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SPIN vs. OUTRAGE “Waynesboro’s Finest” starin Augusta reality drama
NEWS • COMMENTARY • ARTS • ENTERTAINMENT
Newspaper
The CSRA’s
FREEWEEKLY
July 12 - 18, 2012Urban WeeklyPro
Hands Off First Friday
Attorney Charles Lyons holds a document from a national black law officers group (NOBLE) which says that five Waynesboro officers who endorsed a local candidate for sheriff on behalf of the organization were not members of the organization and that the organization does not make endorsements.
Positive images from Augusta’s favorite downtown happening
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PublisherBen Hasan
706-394-9411
Managing EditorFrederick Benjamin Sr.
706-836-2018
Sales & MarketingPhone: 706-394-9411
New Media ConsultantDirector of Photography
Vincent Hobbsemail:
Frederick Benjamin [email protected]
Mailing Address:3529 Monte Carlo DriveAugusta, Georgia 30906
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Over 19 years of Law Enforcement experience Field Operations Supervisor – R.C.B.O.E. Violent Crimes Supervisor – RCSO Lead Homicide Investigator – RCSO Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice - SCSU Master’s Degree in Counseling & Psychology - Troy Graduate of FBI National Academy Firearms, Defensive Tactics and SWAT Instructor Chairman and Co-Founder of Dads in Action
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Scott Peebles, the Waynesboro Five and “The Endorsement from Hell”
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The day Waynesboro’s finest came to town
On Thursday, July 19, 2012 the Augusta Branch NAACP will host a Sheriff’s Candidates Political Forum and Voter Education Workshop at New Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church at 3237 Deans Bridge Road.
The presenter will be Mrs. Lynn Bailey, Executive Director of the Richmond County Board of Elections. She will help educate the public on the new district numeri-cal lines that have been drawn by Federal Judge Randal Hall which changes to some degree a few vot-ers and precincts around. Also, she
will explain the notification cards that were sent out and let the public know what the laws are regarding the redistricting ruling. She will bring handouts for the audience to read regarding these changes.
The program will be moderated by Dr. Mallory K. Millender
The public will provided an opportunity to ask questions regard-ing changes and anything they need to know the upcoming July 31 Primary Election and the November 6 General Election. This will include the Board of Education and County Commission non-partisan races.
The Director’s Selection Committee of the East Central Georgia Regional Library System will interview four candidates for the position of Director. The candidates are:
Ms. Darlene Price: Ms. Price is cur-rently an Administrative Librarian at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
Dr. Donna L. Riegel: Dr. Riegel is currently an Administrative Supervisor at the Jacksonville Library,
Jacksonville, Florida.Ms. Mashell Fashion: Ms. Fashion is
currently the Interim Director of the East Central Georgia Regional Library System.
Ms. Barbara A. Morgan: Ms. Morgan is currently the Director of the Lake Charles Library, Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Interviews will be conducted July 23rd & 24th, 2012.
Sheriff’s Forum and Voter Education Workshop set for New Zion Hill Baptist
Four under consideration for library director
In Person Advance Voting for the General Primary and nonparitsan elec-tions has begun and will continue through Friday, July 27, 2012 in the Board of Elections Office located at 530 Greene Street, Room 104, Augusta, Georgia.
All voters who vote early must pro-vide one of the six acceptable forms of photo identification and do not have to provide a reason for voting early.
The hours for early voting will be from 8:30 AM until 5:00 PM daily, except that during the week immedi-ately preceding the date of the Primary, voting hours will be extended until 6:00 PM daily.
Advance Voting Week will begin on Monday, July 23, 2012 through Friday, July 27, 2010. The locations that will be open for voting during Advance Voting Week include the Board of Elections Main Office located at 530 Greene Street, Room 104, the Henry Brigham Recreation Center located at 2463 Golden Camp Road, and the Warren Road Recreation Center located at 300 Warren Road. The hours for voting will be from 8:30 AM until 6:00 PM daily at all three locations.
