The Mayor of Madison was on fire last night as she gave her annual state of the city address. She announced the plans for a town square, blasted the Madison County Board of Supervisors, and charged the State Auditor with recommending engineer Rudy Warnock to another county. Oh, and she announced the creation of a website, cleansweepmadisoncounty.org, to "clean up the county".
The video of the entire speech is posted below. Some highlights of the speech are:
*Bayer Properties of Birmingham, Alabama will develop a town square at the intersection of highways 51 and 463. It will include a performing arts theatre, condos, a boutique hotel, and other features. Bayer built The Summit in Alabama. It is not known if Tim Johnson and friends will perform as the Rat Pack.
*The Mayor charged Madison taxpayers paid $65 million to the county in the last seven years and only received $3.5 million in return.
*The county allegedly paid over $23 million to county engineer Rudy Warnock and compared it to the MDOC scandal. She said the fight over Madison County corruption is why she ran for auditor. She said the State Auditor whitewashed and gave cover to the Board of Supervisors.
*She repeatedly called out the two Supervisors in attendance, Gerald Steen and John Bell Crosby. She called the airport study a "slush fund" and brought up Sulphur Springs Park. She said Steen was the "swing vote" on keeping Mr. Warnock as county engineer.
*She said Mississippi is the most corrupt state in the country and other towns and counties have similar stories to Madison County.
*She accused the Supervisors of discussing plans to allow apartments right outside of Madison in executive session.
45 comments:
Does not play well with others.
She's got my vote!
Pickersham is a failure.
Apartments??? OMG. Right outside Bricktown? The world is coming to an end. So far we've had hypocritical white rich Madison developers sue Brandon for not allowing small homes for max profit, while claiming civil rights are affected. The same guy lives in Bricktown which not only bans those very sub size homes but even apartments and the YMCA. (some folks want a lily white Madison). Red bricks to match red necks. Course, with cotton planter and lawsuit money, sugah. Madison is just the right kind of Ole Miss folks. Hotty Toddy.
She's got to be a Tea Party member since she referred to Mississippi as being corrupt. We are not corrupt, we're just in league with our Ole Miss buddies. That's not corruption. Button pressed.
Apartments! RIGHT OUTSIDE of Madison! Oh the humanity!
... She's right about Rudy & the supes tho.
The live twitter feed was great. Thank you for doing that, KF.
I wonder where they'll buy the Confederate soldier statue from in order to make it a Southern town square. Probably some place like where Applebee's buys the fake decor. Probably got to face the pedestal with red brick, though.
Mary has always had a bone in her foot with the BOS. To her credit, she has grown Madison from an ink blot on the map when the BOS pretty much supported everything there to a very nice and thriving city that can most certainly stand on its own and monies that Madison use to get from the BOS is now used else where and she doesnt like it at all.
If she wants to change the board of supervisors maybe she needs to step up to the plate and run for supervisor herself or SHUT THE H3LL up.
If by some remote chance Mary does win the auditors race, it will be her soul life's work to go after Warnock and the BOS. I personally dont think she will because she wont be the fat fish in the little pond in that race. She'll be the fat little fish in amongst the sharks.
Good point, why not run for supervisor? Probably because she is hated on the other side of the city limits.
10:12, supervisors have to represent the rich and the poor, the white and the black. Mayor Mary prefers to make Madison an enclave against the unwashed degenerates living out in the county. Even their apartments are deemed bases for attack upon Madison - The City.
I don't always agree with Mary, but on this issue she is correct. She has made Madison a desirable place to live. Real estate values have gone up because of the effort to keep the city clean and kept up , not like many small towns in the area. The airport thing is about the dumbest thing anyone can do. First the current airport should be taken care of. Moving the airport to a location further away is dumb. People that fly in want to be close to Jackson or to the businesses. A move to where the study showed would guarantee airplanes moving to Hawkins Field. The study was a payoff for sure and and Madison taxpayers should be up in arms!
Not a fan of Mary, Mary quite contrary; however, I will be the first to say that she started out with some good ideas when she was first elected - somewhere along the line, she lost her mind. There is one thing that you can take to the bank, she will not be elected to the State Auditor's office. Contrary to what she believes, she is not that well-known state-wide and to those that do know her across the state, she is a joke. All she is doing is making noise and trying to collect campaign contributions. She is just bored right now and trying to keep her name out there. First of all she is not qualified to become State Auditor and second, she doesn't have to resign her position as mayor to run for this office; so it is a win-win situation as far as she is concerned.
