My Response to Pat Ford's Announcement for Mayor and his "Accomplishments"

First of all, his October 30th announcement for Mayor has one wondering why so late to announce, did he forget? Was it not important enough to him or was it so he could state things that are blatantly untrue so his opponent would have little time to respond before election day. I would lean towards the latter based on what he is claiming as his accomplishments.

His are listed in black and my responses to him are in red underneath his.

The City of Pulaski has experienced an unprecedented period of growth and a wide range of accomplishments during the first two terms in office for Mayor Pat Ford, who is seeking re-election on Nov. 6.

It is very clear Mr. Ford is taking credit for things in which he had no control nor any involvement. I as former Chairman of the Pulaski/ Giles County Economic Development Commission have records dating back to the Commission’s inception in 1995. I was secretary until 2001. I have all records up to August of this year. The attendance records from Mayor Ford’s first 4 years as Mayor speak clearly on his involvement in his first term. His attendance records show that he attended less that 45% of the meetings. The first two years in office he only attended 3 meetings per year. This Board meets Monthly. Mayor Ford appointed Colby Baddour as the Board representative to EDC. Baddour attended only 7 meetings during the 2 years he served on this Board and contributed nothing.

Dan Speer became Executive Director of EDC in 2008. At that time, he began devoting his time to EDC, 100%. I became Chairman of EDC in September of 2009. At this time Giles County’s unemployment rate was over 15% and reached as high as 18%. Most of the successes during these years can be attributed to Dan Speer. He, Janet Vanzant, Kim Ketchum and State of Tennessee EDC people were the ones that landed Magneti Marelli in Pulaski. Dan told the Mayor when to show up to have his picture made. At the Grand Opening, Mayor 1 proudly took 100% of the credit for getting Magneti to Pulaski. He later apologized to the local EDC board for his statements. This is well documented.

According to information provided by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) the last eight years has seen 2,300 new jobs created and more than half-a-billion dollars invested in the community by new and expanding industries. The local unemployment rate has gone from double figures in 2010 to as low as 2.7 percent in September 2017 and remains low at 3.7 percent as of September 2018.

I can’t tell you how many actual jobs have been created because I haven’t researched that. I believe Magneti is well over 1600 so I will not dispute his number. However, “half-a-billion dollars invested in the community by new and expanding industries.” Folks that is $500,000,000 or 500 million he claims credit for. Just a few weeks ago at a dinner function he claimed it was $250 million. That figured doubled in just a few weeks. Well my EDC records show vast differences in his numbers. My records as Chairman show:






That is a vast difference than Mr. Fords claims. I would like to see proof of his claims.
I do know that the Magneti investment has grown since it started, but I don’t believe it will
make up the huge difference in our figures. It should also be noted that Mayor Ford had VERY little to do with any of these expansions. It was the EDC TEAM of which he refused to participate.

Mr. Ford takes credit for the drop in the unemployment rate in Giles County. Here is a graph of the rate since Dan Speer took over as Director, I as Chairman and Ford as Mayor. One should also look at Tennessee's overall and the USA during this period.






In 2010 our EDC Board, under my leadership as Chairman, undertook extensive Strategic Planning. We developed working committees and assigned every person on that Board a job and a committee. Some were on multiple committees. We had a major goal in place to assist our local businesses and industries first and foremost. In 2008 we had 800 businesses in Giles County. By 2014 we had over 2200. This group worked tirelessly building existing businesses and trying to recruit new ones. Where was Mayor Ford..... ABSENT! He did show up when it was time to get his picture made.

“Working with the network of state and federal agencies that we have developed over the past eight years, we were able to obtain over $1 million in grant funding to develop a Select Site in the Industrial Park South” Ford said. “This is significant because it makes Pulaski a ‘highest priority’ site.”

This statement is partially true. Our group set goals to have a Select Site in the new industrial park. What he fails to mention is the three (3) times the State of Tennessee sent representatives to Pulaski to “reprimand” us for actions by Mayor Ford. After shaking the Governors hand once, the Mayor thought he could go around people and get right to the Governor. That didn’t happen and we were quickly told to abide by the rules “OR ELSE”. He didn’t listen and they showed up in Pulaski 3 times. Finally our group met and decided to give him an option “Be a team player or sit the bench”. If you think I am making this up, please watch this meeting. It was recorded and can be seen here:

Https://youtu.be/fM8o9VuzcBo <------- I urge you to watch this video!

By the way, Mr. Ford, that park was recently named in honor of Dan Speer and should now be respectfully referred to as "Speer Industrial Park South". I know that is hard for you, Pat Miles and Bethany Shockney to do since you all opposed this naming so adamantly. Those of us that worked with Dan and supported this would appreciate you respecting that.

