News and information about Starkville and Oktibbeha County
This edition of the StarkvilleNow Podcast features Ward 5 Democratic candidate Scott Maynard. Maynard discusses his time on the Parks Commission and his experience at the Career Center at MSU.
[podcast]http://starkville-now.com/media/Podcasts/StarkvilleNow_March312009_ScottMaynard.mp3[/podcast]
(30:19, MP3, 8.7 megs)
Alan Couey, a graduate student at MSU in Public Policy and Administration and a resident of Ward 5, submitted this column for publication. This appears as originally sent and does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the website.
“The other side isn’t committed with the truth,” so spouts Ward 5 Alderman and Democratic candidate for Mayor of Starkville Matt Cox in a section of his website (www.mattcoxformayor.com) entitled “Get the Facts.” Last I checked, there were two additional candidates who could possibly be revealed as the alleged “bad egg,” but we skeptical and ever-fickle voting citizens of Starkville are left with a mystery. Suddenly, this race is starting to seem like a less provocatively suggestive episode of The Dating Game.
So, humor me on this analogy and just go with it. For instance, baby boomers and Gen X-ers and some Gen Y (or “Gen Why?”) up-and-comings are all familiar with the process of The Dating Game. We the citizens are the bachelorettes/bachelors, seated next to Jim Lange/Chuck Woolery. Our host, however, is our local media. Their job is to spur the questions, prompt dialogue, and create an atmosphere of anticipation. Simply put, beware. Even Jim Lange had a motive.
Unlike Alderman Cox, who is undoubtedly burdened with a delicate political situation in which he can only make vague references to other candidates (plural), I have the freedom to name our bachelors for the City of Starkville. Bachelor Number 1, incumbent Mayor Camp (with whom we’re all familiar), has been Mayor for four years, has faced much opposition due to his mayoral style of “strong mayor/strong board,” which theoretically, cannot function properly for a small municipality like Starkville. I beg to differ, however. Personally, I believe cooperation between our Board of Aldermen and Mayor would increase in the case that Mayor Dan Camp would be re-elected, given the number of incumbent candidates for Alderman for this year and the familiarity of management style between the two. But, I’m just one bachelorette with a lot of questions.
Bachelor Number 2, Alderman Matt Cox, is undoubtedly the most controversial bachelor in our political version of the Dating Game. I say this not because he has some outrageous reputation, but because he is an Alderman with a good sense of what Masters of Public Policy and Administration students call “CYA” (Cover Your…). He claims, publically, that he has a record of supporting city employees by “fighting” to hire within, hire locally, and add police officers. Fellow bachelorettes/bachelors, I encourage you to investigate further.
Bachelor Number 3, the young and energetic attonery Parker Wiseman, son of the “Messiah of Mississippi-Based Political Science” himself Dr. Marty Wiseman. However, Parker, without piggybacking on his pops, is an incredibly intelligent political observer, and should not be viewed exclusively as Dr. Wiseman, Jr. His advantages are clear- he is young, is in touch with resources for “campaign fuel” (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and his platform is oddly specific (“Adopt a land-use and transportation strategy that is appealing and economically friendly”), which can indubitably be a by-product of his education at Mississippi State, University of North Carolina, and University of Mississippi School of Law. If my fellow bachelorettes/bachelors can follow just what he’s describing, Parker seems legitimate in spite of his youth and general inexperience in working with Starkville’s municipal government.
Bachelorette (for gender-specific purposes) Number 4, also known as the “token Republican” of the race, could become a sleeper candidate given the level of support she could potentially generate amongst a large group of Starkville “Academites” and Republican supporters who simply can’t pick from the three options in the Democratic slots based on party affiliation. Marnita Henderson, dubbed a “regular fixture at City Hall” by SDN reporters Kelly Daniels and Brian Hawkins, filed for candidacy on March 6 via her husband Charles.
