Calm down people, and quit yer’ snickering.I am not talking about myself.
No, this is a divorce, like so many sad partings after almost 20 years, that leaves behind many good and wholesome moments to remember.You know, great memories created before all trust and mutual respect was blown to hell.
If there has been a more faithful or better-respected municipal attorney in the CSRA than Doug Batchelor, I don’t know who it would be.A few dozen public officials have come and gone since he first became the chief counsel for the Columbia County Commission two decades ago, and in that time he hasembarrassed his employers, um…never?
I hesitate to pick up the phone and call the authority on “all things Columbia County,” Barry Paschal, for this one, because asking another columnist for his recollection on Batchelor’s service record for my column seems like bad form.
Sure, there have been disagreements and points of order and misunderstandings, but not once has Doug Batchelor ever ended up on the front page of the paper after crashing his car into a parked truck, drunk as a billy goat, while leaving a boogie-woogie nightclub in the wee small hours of the night, like one of his predecessors did.
Nor did he run up an exorbitant bill while on a “bond trip” at a ritzy, New York City hotel, charging large room service tabs (complete with champagne) to local taxpayers, in the same “wee small hours” mentioned above, like a fellow, local municipal attorney did some years ago.(That dude begged Billy Morris to keep it out of the paper, not because of the money involved, but because a sweet, young “secretary” signed for the aforementioned champagne, in his room, no less.And yep, that detail was kept out of the story.)
Nor has Batchelor ever been caught doing work for other clients while he was billing Columbia County for his exclusive services, the way we recently saw one of Augusta’s staff attorneys do.
No, Doug Batchelor has never disgraced himself in such a way, because as far as I know, he is a man that is better than many I have known who hang a law degree on their wall.
But in the same way good people sometimes have to end a marriage because the trust in the relationship has been lost, occasionally business relationships are destined for the same fate.
To say that Batchelor was tone-deaf the night of the December 6 Magnolia Trace commission meeting debacle would be a vast understatement.
He did not see the reason for concern when several hundred pissed-off homeowners were ready to string Ron Cross up for his lackadaisical attitude concerning the news that government-subsidized renters were about to set up residence in brand new housing that was nicer (and cheaper) than the decades-old middle-class neighborhoods surrounding it.
Batchelor has had a ringside seat for the years of rhetorical butt whoopins’ Chairman Cross and his compadres have put on those sad individuals hoping to put up apartment complexes in their fair county.How he, or Cross, for that matter, thought that this was somehow a superior plan baffles me.
But Cross, and his fellow Commissioner Trey Allen, have changed stories a few times about what they knew and when they knew it concerning Magnolia Trace.
At this point, neither man is willing to throw Batchelor under the bus for what is believed to be a lack of proper background information on the true nature of the rent structure on the project, or the fact that it was rental property at all, for that matter.But I am told under no uncertain terms that neither knew Batchelor had ever done business with the project’s parent company, in the form of real estate closings, and that apparent conflict of interest has become quite the bone of contention behind the scenes.
Citizen activist Jennifer McCray, the first person to really call attention to a lot of this mess, confided in me early on that she believed there was a deeper connection between the Magnolia Trace developer and Batchelor.Quite frankly, I did not buy it.I was wrong.
As we now know, Batchelor and his firm had done work for the company, and I have it on good authority that most of the Columbia County Commission had no idea there was such a relationship.
Batchelor has said the transactions and connection were immaterial; so far, his elected supervisors have done nothing to show they disagree.
But in opposition, I have several hundred taxpayers who say different, and I promise that figure will be parlayed into larger numbers shortly.
A divorce may be coming in Columbia County, but will it be Doug Batchelor moving on, or the commissioners who foolishly chose to stand by their man?You Might Also Like:
Doug Batchelor Needs to Go
A Divorce Is Needed in Columbia County
By Austin Rhodes
January 26, 2012
Calm down people, and quit yer’ snickering.I am not talking about myself.
No, this is a divorce, like so many sad partings after almost 20 years, that leaves behind many good and wholesome moments to remember.You know, great memories created before all trust and mutual respect was blown to hell.
If there has been a more faithful or better-respected municipal attorney in the CSRA than Doug Batchelor, I don’t know who it would be.A few dozen public officials have come and gone since he first became the chief counsel for the Columbia County Commission two decades ago, and in that time he hasembarrassed his employers, um…never?
I hesitate to pick up the phone and call the authority on “all things Columbia County,” Barry Paschal, for this one, because asking another columnist for his recollection on Batchelor’s service record for my column seems like bad form.
Sure, there have been disagreements and points of order and misunderstandings, but not once has Doug Batchelor ever ended up on the front page of the paper after crashing his car into a parked truck, drunk as a billy goat, while leaving a boogie-woogie nightclub in the wee small hours of the night, like one of his predecessors did.
Nor did he run up an exorbitant bill while on a “bond trip” at a ritzy, New York City hotel, charging large room service tabs (complete with champagne) to local taxpayers, in the same “wee small hours” mentioned above, like a fellow, local municipal attorney did some years ago.(That dude begged Billy Morris to keep it out of the paper, not because of the money involved, but because a sweet, young “secretary” signed for the aforementioned champagne, in his room, no less.And yep, that detail was kept out of the story.)
Nor has Batchelor ever been caught doing work for other clients while he was billing Columbia County for his exclusive services, the way we recently saw one of Augusta’s staff attorneys do.
No, Doug Batchelor has never disgraced himself in such a way, because as far as I know, he is a man that is better than many I have known who hang a law degree on their wall.
But in the same way good people sometimes have to end a marriage because the trust in the relationship has been lost, occasionally business relationships are destined for the same fate.