Voting by mail is available now and will continue through Friday, July 27, 2012. All persons desiring to vote by mail must submit a written request to the Board of Elections Office either by mail or fax. The request must con-tain the voter’s name and address as registered, date of birth, the date of the election for which the ballot is being requested (July 31, 2012 General Primary), the voter’s party preference, if desired (democratic or republican)
Advance primary voting has begunand must be signed. Voters casting a ballot by mail do not have to provide identification nor a reason for voting by mail. The mailing address for submit-ting a request to vote by mail is: Board of Elections, 530 Greene Street, Room 104, Augusta, Georgia, 30901, the fax
number is (706) 821-2814 and the email address is [email protected] .
Additional information is available at the Board of Elections Website at www.augustaga.gov or by calling (706) 821-2340.
By Frederick Benjamin Sr.
I always thought that the cops should be the slickest people in the room. After all, they see more in a week than most of us civilians would see in a year.
I still think that, but I have to mod-ify that statement due to the recent events orchestrated by members of the Waynesboro Police Department. Waynesboro cops are not slick. — not even close.
This story is barely a week old and it has already been swept under the rug by the daily paper. I guess since it didn’t involve Paine College, it couldn’t make a decent investigative piece.
So what happened was this — five police officers from the small town of Waynesboro (population 5,000) decid-ed to endorse Scott Peebles, one of six candidates who are running for sheriff in Augusta. Why?
No one really has said. They can’t vote for him. But what does it matter. They can support whomever they please. So, let’s just suppose that they wanted to support their friend, Scott Peebles.
But the way they went about it, a Hollywood scriptwriter could not have imagined. The blunder was elegant in its simplicity, in its spiraling web of ramifications. This caper had everything — politicians, shady cops, race hustlers, liberal outrage, conservative hypocrisy, national appeal, cease and desist orders. It was irresistible to conspiracy theorists. Can you say ‘cover-up’?
Evidence was piling up as fast this
quintet of lawmen could say, “We like Scott.”
Can you say phony letterheads, photo-shopped logos, bogus documents.
What we have here is The Endorsement from Hell.
But before we go too far in this nar-rative, let us stop saying that this is not about race. It is about black people who vote and white people who vote. Now to most black people who vote and to most white people who vote, it certainly seems to be about race. This tendency is reinforced by the labels of the two major parties. Whites vote overwhelm-ingly for Republicans and Blacks vote overwhelmingly for Democrats.
That is how it works here in Augusta. And it probably doesn’t work too differ-ent in Waynesboro.
If it’s about politics, it’s about race.So, if there is a racial angle to the
Great Endorsement Scandal, what part does it play? Just this.
These law enforcement officials from The Birddog capital of the World brought to this campaign just what was needed — some comic relief.
No, it’s not about Scott Peebles and it certainly is not about Richard Roundtree; both are the bit players in this drama.
It is about black police officers who attempted to pass themselves off as rep-resentatives of a national organization. These officers compounded their error by fabricating documents and a concoct-ing a ‘poor-us” narrative to smooth over their colossal blunder.
Right on cue, the conservative spin machine attempted to portray the event as black officers who were being dragged over the coal for “daring” to endorse a white candidate.
Only a fool would fall for that. That’s easily proven to be a crock. Blacks have always endorsed white candidates in Augusta. Sometimes those endorse-ments are genuine and sometimes they are self serving, but it’s never a big deal. It’s part of the game
White candidates, for their part, value the endorsement of prominent blacks because it enhances their chances at the polls, regardless of the race of their opponents.
Blacks, as well, value the endorse-ment from prominent whites. It’s no big deal.
However, I can’t think of another case in local political history where the endorsers pretended to be something other than what they were.
That’s what makes this so beauti-ful. No one cares who five black guys in Waynesboro think. But, if those five black guys are representative of a national organization — a national black organization, everyone can see how a white candidate in Augusta would value such an endorsement in a tight political race.
An endorsement from a black policeman’s association would boost the “street cred” of any white candi-date. Likewise if John Ivey or Richard Roundtree were to receive a similar endorsement from a white organization,
you can bet that they would see that as a major asset because of the race issue.