And so, we’ve set up The Dating Game, with many questions to follow. With the groundbreaking for construction of Cotton Mill Marketplace anticipated to take place mid-April, the Cotton District Arts Festival, and the recent (unanimous) approval of curbside recycling, maybe we’ll have more questions than our typical “cold beer on a Sunday without offending anyone” nonsense. Good luck, bachelors and bachelorettes, and choose wisely.
The Dispatch sums up the Green movement in Starkville and the impact that Starkville Recycling has had on the city. The Board and Mayor get a lot of blame, but they did get this one right.
Starkville Recycling is going beyond the city limits, in talks with companies like PACCAR about servicing their sustainability needs. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the Triangle proceeds with their efforts.
Much has been said about Candidate Camp’s “I could build it (municipal complex) downtown for $2 million.”
The only problem is- did he really say that?
There is a long way from running for an office and holding that office, and the candidate often says things that the elected official later regrets.
Here is some audio from the Rob Roberson/Dan Camp debate from 4 years ago.:
[podcast]http://www.starkville-now.com/media/Podcasts/2008_April_DanCamp-2milliondollars.mp3[/podcast]
So Camp said that Olive Branch built a facility for $3.2 million. Subtract out $1.5 million for the differences between the Starkville and OB plans, and you are left with $2 million, which should build a nice police station.
But did he say HE could build it for $2 million? I’m not really hearing that.
Some entertainment while you ponder:
The CottonMill team was kind enough to allow a recording of the town hall. The audio is less than ideal, but it is listenable. Some folks wandered off microphone causing almost silent sections.
Split into four segments for easy listening:
[podcast]http://www.starkville-now.com/media/Podcasts/2009_March24_CottonMill1.mp3[/podcast]
Segment 1 (27:30; MP3, 6.3 megs)
[podcast]http://www.starkville-now.com/media/Podcasts/2009_March24_CottonMill2.mp3[/podcast]
Segment 2 (27:57; MP3, 6.4 megs)
[podcast]http://www.starkville-now.com/media/Podcasts/2009_March24_CottonMill3.mp3[/podcast]
Segment 3 (26:54; MP3, 6.2 megs)
[podcast]http://www.starkville-now.com/media/Podcasts/2009_March24_CottonMill4.mp3[/podcast]
Segment 4 (24:36; MP3, 5.6 megs)
Alderman Sumner Davis was kind enough to email in this point:
Robbie,
In response to your post this morning about the failure of publication for the bonds, the problem was with the SDN’s operation not the City. Attached is the explanation from Brian Hawkins. Feel free to disseminate the information as you see fit.
Sumner
TO: Mayor Dan Camp, the Starkville Board of Aldermen
FROM: Brian Hawkins, Editor, Starkville Daily News
DATE: Friday, March 20, 2009
RE: Non-publication of the legal advertisement for the capital improvements bond issue
To the mayor and Board of Aldermen, first let me offer a most sincere apology on behalf of the Starkville Daily News staff for the non-publication of the legal advertisement for the capital improvements bond issue on the intended date of Thursday, March 13, 2009. All care was taken to ensure the legal advertisement was to be published, but a computer software glitch precluded its publication in the March 13 edition.
Simply put, our legal advertisements clerk followed proper procedure to ensure the legal advertisement was correctly input into the system and scheduled on the computer to be published for the first time in the March 13 edition. Given prior problems that have occurred with publication of city legal advertisements, she took extra care to ensure all was done properly so the advertisement for the capital improvements bond sale would be published as adopted by the board and signed by the mayor.
The glitch occurred when the legal ads were sorted for publication along with the other classified advertisements for the March 13 edition. When the deadline passes for submission of all new classifieds — including legal advertisements — the staff directs the computer to compile all the ads into one file in order to be placed on the page via a computer template for a given day. Each ad is tagged in the computer to be compiled for a given day according to the date of publication. The legals
clerk and I verified that the advertisement for the bond issue had been properly tagged and should have been compiled to run for the March 13 edition.However, at random times in the past, we have encountered problems with advertisements not being compiled by the software for one reason or another. Despite extensive evaluation when prior incidents have occurred with advertisements being left out of the classifieds, we have not been able to pinpoint what exactly causes the computer to randomly omit advertisements when compiling for publication. On most days, this is rarely a problem. But it happens from time to time, though infrequently. We believe that the age of the classified advertising software may have created a compatibility issue since almost all of the computers in the newspaper offices have undergone a major upgrade in software and hardware within the last nine months. The classified advertising software is scheduled for an upgrade in June; we believe this should prevent future problems.
