Ethics reform was considered the first order of business when Republicans finally had a a majority of the votes in the Alabama State Legislature in 2010. There was talk of overhauling the state’s ethics laws and making ethics laws tougher. Newly elected Governor Robert Bentley said that his top priority was to call a Special Session to to take up ethics laws.

In 2010 Robert Bentley said, “I campaigned across the state telling people Montgomery needs a bath, that corruption in our government, in the Legislature, would be cleaned up. I meant that.

The expression “Bless His Heart And Other Parts” seems to be popping up all over the place, in much the same way as rumors of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s imminent resignation are.

The recording that hoisted Bentley with his own petard was made using a smartphone that his former wife Diane Bentley had placed in her purse. According to Al.com’s Paul Gattis, catching the “Luv Guv” talking to his indispensable assistant didn’t take long. 59 seconds. Gattis reported on findings in the House Judiciary Committee impeachment report:

The report said Ms. Bentley worked with Hannah, her chief of staff, to make a recording “that she could use to ‘catch’ her husband and Mason in the affair.”

Ms. Bentley came up with the idea of using the recorder on her cell phone to capture audio between her husband and Mason. Ms. Bentley asked Hannah to show her how to do it, the report said.

“Ms. Bentley captured the first of two recordings by turning on the phone’s recording device, placing it in her purse on the sofa, and then announcing to her husband that she was taking a long walk on the beach,” the report said.

“Promptly upon her departure–within approximately 59 seconds–Governor Bentley was on the phone with Mason.”

The first recording included Bentley engaging “in the now-infamous monologue about how much he enjoys feeling Mason’s breasts and their need to lock the door to his office when engaging in certain activities,” the report said. That recording later ignited the public scandal.

His wife made a second recording. Hannah downloaded the recordings to a laptop computer, burned them onto a disc, made a copy for herself “for her own protection” and gave the original to Ms. Bentley.

Bentley had even ordered now-fired Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Spencer Collier to be prepared to arrest Heather Hannah if the tapes were released. Her crime, one could only assume, was that she showed his wife how to use her smartphone and downloaded the recordings that his wife made into a laptop. Is there a law in Alabama against assisting another person with information technology?

The Northport City Council and the city’s attorney have gone to great lengths, it seems, to keep a lid on the circumstances surrounding the recent departures of city administrator Scott Collins and city finance director Kenneth McKeown.

Collins resigned suddenly on April 15, and received a lucrative payout on his way out the door. Then, on Monday, the council, without explanation, fired McKeown, who became finance director on Feb. 1 but had been on paid leave since April 8.

On the day Collins resigned, City Attorney Ron Davis sent an email to the city’s benefits administrator, directing her to cut three checks totaling $131,241 to Collins, including one for one year’s salary ‘to be paid in one lump sum today.’ He also sent the email to council members Bart Harper, Jay Logan and Rodney Sullivan. Left off the recipient list were council members Judy Hayes and Bert Sims and Mayor Bobby Herndon.

Given the timing, one can’t help but wonder whether there is some connection between the resignation of Collins and McKeown’s firing. But, related or not, both departures were handled in mysterious fashion. Why? The people of Northport have a right to know how their government is being run.

When will the musical chairs in Northport ever end? It was rumored in the last year that two or three people were going to be appointed City Administrator. Now, a year after Scott Collins resigned, the position still hasn’t been filled. And three departmental heads have left.

One lingering concern about the Northport City Administrator position is an ordinance passed in 2007 that took away the City Administrator’s responsibilities. A new ordinance was passed by the Council in April 2017 — almost ten years later  — that was intended to restore the City Administrator’s authority.

An Associated Press story reports:

A board is seeking an investigation into the election of a new University of Alabama student government president who won with the open backing of a secretive campus society.

The student government’s election board asked Thursday for the Office of Student Conduct to review Jared Hunter’s election earlier this month.

Hunter won after publicly acknowledging he was backed by a campus group called The Machine which is controlled by historically white fraternities and sororities. Hunter was the first black candidate to gain the group’s support.

The election board is asking a review of Hunter’s support by the Machine. It’s also raising questions about violations of election rules.

Does this mean that the Machine über alles way of life at the University might change?

Probably not.

But at least they’re going through the motions.

If you take the Associated Press’s reporter Jay Reeves article “Black SGA president discusses white support at Alabama” at face value you might be led to believe that a revolution in values has occurred at the University. Reeves describes newly elected SGA President Jared Hunter in glowing terms.

Someone like Jared Hunter was impossible to imagine even a few years ago at the University of Alabama.

A preppy black guy who grew up outside a small town near Montgomery, Hunter not only is the first member of a prestigious, all-white fraternity, Theta Chi, but he has black female friends who are officers in previously all-white sororities. This, at a campus where Greek-letter social groups were racially segregated until protests upended the old system in 2013.

To top it off, the 21-year-old junior this week became the first black person elected student government president at Alabama with the backing of a secretive, white-controlled campus society called The Machine. Think of Yale University’s “Skull and Bones,” but with top-notch football and tailgating.

Reeves thinks that times have truly changed.

Two other blacks have been elected Student Government Association president at Alabama, but not with the blessing of The Machine, a notorious group blamed for social blackballing, vote-buying, vandalism and worse through the years.