Do we really want/need a State Auditor with only one purpose and goal, to arrest Rudy Warnock and piss off John Bell Crosby?
I missed whether or not she will have to resign as mayor in order to run for statewide political office. Prolly not.
I'll also search with interest for the 'clean up Madison County' website since she continues to allow multiple junkyards within Madison, The City.
8:22, Madison is more of a Mississippi State town actually.
First of all she is not qualified to become State Auditor ...
Right. Bryant and Pickering were both highly qualified. Get real.
11:06. I am a fan of Mary as a mayor. She's grown my property values and provides a strong tax base for our schools to be among the best in the state. While I read most of the derogatory comments here as being from those living in other communities, and therefore pay it no mind, I will agree that she stands no chance of becoming our next State Auditor. Madison in an anomaly in this State, largely because of Mary. I wish that it wasn't, but I thank God that at least it is.
So Warnock is suing her and has hired Dorsey Carson. I'm not a Mary fan but I'll contribute to her defense fund. Warnock is disgusting.
LONG LIVE MARY! I hope she fails at her attempt at State Auditor because I want her to be the Mayor of Madison. Her decorating of late(CVS)is the only complaint I have had. Madison is THE BEST place to live in Mississippi and its going to take someone like Mary to keep it that way.
Give Mary credit, she created Madison, but it was a unique opportunity that will not present itself again. First, she began in Madison when it was nothing and everyone lived in Jackson. She had the luxury of pulling off of Jackson's resources when needed while primarily having clean untouched property to build on. Second, she had the forethought to enact measures to try to keep it from becoming like Jackson, i.e., littered with disposable neighborhoods. (Keeping apartments out is HUGE.) The pattern in Jackson over the past 30 years has been that one minute your house is worth something, the next you can't give it away - primarily because everyone with an interest in keeping up the properties moves out and others move in. The measures she enacted supports stable schools since people want to live where there house retains its value and they don't pay an arm and a leg for private school. Say what you will about how she got to where she is, BUT Madison is unique and on the rise and has been for 25 years. The question will be how she (or whoever succeeds her) keeps it there. (And this is not from a Jackson hater. I grew up and still live in Jackson and hope for the best, but every day see more and more of my friends moving north.)
God save our gracious Queen!
As Rodney Dangerfield said, "she really seems to care! About what I have no idea"
She knew what she was doing when she "slandered" Rudy. She's baiting him into a lawsuit to get discovery and his deposition. She also made darn sure she did it in her official capacity as Mayor by making the statements at the State of the City.
" (some folks want a lily white Madison)."
Sorry - stop lying. I live in Annandale Estates, one of the pricier neighborhoods in one of the pricier towns in the state, and we have several black neighbors.
Nobody here cares about their skin color.
Another Madisonite here that agrees with 12:45. Humorous when NE JXN'ers call us rednecks, claim we want things to be lily white and bash Mary for banning apartments. It's so obvious the honest sentiment is "how'd they beat us at our own game".
Enjoy funding the wall and moat needed from JA to Lakeland.
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
Is Rudy a crook, or does he provide expertise in exchange for consideration?
Hasn't he been investigated?
Mary's letting her emotions direct her actions. Bad combination.
@3:46 Cute, but to me...a lot of the homes in Belhaven look the just the same. Everyone has dogs and loves rescuing animals, everyone loves indie/alt music and thrift stores, everyone loves craft beer and claims to be a "foodie", everyone runs and thinks they are super unique and hipster....which isn't unique at all.
Point is, all little suburbs have similar people and similar looks. Let it go dude.
I'm not quite finished listening to the Mayor's address, but both times, so far, when she's said something about John Bell, noise prevented me from hearing what she said. First time, some senile jackass coughed up what sounded like a quart of phlegm. Second time, there was a lot of bumping and rustling.
Maybe it was deliberate. Or maybe some people grew up without elders to teach them how to sit still and be quiet.
Honestly, it would be nice to have CAPTIONS, because with all the fidgeting and coughing in the audience, I missed most of what Mary said.
For the defenders of Queen Maria:
Do you remember the fight over the ECOL sign in the 1980's? How about when they were going to allow Steve Bryan to build some apartments and then changed her mind? Ouch! Or, the money she had to pay builders for the city's interference?
Do you remember when the only businesses in Madison that were being built were service stations? And when the city Chamber was complaining about it? How about when the city was too broke to fix roads, or hire more than 3 police officers?
The point is that even if Mary weren't queen, Madison would have developed....property values would increase....like they have everywhere in the USA.
