DAVID AUSTIN AND CENSORSHIP OF COUNTY MEETINGS

[surepip]

 

And who determines whether or not a board is successful? Who is to say there aren't folks who believe the board has been successful?

 

As you point out, Thompson has been on the board for a while, so he's been appointed and reappointed a few times (and by a number of iterations of the Board of Commissioners, I'm guessing). Why don't you ask them if they think he has been successful, since they appointed him?

 

 

 

You're calling Thompson a mouthpiece, which denotes that he doesn't make the final decision, so if the decision-makers decide to make the airport commercial, then it wasn't really his call.

 

I don't know why you and other folks keep quoting his one soundbite. It's moot now. As I've said before, Gov. George Wallace stood up for segregation, but he ultimately had to back down. Now, I'm sure some of his supporters didn't like his backing down, but in the end, it was the right thing to do.

 

Sorry if you don't like this "chit." (By the way, really? Can't you make an argument without the veiled cursing?)

No sir.

Comparing Calvin and his Airport statements, and their later lies,......and George Wallace standing in front of the University of Alabama, declaring to uphold the Alabama laws that prohibited blacks from the school are night and day, apples and lemons.

 

Calvin was the mouthpiece and spokesman for the AA. No laws were changed. No county regulations, stipulation, or any other LAWS concerning the airport were changed.

 

Calvin was responsible to see to it the AA provided and did what he, and they said they would. And he did not. He changed his tune, and basically told the people of Paulding, Touch Chit. I am the boss, and I now want commercial and we are going to make it commerical.

 

Wrong, wrong. wrong.

 

These guys.....Calvin Thompson, Blake Swafford, David Austin, Boykin Austin, Doris Deveny, Carolyn Delamontte or whatever her name is now, all should be required to reach into their personal pockets to pay the shortages that they are instead hanging on the tax payers. Their mis-management and absolute ridiculous waste of tax payer money should be hung on them, and they should be prosecuted for causing those losses.

 

How long will Blake hang around if he has to pay for his errors in judgement, errors on basic desicion making, and just plain down right screwing up. In the private sector he would have been fired years ago. Instead, the Austin administration, like the Shearin administration protects him, and seeing the handwriting on the wall, has now given him a gold parachute bail out should the new commissioners find a legal means to just fire his ass, as it should be,

 

Have you guys looked at the Golden Parachutes given to Shearins county manager Pat Crook ? $50 grand plus.

 

Then Beverly Cochran......Austin couldn't fire her [why not....? does she knows too much like others ?]...she gets another $50,000 severance package.

 

And now Blake's contractural parachute package. Why ? What Chit does he have on who ?

 

Instead, he is financially rewarded for poor decisions and even worse management.

 

Fraud. That is what it is, plain and simple. Fraud from day one, and then the full force of the county checkbook with their lawyers to break anyone who goes against them.

 

Hey David....Hows that McKnight suit going ?

 

And the others ?

 

How many millions are you going to waste on this fiasco ?

[tundra]

No sir.

Comparing Calvin and his Airport statements, and their later lies,......and George Wallace standing in front of the University of Alabama, declaring to uphold the Alabama laws that prohibited blacks from the school are night and day, apples and lemons.

 

Calvin was the mouthpiece and spokesman for the AA. No laws were changed. No county regulations, stipulation, or any other LAWS concerning the airport were changed.

 

Calvin was responsible to see to it the AA provided and did what he, and they said they would. And he did not. He changed his tune, and basically told the people of Paulding, Touch Chit. I am the boss, and I now want commercial and we are going to make it commerical.

 

Wrong, wrong. wrong.

 

These guys.....Calvin Thompson, Blake Swafford, David Austin, Boykin Austin, Doris Deveny, Carolyn Delamontte or whatever her name is now, all should be required to reach into their personal pockets to pay the shortages that they are instead hanging on the tax payers. Their mis-management and absolute ridiculous waste of tax payer money should be hung on them, and they should be prosecuted for causing those losses.

