I seriously doubt the fact that Century Mayor Henry Hawkins repaid the town of Century $1,751 for airline tickets will simply solve the issue. But I think it's a start.
But I have a problem with Hawkins using his own money to pay for those tickets if those tickets were on the up-and-up for economic development.
I'm all for transparency in government. The people who pay the taxes to operate government need to be able to see their entire process and access public records. We don't want politicians meeting behind closed doors making decisions on how they spend our money. They should tell us up front and in public.
Hawkins has maintained that he didn't release the names of the people who got the airline tickets due to a confidentiality agreement. He said the people came to Century to explore the possibility of bringing a business and jobs to that community.
Economic development is a different animal in terms of transparency. I've served on the Escambia County Industrial Development Board for many, many years. I've listened to presentations from our executive director and now from Coastal Gateway. We are sometimes left in the dark about the name of the company looking at our area. We get code names for the project.
Years ago, Alabama's open meetings law, commonly known as the sunshine law, wouldn't allow city councils or county commissions to discuss economic development issues in private. Those discussions had to be held at a public meeting. That law has been amended to allow executive sessions when certain criteria was reached.
There have been times over the years that I've sat in such meetings dealing with sensitive development issues and I simply put my pen down. I wasn't going to be the person to sabotage a business or an industry coming to this area over a premature story.
The reasons people looking to either relocate or establish a new business or industry want to keep things under the radar are many. First, if they are looking to relocate they may not want the town they are relocating from to know. If they are looking to purchase land in an area they don't want somebody who would sell their land for $1,500 per acre to jump the price to $10,000 per acre if they get wind of the deal.
Economic development is a slippery slope and one slip can take you off the list of possibilities. I've seen areas get scratched off a list of possibilities for a variety of reasons.
I don't know if Hawkins is telling the truth about the airline tickets or not. But at the same time, the council doesn't know whether or not he's telling the truth.
People often jump to the wrong conclusions by either not knowing the facts or not trusting the judgement of other people.
The problem I see in Century is a lack of trust. That can easily be settled at the new municipal elections. If the people of Century feel Hawkins did something wrong they should not re-elect him. It's that simple. If they don't trust him, they shouldn't vote for him.
I do agree with something Hawkins told me late Tuesday afternoon. He said all the infighting involving the mayor and council is causing problems in moving Century forward.
Stories in the Tri-City Ledger, the Pensacola News Journal or on northescambia.com reach well beyond the boundaries of this small community.
I'm not saying a mayor and council should always agree. There are times to disagree and open the lines of discussion. But there's an old saying of agreeing to disagree in a civil manner and not simply closing your brain to the thought of compromise.
We see enough of that in Washington when Republicans blindly vote against anything the Democrats want and Democrats vote against anything the Republicans want.
It's gotten personal in Century and it's up to the voters to change the direction of the town.
