The (Good Old) Boys Are Back In Town!!

Now that I have the lyrics to that song stuck in your head, an update. (Do me two favors. If you like this blog, find it interesting or infuriating or both, subscribe and share with a friend.)

But first, I suck as a blogger. Supposed to post regularly to get a following, but anyhoo...here we are.

I had no idea how prophetic my Tides A Changin' post would be. Forget tide, a tsunami crashed through good ole CC at the last council meeting, after which the good old boys Yancey, Manning, Marc Payne (newest member of the club), and Chuck Youngs probably popped a bottle or two of bubbly.

Andrea Gardner did the City of Copperas Cove a humongous favor by giving her notice, because my next curmudegonly prediction was for the FAB4 or Good Old Boys Club to look for a way to kick her out and fire her.

Which would have cost a chunk of money as per her contract which was approved back before even Chuckie was on the council the first time.

Amazing how rumors spread faster than hot butter on a skillet, that the severance package was tacked onto Andrea's contract in 2016. Nope, that we-have-to-pay-you-at-least-300-grand clause has been on there a long time.

Speaking of contracts, Andrea had her fans among one of the Fab4. Yancey sang her praises at her October 2016 evaluation. Did you know city managers get evaluated twice a year by the council and she has specific goals and milestones she must meet-which are set by the council? Yeppers, y'all.

Something must have happened to change Dapper Dan's mind (nice tie). Oh, wait - his mind wasn't changed. That was just his true colors showing up.

I'm really surprised, though, that a bank man, an expert like Yancey, would vote to accept the resignation of a city manager who during her time here boosted the city's bond rating and now our financial situation is so good that it'll start hurting our credit if we don't start financing a few things.

Just putting it out there. How good of a banker is he, if he doesn't recognize good management when he sees it? Good, I said. Not perfect. She is not known for her warm 'n fuzzy approach.

I'd rather a tough but fair manager than warm 'n fuzzy who doesn't know how to make the hard decisions.

Well, the Good Old Boys are back in town. I don't know what to discuss next, so I'll leave a few more predictions, to occur in no particular order:

1. The council will give the chamber of commerce an engraved invitation to get hotel occupancy tax funds so the chamber can afford its payroll better this time around.

2. EDC will be back the way it was. Whoever the city ends up hiring will be fired by the council/EDC board (sorry, chap, or ma'am, whoever you will be) and then Marc "Car Salesman" Farmer will be back at the helm because he's just so awesome and has a rolodex.

3. If you're not the chamber of commerce and want hotel funds for an event that would bring tourism to the city, you're SOOL (**** out of luck) because you're not the Good Old Boys' sacred cow, Rabbit Fest, and the chamber.

4. The Copperas Cove council will flip off the KTMPO, give them their money back for The Narrows Sidewalks, and forget the sidewalks on Constitution which are part of that project that would have given walkers in the apartments safer access to Walmart. Because, well, it's an Andrea project and she sucks, so...

5. Andrea projects are subject to being torpedoed, because, well, Andrea.

6. Andrea, I will gladly buy you a smoothie at Healthy Hub and hang out for a bit. Clearly the writing is on the wall and you were smart enough to know what to do -- your contract would be up in three years, you're clearly coming in to a combative council during key projects going forward, your kids are raised, there's nothing tying you here. Good luck!