In the case of the bond issue advertisement, there was no way our legals clerk could have known about the non-publication until after the fact. She followed all the proper steps with the computer system to ensure it was published. However, until the software upgrade occurs in the couple of months, we are working to develop a backup plan to ensure that all legal advertisements and other classifieds run as scheduled with our office. It will be a bit more time-consuming for the classified advertising staff in the short run, but we believe it will help us prevent problems until the new software is installed and operation.
Again, please accept our sincere apologies for the problems that have resulted from the non-publication of the advertisement. I felt it important that you understand that the non-publication resulted from a software glitch, not human error by any staff member at City Hall or with the Starkville Daily News.
UPDATE (4:17 PM): From SDN Editor Brian Hawkins
Robbie,
Simply put, the legal ad for the bond issue was not published due to a computer software glitch. This has happened on two other random times with legal ads for other customers, and we have not been able to specifically identify what is causing the software not to publish certain ads. We believe the problem is resulting fromo an incompatibility with the older classified software and the new software we’re using for layout and design that was installed about 8 months ago, but we have no way to verify that.
In reviewing the situation, we discovered that all the proper steps were taken by our legals clerk to ensure the bond issue ad was published as scheduled, but, for some reason, when the computer file was compiled for the legals and classifieds to be published, the ad was not included and it was not discovered until the next day. The newspaper’s classified software is to be upgraded in June, but in the meantime, we have had to develop a checks and balances process to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We are embarrassed by what happened, but in this case, there was no way we could have prevented it.
I hope this answers your questions…
Brian
The first issue with a road bond issue-related legal ad running in the SDN happened before Christmas and was chalked up to human error. This time, it appears that a computer issue at the Starkville Daily News was to blame.
Coincidence? Grand conspiracy?
Sorry for the implication that this was something that happened inside of City Hall.
While the CottonMill crew was educating the populace about their project, the BOA met as usual in City Hall. The main piece of business was the setting of the sewer rate for Rockhill after a long drawn out process of annexation.
One other piece of interest from the SDN story:
Voted to approve the final sale of the first $3 million of the recent $6 million of the capital improvements bond.
The aldermen had to take a second vote to approve the bond sale after a computer glitch prevented the necessary legal advertisements from being published in the the Starkville Daily News in order to meet a statutory deadline.
You might remember that their was some type of glitch when the first round legal ads for the bond issue was in process. Some type of failure then(computer or human) precipitated a delay that resulted in Alderman Corey changing his vote. Is this the norm in City hall?
5:51 Moments before kickoff, folks are filing in. The usual mix of realtors and business persons seem to be the norm. Really cool 3D rendering of the project is being looped on screen.
6:00 Between 100–115 people here representing all parts of the community, including two rows of students taking up the very back seats.
6:08 Kick off with recognition of elected/appointed officials
6:13 Intro to project and how the assets came together
6:15 Project down to 750,000 sq ft on 25 acres
6:16 Involved convention consultant Conventional Wisdom in plans about Cooley Building.
6:18 $200 million investment
6:19 Single largest investment in Cooley Building by the National Trust.
6:20 Numbers: $90 million annual impact; $1.3 million property tax annually; $300k-$450k annual sales tax increase; Total construction jobs during 24 month building period: 300 jobs; 1000 jobs total with annual payroll of $30 million.
6:25 Working on project since Sept. 2007
6:27 Cooley: 20,000 sq ft conference/30,000 sq ft office space; Hotel ap 70,000 sq ft
6:30 Cooley building is centerpiece and will be visible from all around property
6:36 Financing has been “challenging.”