So, of course, it’s about race. You’re an idiot if you think you can talk politics in Augusta and not talk race. But once you agree that race plays a part, you can move on to a more substantive discus-sion.
That’s where this whole discussion got side tracked. Everyone put on their racial “colors” and can’t see the massive fraud that was about to take place here. The fraud committed by the Waynesboro five had nothing to do about race, but their endorsement — being political — was all about race.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just a fact.
But, everyone wants to know, how could this happen. How could these Waynesboro cops do something that appears to be so dumb? Here’s how I imagine it could have happened.
In this case, you can just imagine the discussion among Alphonso Williams, the leader of the bogus endorsement group. It might have gone something like this —
Officer 1: “That Scott Peebles is a great cop and he’d make an even better sher-iff. Why don’t we endorse him? After all, we’re great cops too. We do community policing and the whole bit.”
Officer 2: “Yeah, but we don’t live in Augusta and no one would care about our endorsement. We have to think of something that would carry more
This photo appeared in the July 5, 2012 edition of UrbanProWeekly. It purportedly shows members of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (N.O.B.L.E.) from the Georgia Chapter, Region 7, endorsing sheriff’s candidate Scott Peebles. It was later discovered that the group which included Waynesboro Chief of Police Alphonzo Williams, Deputy Chief Roosevelt Lodge, Captain Anthony Dixon, David Hannah and Wesley Lewis were not really members of that national organization and there was no such thing as Region 7.
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2Community Activist Recognized: Roadway named “SAMMY SIAS LAne”
Waynesboro’s finest from page 3
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Family LifeBorn and raised in Augusta, Hattie has two beautiful daughters- Shonda and Felicia, one son Levi, Jr., and four grandchildren, Chassidy, Chelsey, Chance and Chandlier. And one great-great granddaughter Jada.
Work Experienceü Hattie is a dedicated public servant who has worked in the office of the Clerk of
Superior and State Court for 20 plus years as Deputy Clerk and Administrative Assistant
ü Currently working for State Court Judge of Augusta Richmond County, Georgia as Judicial Assistant
Education, Training, Knowledge, Abilities and SkillsLucy C. Laney High School graduate, with over 100 hours of training with Georgia Criminal Information Center, the National Criminal Information Center and Criminal Justice Information System. Hattie has working knowledge of court rules and procedures.
Paid for by the Committee to Elect Hattie Holmes-Sullivan Clerk of CourtP. O. Box 9229-Augusta, Georgia 30906
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Summer Day Camp Program 2012Jamestown Community Cehter
3647 Karleen RoadHephzibah, GA 30815
Start Date: 21 May 2012 End Date: 10 Augusta 2012
Hours: 6:30 AM to 5:30 PM6:30 AM 9:00 AM Early Riser9:00 AM 3:00 PM Day Camp3:00 PM 5:30 PM Adventures in Learning- New / Upgraded Facilities- Ages: 5-14- Fun Field Trips-Breakfast (Summer Nutrition Program)*- Lunch (Summer Nutrition Program)*- Quiet Time- CPR Qualified Attendants- Safe & Secure Environment- Educational (Arts & Craft, School Work)- No TAX ID provided for this service (prohibited by county regulations)* Breakfast and Lunch 21 May to 28 May Parents 29 May to 13 Jul Summer Nutrition Program (Breakfast & Lunch) 14 July to 10 Aug Parents* Parents must provide afternoon SnackPrice:- $45 per child $30 for ea. additional sibling (WEEKLY)- $50 Registration Fee, Second Sibling $30- .50 per minute late child pick-up fee- All payments required in advance - weekly or monthly- Payments are due by Friday for the up coming week ($5 late fee after Friday)- Checks - make payable to “S.C.A.”- Returned check fee - $45Medications- We administer first aid- We administer prescription medicine
