"Good Ol Boys" Revisited

"I think I want the 'Good Ole Boys,' back."
- Charlie Schoenbrodt

Leave it to Mr. Schoenbrodt to bring everything back into focus. It is amazing to me that a man with so much knowledge and experience can be so blind to the facts of our recent history. If you have not already, read this article from The Informer and my comments in red.

Enjoy!

Informer Article
Random Thoughts from Experience – The Good Ole Boys
July 1, 2009

All of my life I have heard about the “Good Ole Boy,” especially when talking about politics. I always assumed (you know what that word really means) it was something “bad,” that would result in waste and corruption. However, when I got active in Spring Hill governmental affairs in 2003, I heard it used to describe the Board of Mayor and Aldermen at that time. There were some “older” folks on the board at that time, but also some younger ones and one woman. I became close friends with the Mayor, but he wasn’t even 50 years old. I used to like to describe him as someone who made the Eagle scream before he would spend a quarter. That was before the Treasury Department began minting “State quarters.”

Those “Good Ole Boys” had become public servants in the truest since of the word. They wanted to insure that the best thing was done for Spring Hill. There was a majority leadership that was willing to do what was right and teach the newcomers how to be effective leaders of the community. They debated and even argued sometimes. No one seemed to try to overpower the group. Everyone was open- minded and willing to bend when necessary. The Board amassed a reserve fund of $4.5 million to be used for any City need. This reserve fund was in the form of Certificates of Deposit in different banks in town. There were also restricted reserve funds with substantial totals for water and sewer and an impact fee fund.

The Board members were paid $25 for each of the two meetings they attended each month. There was no other compensation. Although they were eligible for the City’s Medical Insurance plan, NONE of them accepted that perk. The Mayor, also a part time employee of the City, was paid about $8,500 each year.

In 2003, the City of Spring Hill was considered throughout the State, as a model of an efficiently, well run, municipality. Property taxes were less than 25 cents, and growth was on the horizon. Spring Hill had a new, modern, model water treatment plant designed to meet the needs of the expected growth. The waste water treatment plant was built and designed for expansion as growth took place. The big complaint was there was no sit-down restaurants. And, of course, Highway 31 and Duplex Rd. (both roads under total control of the State of Tennessee) were too narrow.

Even with all of this prosperity, I heard the battle cry of Spring Hill newcomers, “Get rid of the Good Ole Boys.” And the process of extrication began.

In April 2005, the frugal Mayor had died of a massive heart attack, and one of the Good Ole Boys who had been masquerading as the one to continue the prosperity, learning at the feet of the master, campaigned with the pledge to continue the City on the same course as before. As soon as he was elected, he announced he was taking the City in a different direction. And he did just that.

Just after the frugal Mayor died, the Board doubled the contribution to be made to Williamson County for the Recreation Center. The original commitment of $2 million became $4 million. Next came approval for police officers to drive their patrol cars home each day. Immediately after the April 2005 election, the Mayor and one of the Aldermen elected medical insurance to be paid for by the Spring Hill taxpayers. Both already had other medical insurance. Next was the move to increase the salaries of the Mayor and Aldermen. The Mayor’s salary went from $8,500 annually to about $11,000. The Aldermen’s salaries increased from $50 to $450 monthly. When a local bank found the cost for hosting a radio show twice each month, too great, the City took over the show. The term “transparent” began to be used to describe the City’s operation. However, it was not until after the end of Fiscal Year 2006-07 that citizens were told that budgeted income had fallen short by about $3 million. The number of Board members receiving medical insurance doubled from 2 to 4 following the April 2007 election. That total is now at five and costs the taxpayers over $65,000 annually. That is more than the annual salaries of all the members of the Board.

So I ask again, what does the term “Good Ole Boys” mean? Based on the history of Spring Hill, they seem to be just that, “Good,“ At least they had our City on stable financial ground. I think I want the “Good Ole Boys,” back.

Gaines to Keynote July 4 Patriotic Celebation

By Charlie Schoenbrodt

Now let's look at some of the facts that must have been overlooked by Mr. Schoenbrodt...

1. The "mayor that would make an eagle scream before spending a quarter" began quietly running massive budget shortfalls at least as early as 2001, creating the budget situation that we are in today and causing the cleansing that has now taken place in the last few years. All of this was brought to light and dealt with by Mr. Schoenbrodt's arch enery...Mayor Leverette.

2. Until Danny Leverette's administration, community involvement was squelched at every turn in Spring Hill. As Mr. Schoenbrodt has mentioned in many previous articles, Mayor Williams would contact each Alderman on a daily basis to shape the information they were receiving about certain issues that were coming before the board, thus guaranteeing certain outcomes if a vote were to be taken. All items that were not acceptable to the administration were not placed on the agenda, killed in work sessions, or taken care of behind closed doors. There was anything but transparency, and everything was micro-managed (in many cases illegally) by the mayor or the City Administrator, Ken York. While this may have allowed for meetings to run seamlessly, it did not allow for open and frank discussion of topics, bringing to bear all sides of an issue in the light of day.