Mayor Ford also stressed the need for quality education.

I agree. However, I do think he should focus more on giving his students at MMC the education they are paying for.

“As an educator myself, I understand the importance of developing a 21st Century work force by continuing work with our school system, TCAT and Martin Methodist College,” he said. “The development of a trained, reliable work force is essential to our ability to attract and retain Industrial and Economic Development for our Community and our region of the State.”

Improving the local workforce is imperative, especially with Toyota announcing in our back yard. This could greatly pull from our local workforce.

Ford said he is similarly very proud of the expansion of services and amenities that have dramatically improved the quality of life throughout the city of Pulaski during the past eight years — all accomplished without raising taxes.

Pat Miles is trying to take credit for the Hampton Inn and the expansion of Highway 31 South. While Mr. Ford did not specifically claim the Hampton Inn in this announcement, he has made mention of it. That is a great stretch. He along with other members of the City Council and Mr Harrison fought Dan Speer and Mr. Hunt on this project for months if not years, throwing up obstacles to him. They argued over running the utilities from the other side of the street to his location. This delayed the project almost to the point of losing it.

This also was similar to the Valley Packaging project. We almost lost this industry to another county because of the delays and stalls from Mayor Ford, Mr. Harrison and other members of City Council. They would not run utilities to the new desired site. So if Mr. Ford wants to claim credit for these, please just ask someone that knows the truth.

With a balanced budget every year that required no property tax increase, Ford said the city has seen its debt reduced by almost 50 percent.

We should probably discuss the issues with the sales tax money from the expansion of Sam Davis park and the Road money from the 1960’s that the City demanded back from the county and the tension these things caused between City and County.

“We’ve implemented annual strategic planning sessions that have allowed the city council to have open discussion about future plans,” Ford noted. “That advanced planning enabled the city to develop funding, create the design and implement the construction for many of the critical improvements we have made over the past few years, as well as the improvements that are coming in the near future.

“For the past three years, the city has been working with the state to approve a paving project on portions of West College Street from Mill Street to the Railroad overpass,” Ford explained. “Recently the Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted to allow the city administrator to award the bid for that project.”

The streets in Pulaski are in horrible shape!

Ford said by using state and federal grants along with funds allocated by the city council, Pulaski’s paving budget for the last two years has been more than the city’s property tax revenue for those years — $1.1 million in 2017-18 and $1.38 million in 2018-19.

“Everything we do as a city and as elected representatives involves relationships,” Ford said. “Without the good working relationships we have with the county, state Economic Development, TDOT, TVA and our state elected officials, so much of what we have would not have been possible. These relationships are critical to our ability to continue to implement essential improvements that we anticipate in the near future.”

This part is almost comical on the part of Mr. Ford. He is a one man show! He has destroyed relationships we have worked to develop for years. State of Tennessee officials have threatened to “leave us in the dust” if we (he) did not cooperate and follow established rules and guidelines.

Other areas of improvement Ford points to as examples of successful partnerships during his tenure as mayor include:

• PARTAS grants to rehab Richland and Magazine Road parks.
• Grant money to replace the bridge on Magazine Road.
• Grant money to build safety fencing and install lighting at the Pulaski/Giles County airport.

Let’s discuss the Airport. Shortly after Magneti arrived to Pulaski, they began using the local airport for shipping their goods to their customers that needed urgent supplies. Around 2012- 2013 we began discussing the need with them on expanding the runway so their cargo planes could better use the local airport. They were using several smaller planes daily. Randy Jones, manager of the Airport worked diligently with the state to try and obtain grants to extend the runway. The Church that was planning to build close by was bought out and had to relocate their church plans. During the planning for this, the FAA stopped Magneti’s planes from departing to the North because of the trees on the hill on the North end of the runway. It was quickly determined by the FAA and State of Tennessee Aeronautics Division these trees had to be cleared before the extension to the runway. Mr. Ford quickly volunteered to handle this “because he is close personal friends with the property owner of that hillside”. Five or so years later and nothing, NOTHING! If you ask Mr. Ford about the progress of this, he will state “in the works”. Well either work a deal out or condemn the property. It seems to me to be a conflict of interest if he is trying to negotiate a deal with a close personal friend. This is the real snail's pace progress of Mayor Ford.

• An almost $2 million grant to beautify and improvement sidewalk transportation from the Pulaski Square to just past the railroad overpass on West College Street.

After the incident with illegal dumping near our water supply, I think this money would be much better spent cleaning up that area.


— Pat Ford
David Rackley

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