Fairhope should now begin to see the writing on the wall. The Fairhope City Council is voting as a unit and the council president, Jack Burrell, is calling the shots. One thing that is perfectly clear is that any recommendations from the mayor will be meet with stiff resistance, regardless of itโs merit.
The last city council meeting, Sept 11, left little doubt as to how far the council will go to oppose the mayor. The cityโs insurance was on the agenda and one bid had been received and a second bid came in 23 hours after the deadline. The second bid was with a company the mayor brought to the table. The council in itโs infinite wisdom decided not to open the second bid and refused to allow both bids to be resubmitted. The end result was the council accepted the bid they wanted and rejected the mayors. That cost taxpayers and employees 60 thousand dollars and better coverage, but the council, again, put their agenda before public trust. Burrell insisted that the decision had nothing to do with the Mayor, remember this, it is very important and will come up again.
FREE SPEECH
FREE SPEECH
Hard to believe a week later we are expecting another hurricane, IRMA, headed towards the United States. Landfall is expected in the Miami area and the destructive route may travel through the entireโฆ
Council President Burrell, โallowedโ the Ripp Report to address the council after refusing to at the last council meeting. This is a common stunt with Mr Burrell he has used public participation to silence his critics before. He did not apologize or overtly recite the policy of public participation, however he did concede that non residents will be allowed to speak, mighty white of him. He also admitted that the public participation at the end of council meetings was meant for comments from the public not restricted to topic. Letโs see how long he goes before he silences someone else!
SHUT UP
Every Fairhope City council meeting begins with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance. What irony, when the council president then explains to attending citizens that their right to speak is aโฆ
Councilman Boone defended any city document leaks as transparency. The council has subpoena information that may be of use by the 3 pending claims against the city. This information was leaked to tabloid press, Mr. Boone calls this transparency. Please think about that, the council is aiding and abetting the lawsuits against the city, for the sole purpose of attacking the Mayor. What Mr Boone is not saying is that no less than two lawyers warned the council not to leak such information.
BOONE TRANSPARENCY
Investigative Reporting โ Business Entity Records
Investigative Reporting โ Business Entity Records | THE RIPP REPORT / BALDWIN COUNTY LEGAL EAGLE
Source: http://arc-sos.state.al.us/cgi/corpdetail.mbr/detail?corp=420935&page=agent&file=&type=I&place=ALL North Ridge, LLC Entity ID Number 420 โ 935 Entity Type Domestic Limitedโฆ
Source: rippreport.com/2017/01/25/investigative-reporting-business-entity-records/
CONFLICT OF INTEREST | THE RIPP REPORT / BALDWIN COUNTY LEGAL EAGLE
Dear Fairhope City Council: Recently several articles have been written in reference to Councilman Kevin Boone and the business connections he has through several LLC to individuals and engineeringโฆ
RE-GIFT GIFT ??
ATTENTION FAIRHOPE TAXPAYERS FW: Fly Creek PUD Amendment & the Deed to the City of the Most Sensitive 4 Acres Mitsy, โemail to all council members and Mayor Wilson would greatly benefit the City.
These are examples of what Mr. Boone never told anyone I guess he will thank us for being transparent.
A special council meeting was called by Mr Burrell on a Thursday, only 3 days after the regular meeting to discuss Fairhope Airport Authority business another example of transparency.
The council needs to provide barf bags at the council meetings.
Did they ever find that third computer? and who did it belong too.? Why does the police chief have a lawyer now.
Who is the private citizen the mayor investigated???
Enquiring minds want to know
The second bid coming in after the deadline is a problem for the prospective bidder. You can’t accept it according to state law. You can however reject all bids (since they only had one) and do them over. The fact they didn’t open the late bid is not a problem for the Council nor the Mayor. The fact the Council awarded a bid with only one bidder is up for debate. They have been hesitant to do this previously though.