 

How long will Blake hang around if he has to pay for his errors in judgement, errors on basic desicion making, and just plain down right screwing up. In the private sector he would have been fired years ago. Instead, the Austin administration, like the Shearin administration protects him, and seeing the handwriting on the wall, has now given him a gold parachute bail out should the new commissioners find a legal means to just fire his ass, as it should be,

 

Have you guys looked at the Golden Parachutes given to Shearins county manager Pat Crook ? $50 grand plus.

 

Then Beverly Cochran......Austin couldn't fire her [why not....? does she knows too much like others ?]...she gets another $50,000 severance package.

 

And now Blake's contractural parachute package. Why ? What Chit does he have on who ?

 

Instead, he is financially rewarded for poor decisions and even worse management.

 

Fraud. That is what it is, plain and simple. Fraud from day one, and then the full force of the county checkbook with their lawyers to break anyone who goes against them.

 

Hey David....Hows that McKnight suit going ?

 

And the others ?

 

How many millions are you going to waste on this fiasco ?

Buttt, it's the way it's always been done. You know Gentleman's agreements and all.

[gpatt0n]

Surepip:

You know and I know that the airport was a perk that was a flex of the muscles of the Paulding establishment under the Shearin Administration. That muscle included being home to Paulding's first Speaker (and first Republican speaker of the Georgia House since reconstruction). It included not just Richardson but also the folks who were on the plane that crashed in February 2008.

It was also conceived of in the context of the housing boom and Paulding being in the top 10 fastest growing counties in the USA for more than a decade.

The local economy, based on development and homebuilding, was making all sorts of things not just possible, but the lack of them almost insulting. I recall many of the same folks balking at the general aviation airport as loudly as they are against commercialization now ... and for the same reasons (we don't want no growth.) I recall being for the airport before its inception (going back to the Doc Goodman period when he got the AA formed in the 1990s).

I looked around and saw that one of the communities I lived in, in western Oklahoma had a 5000-ft paved airport ... in a county with 15,000 residents - not one with 150,000. I was appalled that the county didn't have an airport.

The idea that airports were some exotic monster from the past and every community that had one would be smited by the Good Lord for having one because God didn't intend man to fly is to me (and I know you) a totally alien idea.

You and a vast majority of the folks in the county supported a general aviation airport back in 2004 when the decision to proceed was made.

As to the choice of Blake Swafford. Blake has proper credentials and was 'on board' in the county's transportation department when this came up. There was no outcry that we need to get the worlds' most qualified commercial aviation airport operator for this facility because ... well it was supposed to be a general aviation airport.

Things changed and the folks from propeller were looking for a commercial airport location in the largest airport market that doesn't have a relief or secondary commercial airport - i.e. Atlanta. Not only do larger cities have multiple commercial airports but many markets smaller than Atlanta do. It is really an anomaly that Atlanta doesn't ... like it is really queer that it doesn't.

But I think we all know why it is queer like that ... and that is that folks Delta pretty much put it to anyone who entertains that thought.

Now come the continued complaints ... that the airport authority is not qualified.

I think they recognize that, that is why they created a PPP that included propeller which, incidentally includes the guy that Delta used to employ to run their largest airport property - Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. He was knowledgeable enough to be invited to a congressional hearing to talk about public, private partnerships - a concept being promoted (especially by the Republican Congress) for airports through special provisions of the law.

One of the funniest - aw hell, call it queer - things is that those same folks that yell loudest about government are the ones screaming don't commercialize the airport which is the same as saying "don't privatize with a 3P" the airport.

Now surepip, I know and you know also that the airport is a secondary in your complaints with the county and that your personal complaints all relate to one of the biggest blunders made in the county when they dropped the historical development plan for the land on the southwest corner of 278 and 120/Bill Carruth. According to long-term planning that property was supposed to be commercial/industrial given its flatness, access to sewerage, rail and highways. You fought for that development plan despite your home being there and I do give you significant credit in bringing the level of investment in the new Paulding hospital because of your tip to them that they could pick up an additional - 30-40 acres before Womble planted more homes on it.

