The Columbia SC City Council a Work in Digress

I get really sick and disgusted of always writing about the pitfalls of my city government. But they never improve. One of them,Tameika Devine just barely got back her council seat. And she had competition this time. So the people in the city are getting tired of her "dog & pony" show. And just in general people are really at the end of their rope in seeing a change in city government. But you must consider the source of why the antagonism against city council. The main cause, money mismanagement. On a side-bar Ms. Devine an attorney studied at Hampton University. So not only does she embarrass South Carolina but she embarrasses Virginia. I am sure the board of regents and the President of HU cannot be very proud of this faltering alumnus maybe she should have studied in South Carolina so she could have kept the embarrassment in her state. Then you have Charles Austin (former fired ex city manager and one time city police chief) who actually framed the former city manager Leona Plaugh to get her job. When he did get her job. He eventually went down in flames because of the pressure and mistakes of city council conducting business as usual. What was that business, losing the tax payers money. Then supposedly they borrowed money from the county council and still have never payed it all back. Which brings me to former council member EW Cromartie,who served twenty-seven years in the city council only to have owed the IRS back taxes which he put off paying for years, Now he is headed to jail. Enter city councilman Kirkman Finlay a very prominent supporter of the Republican party and recently ran for Mayor. In a land side victory his opponent attorney Steve Benjamin made quick work of Mr. Finlay. When the polls closed at seven o'clock a little over an hour later attorney Benjamin was announced the overall winner. That is the most telling detail of all. Because the ironic part is that Mr. Finlay was white and Mr. Benjamin was black. And many speculate that the Mayor's race overall was about race. That is not the case. It was about having anyone in Mayors seat except a city council member. Including Ms. Devine,Mr. Cromartie both black or any other city council member the results would have been the same.

Currently, the city is considering raising taxes again to fix their parks. I think this is a horrible and really stupid idea. But I don't live in the city anymore. So I am getting poetic justice watching these same snide city council members having to beg and whine for the money to fix the parks and of course they will have to pay the taxes or they can go to jail like Mr. Cromartie. There is a really old maxim if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem as far as I am concerned city council is the problem.