Wednesday, August 21, 2002
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Wednesday, August 21, 2002 |
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What the candidate really means is . . . By
CAL BEVERLY Small talk on issues of various importance: Now it can be told: Campaign-speak decoded. "Rezoning." If a local candidate fails to mention the word "rezoning" during the campaign, that means you will see a lot more successful rezonings if that candidate is elected. If a candidate mentions "rezoning," that means the candidate has incurred the wrath of developers and land speculators already by voting against some rezonings. Then, that candidate's best hope of getting elected (again) is to rally wary homeowners with the cry of, "Your neighbor's vacant lot will be next!" or, "Remember your property values!" "Update the land use plan." That's campaign code for increasing densities or for more intense commercial use on multiple parcels ripe for development. Lurking not far behind that statement is an antsy developer impatient to turn the bulldozers loose. You can be sure maps designating the new uses have already been prepared. Ditto for, "The land use plan is not written in stone," or similar language. "Cooperation among cities and the county city version." That's city shorthand for, "County, keep your nose out of the cities' business. If we want to annex all the way to Newnan or Riverdale or Fairburn or Jonesboro, what's your problem? And by the way, you're not spending enough tax money in our jurisdictions. The exception is law enforcement. Keep your deputies out of our borders because our chiefs don't want any other law agency poaching their turf." "Cooperation among cities and the county county version." That's county shorthand for, "Cities, you wanted to run your show, and you've got this municipal charter to prove that you don't answer to anybody. So pave your own roads without our help. And keep sending those county taxes our way so we can pay for departments like the county building inspection department whose employees never set foot inside a city work site." "Character assassination." Oftentimes factual information about a candidate that is embarrassing to the candidate. "Propaganda and lies." What a candidate's opponent says. "The truth." What the candidate says.
City and county personalities: Some big wood slipped to the forest floor in Fayette last week. Friday brought word of two resignations. The last vestiges of the law firm of Webb, Lindsey, etc. was the first. Longtime Peachtree City Attorney Richard Lindsey resigned Thursday night in executive session. How fitting. The reign ends, not with a bang, but with a closed-door resignation. The last shoe drop followed a special counsel's damning report of at best sloppy staff work, and at worst a conspiracy of silence. That report is available in its entirety on our web site, www.TheCitizenNews.com. It is fascinating reading from a disinterested and neutral observer. And the other was Kenny Melear, barbecue proprietor extraordinaire and Fayette political fixture for at least three decades. Melear resigned from his chief magistrate's position after being accused of using racial slurs during the course of his official duties. I never much cared for his barbecue too dry and tasteless but I appreciated him as a vanishing Southern character. I'm a Deep South product myself and I know many will not miss him, may even cheer his departure, but I think the local political scene will be much less colorful when he's gone. He once threw one of The Citizen's newspaper boxes off the restaurant's front stoop and banned us from time to time from his establishment when stories not to his liking appeared in print. But he's one of a kind. I know it's irrational, but I'll miss him.
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