Pat Ford - Mayor 1 - "A picture is worth a thousand words"

You have heard “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Well in this case it definitely is and I’ll try to keep it under a thousand words.

First of all, have you figured out what is wrong with this picture? For any one in any type of elected position, State of Tennessee employment or simply a volunteer like myself, it is quickly noticeable. If you are not one of those people you may not be aware there is a proper way to display the TENNESSEE State flag and the 3-Star symbol, so widely recognized as a Tennessee symbol. I am confident you know the proper way to display an American flag. Hanging the American flag upside down will ignite the fires under many individuals, especially our military. Upside down is a sign of distress. Pat Ford has displayed the Tennessee 3-star symbol upside down on his campaign signs.

Mayor 1’s clear ignorance of the proper way to display the Tennessee State symbol is a clear reflection on his eight years as Mayor of Pulaski. After eight years as Mayor of Pulaski and a resident of Tennessee, of all people HE SHOULD KNOW! He will probably blame the printer of his signs, but I’m sure he proofed them and he has begun to place them around town.

You have heard me say I have been involved as a volunteer for almost 30 years. In 2010 Pat Ford ran for Mayor. I was Chairman of Economic Development Commission at the time so I did not get involved in the election. The Economic Development Commission, known as EDC, is comprised of all the Mayors of all the towns in Giles County, the County Executive, a County Commissioner, an Alderman from the City of Pulaski, the Pulaski Electric System CEO, a minority member, a member representing the Greenbelt of Giles County, a Chamber of Commerce representative, a member representing local industry and a member representing local retail. As you can see by the membership, it is a very important board and I’ve always considered it a great honor to serve as Chairman of such a prestigious group of people representing our great county.

For the first few years of Pat Ford’s term as mayor he was completely transparent to EDC. He rarely showed up for meetings (I have his attendance records and will share). In 2013 my term on EDC was up for re-appointment. I was appointed by Mayor Dan Speer in 1994 to the original EDC board and re-appointed each time until I moved outside the city limits in 2000. I was re-appointed a couple years later to fill the vacancy of Paul Walker who represented light Industry.

Mayor 1 (Ford), called me one day in 2013 and wanted to discuss my re-appointment to EDC. He met me and we rode in his truck. He told me then, “some members of the City Council think you are a disgrace to EDC”. His exact words! He told me it was because I “hung out at Legends with the young girls”. (I will address that later). I was shocked. Within a couple weeks my re-appointment came up for a vote at a City Council meeting. The only one I remember voting “no” was Colby Baddour.

On July 9, 2013 I sent the following e-mail to Colby Baddour:

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 1:24 PM, David Rackley <David@davidrackley> wrote:

Colby,

I understand from talking with Pat Ford last week that you were "adamantly"
opposed to me being reappointed to the Economic Development Commission.
I feel confident your vote today reflected that position.

I am concerned and also curious as to the reason why. I would greatly
appreciate an understanding so I could either correct or clarify.

His response to me was:

David,

Thank you for reaching out.

If Pat indicated that I was "adamant," then he mischaracterized my feelings on the matter. I have been adamant with Pat in the past regarding various subjects, but your reappointment was certainly not one of these times. He should be able to distinguish at this point. I did however have some concerns about your reappointment that I shared with him, and some that I did not. Please understand that I cannot discuss with you the concerns that I didn't share, for the same reasons that I didn't share them with Pat. That being said, if you would like to discuss the concerns that I am able to share, please feel free to call. I am tied up most of the day today and tomorrow, but should be available most of the day on Friday.

Regardless of how I voted with respect to the appointments, I am proud of the work that the EDC is doing, and look forward to working with you and the Commission for the betterment of our community.

Colby

I had considered the Baddours life long friends of my family prior to this date. I will save the issues with the Baddours for another LONG post.

2013 was the year that Magneti Marelli made the move to Pulaski. Dan Speer, Janet Vanzant, Kim Ketchum and the State of Tennessee EDC staff were the ones that got Magneti to Pulaski. They are the ones that deserve all the credit. Yet, Mayor 1, stands up at the Grand Opening Ceremony and takes full credit all by his sweet little self. It was all “I” did this and “I” did that. Not one single person was recognized by Mayor 1. It is all fully recorded and available for viewing. There was not a single person locally that assisted in this that needed nor wanted recognition. IT WAS A TEAM EFFORT. Yet Mayor 1 took 100% credit. He later apologized in an EDC meeting.

That has been his theme for the last 4 years (second term). Its all about me! Hence “Mayor 1” as his truck license plate reads. This is not a name I or others made up it was the license plate he had on his personal vehicle. He calls himself "Mayor 1".

Colby, during his term(s) as Alderman, made insinuations that the Industrial Development Board (IDB) was doing things that were inappropriate. He pounded his fist on the council table and demanded that an audit of IDB be performed. He even went so far as to say he would vote not to fund EDC and IDB if audits were not conducted. This was during the time he was in YMCA night law school and evidently attempting to flex his family Baddour arrogant muscles. He was ignorant of the fact that if either IDB or EDC received a grant during the year from ANY source an audit was “REQUIRED” by the contributor of the grant.