Information: (706) 790-1805 or (706) 840-5240
• Parties or Celebrations - Rent the Jamestown Community (two rental rooms available - no major cleanup required for center)• ZUMBA - Exercise Class Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays• Huge Barbecue Pit - More ‘Grill than you will ever need.• Community Day - Annual Event - Free Food and Great Family Fun 4th Saturday of August 12- 4 PM, 25 August 2012 Water fun is the theme• After School Tutoring - (during school term 4 - 6 PM• Stepper Dancing Classes - Tuesdays and Thursdays• Church Activities - Rock of Ages Missionary Baptist Church Sun & Wed• Easter Egg Hunt - Annual Event - The Saturday before Easter• Spring Break Camp - (The week of the Masters Tournament)• Summer Camp - 11 Weeks (the entire summer break, not required to pay for and week not attending)• Quarterly Computer Classes Basic and Program Use • May 2012 Tuesdays & Thursdays • August Tuesdays & Thursdays • November Tuesdays & Thursdays• High Speed Internet Access 5-7 PM Daily Computer not working at home? Too many people, not enough computers?• Daily Park Activities (7 days a week - Dusk to Dawn - a safe, clean, and supervised park for your kids to come play).•Neighborhood Association Meetings• Scrap Booking Club 10 AM - 1 PM 3rd Saturday each month• Special Community and Group Meetings• Walking/Running Track and New Basketball Court coming very soon !!!
Additional Information - (706) 790-1805 Manager - (706) 840-5240
Summer Day Camp Program 2012Jamestown Community Cehter
3647 Karleen RoadHephzibah, GA 30815
The entrance to the Jamestown Community Center in south Augusta is now officially known as Sammy Sias Lane. Members of the Sandridge Community Association, Inc. and the Augusta Richmond County Recreation Department honored the longtime resident and community advocate in a special Street Dedication lun-cheon on Friday, July 6, 2012.
Mr. Sias and friends and family were on hand for the occasion and Richmond County Sheriff’s candidate Scott Peebles was on hand as well.
Sias, after initially down playing the significance of the event, had to admit that it was indeed, “a bit deal” to be honored in such a fash-ion while still living.
The event was emceed by Ms. Jacqueline Fason. Mr. Larry Hilton brought remarks and children from the Jamestown Summer Camp recited the Pledge of Allegiance, sang the national anthem and paid tribute to Mr. Sias through poetry. The lun-cheon was prepared by Mrs. Willa Hilton.
Community Activist Sammy Sias (center) is presented with ceremonial street sign named in his honor. He is assisted by Maurice McDowell (left) and Joyce Downs of the Augusta Recreation Dept.
Harold V. Jones IIATTORNEY AT LAW
SHEPARD, PLUNKETT, HAMILTON & BOUDREAUX, LLP
429 Walker StreetUpper Level
Augusta, GA 30901
Phone 706-722-6200Fax 706 722-4817
Criminal Law • Divorce • Personal Injury • Employment Law
weight,” another of the co-conspirators added.
Officer 3: “Yeah, but won’t we get in trouble with the brothers and sisters in Augusta?”
Officer 1: “Nah, they won’t even care. And anyway, Scott’s got all the money. He’s gonna win anyway. Can you imag-ine how good it can be for us if he gets in?”
Officer 4: “Yeah, I’ll bet we can get to be big city cops!”
Officer 2: “Hey, I know. Our endorse-ment will carry more weight if we tell him we’re a part of N.O.B.L.E.”
Officer 5: “Noble, what’s that?”Officer 2: “You know that national
organization of black cops. I think that’s definitely the way to go. That way, it won’t just be us. It will be the entire
organization.”Officer 5: “Yeah, but we’re not even
members.”Officer 1: “So what, we can say we’re
members.”“Officer 5: Do you think that will
work?”Officer 1: Sure, we can all join and
then say, as members of N.O.B.L.E, we endorse Scott Peebles”
Officer 4: “Whee! Great, let’s do it.”Officer 5: “But what about the other
candidates, what will they think?”Officer 1: “Who cares, they don’t have
the money and they’re not going to win anyway.”
