The St. Marys voting hearing.

I was there. It was lightly attended and rather ho-hum. More tomorrow. It's "tomorrow." I would guess there were between 20 and 25 people in attendance. About a half dozen people spoke. Among them were Jim Stein, Herb Rowland, Tom Cyphers, and the president of the Camden County Republican Party, Adam Jacobson (Atlantic Auto Brokers - Jolene Haney's employer), and me. There, but not speaking, were Sandy Feller, Jolene Haney, and Charles Davis. Gordon Jackson and Jill Helton were the only press there. Stein said that he had received a huge number of calls about the issue - 100% of which were in favor of going to election by majority. Herb Rowland, who taught American Government for years, gave a sort of scholarly overview of the issue and the options without coming down squarely on either side. However, he did come out in favor of having city councilman actually represent well defined geographic segments of St. Marys - a position which I have long advocated. Some readers may remember my debate with Bryan Fewox on that subject some years ago. Herb also suggested that if we went to districts, 4 councilmen and a mayor (elected at-large) would be adequate. Tom Cyphers, consistent with his usual modis operandi, came armed with a sheaf of pages he had pulled off of the Internet from Wikipedia, etc. He spoke at some length in a rather disorganized way. I think I can safely say he was in favor of election by majority. Adam Jacobson, speaking on behalf of the Camden County Republicans ( who had met the night before and discussed the issue) said the the Republicans were strongly and unanimously in favor of having St.Marys go to majority elections. He then - in spite of Mayor Deloughy having prefaced public comments by saying they (mayor in council) were there to hear comments and not to answer questions - attempted to poll the council to ascertain each member's position. The mayor promptly cut him off and reminded him of the "no questions" rule. Jacobson then rather petulantly asked if the rules were written some where. In point of fact they were, and were taped to the very podium from which he was speaking. He then went on to inform the mayor and council that the Republicans would "remember" those who voted against changing to majority. This clearly pissed off the mayor. He red-facedly asked Jacobson why they (Republicans) were coming after St.Marys on this issue and not Kingsland and Woodbine. Jacobson responded that they were not "picking on St. Marys," but the problem was more urgent in St. Marys. He pointed out that in the last elections, not enough people ran to make it a problem. He and the mayor sparred back and forth for a few minutes on that. Oh, yeah, I simply pointed out that "it could be worse" and related how some small communities in Georgia actually have their entire city council - mayor and all - stand for re-election at the same time. Moreover, they have no posts. I cited the example of Pooler, GA (just west of Savannah) where last November, they had 20 candidates for five slots. The highest vote-getter becomes the mayor. The next four highest become the councilmen. Later, when the subject of how thew current system came to be, I recounted what actually happened. The whole thing lasted about 30 minutes. Interest does not seem to be nearly so high as it purportedly was immediately after the last election. Oh, and it turns out that no one on the council seems to know how long it would take to get this on a referendum or how long after that it would take to get it approved by the DOJ. However, they have the city attorney working on it. Now this crap from TOPIX> Nancy Kingsland, GA Reply » Report Abuse Judge it! #1 33 min ago If you go to a St. Marys council meeting you will understand why the plurality matter needs to be resolved. You have Deloughy who is rude and obnoxious and Hase who, as some said is in a "daze". A young man spoke about the republican party wanting the matter to be put to a vote and Deloughy came back at him in a rude uncalled for manner fussing because St. Marys was being addressed and not the other cities. Deloughy was mad because the concern is that he was a minority elected mayor and he was on the spot. Hase then came off as a fool. She said no one had contacted her about the matter and that it was a non-issue. Then Deloughy said they would bring it up on Monday but it was not an agenda item. It was pointed out that it was some thing that could not be acted on. It came across as a stalling action to avoid the issue. Out of sight out of mind. As a tax payer I am ashamed of the majority of the council. Certainly those elected by a minority. Now, the facts. It was the "young man," Adam Jacobson, who was rude, arrogant, and confrontational from the git-go. Deloughy did what any self-respecting, American male with functioning cajones would have done. I commend him for it.