Fresh Loaf

And here we thought a city official passing out during a committee meeting — or Atlanta Progressive News’ Matthew Cardinale rapping about public comment — would be the highlight of City Hall happenings yesterday. Let’s add one more thing to the record books!

During the Atlanta City Council’s full meeting yesterday, Councilwoman Cleta Winslow’s proposal for the city to accept $10,000 worth of office furniture from Wachovia came up for debate. Councilman C.T. Martin wondered (with good reason) whether accepting the donation could violate rules regarding relationships between bond underwriters and municipalities. And he was very adamant about the issue.

Yep, the longest-serving member currently on Council said his colleague’s effort to secure office furniture was “laudable.” But since the city’s been, as Martin says, “fucking around” with rules regarding bond underwriters “so much around [City Hall],” it’s gotta exercise due diligence.

Don’t get us wrong, that’s a topic worthy of debate. Better safe than sorry and all that. But Councilman Martin, don’t risk getting in trouble with the Federal Communications Commission over some rickety swivel chairs!

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It’s amazing the things a governor will take the time to do and the things he’ll choose to ignore.

For example, Gov. Sonny Perdue recently wrote a letter to Texas Gov. Rick Perry about some “salty” words uttered by Mayor Bill White of Houston toward two female Georgia Forestry Commission employees helping out with Hurricane Ike clean up.

So reporteth the Houston Chronicle:

After receiving a complaint Friday from Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, Gov. Rick Perry yesterday asked his staff to investigate comments White made to two Georgia Forestry Commission employees who came to Houston to help manage the distribution of federal and state supplies to area residents hit hard by Hurricane Ike. Perdue said in a letter to Perry that White had “verbally and profanely abused” the women.

A witness said White told the women, “You need to be getting these (expletive) trucks out of here.”

The mayor then began arguing with a Harris County sheriff’s deputy over whether trucks full of Federal Emergency Management Agency supplies had been delivered to a distribution site, the witness said. White told the deputy he had just been to the site and about 3,000 people were waiting for supplies.

White went on to say that if nothing was delivered soon, they were ”about to be in a (expletive) riot,” the witness said.

I’m all for the proper treatment for state employees. And these two workers deserve nothing less than the utmost respect. But it was also a stressful environment.

Let’s put all those arguments aside for a moment and just sit back and bask in the wisdom of crowds — aka the comments section on the Chronicle’s article — to get the final word on ExpletiveGate 2008.

(Photo by CowboyPoetry)

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