And while the airport is a development issue, I recognize that your opposition is based more on you animosity toward anything the Austin Administration is seeking to accomplish.

There is more about the Delta connection, BTW. What I understand is that they can't expand H-J at all. I also understand that Paulding really is their preferred location and a lot of what they say about it being a bad place is misinformation designed to keep their plans close to the vest. What they are especially afraid of is Paulding getting its own 139 permit because that means they can't just come in and take over (which they can with relative ease if the current airport is a general aviation facility.)

The perspective that drives my decision to support our application and effort for a commercial airport permit in Paulding is that I think a commercial airport in Paulding is inevitable and the real question is whether it will be locally controlled or not.

I believe if you saw the issue as local control or not, you'd prefer local control ... hell I believe that Tundra, Whitey and the lot would as well.

But they don't see it that way. The current politics frames this issue in the only way that Delta/HJIA 'win' (and gain control over our airport). They've framed the issue as incompetence, over-reaching, unrealistic, ambition coupled with hubris with unsubstantiated hints of corruption that engage and fool some of the people they are not interested.

Coming up with broad-based cons like that are why the big firms tend to win... oh and they pay big bucks for that kind of PRopaganda.

 

Why do they do it? Because they know they can fool all the people some of the time ...

pubby

[WHITEY]

Surepip:

 

You know and I know that the airport was a perk that was a flex of the muscles of the Paulding establishment under the Shearin Administration. That muscle included being home to Paulding's first Speaker (and first Republican speaker of the Georgia House since reconstruction). It included not just Richardson but also the folks who were on the plane that crashed in February 2008.

 

It was also conceived of in the context of the housing boom and Paulding being in the top 10 fastest growing counties in the USA for more than a decade.

 

The local economy, based on development and homebuilding, was making all sorts of things not just possible, but the lack of them almost insulting. I recall many of the same folks balking at the general aviation airport as loudly as they are against commercialization now ... and for the same reasons (we don't want no growth.) I recall being for the airport before its inception (going back to the Doc Goodman period when he got the AA formed in the 1990s).

 

I looked around and saw that one of the communities I lived in, in western Oklahoma had a 5000-ft paved airport ... in a county with 15,000 residents - not one with 150,000. I was appalled that the county didn't have an airport.

 

The idea that airports were some exotic monster from the past and every community that had one would be smited by the Good Lord for having one because God didn't intend man to fly is to me (and I know you) a totally alien idea.

 

You and a vast majority of the folks in the county supported a general aviation airport back in 2004 when the decision to proceed was made.

 

As to the choice of Blake Swafford. Blake has proper credentials and was 'on board' in the county's transportation department when this came up. There was no outcry that we need to get the worlds' most qualified commercial aviation airport operator for this facility because ... well it was supposed to be a general aviation airport.

 

Things changed and the folks from propeller were looking for a commercial airport location in the largest airport market that doesn't have a relief or secondary commercial airport - i.e. Atlanta. Not only do larger cities have multiple commercial airports but many markets smaller than Atlanta do. It is really an anomaly that Atlanta doesn't ... like it is really queer that it doesn't.

 

But I think we all know why it is queer like that ... and that is that folks Delta pretty much put it to anyone who entertains that thought.

 

Now come the continued complaints ... that the airport authority is not qualified.

 

I think they recognize that, that is why they created a PPP that included propeller which, incidentally includes the guy that Delta used to employ to run their largest airport property - Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. He was knowledgeable enough to be invited to a congressional hearing to talk about public, private partnerships - a concept being promoted (especially by the Republican Congress) for airports through special provisions of the law.

 

One of the funniest - aw hell, call it queer - things is that those same folks that yell loudest about government are the ones screaming don't commercialize the airport which is the same as saying "don't privatize with a 3P" the airport.

