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LOST & FOUNDRY
Of the people, by the people, for the people...
ATHENSTOWN Think of Mayor Doc Eldridge as Jack Nicholson (there is a resemblance, come to think of it) and Manager Al Crace as John
Huston (someday when he's older, the resemblance will be there, too) Then think Chinatown, with the intrigue, but not the evil. So
Toe's sort of like a private detective: he can make things happen, but he doesn't have much real power. And Al's kind of like the guy
who controls where all the water goes, so that even though he's not elected, he's got a lot of political clout.
Okay, so Doc starts getting a lot of complaints from the Commission that Al's running things without cutting them in, and Doc sets
out to investigate. Over the course of a year, he meets with Al from time to time and tells him the Commission s upset with him, and Al
promises to do better. But Al keeps on running things the way he wants to.
Doc's got one real power, but when he pulls the trigger on it, he gets his nose ripped open. After a year of trying to work things out
with Al, he writes Al a memo, telling Al that he will not recommend him for reappointment as Manager. The occasion for the memo is
tire same thing Al has been doing all along. This time it's the appointment of the head of the Human and Economic Development
Department. This time the issue is that Doc has been pushing Al to try to find a qualified African-American for the job. Doc is trying to
be sure the government honors a pledge made to leaders of the black community a decade ago. Instead, he walks into a trap. The racist
fringe is all over him for being an Affirmative Action kind of guy. Al's supporters are all over Doc for trying to meddle in the Manager's
business. The Commissioners are rattled by tne race issue. The daily papers keep up a drumbeat of Doc bashing. Nobody knows that the
Mayor and the Commission have been warning the Manager for over a year, and Al just smiles and sends the memo to his lawyer. The
lawyer threatens to sue the government on the grounds that Al is being relieved of his job for not complying with a directive to hire a
person of a certain race. At the end of the movie, Doc, with his nose bandaged, stands handcuffed to a police car, while Al lovingly
scoops up his job or a big settlement, and there's absolutely nothing Doc can do but stand there and stare in honor.
Sound farfetched? That's the drama in Athenstown these days. A popular Mayor confronts a powerful Manager and gets his nose
bloodied. The Charter gives the Mayor the authority to nominate the Manager, to be approved by the Commission; but the Manager's
powerful friends make it sound like the Mayor is subverting the government rather than fulfilling his role as mandated by the Charter.
Whether the racists like it or not now, some of Athens' leading citizens made a commitment a decade ago that the new unified gov
ernment, if it was appioved by the Georgia legislature and ratified by the voters, would marshal resources to help address issues of
housing, education, recreation and employment for Athens' poorer citizens. Community leaders made that pledge because they wanted
unification, after numerous failures, to pass. They made that pledge to then Representative Michael Thurmond because he had, in effect,
a veto power over the legislation necessary to bring unification before local voters. Thurmond was concerned because, prior to unifica
tion, black voters had considerable voting strength within the city government, with three black council members out of ten total posi
tions. The five-member county commission had one black Commissioner. Thurmond knew that the unified government would dilute
African-American voting strength, and he sought guarantees that the new government would contain a formal structure for assuring
that the problems of its poorer citizens were effectively addressed. The Department of Human and Economic Development was the
result, with the understanding that every effort would be made to head that department with a qualified African-American.
"Doc was not in the room when the commitments were made." Michael Thurmond, now Georgia Commissioner of Labor, said recently.
"All Doc is trying to do is to fulfill a commitment that was made."
Eldridge admits that emphasizing HED in his memo to Crace overshadowed the year's worth of meetings and conversations in which
he tided to warn Crace that the Commissioners were losing confidence in the Mananer's willingness to keep them informed.
The Mayor spent a year trying to mediate between the Manager and the Commission. He worked quietly so that, if in the end, the
Manager had to leave nothing would hurt his ability to get another job. Then, when he did finally find it necessary to inform the
Manager in writing that he would not recommend him for renewal, the Mayor erred on the side of honesty and openness and expressed
to the Manager his disappointment in being ignored when he urged a fidelity to commitment, made by the community.
In return, the Manager has gone to his lawyer (who threatens a lawsuit), to the daily newspapers (where his friend the publisher
assures favorable coverage), to his influential fnends in the Rotary Club (which responded by awarding him its "Four-Square Citizen of
the Year Award"), to Ids powerful friends in the First Baptist Church (where he is head deacon) to the radio station (for a two-hour
marathon of manager worship and racist hilarity) and to his friend on the Commission (who exerases spin control on his behalf).
Meanwhile, the Mayor ("I like the guy; I don't want to ruin the guy," he says of Crace) swallows hard and just last week conveys to
the Manager's attorney the offer that the Manager, the Mayor and the Commissioners all sit down once again and acknowledge the mis
takes that have been made and put down some conditions that will avoid such mistakes in the future, and the Mayor will, in spite cr
everythina that has already transpired, reappoint the manager and everybody will go forward. In response, the Managers lawyer
demands a two-year employment contract, something not in the power of the Mayor or the Commission to grant.
Thus, even with the Mayor swallowing all his pride and offering to work things out, did the Manager's arrogance yet again prohibit
cooperation with the elected officials who appoint him and at whose pleasure he serves.
This movie, Athenstown, can't end with the Mayor impotent to affect the outcome. That wculd corrupt our system of checks and bal
ances and tilt us toward a government removed from the people it serves. Nobody, not even the Manager, should want that.
Pete McCommons (editor@flagpole.com)
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MUSIC & MOVIE EDITOR Bollard Lesemann CLASSIFIEDS &
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Moore, Geoffrey Carr SPECIAL SCRIBE William Orten Carlton
CARTOON Patrick Dean WRITERS Brad Aaron, Geoff Corr, Emerson
Dameron, Prank Hamrick, Paul Killebrew, Chris Morris, Travis
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CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Margaret Moore CIRCULATION David
Connolly Jr., Gene Daniel, Charles Grtenieof, Julia Lester
ADVERTISING INTERNS Jill Sprodley, Cameron Swartz EDITORIAL
INTERNS Brondon Butler PRODUCTION INTERN Spencer Sloan
COVER PHOTO by Frank Hamrick
LETTERS ....
LISTINGS
MOVIE DOPE
OUT THERE!. .
ABC
CONNECTIONS
CLASSIFIEDS .
VOLUME 14
ISSUE NUMBER 30
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MUSIC 0 CULTURE
, TRAVEL JOURNAL 8
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{LIT.} 15
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ART REVIEW 15
THE WOGGLES 18
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS 19
10 THE SATYRS 20
] JERRY JOSEPH & THE JACKMORMONS .. 21
BUSINESS 22
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BANDSPEAK 23
26 RECORD REVIEWS 24
28 LIVE REVIEWS 26
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