CORRECT
Anyone with a lick of sense can see that what you’ve said is true. It’s like the Council has a little in-private meeting together before every work session and council meeting to plan strategy and decide who says what. Another perfect example was the Mayor’s suggestion to use Winterland for the Christmas lights. It not only saves the City money but frees up our utility department to work on more important things. So naturally, the Council begins trying their best to take it down…with the most ludicrous of objections. Maybe they should just let local folks outside the utility department climb up in bucket trucks and do a crappy job stringing lights. Liability, anyone? But you know, give our people a chance. After all, Winterland is from out-of-state and they might do a partial job or a bad job and then disappear (like the Mayor found these folks on craigslist or something instead of researching them). And on and on. I was watching these men scrabble about trying to find any reason they could to throw out the Mayor’s idea – for no other reason than because it was hers. Save the City money? Inconsequential! They looked like fools.
It will be like this the entire time Mayor Wilson is in office. You would think that if these morons really love the city they make decisions for they’d WANT to work with her instead of against her at every turn. I swear, hell hath no fury like men scorned.
Let’s run good people against each council person. And let Ripp run the cleansweep.
AGREE
FAIRHOPE FIRST
Egos Second
There were two valid bids, not one. One bidder submitted a second bid late.
No, submitting a late bid makes in invalid. Period. You are supposed to leave it unopened and return to sender if it is late.
Okay Late. Got it.
A late bid is not a valid bid per the bid laws and are supposed to be returned to sender unopened.
Wrong again. The late bid was the second bid of the bidder. The first bid, which was high, was a valid bid as well as the winning bid. Surprised so many have the facts incorrect. Paul needs to amend his first commentary.
This may not change his point but let’s be accurate.
Okay Bid Law. We got it.
Let’s see who wants to save Fairhope from the goobers or who would rather sip their ripple and pretend to be “rich” on their porch. All of these jerks can be defeated. It is a small municipal election. It doesn’t take money it takes woman/man/power and want to. we can take our community back from these greedy, self-serving pigs but we have to want it. That means sacrificing some time and energy and money–if everybody does we will have created a new fairhope. If we don’t get control fairhope will never recover and I am scared to say what I see it will be like in 20 years.
I do not see Jack backing down. The council somehow is spellbound by him. Why? These are not smart or nice people guys and gals. I just recently realized how corrupt Fairhope actually is. A complete purge is needed of the council. Ripp got Kant out of office because he got the Sec. of State to come down and ensure a fair election. This happened because poll watchers told a story of tampering. This needs to happen the next time to again ensure fairness. That was the first fair election in fairhope in decades–if ever. Nix and Kant rigged them from many local accounts and testimonies.
If the next municipal election is legitimate, and the people who care about the city and their property values and way of life go vote–then we will have a new majority–and a true fair hope for success!!! This will happen.
I am too old to run for office. I do see why most want to avoid Jack Burrell. He is a mean spirited man and disrespectful. No one wants to deal with him. He is vexatious and cruel. It will take a strong moral individual to take Jack on. But, I do think he is in trouble for his comments in public and his actions at the airport and how he fights free speech to cover up his shenanigans. Jack acts like someone who has much to hide. I think he all women see this. Whether or not enough men in town dig his dog and pony act is the telling factor.
There is so much new development going up right now it looks like Fairhope is already on a slippery slope. The traffic congestion concerns are real now. More cars on the roads mean longer wait times and as daphne continues its unprecedented building spree it piles more minutes onto our commute time to the interstate ten. The moratorium is in effect but it may be too little too late. I see construction everywhere!
The sewerage problem has persisted for so long I wonder if most realize that this has been a can kicked down the dirt road for so long it’s not even funny. Talk to the city engineers with tenure. It’s not just the plant. It’s too small. Yes. But the infrastructure is old and in many cases, not up to snuff. We need generators in the event of power loss. We ain’t got em. This is bad. In a catastrophe situation like a hurricane it could be a huge problem. The material would be stuck and would back up and cause a really nasty health problem. This already could have happened with bad luck. Fairhope has dodged the bullet in this regard.
We need probably $30 million or more in sewerage system upgrades. We routinely dump raw sewage in the bay. Sadly this is accepted in our town. Think of that. It makes my stomach turn and this is the legacy we leave Baldwin County. Our children and grand kids deserve so much better. We have been lied to for so long. Case after case of ecoli and other bacterial infections…related to untreated sewage…do not motivate our politicians to do right by us.
