Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Zatalounge

Zatalounge is a chat forum provided for those who wish to present their personal views, opinions, or insights on all sorts of topics. Everyone has an opinion and they don't always agree. This website seeks to promote differences of opinion and discussions among users so that everyone gets to have their say.

Become a registered member or be our guest. It's your choice!


Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Hampton, Florida no more?
Topic Started: Mar 12 2014, 07:30 AM (165 Views)
Guest
Unregistered

Corruption! Scandal! Incompetence!

The accusations came one after another.

A quaint Florida city was portrayed as a cesspool of greedy public servants intent on living the good life at the expense of those unlucky enough to be passing through.

The city's 477 residents were apparently so safety conscious they kept 17 cops on the payroll, according to an Orlando Sentinel report. The current mayor was busted in November for allegedly selling oxycodone to an undercover sheriff's deputy. Some of the town's financial records were missing and presumed drowned (no, really) in a flood.

So, by the time the testimony was completed Monday afternoon, a joint legislative committee had heard enough.

The verdict?

Off with their heads!

(Or at least their radar guns.)

The Senate and House members on the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee declared that the city of Hampton should be no more. Dissolved. Kaput. Finite.

I don't know about you, but it seems like a pretty drastic step, this erasure of an entire city. Even if a convenience store qualifies as that city's retail center and City Hall's roof has a rust problem.

"I don't think they need to shut the city down. That sounds ridiculous,'' said Jim Mitzel, a former two-term mayor of Hampton. "I know the audit showed we might have had some problems with some people in office. And maybe some changes need to be made.

"But shutting the city down sounds like a bit too much.''

This undoubtedly qualifies as the biggest news to hit Hampton since the AAA Motor Club declared Hampton (along with neighboring cities Waldo and Lawtey) as the nation's most notorious speed trap in the mid 1990s.

How did AAA come to that conclusion?

It might have had something to do with Hampton annexing a quarter-mile stretch of U.S. 301 in 1993, then feasting on drivers who were passing through the (freshly acquired) outskirts of town.

At one point, the motor club estimated that 60 percent of the city's revenue was derived from moving violations issued to non-residents. In 1995, a town marshal said he was fired by the City Council because he wasn't writing enough speeding tickets.

"We might have had that reputation a few years ago,'' Mitzel said. "But I don't think that's a problem anymore.''

Even if the speed trap issue is overblown, the legislative committee did seem a bit peeved about the city's credit cards being used haphazardly, as well as bills at the local convenience store topping more than $100,000 in recent years. Nepotism seemed to be another issue, and the city had a small problem with bouncing checks.

At any rate, lawmakers have three weeks to file the necessary paperwork to begin dissolving Hampton, which was incorporated in 1870 and named after a farmer's 10-year-old son.

City officials did not dispute many of the findings in the Florida Auditor General's report, so the best chance for Hampton's survival might be to plead guilty by association.

Corruption? Scandal? Incompetence?

After all, if it's good enough for Tallahassee …
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Tybee
Member Avatar

Decades ago there was a town in south Georgia just like that. Ludowici, Ga. was one of the most corrupt burgs in the country. This was before the interstates were built. They ran a decades long speed trap that targeted any car with a tag outside the county, especially any Atlanta area tags. The cops would sit in the barber shop where they had installed a manual control for the only traffic light in town. They'd make sure to change the light to red just as out of the area cars were going through what they saw as a green light. The state finally stepped in and routed out the den of thieves who were running things.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dotty Sandusky

Good riddance to bad rubbish or crappy Florida towns. Too bad they just couldn't nuke it off the map. "Hampton" Flori-duh as if....... >snort<
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Guest
Unregistered

This is just the worst case of an epidemic.

Every time I drive down to Seaside, FL, once I get off the interstate, there are small towns that suddenly have 15 MPH and 25 MPH speed limits, established solely to rip of people going to the beaches.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Guest
Unregistered

The have these "speed trap" hamlets everywhere. Maintaining a police force and busting people for petty traffic infractions.

Nice to see somone squelched at least one.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dotty Sandusky

Guest
Mar 14 2014, 01:59 PM
The have these "speed trap" hamlets everywhere. Maintaining a police force and busting people for petty traffic infractions.

Nice to see somone squelched at least one.
Since it's own poor slobs can't afford to support Disney or it's own tourism , the state makes it's money with speed traps, pot busts and red light runners.
Edited by Dotty Sandusky, Mar 14 2014, 11:03 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Guest
Unregistered

Quote:
 
Since it's own poor slobs can't afford to support Disney or it's own tourism , the state makes it's money
Oh, dear.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Guest
Unregistered

Dotty Sandusky
Mar 14 2014, 11:02 PM
Guest
Mar 14 2014, 01:59 PM
The have these "speed trap" hamlets everywhere. Maintaining a police force and busting people for petty traffic infractions.

Nice to see somone squelched at least one.
Since it's own poor slobs can't afford to support Disney or it's own tourism , the state makes it's money with speed traps, pot busts and red light runners.
Dotty: These speed traps are not nearly as nefarious a prepubescent male harlots to entice and tattle.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Dotty Sandusky

Guest
Mar 15 2014, 11:14 AM
Dotty Sandusky
Mar 14 2014, 11:02 PM
Guest
Mar 14 2014, 01:59 PM
The have these "speed trap" hamlets everywhere. Maintaining a police force and busting people for petty traffic infractions.

Nice to see somone squelched at least one.
Since it's own poor slobs can't afford to support Disney or it's own tourism , the state makes it's money with speed traps, pot busts and red light runners.
Dotty: These speed traps are not nearly as nefarious a prepubescent male harlots to entice and tattle.
Well, Jerry never made a dime nor did he support crappy little towns in a Florida pretending they were the Hampton's so something good came out of all of this.....l think.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today.
« Previous Topic · General Discussion · Next Topic »
Add Reply