It’s early, but pretty.

Macon Police have arrested more people in connection with massage parlors in Macon. Of 13 raided this time, 5 spas had 12 people arrested. 8 spas were raided last time with 13 arrests.

Last time, the Chief of Police was asked if there were signs of human trafficking at the businesses. He said no.

This time he was asked and said he’d now need to say “no comment.”

The Police have started receiving training on signs of human trafficking.

Internally, Mayor Reichert and I are proceeding with legislation to shut these places down and prevent them from reopening.

We played this on air on WMAC yesterday and I’ve gotten over 100 emails, plus phone calls, since then begging me for a link to the clip and to play it again.

In the 7am segment this morning, we’re going to do just that. In the meantime, here’s the clip:

I said Charlie Bishop would win without a runoff. A lot of you people gave me various levels of hell and grief for daring to say that.

I may speak what you consider to be uncomfortable truths, but it was true nonetheless. The level of internal party acrimony was not present. Likewise, in the rural parts of the county, as well as the southern part of Bibb County, people were quite happy to support the Chairman.

The Rutlands and Warriors are always key in an election in Bibb County for a Republican. They are high turnout areas for the GOP. Mr. Ussery was going to have to get close in those precincts and, though he spent a good bit of time in the area, I knew they’d hold for Charlie.

This has nothing to do with me supporting Charlie or cheering on the incumbent or anything else. This has to do with an objective observation of the data. You might not like what I have to tell you, but it is fact.

Same with Richardson. There was no way in heck that Jimmy Allen was going to beat Elmo. It was not in the cards.

I actually do know how to look at the landscape and get a sense of what’s happening. I could have told you all this, and did, months ago.

I have not had any conversations with Cumulus about taking over the morning show on AM 940 full time.

But, I’d definitely be interested and my wife is amenable to it.

We’re still trying to redo our tax digest.

The Georgia Department of Revenue is moving to eliminate one excuse that local officials give when they’re raising property taxes: The state made us do it.

The department, at the direction of Gov. Sonny Perdue, is trying to make sure county officials know they don’t have to revalue property every three years. The department is proposing a new regulation that, among other things, spells that out.

In Macon two years ago, I ran Judge Tilman Self, III’s race. It was a five way race with a lot of unknown candidates.

To build up name recognition, we used a diamond shaped 2′ x 2′ yard sign. It was a good looking sign that really stood out from the pack. The lettering was a serif font, with a red band of color in the sign — standard blue sign, white letters, red decorative element.

We were the first in the area to use a yard sign like that and it worked very well. People really connected the campaign and sign, helping build great name identification, which we saw reflected in some polling we did.

I got a good laugh tonight when I saw Sam Hart’s yard sign. It is a blue 2 x 2 diamond with serif font and green band of color. It is a very good looking sign.

Of course, there are a few problems:

1. Why is the sign out? Sam is running uncontested in the July primary. He doesn’t need it.

2. The signs are pretty pricey — about a dollar more per sign than the standard 18 x 24. I’d never recommend using a diamond sign when you don’t have to worry about name id. Sam, most definitely, does not have to worry about name id. Likewise, as a former elected official, he probably should have used the same logo he had been using, so people connect him.

It is definitely not a fatal error, but it is definitely an error. Nonetheless, it is a very good looking sign and I am definitely flattered.

Tomorrow in the Appropriations Committee meeting, privatization will die.

I expect Tom Ellington, Elaine Lucas, and Virgil Watkins to kill it. While I disagree, I understand some of the reasoning.

While some members of Council are opposed to privatization because of privatization, the majority have rational concerns:

1. We should not base a budget based on an unseen privatization contract;

2. If we go with privatization now, we lose the SPLOST option if we then reject privatization;

3. and this is important and has not been reported: under the best case scenario with privatization, the city starts losing money in three years.

That last one has persuaded a few people.

I was wavering based on that, but having considered it further, I find we are left in this position:

We are going to be committing one time funds for recurring expenses if we use the SPLOST or privatization.

