Sandbags stir charges of special treatment

[jbm32206]

Clearly, this in not just something that many of us on the forum are upset about. This from News4jax.com:

A city councilman on Sunday joined what has become a storm of controversy over whether U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, got special treatment for with city work crews delivered sandbags to her home Friday as Tropical Storm Fay was bearing down on Jacksonville.

Brown Admits calling Mayor John Peyton's office for help, but denied any inappropriate use of her power or influence. "I had to call and call and call, just like anybody else," Brown told Channel 4's Diane Cho. "I had to call several times before I got anybody."

The mayor's chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth, said he took Brown's call and authorized Public Works crews to sandbag her Trout River home. Late Friday, he told Channel 4 he apologized if that was a misuse of taxpayer resources. Despite Brown's repeated statements that she'd pay for the services she received from the city crew, Channel 4 has heard from hundreds of viewers outraged that a congresswoman got help that few if any other residents did.

On Sunday, City Councilman Don Redman said that while it was great the city was able to help Brown, he learned first-hand that other residents that needed help didn't get it -- even when Redman made a special request for it." At our meeting with EOC on Thursday, the mayor told us anything we need, just call and the services would be available," Redman said.

As Fay moved in, he was flooded with calls from constituents in District 4 asking for help dealing with rising water and other threats from the storm. One of his constituents sent photos showing nearly 5 feet of standing water in her Windy Hill neighborhood. When Redman called the EOC on their behalf, he said he was surprised at their response.

"She checked with fire department, all departments with the city and said, 'Don... we do not furnish sandbags for anybody else,'" Redmond said. "I said, 'Can we just get some bags and some sand I'll get them filled?' 'No, we can't do that. That's not a service we fulfill. '"Not satisfied, Redman called both the mayor's chief of staff and his chief administrative officer by cell phone, but neither answered the call.

"I did hear from both of them (Saturday), sad for not getting back to me quickly and apologizing for not getting sandbags for everybody," Redman said. Carol Caughlin, the Windy Hill resident who called Redman for help, was "incensed" that Brown got help the average Jacksonville taxpayer could not. "This just reeks of what they do in Washington and she comes back here to Jacksonville," Redman said. "They think they're politicians, they can ask for anything and they can get it, where we ask and we don't get it.

"Since Channel 4 first aired the story about the city's sandbagging at Brown's home, hundreds of other residents have criticized what appeared to be special treatment for the congresswoman. Ask whether Hollingsworth should face disciplinary action, Redman said that's out of his hands. "That's up to the mayor," Redman said. "He's a good man. He does a good job responding to issues... Under normal circumstances Adam does a good job responding.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/17283318/detail.html

[BridgeTroll]

Methinks if this had been one of Peytons cronies or family members getting the sandbags there would be a more unified outcry on this site...

[uptowngirl]

And you seriously think RSG is bad? Come on.... You are cracking me up, really, diet coke all over the monitor cracking me up. I know I can always count on you for a laugh or two Thanks!

Damn you to?? lol its all good.

I think its unfair C. Brown got sandbags, they should have just sandbagged her hood, if they couldn't do that, then not at all.

Cooly you always cut right to the chase and GET it!

[BridgeTroll]

As I said before... I have no problem with the city providing these emergency services to everyone.  EOC will do a "lessons Learned" evaluation of what went well and what went wrong during Fay and make appropriate adjustments.  I hope prepositioning dump trucks with sand and bags for residents to fill and place themselves in historically flood prone areas would be a cheap and easy way to help people during future events like this.

[RiversideGator]

um ok?  weird post simms.

the joke about the black guy having the terrorist sounding name was pretty hilarious.  I'm probably going to laugh about it for hours.  It really drove the point home about 'using the race card' in our local situation.

thanks for the fun.

OMG Stephen you either have to be JOKING or you are a real NUTJOB.  You must really enjoy being different, if the rest of us say green, you have to be the one to say red.  If we say right, you say left.  Why is that, are the rest of insane and you the only rational one on this board?  Corrine Brown is notoriously corrupt, it is almost funny!  To side with her is like siding with Obama I mean Osama  (JOKE just so you dont try to hurt my feelings now  ) I think you feel like there HAS to always be an opposing side, but there really doesnt have to be an opposing side, we can ALL agree on something at least every once in a while.  And for you to play the race card, you are certainly brilliant.  Sometimes the most brilliant people in this country sound like they should be in the loony bin, and sometimes they do have a point of putting things in perspective for the rest of humanity's reasoning.

I hardly think commenting on the fact that Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. has a Muslim sounding name is racist.  Perhaps it is anti-Islam but Muslims can be of any race.

[Charleston native]

This issue is getting national exposure in the blogosphere now:

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/08/25/dems-get-special-hurricane-help/

It figures that bloated government hacks like Corrine demand that the city provide them protection for their own homes.