So they pile into their vehicles, phony endorsement on phony letterhead in tow and head for Augusta.
Attorney blasts officers’ ‘endorsement’ as a lieBy Frederick Benjamin Sr.UrbanProWeekly Staff Writer
AUGUSTAOn Friday, July 6, it was 96 degrees
in the shade. Charles Lyons was hot for another rea-
son. The local attorney who represents sheriff’s candidate Richard Roundtree braved triple digit temperatures dur-ing a press conference in which he blasted Alphonso Williams, the police chief of Waynesboro and the purported mastermind of the botched national endorsement that had Augusta buzzing for a few days and launched a statewide probe by the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
Reading from a prepared text entitled “The Fabrication of Alphonso Williams,” Lyons heaped scorn on The Wayesboro chief of police for his part in the endorsement of sheriff’s candidate Scott Peebles on behalf of the black law enforcement officers’ organization.
It was Lyons and others in the Roundtree camp that unearthed the embarrassing details of the endorse-ment and produced a document from N.O.B.L.E. executives demanding that the group retract the endorsement and “cease and desist” misrepresenting the organization.
Lyons didn’t mince words in express-ing his displeasure with the endorse-ment.
“Mr. Williams and the Waynesboro 4 came to our city and lied to the citizens of Augusta,” Lyons concluded.
“Through the efforts of several per-sons this endorsement was proven to be a fraud. Since this time Mr. Williams has decided to go to the airwaves and claim victimhood, mistake and misin-formation,” Lyons said.
Lyons and others in the Roundtree camp, took the Burke County officers to task for (1) Not doing their home-work and realizing that a 501c(3) orga-nization such as N.O.B.L.E. does not endorse candidates. (2) For claiming to be members of the organization when they were not. (3) For claiming to be officers in the organization and even
producing documents fraudulantly displaying the organization’s logo which was inartfully scanned from the organization’s legitimate letterhead and (4) After the ruse was discovered for continuing the charade by claiming that the whole affair was “an honest mistake.”
The Peebles camp issued a statement thanking the officers for their “person-al” support but distanced themselves from the N.O.B.L.E. endorsement.
Lyons, however, criticized the Peebles camp for their failure to remove the N.O.B.L.E. endorsement from their website in a timely fashion.
N.O.B.L.E. officials in Georgia said they have launched an investigation.
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JULY 12 - 18, 2012 UrbanProWeekly
Pick up the latest edition of
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Artist Lauren Penha displays her original artwork “Lost In Thou”, in front of Odd Fellows Art Gallery on 8th Street during the First Friday event. The art piece was created with acrylic paints on wood.Photo by Vincent Hobbs
hands off first fridaykeep first friday real we’re not afraid accentuate the positive politicians are clue-less police are clueless where are the real artists it’s called life *
Artist Xavier O. Jones stands near an exhibition of his artwork at Odd Fellows Art Gallery on 8th Street during the First Friday event. Photo by Vincent Hobbs
A fire performance artist with the troupe “Promethium”, spits out flames during
their performance at First Friday on Broad Street.
Photo by Vincent Hobbs
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Continued on next page
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By Paul Krugman
Once upon a time a rich man named Romney ran for president. He could claim, with considerable jus-tice, that his wealth was well-earned, that he had in fact done a lot to cre-ate good jobs for American workers. Nonetheless, the public understand-ably wanted to know both how he had grown so rich and what he had done with his wealth; he obliged by releasing extensive information about his financial history.
But that was 44 years ago. And the contrast between George Romney and his son Mitt — a contrast both in their business careers and in their willingness to come clean about their financial affairs — dramatically illus-trates how America has changed.
Right now there’s a lot of buzz about an investigative report in the magazine Vanity Fair highlighting the “gray areas” in the younger Romney’s finances. More about that in a minute. First, however, let’s talk about what it meant to get rich in George Romney’s America, and how it compares with the situation today.
What did George Romney do for a living? The answer was straight-forward: he ran an auto company, American Motors. And he ran it very well indeed: at a time when the Big Three were still fixated on big cars and ignoring the rising tide of imports, Romney shifted to a highly successful focus on compacts that restored the company’s fortunes, not
to mention that it saved the jobs of many American workers.