 

Now surepip, I know and you know also that the airport is a secondary in your complaints with the county and that your personal complaints all relate to one of the biggest blunders made in the county when they dropped the historical development plan for the land on the southwest corner of 278 and 120/Bill Carruth. According to long-term planning that property was supposed to be commercial/industrial given its flatness, access to sewerage, rail and highways. You fought for that development plan despite your home being there and I do give you significant credit in bringing the level of investment in the new Paulding hospital because of your tip to them that they could pick up an additional - 30-40 acres before Womble planted more homes on it.

 

And while the airport is a development issue, I recognize that your opposition is based more on you animosity toward anything the Austin Administration is seeking to accomplish.

 

There is more about the Delta connection, BTW. What I understand is that they can't expand H-J at all. I also understand that Paulding really is their preferred location and a lot of what they say about it being a bad place is misinformation designed to keep their plans close to the vest. What they are especially afraid of is Paulding getting its own 139 permit because that means they can't just come in and take over (which they can with relative ease if the current airport is a general aviation facility.)

 

The perspective that drives my decision to support our application and effort for a commercial airport permit in Paulding is that I think a commercial airport in Paulding is inevitable and the real question is whether it will be locally controlled or not.

 

I believe if you saw the issue as local control or not, you'd prefer local control ... hell I believe that Tundra, Whitey and the lot would as well.

 

But they don't see it that way. The current politics frames this issue in the only way that Delta/HJIA 'win' (and gain control over our airport). They've framed the issue as incompetence, over-reaching, unrealistic, ambition coupled with hubris with unsubstantiated hints of corruption that engage and fool some of the people they are not interested.

 

Coming up with broad-based cons like that are why the big firms tend to win... oh and they pay big bucks for that kind of PRopaganda.

 

Why do they do it? Because they know they can fool all the people some of the time ...

 

pubby

The scare innuendo in this thread is not even worth commenting on, I see you and David are still scared of the BOOGEY MAN.

[cookies are sweet]

Pubby,

If I understand correctly, you say that many people were against a general station airport because they didn't want growth.

You say those fears are both unfounded and backward.

You say this is true also of the commercialization of the current airport battle.

You say that no one questioned Blake Swafford's credentials, at the time, to manage a general aviation airport.

 

As you know, I am mostly neutral about the commercialization of our airport.

However, you do bring up some points that bother me about our county doing so with the same people running the project.

 

1. Your point about people's fear of growth by having a general aviation airport being unfounded are right on target.

As far as I know, the airport has not helped growth in this county.

 

2. You say the same thing about bringing in commercial flights.

I tend to agree with you, allowing commercial flights, with the status quo, will not bring growth.

 

3. You bring up that no one questioned Mr. Swoffards capability in managing a general aviation airport.

I agree, that given the circumstances at the time, perhaps it would not have been fair to question his abilities.

But after so much time and so much money spent and so little return, wouldn't the leaders and people of this county be stupid to not start to wonder if he was the right person for the job?

 

In summery, I agree with you pubby.

Given the people who are tasked with running the airport project, the citizens of Paulding have nothing to fear about the county growing if commercial service comes to our airport.

 

However, they may have much to fear from having to pay the bills for all this non growth.

[tundra]

What is it that TP says? Chicken Little says the sky is falling? Something like that.

 

Those scare tactics were used in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Gah........... Atlanta is going to build an airport in Paulding County............we have to do something before they do it. Then they even went so far as to tell everyone they were running out of landfill space in Atlanta, building an airport would prevent them from doing that.

 

Quite likely if we got 139 certification, it would be much easier for Atlanta to move in and take over the failed airport. They'd have the go ahead to do what ever they want, they would already have what they needed. No way will it survive with the same people being in charge. Nope, they aren't qualified to run an airport...........they don't even know what a business plan is!!!

 

The majority of the citizens in Paulding never wanted an airport, GA or Commercial. The GA airport is there, let's go with the original plan of a MRO facility and a Technology Park.......that's where the high paying jobs are. Not with TSA and landing fees.

[Rose Luxemburg]

Surepip:

 

You know and I know that the airport was a perk that was a flex of the muscles of the Paulding establishment under the Shearin Administration. That muscle included being home to Paulding's first Speaker (and first Republican speaker of the Georgia House since reconstruction). It included not just Richardson but also the folks who were on the plane that crashed in February 2008.