Thirteen million spent on the recent sewer upgrade was just a teaser. Get out the lube. The big one is coming. And you better believe the council is going to want to decide who does the work.
The kickback is just too big this time. The fab five is all in.
Mr. Ripp is a fine man for maintaining this blog. We should use technology like this to make fairhope better. If Fairhope is worth fighting for then sign up for the fight dammit!
Sandy
US NAVY, retired
Well Sandy, Karin Wilson took the step you suggest to others, to get involved and fight back. For a year she tried to convince everyone she knew to run against Kant but his hold on Fairhope, coupled with his henchmen, was scary and nobody wanted to make the effort against what seemed like insurmountable odds. But when she got to the end of her list and listened to every single person say “no”, she shrugged and said well, I guess I’ll have to do it myself. And who knew – it worked!
Now as it turns out, she may have had more leverage had she run for a Council seat as it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the Mayor, with no votes, doesn’t have much power to actually change things if the Council routinely votes against everything she suggests and wants.
Now though, the Council is ripe to be picked off. Who likes them? Nobody. The next election is the time we have the best chance to make good things happen for Fairhope. Replace every damn one of them but most especially, get rid of Jack. He’s the puppetmaster of the other four (I mean seriously, have you ever seen a more pathetic group of cowed men in your life?) and I suspect we’d see a lot more forward progress on what’s needed with him gone.
I think Jack is controlling the payouts to the council. What a cracker he is.
Karma is real.
Sandy, very well said & you are never too old to do anything if you have the desire. You sound like one very logical & smart individual – yes we all need to get together & take back Fairhope!!
Well, a meeting was held in Fairhope about the total delay & lack of work by Arrington Curb & Excavating at the roundabout under construction at Gayfer Avenue & County Road 13. It was to be complete by September 8th, extended to September. 15th & now November 3rd. They are NOT on the job many days & sometimes weeks at a time. So – we are now giving them an extension – what a joke so they can work like they have been working!! Commissioner Chris Elliott was in attendance & lead the meeting. A lot of it had to do with STATE bureaucracy.. State Representative JOE FAUST KNEW about the meeting & did NOT attend. What a good representative of the people!! Joe Faust is nothing but a Howdy Doody guy & Baby Kisser! He does not know or care to do anything that helps his constitutes!! Heard he is going to run again – HA – he needs to be voted out – all he cares is about the social part of it!! Someone needs to step up & run against him!
Joe Faust only likes to go to Barbeques and Fund Raisers. He does not like confrontations because he may have to come up with some answers and he really has none. Surely there is at least one DECENT individual out there that will run against him!
Joe cares very much for the community. I personally speak to him about many issues and he is involved in helping The people he represents in ways you don’t always see.
The roundabout meeting was a publicity stunt by Chris Elliott as He is running for office. Did you get any answers at the meeting? No the county commissioner, one that is responsible for this mess, just passed the buck and blamed everyone else.
You can say that again. I have never seen anything that Joe Faust has done that is great for our county.
Chris Elliott should be careful talking about round-abouts as much as he drinks. DUI County Commissioner and professional liar Chris Elliott will not get elected Alabama State Senator. Any person that can get a DUI and spend as much effort lying to Prayer groups and everyone else that he didn’t??? He lacks the confidence of the people for sure. We got rid of Pittman, that was a joke… wasn’t that easy!!! Now it’s time for Elliott. The rest will follow.
They rig all elections. No one wins without the machine’s blessing.
I was called for a poll last night. They asked about the U.S. Senate race. They asked about issues.
And they asked about Trip Pittman…if I had a positive or negative view of him or if i didnt know him at all.
I gave the negative.
I wonder what Trip is going for next? I figgeered the crazy house.
What ever it is. We will be right there to stop the trash from leaving the landfill. Pittman is done!!! Just the tip of he iceberg came out about all the crimes he has committed. Other Tractor and equipment companies will be right there to shut the door.