To say that Batchelor was tone-deaf the night of the December 6 Magnolia Trace commission meeting debacle would be a vast understatement.
He did not see the reason for concern when several hundred pissed-off homeowners were ready to string Ron Cross up for his lackadaisical attitude concerning the news that government-subsidized renters were about to set up residence in brand new housing that was nicer (and cheaper) than the decades-old middle-class neighborhoods surrounding it.
Batchelor has had a ringside seat for the years of rhetorical butt whoopins’ Chairman Cross and his compadres have put on those sad individuals hoping to put up apartment complexes in their fair county.How he, or Cross, for that matter, thought that this was somehow a superior plan baffles me.
But Cross, and his fellow Commissioner Trey Allen, have changed stories a few times about what they knew and when they knew it concerning Magnolia Trace.
At this point, neither man is willing to throw Batchelor under the bus for what is believed to be a lack of proper background information on the true nature of the rent structure on the project, or the fact that it was rental property at all, for that matter.But I am told under no uncertain terms that neither knew Batchelor had ever done business with the project’s parent company, in the form of real estate closings, and that apparent conflict of interest has become quite the bone of contention behind the scenes.
Citizen activist Jennifer McCray, the first person to really call attention to a lot of this mess, confided in me early on that she believed there was a deeper connection between the Magnolia Trace developer and Batchelor.Quite frankly, I did not buy it.I was wrong.
As we now know, Batchelor and his firm had done work for the company, and I have it on good authority that most of the Columbia County Commission had no idea there was such a relationship.
Batchelor has said the transactions and connection were immaterial; so far, his elected supervisors have done nothing to show they disagree.
But in opposition, I have several hundred taxpayers who say different, and I promise that figure will be parlayed into larger numbers shortly.
A divorce may be coming in Columbia County, but will it be Doug Batchelor moving on, or the commissioners who foolishly chose to stand by their man?You Might Also Like:
Calm down people, and quit yer’ snickering.I am not talking about myself.
No, this is a divorce, like so many sad partings after almost 20 years, that leaves behind many good and wholesome moments to remember.You know, great memories created before all trust and mutual respect was blown to hell.
If there has been a more faithful or better-respected municipal attorney in the CSRA than Doug Batchelor, I don’t know who it would be.A few dozen public officials have come and gone since he first became the chief counsel for the Columbia County Commission two decades ago, and in that time he hasembarrassed his employers, um…never?
I hesitate to pick up the phone and call the authority on “all things Columbia County,” Barry Paschal, for this one, because asking another columnist for his recollection on Batchelor’s service record for my column seems like bad form.
Sure, there have been disagreements and points of order and misunderstandings, but not once has Doug Batchelor ever ended up on the front page of the paper after crashing his car into a parked truck, drunk as a billy goat, while leaving a boogie-woogie nightclub in the wee small hours of the night, like one of his predecessors did.
Nor did he run up an exorbitant bill while on a “bond trip” at a ritzy, New York City hotel, charging large room service tabs (complete with champagne) to local taxpayers, in the same “wee small hours” mentioned above, like a fellow, local municipal attorney did some years ago.(That dude begged Billy Morris to keep it out of the paper, not because of the money involved, but because a sweet, young “secretary” signed for the aforementioned champagne, in his room, no less.And yep, that detail was kept out of the story.)
Nor has Batchelor ever been caught doing work for other clients while he was billing Columbia County for his exclusive services, the way we recently saw one of Augusta’s staff attorneys do.
No, Doug Batchelor has never disgraced himself in such a way, because as far as I know, he is a man that is better than many I have known who hang a law degree on their wall.
But in the same way good people sometimes have to end a marriage because the trust in the relationship has been lost, occasionally business relationships are destined for the same fate.
To say that Batchelor was tone-deaf the night of the December 6 Magnolia Trace commission meeting debacle would be a vast understatement.
He did not see the reason for concern when several hundred pissed-off homeowners were ready to string Ron Cross up for his lackadaisical attitude concerning the news that government-subsidized renters were about to set up residence in brand new housing that was nicer (and cheaper) than the decades-old middle-class neighborhoods surrounding it.
Batchelor has had a ringside seat for the years of rhetorical butt whoopins’ Chairman Cross and his compadres have put on those sad individuals hoping to put up apartment complexes in their fair county.How he, or Cross, for that matter, thought that this was somehow a superior plan baffles me.
But Cross, and his fellow Commissioner Trey Allen, have changed stories a few times about what they knew and when they knew it concerning Magnolia Trace.
At this point, neither man is willing to throw Batchelor under the bus for what is believed to be a lack of proper background information on the true nature of the rent structure on the project, or the fact that it was rental property at all, for that matter.But I am told under no uncertain terms that neither knew Batchelor had ever done business with the project’s parent company, in the form of real estate closings, and that apparent conflict of interest has become quite the bone of contention behind the scenes.
Citizen activist Jennifer McCray, the first person to really call attention to a lot of this mess, confided in me early on that she believed there was a deeper connection between the Magnolia Trace developer and Batchelor.Quite frankly, I did not buy it.I was wrong.
As we now know, Batchelor and his firm had done work for the company, and I have it on good authority that most of the Columbia County Commission had no idea there was such a relationship.
Batchelor has said the transactions and connection were immaterial; so far, his elected supervisors have done nothing to show they disagree.
But in opposition, I have several hundred taxpayers who say different, and I promise that figure will be parlayed into larger numbers shortly.
A divorce may be coming in Columbia County, but will it be Doug Batchelor moving on, or the commissioners who foolishly chose to stand by their man?You Might Also Like:
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