County View

By Jeff Poor

CHICAGO – After taking a chance and using the mildly overpriced Mobile Regional Airport to come up to Chicago for the annual Society of Professional Journalists convention, I have learned why going to Pensacola or New Orleans, where direct flights are available, may not always necessarily be the cheapest thing, but the least time consuming.

American Eagle, a regional jet carrier operated by American Airlines out of Mobile Regional, has taken me on a whirlwind tour of Texas (no Kinky Friedman sightings yet) to get me to Chicago. Having left at 6 a.m. Thursday morning, I finally arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport seven hours late following a stop in Dallas and an unplanned three-hour stop in Austin, Texas.

So from the Windy City, I offer you the County View.

Cat scratch fever – Beckerle quits as head of Mobile County Democrats

Bob Beckerle resigned his post as the chairman of the Mobile County Democratic Party Executive Committee following the committee’s decision to select Matt Tew as a replacement for DaVon Gray, who failed to file his campaign finance report on time, to run against Republican Sam Cochran in November for the sheriff’s seat.

Beckerle, the husband of the Congressional candidate and cat hoarder Vivian Beckerle, said at the special meeting the job was taking up too much of his time and he needed to devote more time to his law practice.

The Democratic Party in Mobile County holds several key local offices, but there have been rumblings around town that many within are unhappy with the leadership.

Vivian Beckerle made it clear at that meeting earlier this month that she plans on remaining the party’s candidate for the District 1 Congressional seat and will face incumbent Jo Bonner in the November election.

Millsaps’ and Gray’s replacements

I have been asked by members of both parties’ executive committees as to why Gray’s replacement was selected by the local county Democratic Party and disqualified candidate Mobile County Juvenile Court Judge Pamela Millsaps’ replacement, Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Edmond Naman, was selected by the Alabama State Republican Party.

According to Mobile County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Mark Erwin, the local party is responsible for county offices as such as sheriff, school board, etc. However, circuit court judges are considered state officers, thus the state party’s candidate committee selected Millsaps’ replacement.

Finally, Mobile gets accolades

Mobile has been the recipient of positive national press over the last week having the county schools appear in Parade magazine and the city having been spotlighted in last Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal.

“This is probably the most positive national press we’ve had in 50 years,” said Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine from the state’s county commissioners convention in Orange Beach Thursday.

Nodine also pointed to a Press-Register report about the prospects of a massive industrial plant coming to Mobile County as being another strong positive sign for the county.

The Wall Street Journal story by Thaddeus Herrick was on the front page of the Marketplace section and was not only seen as a positive sign for Mobile, but also for having the most abbreviated Nodine quotation in the history of Mobile print media.

Jail privatization talks arise again

The talk about privatizing the Mobile County Metro Jail has come up again as county leaders throughout Alabama discuss ways to cut cost by privatizing certain aspects of county jails.

“We need to privatize healthcare inside the jail,” said Nodine.

Conventional wisdom suggests there is a huge cost savings for the taxpayers by privatizing the county jail, and the jail in Perry County serves as such an example.

Although there are certain liability issues at stake in the privatization of any service that is regularly offered by government, any such move to privatize Metro Jail would be seen as a serious blow to the power of the office of the Mobile County Sheriff.

Interim sheriff and Mobile County Sheriff’s race frontrunner Sam Cochran said he was opposed to the privatization of the jail back in May during a Republican Sheriffs candidates’ forum in Semmes.

Contact Jeff Poor at jeffreypoor@yahoo.com.

Archives