation.  No one can make their mind up. It just never seems to end.  You are supposed to represent the citizens of the City of Sheffield, but I and the rest of the people don’t see this.  It is in black and white in the Times Daily.  Mayor Sanford has called a meeting of the business owners to discuss the smoking ban.  Isn’t that closing the barn door after the horse has left?  Sad, very sad.

Businesses leaving.  Outback states they are leaving in the Times Daily.  They have even made contact with the City of Florence. Then the Times Daily reports that Mayor Sanford is surprised about the news.  He wasn’t aware of it.  While I was on my way to the doctor’s office in Sheffield the other day, I looked around at businesses that have closed or left the City of Sheffield.

Reduced Tax Income for the City.  With the closing or moving of businesses, that means that the tax income to the City of Sheffield is reduced.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  How much money leaving the City will it take for the City to realize this?

Useless spending of money.  Did the citizens of Sheffield really need miles of bicycle striping on the streets?  Has anyone ever seen someone riding a bicycle on them?  We have already talked about Inspiration Landing.  Maybe some Department Heads are being paid more than they should.  I would like to see the pay structure of say the Library workers and Department Head vs the Fire or Police Department.

Trains.  …And finally the subject we have all been waiting for…Trains.  As everyone who reads the newspaper or is on Facebook knows there is a growing problem with the trains. This seems to be escalating and getting out of hand.  Colbert County Commissioner Tommy Barnes seems to have made it a personal mission to solve this problem or find a solution. I commend him for this.  People are not going to come to Sheffield if the trains keep blocking the tracks, not allowing them to get places.  I don’t come to Sheffield any more except for Doctor visits because of it.  It is easier for me to turn left out of my driveway and drive to Town Creek.

The next article will report ideas on how to fix these problems and Sheffield as a whole.


That’s it for now.  But remember that the Midnight Rider will always be around to voice his/her/their(?) opinion.

I am and always will be...

The Midnight Rider

Franklin County Commission Has Money to Burn?

If a Hollywood star is involved in a scandal, it's not unusual to learn that he or she has hired a public relations specialist to repair any damage done. The same is true for a business. Look at Facebook and all the effort it's exerted to mend fences with the betrayed public sector.

How about government? How about a cash-strapped government especially? Should it attempt to repair a damaged reputation with public relations? It would seem that's what the Franklin County Commission is doing.

The commission itself doesn't have a website, but is included in the universal FranklinCountyAl.org site. That's pretty standard, and most citizens know how to find these names and phone numbers. 

But in case you missed it, the commission has recently suffered from some very bad publicity when the daughter of one of its members embezzled around a quarter of a million dollars from the government entity. The commission chair has issued several statements designed to rebuild community trust, but perhaps he or the commissioners felt this just wasn't enough.

Now you can go to the Franklin County Times website and find rotating ads for the commission and each commissioner. We've never seen anything like this for Lauderdale...or Colbert...or any other county. 

No, we're pretty sure that it doesn't cost as much to advertise in the Franklin County Times as it does to advertise similarly in the Los Angeles Times. Yet it does cost something, and Franklin County can ill afford any needless expenses at this time - especially needless expenses for the sole purpose of making the duped commissioners look less foolish.

Since the commissioners are making sure you know who they are and how to contact them, how about it? If you live in Franklin County, be sure to give them a call to tell them what you think about this needless public relations expense.