6:37 “Tremendous support from Gov. Barbour”
6:38 Construction start by mid-April
6:40 Can’t reveal tenants at this time
6:42 217 1,2 or 3 bedroom apartments for rent
6:43 5 outparcels for sale
6:44 Will be open for convention by 1/2012.
6:44 Meeting room space designed for both breakouts and larger meetings with food/beverage service for 350 people at sit down
6:46 Properties have not been purchased yet, but are under contract.
6:47 Two components of office space– Cooley and standalone building space.
6:48 CM will be connected to town and campus by pedestrian and bike paths. MDOT is being asked about a roundabout added to Hwy 12/Russell intersection.
6:51 Signalized crosswalk at Spring/12
6:52 Spring and Russell will both be widened and improved. Spring will gain an addtional lane on the east side to become 5 lane road with turn lane.
6:57 Site design to mitigate the sea of parking lot from the Hwy 12 view.
7:02 Dr. Jerry Emison doesn’t like the parking deck or lots so close to visbility from Hwy 12.
7:04 Stormwater will be intercepted and released at the SW corner under the highway; Goal is to keep water drainage at current levels; Some stormwater will be captured and used for site irrigation.
7:07 Possible business incubator in office space (along with TPS reports).
7:08 The site will be graded to 5% making it very ADA friendly.
7:14 Project has been displayed at 7 international retail conventions
7:15 Tenants will be new national brands not currently being served in the area
7:18 Spruill Place will be unaffected at this time
7:19 Applause from crowd as Jack Forbus thanks the development group
7:22 The issue of green space buffer between Spruill Place and the project was discussed. The developer promised to address the concern.
7:45 Apartment prices will be finalized in the next two weeks.
7:55 Landscaping not settled on.
7:56 Applause and end.
You can download it here as a PDF.
One interesting item of note under Mayor’s Business:
CONSIDERATION OF A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI, SUPPORTING THE COTTON MILL MARKETPLACE PROJECT, A TOURISM PROJECT AND RESORT DEVELOPMENT, AND ACKNOWLEDGING THAT SALES TAX COLLECTED FROM THE FACILITY WILL BE DIVERTED TO THE SALES TAX INCENTIVE FUND FOR A PERIOD OF UP TO TEN (10) YEARS PURSUANT TO SECTION 57-26-1 ET SEQ. MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, AS AMENDED; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
(Why they type all in caps on these agendas – I’ll never know)
The interesting item is the turn of phrase “A tourism project and RESORT development.” Does that mean that Cotton Mills will be up for resort status soon, allowing Sunday alcohol sales?
Looks like they will also try to allay fears that the road monies will not be used for municipal buildings of any sort under Board Business.
Those pesky caps again:
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE ISSUANCE OF GENERAL OBLIGATION PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT BONDS, SERIES 2009, OF THE CITY OF STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI, IN THE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF THREE MILLION DOLLARS ($3,000,000) TO RAISE MONEY FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONSTRUCTING, IMPROVING AND PAVING STREETS, SIDEWALKS, DRIVEWAYS, PARKWAYS, WALKWAYS AND PUBLIC PARKING FACILITIES, AND PURCHASING LAND THEREFOR, AND CONSTRUCTING BRIDGES AND CULVERTS, BUT SPECIFICALLY NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONSTRUCTING MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS, OR THE PURCHASING OF LAND THEREFOR; PRESCRIBING THE FORM AND INCIDENTS OF SAID BONDS; PROVIDING FOR THE LEVY OF TAXES FOR THE PAYMENT THEREOF; PROVIDING FOR THE SALE OF SAID BONDS; MAKING PROVISION FOR MAINTAINING THE TAX-EXEMPT STATUS OF THE BONDS; AUTHORIZING BOND INSURANCE POLICY; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
The group putting together the Cotton Mills project will hold a townhall meeting tonight at the Hilton Garden Inn from 6P – 8P. It is open to the public. We are planning on recording the meeting for posting in segments over the next few days.
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