 

It was also conceived of in the context of the housing boom and Paulding being in the top 10 fastest growing counties in the USA for more than a decade.

 

The local economy, based on development and homebuilding, was making all sorts of things not just possible, but the lack of them almost insulting. I recall many of the same folks balking at the general aviation airport as loudly as they are against commercialization now ... and for the same reasons (we don't want no growth.) I recall being for the airport before its inception (going back to the Doc Goodman period when he got the AA formed in the 1990s).

 

I looked around and saw that one of the communities I lived in, in western Oklahoma had a 5000-ft paved airport ... in a county with 15,000 residents - not one with 150,000. I was appalled that the county didn't have an airport.

 

The idea that airports were some exotic monster from the past and every community that had one would be smited by the Good Lord for having one because God didn't intend man to fly is to me (and I know you) a totally alien idea.

 

You and a vast majority of the folks in the county supported a general aviation airport back in 2004 when the decision to proceed was made.

 

As to the choice of Blake Swafford. Blake has proper credentials and was 'on board' in the county's transportation department when this came up. There was no outcry that we need to get the worlds' most qualified commercial aviation airport operator for this facility because ... well it was supposed to be a general aviation airport.

 

Things changed and the folks from propeller were looking for a commercial airport location in the largest airport market that doesn't have a relief or secondary commercial airport - i.e. Atlanta. Not only do larger cities have multiple commercial airports but many markets smaller than Atlanta do. It is really an anomaly that Atlanta doesn't ... like it is really queer that it doesn't.

 

But I think we all know why it is queer like that ... and that is that folks Delta pretty much put it to anyone who entertains that thought.

 

Now come the continued complaints ... that the airport authority is not qualified.

 

I think they recognize that, that is why they created a PPP that included propeller which, incidentally includes the guy that Delta used to employ to run their largest airport property - Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. He was knowledgeable enough to be invited to a congressional hearing to talk about public, private partnerships - a concept being promoted (especially by the Republican Congress) for airports through special provisions of the law.

 

One of the funniest - aw hell, call it queer - things is that those same folks that yell loudest about government are the ones screaming don't commercialize the airport which is the same as saying "don't privatize with a 3P" the airport.

 

Now surepip, I know and you know also that the airport is a secondary in your complaints with the county and that your personal complaints all relate to one of the biggest blunders made in the county when they dropped the historical development plan for the land on the southwest corner of 278 and 120/Bill Carruth. According to long-term planning that property was supposed to be commercial/industrial given its flatness, access to sewerage, rail and highways. You fought for that development plan despite your home being there and I do give you significant credit in bringing the level of investment in the new Paulding hospital because of your tip to them that they could pick up an additional - 30-40 acres before Womble planted more homes on it.

 

And while the airport is a development issue, I recognize that your opposition is based more on you animosity toward anything the Austin Administration is seeking to accomplish.

 

There is more about the Delta connection, BTW. What I understand is that they can't expand H-J at all. I also understand that Paulding really is their preferred location and a lot of what they say about it being a bad place is misinformation designed to keep their plans close to the vest. What they are especially afraid of is Paulding getting its own 139 permit because that means they can't just come in and take over (which they can with relative ease if the current airport is a general aviation facility.)

 

The perspective that drives my decision to support our application and effort for a commercial airport permit in Paulding is that I think a commercial airport in Paulding is inevitable and the real question is whether it will be locally controlled or not.

 

I believe if you saw the issue as local control or not, you'd prefer local control ... hell I believe that Tundra, Whitey and the lot would as well.

 

But they don't see it that way. The current politics frames this issue in the only way that Delta/HJIA 'win' (and gain control over our airport). They've framed the issue as incompetence, over-reaching, unrealistic, ambition coupled with hubris with unsubstantiated hints of corruption that engage and fool some of the people they are not interested.

