Next Monday's meetings at St. Marys City Hall.

5:00 PM: Finance committee. http://www.ci.st-marys.ga.us/agendas/2009/12%2014%2009%20Finance%20Committee%20Agenda.pdf 5:45 Consent agenda meeting (mayor and council) 6:00 Regular council meeting. Note: this is the last meeting of the year and the last meeting of the outgoing mayor and council members. http://www.ci.st-marys.ga.us/agendas/2009/12%2014%2009%20City%20Council%20Agenda.pdf An interesting "I told you so": I don't see it specifically mentioned on the agenda so I guess that the mayor and council are hoping to sneak this in under the renewal of alcohol licenses or perhaps cloak it as a legal matter worthy of executive session. Nice try. Here's the deal. Y'all will recall that a while back, a majority of the council was jaw boned by the congregation of that fundamentalist church on Spur 40 into denying a liquor license for a package store in that little strip center where Mail-'n'-More was originally located. There was clearly no legally valid reason to deny. It was just a raw exercise of political strongarming by the nanny church and cowardice by the council which led to the denial of the man's property rights with a total disregard for the 14th Amendment. I wrote at the time that the man would sue and prevail. Well, it turns out that when the man threatened to sue, the city conceded they did not have a legal leg to stand on. Mercifully, the gentleman has agreed not to sue the city for damages - which he has most assuredly suffered - and wants only his license, which he will now get. NEW COUNCIL: Please leave your Bibles at home. Grow a set so that you might have the courage to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, no matter how much pressure you get from threatening, would-be, theocratic tyrants or from your own religious prejudices.