Using SPLOST funds would signal taxpayers that we really can’t be trusted to do what we say under a SPLOST. Heck, a lot of folks still bristle over the School Board’s handling of its SPLOST issues.

Privatization, at least, buys us more time and, within three years, would mostly open us up to a better competitive bid so we would not wind up losing money.

Still, neither proposition sits well with me.

I think we need to start looking at reserves and looking at employee positions to leave vacant. Short of that, it is time to start firing people.

Tax increases are not the answer. In fact, if we raise the millage rate, we’re going to keep the death spiral going wherein more and more people who can do, in fact, leave causing a shrinking tax base.

It is time for Allen Peake to get that consolidation plan kicked into high gear.

The Mayor says no veto is in the works.

Mayor Reichert said he’s been inundated with phone calls and e-mails this week after word got out that he planned to veto a proposed City Council ordinance that requires Animal Control to switch its euthanasia method from gas chamber to lethal injection.

There is no veto in the works, he said, even though Councilman Erick Erickson, the ordinance sponsor, alleged such in a letter to the editor in The Telegraph. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding when an administration official asked council members to hold off on the switch because it’s unclear whether the city can afford it before the July 2009 deadline.

When Keith Moffet told us this past Monday that the administration opposed the initiative, we all took this to mean he would veto it — there have been several conversations along the same lines in the past and likewise, on Monday, every indication we got from Keith was that the Mayor would veto the measure. Perhaps Keith should have been a little more clear.

My first piece of legislation finally passed out of committee today, My second piece of legislation has already been enacted. This particular legislation is to do away with euthanasia by gas chamber in favor of lethal injection of animals.

There was no controversy in Council when this first came up. I think most all of Council has signed on as a co-sponsor. All the opposition came from the Mayor’s Office. That office is worried about the budget year. Because there were so many animal control ordinances put forward, the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee created a subcommittee on animal control to consider the legislation.

During the subcommittee investigation, the head of Animal Control said he needed about $150,000.00 to get lethal injection up and running. Curiously, on his inventory list he said he would need stethoscopes. Rabbi Schlesinger, on the subcommittee, asked why they did not have them already. Animal Control is required to check each animal before disposal.

The head of Animal Control admitted that Animal Control in Macon does not do that. He said they pile all the animals in the pin together, lower them into the gas chamber, and then raise them up. They make a visual inspection to see if any of the animals are alive. They then leave the animals for a dump truck that carries them off to the landfill.

The animals are not sedated. It is not uncommon for animals in such a situation to tear each other apart in a panic.

One of the ladies from the Humane Society told how on several occasions animals that had been euthanized had been recovered from the land fill still alive.

Over the course of several meetings, the head of Animal Control lowered his initial cost estimate to roughly $50,000.00. To address the Mayor’s concerns about putting this into the already tight 2009 budget, the subcommittee recommended that this legislation not go into effect until July 1, 2009. That would give more than a year to prepare for the transition.

Today, the legislation finally made it back to committee. The Mayor’s Office informed the committee that, while the Mayor views animal control as a priority, he will veto the legislation. The Chief of Police chimed in and said that if the legislation passes and there is no funding in one year he will shut down the pound.

The City Attorney chimed in and said — get this — that passing this legislation was committing future revenue to future events. He made it sound like this is highly unusual. Last week the City Council voted to spend $2 million over several years beginning in 2010. It seems to me all the committee was doing was stating that the method of euthanizing animals must change. Sure there will be budget concerns, but that is no different from any other legislation.

In the end, the committee voted 4-1 in favor of the ordinance. Yet again, Larry Schlesinger and Tom Ellington were the grown-ups, both speaking in favor of the ordinance. Those two always have this annoying habit of saying more in one sentence than I can say in a paragraph. Ha!

It’s amazing to me that the Mayor could find $15,000.00 to move a model of a boat to City Hall, but given one year and one month and a full time grant writer he does not think this self-proclaimed priority of his is worth signing into law.

This is not an issue I ever cared about until people in the community raised the concern. As Rabbi Schlesinger said, the community really does want this. And I believe I have the votes to override the veto.