This morning, I had breakfast with Steve Morrison (the way I did with Kirkman Finlay III the day before). I didn’t get time to blog about it, but I will.
Then, between 5:30 and the time I went home, I:
- Dropped by an open house at the Capital City Club. As a board member, I was there to schmooze with new members and potential new members. I ran into my financial adviser, and made an appointment to see him next week. We really must talk… Drank half a beer.
- Dropped by James Smith’s office for an event he was having for Frank Holleman, who’s running for state superintendent of education. Shot some decent video, but was too exhausted when I got home to edit it. Chatted briefly with Mark Quinn from ETV, who said I need to come on the show sometime soon, which I’ll be glad to do. He also expressed interest in covering the cigarette tax smackdown I’m refereeing Friday. I gave him a contact name. Drank two ginger ales.
- Dropped by a fund-raiser for Steve Benjamin at Marvin Chernoff’s house. A decent crowd. Ran into Leona Plaugh, and just had to ask her why on Earth she wanted to get involved with city government again (she’s running for Kirkman’s seat). Ate some barbecue. Drank one beer. Had a little more barbecue. (This is starting to sound disturbingly like Bridget Jones’ Diary. Must stop.)
Had an interesting chat with Leona. Her answer, by the way, was that she feels like, city finances being as they are, she should run. As she said, she knows more about the city budget than anybody, possibly including Kirkman.
Leona, if you recall, was the city manager before Charles Austin. She left under a cloud, but you know what? I always had the impression that Leona knew what was what, and she acted the way she did because in Columbia, city manager is a completely unmanageable job, with seven bosses constantly interfering.
Since she left city employ, she’s been running “an exclusive management and marketing company for corporate entertainment producers.” I said that sounded way more fun than taking Kirkman’s place on the council. I didn’t fully understand what she does — she stopped me before I could pitch a movie idea to her — but she did mention having produced an event in Vegas that featured the Guess Who and William Shatner. That definitely sounds like more fun than city council. Beam me back to Vegas, Scottie — that’s what I’d say.
Anyway, today was a perfect example of what I frequently observed — if you get out there and experience enough things to be worth blogging about, you don’t have time to blog about them…
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one and a half alcohol units, eh?
People in the “community”—-my peeps–“ordinary, decent” citizens, really loved Leona for the most part. I was fairly new on the scene during her tenure, so…
People in City Hall who worked under her were not such fans (and they are of Steve Gantt, btw). Maybe being called crocodiles and such will do that to you….
I think her base is more North Columbia than Kirkman Finlay/Hamilton Osborne territory. She really should have run for the at large seat–but Tameika is solid, so….or mayor, but the big money candidates in that race have scared other potentially viable candidates off….