The Political Round-Up
Erwin leaving his mark; Galanos in the mix?;
Brown out or Brown in?; Buzz around A.J.;
Collier moves to smooth dirt roads; Byrne-ing to gov; Civic center in focus; Weichman After 5 on hold;
Dorman/Diggs downtown dining doings
By Chip Drago
Mobile Bay Times
Kyle Callaghan, former Mobile County Sheriff's deputy and candidate for sheriff, is the frontrunner to become the local GOP leader when the Mobile County Republican Executive Committee meets Monday, Jan. 5 to elect officers. Current chairman Mark Erwin is not seeking re-election.
"It's time to take a little break," said Erwin, who has led the party locally for the past four years. "I'll stay active, but not have an official role."
Chris Galanos, formerly a circuit judge and district attorney, said he would give an offer of the U.S. Attorney's post here in an Obama administration "my most serious consideration," but "at this point no one has approached me nor have I approached anyone" about the appointment. Galanos said he would withdraw in favor of current Assistant U.S. Attorney Vicki Davis, if the former state district court judge was in the running.
Add another name to the speculative swirl about President Barack Obama's selection for U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama -- former assistant U.S. Attorney Kenyon Brown.
Some buzz continues around the possible tapping for the federal prosecutor's job of former Prichard Mayor A.J. Cooper. There would be some irony and a closing of the circle of sorts with Cooper in the post. The former political aide-de-camp to Robert F. Kennedy, once the U.S. attorney general, was acquitted in a federal public corruption case here 30 years ago. Cooper has suggested recently that a younger attorney might be better suited to the task.
State Rep. Spencer Collier will re-introduce legislation next year allowing the Mobile County Commission to maintain private roads under certain conditions involving the safety and welfare of the public.
The bill will be identical to one passed in last year's regular session, but pocket vetoed by Gov. Bob Riley.
Some county residents living on dirt roads have sought the county's assistance in road maintenance, but have been rebuffed on grounds that the county isn't legally permitted to maintain private roads.
Collier said a number of county residents were fooled when they bought lots misled by deceptive developers who did not make clear that the lots would not be accessible by a publicly maintained road.
Now in a number of areas, including the controversy's flashpoint at Grand Farms Road in Grand Bay, ambulances, fire trucks, school buses and postal trucks are not able to travel the dirt roads.
"School buses and ambulances cannot get down them; postal service has quit as well as garbage service for the most part," said Collier. "A lot of people on private roads or roads that were eventually deemed private are for the most part in working class areas or lower socio-economic areas. A lot of mobile homes. They have no recourse, absolutely no recourse."
A $500,000 "pay as go" road appropriation for Saltaire Road to serve an upscale development in south Mobile County stung the dirt road residents all the more, Collier said. Saltaire Road has always been a public road, the legislator acknowledged.
Collier said his bill would remove the legal impediment preventing the county commission from acting on the dirt road residents' request. While the many demands for assistance would doubtlessly prove politically difficult for the commissioners, the challenges of public service are what they signed up for, said Collier. The bill would not require the county to maintain private roads, but merely give the commission the discretion to address problems as finances and circumstances permit, Collier noted.
Collier said the bill was directed, not at drive-ways, but routine basic maintenance of dirt roads to ensure public health and safety. The legislation represented no grand expansion of government responsibility as some critics have charged, said Collier.
Collier said he believes the governor and his staff in the crush of session-ending business simply failed to read and understand the bill.
According to Collier, the governor's office later issued a general explanation that the bill represented an unwarranted expansion of government.
"What that said to me was that they didn't read the bill," said Collier.
"I'm going to do my part this time to see that they understand that this is not some argument for paving drive-ways," Collier said. "It's for working class people who pay taxes to have access to emergency services and safe conditions for a school bus to get down their road."
Two-year college Chancellor Bradley Byrne has told political colleagues that he intends to run for governor in 2010 regardless of the competition. Because Byrne and U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, also rumored to be taking a hard look at the GOP gubernatorial primary, share a similar base of support, many political observers thought it unlikely that the pair would cross swords over the same office. The issue should resolve itself one way or the other within the next three months as all serious candidates acquire a better reading on their prospects for success.
The Rules Committee of the Mobile City Council will meet
Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 1:30 p.m. in the 9th Floor Conference Room to consider the Mobile Civic Center bylaws. Councilman John Williams, among others, has criticized the operation of the civic center as a huge financial drain on city revenues. The civic center, but not the theater, may not survive the city's "New Plan For Old Mobile." A proposed redevelopment of the auditorium area includes consideration of razing the 40-year-old arena in favor of a commercial/residential mix.
Restaurateur John Weichman's Weichman's After 5 fine dining venture at the Spot of Tea on Dauphin Street is kaput before it got started.
Weichman was going to fill a dinner window available at 310 Dauphin Street where the Spot of Tea owner Tony Moore serves breakfast and lunch and planned an evening entertainment venue, Club Insanity. However, fire code regulations over sprinkler systems and exit points created an incompatibility between a raucous club and a desired atmosphere for fine dining, said Weichman.
Weichman said he intends to open a dinner-only restaurant at another location, downtown preferably or mid-town if a suitable downtown situation can't be found.
"It just depends," said Weichman. "Ideally, I think downtown needs another full service, upscale restaurant. That would be my preference. We would not necessarily serve lunch. Dinner only probably."
Weichman said he would like to have a partner/investor in the venture.
In other downtown dining developments, this from Carol Hunter at the Downtown Alliance:
"Last month we shared the sad news that Parkside Home and Garden was closing its doors, but also promised that there were exciting plans for the Conti Street building. Now we can divulge a few of the details. Attorney Richard Dorman, who is also a partner in the popular NoJa bistro, purchased the building and is turning it over to (restaurateur) Chakli Diggs and the rest of the talented NoJa crew for a new downtown eatery. They don't want to spoil the surprise by telling us the name of the restaurant or the menu in advance of the opening, so we'll just have to wait in anticipation until it opens next year."