Ford and Baddour made an issue out of the EDC owning the spec buildings, in particular the one which Proper Polymers now leases. I, as Chairman, requested State Representative Eddie Bass ask for an Attorney General’s opinion on this. It was their opinion along with EDC/IDB Attorney Bob Henry’s opinion that it was completely proper for EDC to title property in their name. This cost the EDC several thousand dollars, wasteful spending on their part. (That will definitely be another topic of discussion).

Since that time, Mayor 1 has worked diligently to remove me from the EDC and to appoint members of the City Council who would create conflict. In 2015, instead of trying to work with the members of EDC, he wanted to appoint Colby Baddour to the EDC Board. Several members expressed their concerns on his appointment and I will attach a video of a meeting that addressed this. The EDC Board has always been a great working team that pulls together for the betterment of Giles County. Since my appointment in 1994 I cannot tell you of one single conflict until Pat Ford in his second term. In his first term he was completely silent. It was probably lack of knowledge on what to do.

If my memory serves me correctly (and I have records somewhere to show it), Colby Baddour attended 4 or 5 meetings in the two years he was on the EDC board. The EDC board meets monthly. So he attended 4 o 5 out of 24. That is like 16% of the time. The times he did show up he had no involvement and if an issue arose that required a vote, he abstained, claiming it was a conflict of interest because he served on City Council. I certainly never understood that position.

During all the years that I served as Chairman of EDC, I attended the Governors Conference on Economic Development and Rural Development Conferences every year. I even attended these when I served as Alderman for the City of Pulaski. The Governors Conference was where Cities and Counties would be recognized for “great” things. It was were the Governor’s Three Star Awards for Excellence were awarded. It was where counties that received special grants and other outstanding things were honored. The conferences were always great sources of learning on how to improve your community. I don’t think I missed a single one from 2009 to 2017 and I always looked forward to it. I took off from my own business to attend these.

There have been numerous people from Giles County attend these conferences over the years. However, Mayor 1 could only find the time to come when he was notified in advance that Pulaski or Giles County would be receiving some award and it was only for the amount of time it took to snap his picture. He never stayed for the conferences. The one time that stuck out in my memory the most was the time, Dan Speer was presented an award for Exceptional Economic Development Work. We (Dan and I) did not tell anyone that this was an award for Dan but we told them it was an EDC award so we could get Giles County attendees there to share in the “glory”. Pat Miles and Pat Ford jumped up when it was announced and grabbed the plaque as if they had done the work. Dan and I and others in attendance laughed for months about that. I will post the picture of that. It was classic! Of course Ford was there only for the photo op!

Mayor 1 then appointed Pat Miles to the EDC board, again against the wishes of the other members. I will spare my thoughts and knowledge of Pat Miles for another post.

Throughout the entire time I have been on the EDC Board there has always been an unwritten goal to improve communications and overall relations between City and County. We worked hard to be a TEAM and everyone pulling in the same direction with the same goals. In my first year as Chairman, we underwent a comprehensive Strategic Goal Setting. Everyone participated and was motivated to work as a Team. Then along comes Mayor 1. His first few years were kind of like the blind leading the blind. He had to be told where to be and what to do.

About the time Dan was diagnosed with cancer, Pat, Colby and a couple others began to try and break down the City/ County working relationship. A sales tax increase was brought to a vote and passed. It was for the sole purpose of funding the renovations at Sam Davis Park. However instead of using all the proceeds from the sale tax increase to pay the note, the City refuses to honor the deal made with the county and makes the minimum payment and the remaining portion goes into the General fund for Pulaski. This caused major friction between City officials and County officials and rightly so. Colby Baddour refused to show up at any meetings with County Officials during this time. Later on the City decided to take back Road improvement money that was given to the county in an agreement in the late 1960’s. This caused the County to have to raise taxes. Where did that money go?

On several occasions the State of Tennessee's Economic Development Commission has come to Pulaski to meet with EDC officials to "reprimand" us. We were reprimanded because Mayor 1 would not follow protocol when it came to Economic Development issues. He thought because Governor Haslam came to Pulaski and he shook his hand that he could call the Governor's office and make demands. He quickly learned that was not going to happen and the Governor sent word through the Commissioner of Economic Development for him to follow the proper channels and to not call his office and make demands. It was extremely embarrassing to our Board.

There are many, many other examples of Mayor 1, Colby Baddour, Pat Miles and others doing everything possible to NOT be TEAM players and to destroy the working relationship so many of us worked diligently to build between City and County.

It is a very simple fact, Mayor 1 wants to be a one man show, take all the credit and get his picture made.

With all this said, you would think that a man that has been elected and served two terms as Mayor would have the dignity, respect and knowledge to at least honor the great State of Tennessee and display the logo and flag correctly. Anyone that orders a State of Tennessee license plate (from another county by the way) stating Mayor 1, is not what we need for leadership in Pulaski and Giles County. We need a TEAM player.

WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP!

Click here to view for a meeting held of the Board Operations Committee on January 13, 2015.

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