It also made him personally rich. We know this because during his run for president, he released not one, not two, but 12 years’ worth of tax returns, explaining that any one year might just be a fluke. From those returns we learn that in his best year, 1960, he made more than $660,000 — the equivalent, adjusted for infla-tion, of around $5 million today.
Those returns also reveal that he paid a lot of taxes — 36 percent of his income in 1960, 37 percent over the whole period. This was in part because, as one report at the time put it, he “seldom took advantage of loop-holes to escape his tax obligations.” But it was also because taxes on the rich were much higher in the ’50s and ’60s than they are now. In fact, once you include the indirect effects of taxes on corporate profits, taxes on the very rich were about twice current levels.
Now fast-forward to Romney the Younger, who made even more money during his business career at Bain Capital. Unlike his father, however,
Mr. Romney didn’t get rich by produc-ing things people wanted to buy; he made his fortune through financial engineering that seems in many cases to have left workers worse off, and in some cases driven companies into bankruptcy.
And there’s another contrast: George Romney was open and forthcoming about what he did with his wealth, but Mitt Romney has largely kept his finances secret. He did, grudgingly, release one year’s tax return plus an estimate for the next year, showing that he paid a startlingly low tax rate. But as the Vanity Fair report points out, we’re still very much in the dark about his investments, some of which seem very mysterious.
Put it this way: Has there ever before been a major presidential can-didate who had a multimillion-dollar Swiss bank account, plus tens of mil-lions invested in the Cayman Islands, famed as a tax haven?
And then there’s his Individual Retirement Account. I.R.A.’s are sup-posed to be a tax-advantaged vehicle for middle-class savers, with annual contributions limited to a few thou-
sand dollars a year. Yet somehow Mr. Romney ended up with an account worth between $20 million and $101 million.
There are legitimate ways that could have happened, just as there are potentially legitimate reasons for parking large sums of money in overseas tax havens. But we don’t know which if any of those legitimate reasons apply in Mr. Romney’s case — because he has refused to release any details about his finances. This refusal to come clean suggests that he and his advisers believe that voters would be less likely to support him if they knew the truth about his investments.
And that is precisely why vot-ers have a right to know that truth. Elections are, after all, in part about the perceived character of the candi-dates — and what a man does with his money is surely a major clue to his character.
One more thing: To the extent that Mr. Romney has a coherent policy agenda, it involves cutting tax rates on the very rich — which are already, as I said, down by about half since his father’s time. Surely a man advocating such policies has a special obligation to level with voters about the extent to which he would personally benefit from the policies he advocates.
Yet obviously that’s something Mr. Romney doesn’t want to do. And unless he does reveal the truth about his investments, we can only assume that he’s hiding something seriously damaging.
Mitt’s Gray AreasHas there ever before been a major
presidential candidate who had a multi-million-dollar Swiss bank account, plus tens of millions invested in the Cayman
Islands, famed as a tax haven?
By Carlo Wolff
In case you’ve forgotten or are too young to know, the 1960s were the template for today’s political divisive-ness. In Subversives, Seth Rosenfeld chronicles how the abyss formed. His book is crucial history. It’s also a warning.
In this work about unrest at the University of California Berkeley, Rosenfeld tells the stories of the frail, impassioned student leader Mario Savio; the measured but lib-eral Berkeley president Clark Kerr; and Ronald Reagan, the B-actor who, with the secret help of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, polished the conspira-torially based law-and-order message he formulated in the ‘40s as the rabid-ly anti-Communist head of the Screen Actors Guild to become governor of California in 1966.