 

Coming up with broad-based cons like that are why the big firms tend to win... oh and they pay big bucks for that kind of PRopaganda.

 

Why do they do it? Because they know they can fool all the people some of the time ...

 

pubby

 

 

 

I agree that local control is much preferred over Atlanta. I think the 139 is an eventuality...

[mojo413]

I agree that local control is much preferred over Atlanta. I think the 139 is an eventuality...

My money is on There Will Never Be 139 for our local airport.

 

Also irregardless of where anyone stands on this issue, I hope we can all agree this one issue has impacted our local community and government more than any other issue in Paulding County history.

 

I will not be surprised if someone writes a book some day "How To Split A Community With 1 Issue".

[gpatt0n]

My money is on There Will Never Be 139 for our local airport.

 

Also irregardless of where anyone stands on this issue, I hope we can all agree this one issue has impacted our local community and government more than any other issue in Paulding County history.

 

I will not be surprised if someone writes a book some day "How To Split A Community With 1 Issue".

 

Mojo:

 

When I first came here in 1989 - the stories about the reaction to Paulding as the site of the second Atlanta Airport were already legend.

 

Strategically, it is kind of like the Battle of Atlanta. Let me explain. There was Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (Johnston Street in Dallas was named after him) and then there was Gen. John Bell Hood. One was a my way or the highway ball-on win or lose kind of guy. The other was cagier, fought very defensively using basically George Washington's strategy of keeping an army, albeit smaller than the Yankees but still formidable, in the field for the duration.

 

Wiki"

During the months leading up to the battle, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had repeatedly retreated from Sherman's superior force. All along the railroad line, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Marietta, Georgia, a pattern was played and replayed: Johnston took up a defensive position, Sherman marched to outflank the Confederate defenses, and Johnston retreated again. After Johnston's withdrawal following the Battle of Resaca, the two armies clashed again at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, but the Confederate senior leadership in Richmond was unhappy with Johnston's perceived reluctance to fight the Union army, even though he had little chance of winning. Thus, on July 17, 1864, as he was preparing for the Battle of Peachtree Creek, Johnston was relieved of his command and replaced by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood.[7] The dismissal and replacement of Johnston was one of the most controversial decisions of the civil war.[8]

 

The belief, of course, was that had Johnston retained command, he would have delayed the fall of Atlanta until after the November 1864 elections which would have cost Lincoln the race to 'peace' candidates in the north. Fact is, had the fall of Atlanta been delayed even a month closer to the election, the entire outcome of the Civil War would have been dramatically changed.

 

The point being the strategies of the two southern generals was the difference in the battle of Atlanta. And, as Rose and a large number of other folks here believe that this airport will ultimately be a commercial facility, the question is who is in charge. We know the outcome of John Bell Hood, who sacrificed his army until it was decimated allowing Atlanta to fall in September 1864 and handed re-election to Lincoln.

 

 

The fall of Atlanta and the success of the overall Atlanta Campaign were extensively covered by Northern newspapers, and were a boon to Northern morale and to President Lincoln's political standing. The 1864 election was between former Union general George B. McClellan, a Democrat, and Abraham Lincoln. McClellan ran a conflicted campaign - McClellan was a Unionist who advocated continuing the war until the defeat of the Confederacy, but the Democratic platform included calls for negotiations with the Confederacy on the subject of a potential truce. The capture of Atlanta and Hood's burning of military facilities as he evacuated showed that a successful conclusion of the war was in sight, weakening support for a truce. Lincoln was reelected by a comfortable margin, with 212 out of 233 electoral votes.^[7]

 

The path of compromise, avoiding the decisive battle and delay, delay could likely have made the difference.

 

The same with local control of the airport. Will the bigger army seeking to commercialize the airport here be able to rout the locals and exploit all 10,000 acres they own as quickly as they choose by taking control or can we take the control of development ourselves by taking control and staking our claim to commercial airspace here.

 

You may disagree. Hell Jeff Davis disagreed with Joe Johnston too and his choice was John Bell Hood ... and defeat.

 

There are no take backs.

 

pubby