The question is, how much better off would we have been if she hadn't decided to practice architecture without a license.
Look at Highland Colony. See how the businesses stop at the city limits. Now, ask yourself why we didn't get that. Where's the Target? Did WallyMart buy stuff from her family to buy her off?
Her time has come and gone. She needs to retire and find another county to rip apart with her fantasies. Like when she said Peacock wireframes on the roof were a safety hazard, er, against code, er, had nothing to do with Christmas.
She is a liar's liar and has duped her supporters.
12:45; What, pray tell, does the mayor of Madison have to do with "providing a strong tax base for our schools to be among the best in the state"?
A mayor has nothing to do with taxes that support schools.
Tacky Poem. I am really tired of people who dwell in the problem and not the solution.
@4:34 - Hope when you grow old you can sit in a hot stuffy room and remain cough free and I truly hope someone younger has the grace not to call you senile just because you have gray hair. But then, maybe no one taught you to respect you elders and what comes around goes around.
Frankly, Warnock is not very professional, IMO, and has not been for quite a long time. He over inflates his company and his accomplishments.
" practice architecture without a license".
That's a good one.
"We have several black neighbors".
"Some of my closest friends are black."
"I don't want to sound racist..."
But, even though you don't realize it, you are.
That's the problem. Madison is 93.23% White, 4.89% African American.
It's NOT a coincidence in a state with a 35% black population. And you know it deep down in your heart.
7:02- The commenter started off lauding the mayor's ability to keep property values up. Higher property values yield higher ad valorem taxes based on the Millage. Do you need that broken down even further or do you think you can keep up now?
I support Mary and what she has done for our community. It all comes down to multi family homes and the select few that will profit with no concern for the town we all love. Rudy's money is well placed with the supervisors he supports. Follow the money and you will find the ones that do not care about our city.
8:46, did you make up those numbers? I just looked it up, and Madison is closer to 85 percent white, and ten percent black. And the rest of your post is as divorced from reality as are your statistics.
I went to Mary's dot-org site and find this statement:
"Clean Sweep Madison will be working to clean up the corruption and cronyism in Madison County and bring her a fresh." That's it! A fresh 'what' is not mentioned. But the site does tell us to 'stay tuned'.
And, no, Mayor Mary has nothing to do with taxes supporting schools. Those are levied by school boards. Try to keep up 8:51.
Target? Who the hell needs a Target in the Madison community? Do we really need more magnets to draw the crowd from Yazoo, Canton, Durant, Leake County, Scott County and north Jackson? What we need is a moat, not more places that attract cars with tags held on by one screw.
Still loving living in Madison. Nice homes, very little crime, great shopping, best movie theater, a Sam's Club about to open. Got Mary?
1:43 Re. judgments of locl movie theaters: The seats at Tinseltown are waaay more comfortable than those at Malco, and Tinseltown offers a wider range of movies (including special events like the recent showings of Rear Window and Sound of Music). Even though I live in Ridgeland, I drive to Pearl almost every time I want to see a movie.
The popcorn Malco serves was popped last week. Not only is it stale, but cold and flavorless. The roof in theater 17 rattles when the sound is loud and the management treats the employees like crap. That, and guys try to rape the patrons. And when somebody warns students, the esteemed mayor gets mad and lies about what happened there. C
We are now on movie theaters?
I've been to Tinseltown several times in the last six months. They don't keep it as clean as they used to. Those kids are trying but they've tried to cut costs so much that you have one kid overwhelmed with selling both tickets and concessions.
The buttered popcorn at Tinseltown sucks. Since they started listening to the health nazis, it sucks at most theaters. Butter taste like some stale synthetic version of butter that not even flies would touch.
I usually go to Malco if I have a choice as its cleaner, nicer, and service isn't slow because one kid isn't trying to do 5 different jobs at one time. UA Flowood isn't too bad too.
I'd like to see TT do better. I remember when it first opened. We were stuck with small screens, small chairs, and flat level seating. UA would've never improved their theaters if not for Tinseltown. Proof that competition is a good thing.
Now if we could just get IMAX.
3:46 That was relevant when Malvina Reynolds wrote it about 50 years ago. Give credit where credit is due.
God bless America. And the unbelievable outlet mall that wanted to be in Madison if it weren't for Mayor Mary.
Leave that poor old woman alone! Just look at the poor old thing, bless her heart. She's got to be at least 70, and the blonde hair looks so natural I can't tell if it's a wig or comes out of a bottle.
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