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LOST & FOUNDRY Don't throw out the baby with the bath. THE COMMISSION SUX With Elian back in Cuba and Rocker out of New York, what is there to write about but the Mayor and the Manager? Some say that it's not over 'til it's over and that Al Crace will eventually be re-appointed Athens-Clarke County Manager. That would take a majority of the Commission telling Mayor Doc Eldridge that they want Crace back. The problem with that scenario is that a majority of the Commission looks to Doc to tell them what they want The main reason we have this crisis over a too-strong Manager is there is no leader ship strength on the Commission to offset the strong Manner and Mayor. Our Charter provides for a "strong manager" and a "weak mayor," with Jie balance to be provided by the Commission. We have a Manager who is strong both in his Charter-given authority and in his personality. We have a Mayor, weak in designated powers, but strong in person ality and in political skills. We have a Commission with no leadership, which has created a power vacuum. That vacuum has sucked in the Manager and the Mayor, causing them to collide. Meanwhile, the Commissioners are upset with the Manager, because they individually tell him things they want done that don't get done. However, they do not speak to him as a Commission, which is the only official way they are supposed to speak to him. The Commission won't speak to the Manager the way it's supposed to, but the Commissioners have a lot of little side conversations with the Manager, which he ignores as being unofficial Then the Commissioners whine to the Mayor that the Manager won't listen to them. The Mayor has had similar problems: the Manager has ignored his unofficial communiques, too. So the Mayor steps in and does what the Commission had the power all along to do but not the will. The Mayor fires the Manager. Thus we lose a first-class, strong Manager whose most grievous fault is tryina to maintain the relationship with the Mayor and Commission that the Charter reqrires. We also inevitably lose the strong manager system of government and go back to political management. The next Manager not only will have to listen to the Mayor, he'll have to listen to a lot of Commissioners telling him what to do, too. Pete McCommons (editor@flagpole.com) PERFECTLY GOOD COMIC INTERUPTED BY BEAR ATTACK BY PATRICK DEAN OF ATHENS. GEORGIA & BEING TUNE OF 2000 fiitvwmtxfa kmowT l A Golden Toasubm UVffi'l QoTmY GoLDEfi]7oA&££{ BUT X ZTtrST/v) ft y Have a pmn to GEL WW-W-A FLAGPOLE MAGAZINE Street Address: 112 S. Foundry St., Athens, GA 30601 • Mailing Address: P.O. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603 • E-Mail: mail@flagpole.com Tel: 706-549-9523 • Ads: 706-549-0301 • Fax: 706-548-8981 • Voice Mail: 706-549-2360 • Website: www.flagpole.com EDITOR & PUBLISHER Pete McCommons AD'.cRTISING DIRECTOR & ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Alicia Nickles ART DIRECTOR Larry Tenner OFFICE MANAGER & COPY EDITOR Margaret Moore LOCAL SALES NEWS, ETC LETTERS MANAGER Carolyne Mathers ADVERTISING SALES Moggie Anderson, Amy Mojestic SPECIAL AGENT Cindy Jerrell MUSK & MOVIE EDITOR Ballard Lesemann CLASSIFIEDS & ASSISTANT PUBLISHER'S NOTES CITY PAGES OFFICE MANAGER Geoffrey Carr OUT THERE! Margaret Moore, Geoffrey Carr SPECIAL SCRIBE William Often Corlton CARTOON Patrick Dean WRITERS Brad Aaron, Geoff Con, Emerson Domeron, Frank Homrick, Poul Killebrew, Chris Morris, Travis Nichols, Lizzie Zucker Seitz, Mott Thompson, Jim Winders CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Margaret Moore CIRCULATION David Connolly Jr., Gene Daniel, Charles Greenleaf, Julia Lester ADVERTISING INTERN Jill Sprodley, Cameron Swartz EDITORIAL INTERNS Brandon Butler, Arionne Knowlton PRODUCTION INTERN Spencer Sloan COVER RALPH NADER LISTINGS MOVIE DOPE . OUT THERE!. . ABC CONNECTIONS PHOTO Brad Aoron CLASSIFIEDS 4 5 6 7 . 8 10 14 22 24 MUSIC G CULTURE 84 NASH 16 CAUSEY WAY 16 BAND SPEAK 17 RECORD REVIEWS 18 LIVE REVIEWS 20 BUSINESS 22 VOLUME 14 ISSUE NUMBER 27 Flagpole, Inc. publishes Flagpole Magazine weekly and distributes 18,000 copies free at over 250 locations around Athens, GA. Subscriptions cost $55 a year, $35 for six months. k’i VERIFIED AUDIT CIRCULATION A.A.K JULY 5, 2000 FLAGPOLE B