Reagan is a hero to today’s GOP, which regards him as sunny, even moderate, but the way he handled unrest at UC Berkeley was cunning, vindictive, and excessive. Rosenfeld’s interviews with participants in stu-dent uprisings at Berkeley in the ‘60s and with Reagan’s associates depict this avuncular icon as ready and all too eager to crush dissent in the
name of protecting American values.A former investigative reporter
for the San Francisco Chronicle, Rosenfeld spent decades accumu-lating this material, filing Freedom of Information Act requests that prompted the FBI to spend more than $1 million beating back his demands until it grudgingly released more than
Subversives250,000 pages of files. Rosenfeld has an agenda in this book of patience and passion: setting straight a previously hidden – and consequential – record. The way his stories converge evokes “They Marched Into Sunlight,” David Maraniss’ similarly structured 2003 book about a Vietnam War firefight.
Through FBI documents and inter-views with players including Reagan
right-hand man Edwin Meese III, Richard Masato Aoki (a FBI informer who also may have been a student radical), and protestors, Rosenfeld paints a chilling picture. Law enforce-ment organizations in Reagan’s California joined in a systematic attempt to smear students and pro-
‘Subversives’ takes a deep and troubling look at Reagan’s handling of the civil unrest in Berkeley in the 1960s.
BOOKS
By Timothy CoxCorrespondent
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.My recent experience at Tropicana
Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. was an unexpected and exceptional treat.
With all intentions set on witness-ing one of the all-time great teams of Major League Baseball history, the 2012 version of the New York Yankees, I along with countless oth-ers made the special trip South to see the vaunted and hard-swinging, Bronx Bombers do what they do best — bang the hardball.
During the July 4 holiday series involving the Tampa Bay Rays and the Yankees, most hotels in the Tampa-St. Pete vicinty were filled to capacity – with many fans hailing from the New York area. Many of those fans are ones who often find it difficult to secure seats at the new Yankee Stadium, where home games are very often sold-out.
Therefore, devoted Yankees fans pack their bags and travel to cities such as Tampa-St. Pete, to witness their very own Boys of Summer.
Although the July 2 contest was an exciting one that ended with high drama in the bottom of the ninth - the Rays holding onto a 4-3 victory - this columnist not only witnessed a rare shut down of the powerful Yankee hitters, but in the process I recognized the overwhelmingly noticeable focus on customer service inside the domed Tropicana Field.
It was very obvious that Tropicana Field workers go out of their way to ensure that all aspects of your cus-tomer experience is a positive one.
For me, it all started as I pulled up to Gate No. 1 and encountered a parking attendant.
Unexpectedly, the attendant offered me options to either drive
another five minutes to my actual parking place at Gate 4, or simply pull into Gate 1 where there were several empty spaces. The attendant suggested that I simply “park any-where you’d like.”
In following his comforting and friendly gesture, I parked within walking distance of one of the many stadium entrances.
I later encountered a genteman usher or Fan Host, named John Bailey. This employee provided me with a birds-eye view for taking photos and kept a friendly conversation flowing — as he efficiently and professionally tended to his role of escorting fans to their assigned seats.
Upon informing Bailey that I was at the stadium to write a special col-umn, he responded, “It really doesn’t matter who you are around here. We’re trained to treat people the same, no matter what they do or who they are. It’s our intention for you to enjoy the game and make a return visit. We want you to tell your friends about us and make your way back here again,” Bailey emphasized.
Rick Vaughn, Tampa Bay Rays’ Vice President of Communications, con-firmed Bailey’s sentiment by adding that Fan Hosts (ushers) are commit-ted to attend training sessions dur-ing the off-season where customer service standards of the ball club are annually reinforced to be practiced during the upcoming season.
“We want our Fan Hosts to have fun while they’re working. They establish camaraderie with each other and we empower them to make decisions (in the stands) while working. We treat them with respect and that works well for everyone,” said Vaughn. “It’s a matter of doing the right thing.
He added that becoming a Fan Host has become a competitive job position in his region. Currently,
Tampa Bay Rays stadium rated A+ for providing fan-friendly atmosphere
the Rays have 65 Fan Hosts on staff. “There’s lots of pride in being a Fan Host,” said Vaughn.
“First of all, we want to treat people with respect. We want repeat custom-ers and it’s just the right thing to do,” said Vaughn.