Here's a tip: if you own a home...protect it yourself! Do not depend on government help for anything. Buy your own sandbags. While I feel badly for the people who have had damage to their homes, it is not the government's responsibility to take care of them. When the hell will people understand this?

This city/county/state/federal government dependency is what constantly causes problems.

[apvbguy]

This issue is getting national exposure in the blogosphere now:

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/08/25/dems-get-special-hurricane-help/

drudge also picked up the story, maybe (probably not) something good might come out of this

[RiversideGator]

I hardly think commenting on the fact that Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. has a Muslim sounding name is racist.  Perhaps it is anti-Islam but Muslims can be of any race.

Lol.  My friend, while I agree with the first three words, you lost me after that.

Good one.   

[Steve]

As I said before... I have no problem with the city providing these emergency services to everyone.  EOC will do a "lessons Learned" evaluation of what went well and what went wrong during Fay and make appropriate adjustments.  I hope prepositioning dump trucks with sand and bags for residents to fill and place themselves in historically flood prone areas would be a cheap and easy way to help people during future events like this.

Thank you - you got the point of why I posted this.  If this was a regular service that the city provided to all residents, so be it.  However, if John Q Public called 630-CITY, and asked for sandbags, I'm pretty sure what the answer would have been.

[Lunican]

From: "Hollingsworth, Adam" <AdamH@coj.net>
Subject: RE: Sand Bags

Thank you for your email.  I am embarrassed that one isolated decision, in the midst of a near flawless response by our emergency team, has consumed such public attention.  Clearly, my actions brought disfavor to a team of professional emergency responders that served this community well over the past several days.

My mistake was in providing a response outside our emergency command structure.  It has been a lesson well learned.  Having said that, my response was human and it was well-intentioned.  I was simply a human being responding to a panicked call from another human being.  While hindsight allows us to consider a different response, I did not have the benefit of that perspective at the height of the storm.

I can certainly understand your view and your concern; and I do appreciate you writing.  As a taxpayer, I apologize to you and I can commit that in the future I will not depart from our emergency procedures and will stay within the command structure.

Thank you.

Adam Hollingsworth

[Charleston native]

"I was human"...pathetic excuse.

Bottomline is that Corrine should have the scruples and resources to sandbag her place herself. City emergency services are not her damned servants.

[apvbguy]

From: "Hollingsworth, Adam" <AdamH@coj.net>
Subject: RE: Sand Bags

Thank you for your email.  I am embarrassed that one isolated decision, in the midst of a near flawless response by our emergency team, has consumed such public attention.  Clearly, my actions brought disfavor to a team of professional emergency responders that served this community well over the past several days.

My mistake was in providing a response outside our emergency command structure.  It has been a lesson well learned.  Having said that, my response was human and it was well-intentioned.  I was simply a human being responding to a panicked call from another human being.  While hindsight allows us to consider a different response, I did not have the benefit of that perspective at the height of the storm.

I can certainly understand your view and your concern; and I do appreciate you writing.  As a taxpayer, I apologize to you and I can commit that in the future I will not depart from our emergency procedures and will stay within the command structure.

Thank you.

Adam Hollingsworth

what a load of crap! he must be a lawyer, he's (hollingsworth) trying to shift the focus to the workers, those guys were only following orders, he's (hollingsworth) is the one who issued the orders. It was an obvious case of misuse of public labor and supplies and if Peyton wants to retain any kind of credibility hollingworth's head should be served up, at minimum a suspension.
In addition this guy (hollingsworth) paid the bill for the councilwoman thinking that the trivial amount of money will wash away his abuse of his position to help his political cronies. too bad the media in JAX (almost non existent) won't put some pressure on and make this guy and anyone else found culpable pay the ultimate price, being fired

[Charleston native]

Well Stephen, my family had to suck up a direct hit from Hurricane Hugo. Two prominent members in our church were killed, our church was severely damaged, our house was damaged, our roads to our homes were blocked by trees, and we bought a generator to have some power in order to have food kept in the fridge. You know how many calls we made to ask for government help?

None.

What's pathetic is that Fay was just a TS. I hate to see what Corrine or Adam would do if faced with an actual major category hurricane.

[jbm32206]

It's my opinion, that this isn't so much that Corrine called and was given help...it's more that Hollingsworth stepped out of bounds with protocol, did what he should not have done...not when others called for help and were turned down. Human decency is of course a good thing, but not when it comes to picking only one who just happens to have political clout, who happens to have been his former boss...and the rest of the taxpayers pleas for help were ignored. Just how does that add up to "just being a human being" as Hollingsworth put it, or how does that add up to being compassionate?

[jbm32206]

There's no argument about that