3. Ken York.....what to say about Mr. York. Everything that needs to be said can be read in detail in any number of archived articles on this site, or in the newspaper of your choice. Ken York's influence over the 'Good Ole Boy' BOMA from Mr. Williams through 2006 was amazingly strong. In my opinion, he was the great puppet master of the whole city government until it was brought to light that everything he was doing was extremely damaging to the city and in many cases illegal. Mr. York was working specifically to control the flow of information. If you can control the information that the board receives, you can control their vote and the overall direction of the city. This gatekeeper approach eventually spun beyond his control and people were given enough information to start asking probing questions. Once that happened the "house of cards" could fall. I can recount NUMEROUS times that Mr. York said "yes Mr./Mrs. ___, we have cash on hand to take care of that expense" while he knew that the books were being cooked and monies were being transferred between our various accounts and depleting our surpluses.

It is my opinion that this was being kept from Mayor Leverette, and once it was uncovered, the entire process was opened up to the public. This greatly damaged our City's reputation in the short term, but will repair it in the long term as things are brought forward. All of this was caused by the "Good Ol Boys" and their lack of questioning their "trusted" leaders. It is being healed by the previous and current body of elected officials, but will take time and money to repair. Is this the governing body you wish to bring back in this recession?

4. The "Good Ol Boys" and Re-apportionment. Interestingly, if you read Mr. Schoenbrodt's newletters dating back to the beginning, you will find that he supported re-apportionment but remained quiet. In May of 2004 Schoenbrodt said, “I was disappointed that the Board decided to not redraw the boundaries for Wards. However, it not a concern, to me at this time since the current Board of Mayor and Aldermen is functioning so well."

The process was functioning well if you are an advocate of "behind closed door" deals being made, and majority parties being excluded from the process by keeping your thumb on growing numbers of newcomers coming to the city. In December of 2005, Mr. Schoenbrodt said,"The majority of Spring Hill citizens are like me, in that they have lived here less than ten years. Those who have lived here all of, or at least most of their lives,deserve respect. They should have more of a say in how THEIR City is transformed. Those of us who just moved here should not expect to come in and change things against their wishes. We are still their guest. After we have lived here for twenty-five or more years, then we may have the right to change things to the way we think they should be."

This is absolutely the problem with Schoenbrodt and the "Good Ol Boys." They believed that we (the newcomers) were essential to the development and growth of the city, but we should be kept out of the loop so that things could continue along the path that was chosen by those in charge. It turns out that their fear was correct. All of the misdealing, corruption, and hiding of information has been overturned in the last 2 elections, and we are now having to take on the painful process of rebuilding our reserves and setting our city on a new course to prosperity in an economic downturn. Tough decisions must be made, because they were not made for so many years under the "Good Ol Boys".

5. Since it was mentioned, let's talk about healthcare. I have to call foul on the statement that our elected officials began taking undue advantage of our only in the last few years under Mayor Leverette and now Mayor Dinwiddie. As you can see in the memo included, this was offered to all elected officials at least since 2003. I have not been able to confirm it yet, but have reason to believe that at least one person took advantage of the benefit at that time. Having said all of that, I do not fault them for taking the healthcare if needed. If you want to address costs associated with the healthcare to the city, it can very easily be brough in line with a few very simple actions that do not drastically adjust the coverage, but do curtail much of the cost. Ideas like raising copays to $25 or $35 instead of $10; increasing the deductible to something other than $250; providing for 100% coverage for employees, but requiring for families to pay something to be included like the rest of the marketplace; putting a tiered prescription drug coverage in place instead of covering all name brand drugs for very little to no cost.

These are the items that can easily be tackled and reduce our city's line item much more effectively. Our elected officials should be allowed to take part in the plan if they are not covered elsewhere, but all employees' families should have to pay something to be a part of the program, and should not be encouraged to drop other coverage to join the city books.

6. I am not sure that helping fund the most popular new amenity in the City of Spring Hill (the Rec Center) is an argument that holds much water in regard to the deceit of our new brand of politician. I agree that we were asked to partnership in a much greater way than any previous city had ever been asked to contribute, and that is wrong on the part of Williamson County. Setting that aside, this center provides more to EVERY demographic of our city than anything could have. It has filled a great void in our city allowing activities for our young families and children all the way up to our retirees and senior citizens. I would count this in the column of "Great Achievement" instead of the column of "great waste."

The saddest part about this discussion is that Mr. Schoenbrodt is not the problem. The previous "Good Ol Boys" talked about on this site and in this article were not acting with malice or with the intention to harm the city. They were then and are now interested in only the best for our city. They did not realize that they were pawns and voices for an administration set on hiding true actions and misleading everyone to hide scheme. If there is a problem with the previous elected officials, it was only in their unwillingness to ask tough questions of "friends" and willingness to accept only one source for their information.

Mr. Schoenbrodt is not evil or stupid, just far too hurt and wrapped up in his own mind to see the truth of the past 8 years. On many occasions, I enjoy his company and agree with him on a variety of important issues, it is just a shame to see him continue on his current path of unfounded retribution and destruction. I hope that someday many in this city will wake up and look at the recent actions to reason fact from fiction.