Vaughn said Fan Hosts are trained at what’s called Rays University, where training courses present vari-ous scenarios and drills to provide Fan Hosts with options to profession-ally resolve problems and situations that may unfold – especially when some fans have consumed alcoholic beverages and could be unruly.
Vaughn said customer service became a team focus when current owner Stewart Sternberg, assumed team ownership in October 2005. Since the start of the 2006 season, a fan-friendly environment has been purposely perpetuated at the stadium which is nicknamed, “The Trop,” said
Vaughn. Although the field is located in St. Petersburg, the team is named for neighboring Tampa.
Vaughn added that although the team does not keep official feedback-data to gauge fan feedback, “It’s not uncommon for us to receive positive feedback,” in the form of phone calls, letters or emails – testament that Tampa Bay Ray’s fan-friendly-focus is a successful venture.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We would be remiss not to credit Tampa-St. Pete powers-that-be who chose to con-struct a dome over the 1990-built facility which maintains a 72-degree environment, while withstanding all weather conditions, including tor-rential rains, hurricanes and 100-plus temperatures that permeated the East Coast and the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg locale during the entire July 4 holiday period and beyond.
RaysTeam members eagerly greet fans who enter stadium entrances.TB Rays girls
John Bailey, a longtime Fan Host, enjoys his work as a customer ser-vice rep for the Tampa Bay Rays.
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fessors, infiltrate their associations with moles, discredit the intellec-tual enterprise, and instigate actions designed to justify deployment of organizations spanning local police and the National Guard.
All came to a head in People’s Park, “where – six months before the vio-lence at Altamont and a year before the killings at Kent State – the end of the sixties would begin.” People’s Park was a university-owned parcel UC Berkeley wanted to develop as a soccer field. But city residents and students resisted, instead seeking a “park to be a cultural, political freak-out and rap center for the Western world,” according to the April 18, 1969 Berkeley Barb.
That May 15, Reagan had what
Rosenfeld calls a “showdown,” set-ting law against demonstrators. By the end of the day, at least 169 people had been injured; no officer had been shot or seriously hurt, but more than 58 civilians were, 51 by police birdshot – or buckshot, which killed San Jose laborer James Rector and blinded Berkeley carpenter Alan Blanchard. Reagan put Berkeley under martial law.
Subsequent probes by state author-ities and President Richard Nixon’s Justice Department absolved Reagan of responsibility for the tragedy. “The police didn’t kill the young man.... He was killed by the first college administrator who said some time ago it was all right to break the laws in the name of dissent,” Reagan told
a Republican fundraiser a week after the incident.
The People’s Park chapter is the climax of “Subversives,” a book bristling with information. Rosenfeld also reveals Hoover’s role in covering up the friendship of Reagan’s son, Michael, with the son of mobster Joe Bonanno; the FBI chief’s hiding of details about his daughter Maureen’s love life; the way California’s informer-rid-den, right-wing media built sup-port for Reagan against incumbent Governor Edward Brown; and Reagan’s character assassination of Clark Kerr, perhaps the most complex figure in the book. Kerr continued an academic career after being fired as UC Berkeley presi-dent in 1967. Kerr died in 2003 at 92. Hounded by Hoover, Savio is
the book’s troubled lighting rod. He died in 1996. He was 53.
Hoover died in 1972 at 77, Reagan in 2004. He was 93.
In his Appendix, Rosenfeld says files he pried loose “show that during the Cold War, FBI officials sought to change the course of history by secret-ly interceding in events, manipulating public opinion, and taking sides in partisan politics. The bureau’s efforts, decades later, to improperly withhold information about those activities under the FOIA ate, in effect, another attempt to shape history, this time by obscuring the past.”
Profound thanks to Seth Rosenfeld for outing the truth and speaking truth to power.
Cleveland freelance writer Carlo Wolff lived in Berkeley and Oakland in the summer and fall of 1965.
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The Augusta Housing Authority is offering four (4) sessions for your convenience. Please select one of four sessions to attend on July 16, 2012:
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