Is the fact that Hunter had Machine support such a great thing? Will that change the dominance that a small number of mostly well-heeled students have in campus politics? Does this mean that a non-Machine affiliated candidate will stand a chance to serve on the Tuscaloosa City Council? District Four was purposely drawn up to be a a student-majority district. In its most recent iteration a big slice of non-student residents who had always been in D-4 were cut off. Unfortunately, most of the student votes in municipal elections have come from Machine affiliated students. Most students aren’t all that concerned about local politics although perhaps they should be.

On the day that a non-Machine candidate, even a recent or current student of the University of Alabama, can win in District Four then it might be said that “The times they are a’changing.”

The most revolutionary thing that that Jared Hunter could do would be to work to abolish The Machine. In the interview Hunter said:

Deliberating whether or not I was going to accept The Machine’s endorsement was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to think about. Knowing that they have a pretty awful history here at the university with tons of alleged attacks or whatever it may be on students or other candidates.

Maybe someday Michael Jackson’s lyrics that “It don’t matter if you’re black or white” will mean something. The election of Jared Hunter ain’t necessarily a sign of a post-racial University. Of course he could always become a spokesman for “Black Lives Matter.”

The situation when votes for a school board municipal election were solicited with limo rides and booze may never be reprized by the University of Alabama’s “Machine.” The University students that turned out in droves to vote in the last municipal school board election may have lost interest.

This year’s school board election, according to a well placed source, has no Machine candidates running for either the the Chair or any board member position. Cason Kirby, who defeated District Four’s Kelly Horwitz four years ago won’t run for reelection. Neither will School Board Chair Lee Garrison.

For that matter Kelly Horwitz, after a three year legal struggle to challenge the last election, will not run. Apparently the legal battle has caused both Horwitz and Kirby to lose interest.

In a  Tuscaloosa News story by Drew Taylor, Horwitz is quoted as having said, “Between putting in four years on the school board and three years in the legal battle of the election, I need to put some time and energy into my job and into my family.”

Taylor’s story gave this history of the legal battle:

After the 2013 election, questions arose regarding the legitimacy of a number of ballots that were cast. Kirby had 416 votes to 329 for Horwitz, but Horwitz claimed voter fraud occurred to get Kirby elected. She said that free drinks, concert tickets and other inducements were promised in exchange for votes. She also said that some voters falsified their residency information.

On Sept. 6, 2013, Circuit Judge Jim Roberts dismissed the case on grounds of limited evidence of Horwitz’s claims. After an appeal, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed the decision, ruling that 159 ballots cast during the election should have been thrown out and that the case should receive another hearing.

On Sept. 27, Roberts dismissed the case again because Horwitz’ legal team was unable to subpoena the 159 people who cast invalid votes and question them in court. Only 40 voters testified, all of whom were students.

School Board Chair Lee Garrison, who pioneered the ploy to make the student vote instrumental in Tuscaloosa’s municipal elections, also has decided not to run for reelection. He had previously served four terms as the Council member for District Four. It is widely believed that his political success had depended on getting out the University’s Machine vote. Garrison’s political career began when he unseated Don Brown as District Four’s Council Member in 1997.

An article in the Tuscaloosa News by Stephanie Taylor explained why a law was passed Alabama Legislature in 2015 to help avoid some of the problems associated with the student vote:

The Alabama Legislature, at the request of the Tuscaloosa City Council, last year passed a law moving municipal elections from August to March, to avoid problems of residency requirements of students who move to Tuscaloosa during the summer before the academic school year.

The change followed Horwitz’s election challenge and the 1997 election challenge of City Council candidate Don Brown.

Brown was defeated by former Tuscaloosa City Councilman Lee Garrison, then 22 and a UA senior, 857 to 773.

Brown filed a challenge in Circuit Court claiming that as many as 265 illegal votes were cast for Garrison.

In the end, former Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Robert B. Harwood ruled that 81 votes cast largely by UA sorority and fraternity members were subject to possible disqualification. But, because 84 votes were needed to overturn and nullify the election, Garrison remained council member for District 4, where he served for 16 years.

In the article by Taylor, Horwitz summed up the dilemma of the University’s Machine’s interference in local elections:

“For too long, the adults in our community have been willing to turn a blind eye to The Machine, treating it as child’s play,” Horwitz said. “They dismiss it as an entity that plays games with student elections and homecoming queen. But it is past time to acknowledge that this secret organization is a training ground for behavior that brings disrepute to the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa and our state.”

After years of a legal struggle, and apparent inaction by the University of Alabama’s administration, it’s all come down to this.

The University’s Machine is out. Yes. But some of the current school board candidates have ties to the Chamber of Commerce, which was indirectly involved in the attempt by a PAC to unseat School Board incumbents in the last election. One theory about the Chamber’s interest in the School Board involved a real estate deal.

A post in the blog “Read Think Listen” read:

It has been documented that the campaigns of the board of education challengers last year were largely funded by donations from businesses and individuals who were connected to the construction, real estate and banking industries. Why were these folks so motivated to change the board? Based on the acrimony surrounding the choice of location for Tuscaloosa’s new technical school and the fact that many of the individuals and entities from that battle contributed to challengers in this one, I propose that they did not trust that school board to do their bidding. There are a number of businesses and individuals, many of whom donated to challengers’ campaign funds either directly or through Mike Echols’ PACs, which stand to profit from school construction. Could it be that this land deal was always planned to be held secret pending the outcome of the school board elections?

Is this all a confirmation of the epigram by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr?  Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose ( The more things change, the more they stay the same )?