Cazual Conversation

Things must be bad when a city votes to dissolve itself and trade the known (being run by Cedar Grove commissioners) versus the unknown (being run by the Bay County Commission).

Tuesday’s vote wasn’t close, 722-464.

The dilemma now is where will The News Herald turn to break-in rookie government reporters?

Much as the crime beat is used for breaking in rookie  writers - the prevailing thought is if a newbie can survive covering crime he or she can cover anything - Cedar Grove was a testing ground for wannabee government reporters.

I was thrown to those wolves back in the mid-80s.

It was 1985. Crack was making its first appearance, Nintendo made its debut, Billy Joel married Christine Brinkley and a Cedar Grove commissioner said used a profanity so profane that even the other members of the board appeared aghast.

Time seemed to freeze. I was taking notes and stopped, trying to make eye contact with the other commissioners because I could not believe what I had just heard. It was only one word, but it was bad, and everyone but the person who uttered it understood that.

The offending commissioner was aging, and by aging let’s say she was a lot closer to triple digits in age than I was to my midlife crisis.

A lot discussion took place after meeting, both with other commissioners who begged me not to print what was said, and with my boss at the time. By the time the story was filed, it was decided not to publish it, mainly because there were zero audience members present when it was uttered.

Still, the moment has stuck with me, and in many ways helped define how I looked at the city. It never really seemed to grow up with the rest of the county in terms of how it conducts business.

Actions and words acceptable 23 years ago are no longer so palatable to voters, it appears.

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