For whom Belle tolls… not for thee
In this issue’s column, I tackle the apparent botched attempt by School Board President Fleet Belle to run a game on his opponent in the upcoming runoff election. It looks a lot like Fleet and his campaign engaged an elderly woman to file some complaints against Levon Manzie, and then possibly tried to get the school board’s attorneys involved, too boot.
Frankly, Belle just doesn’t seem to bring much to the table. With his tax problems, past use of the office to get family members sweet deals and poor judgment displayed while in office, Belle should be bounced.
Tags: attorneys, fleet belle, school board
June 18th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main………Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
One can only hope we don’t want a potential bad apple to risk spoiling the whole bunch. They are supposed to be removed from the barrel. I believe the technical apple-picking term you used was “bounced.”
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:57 am
I see they’re pulling a page out of the old Pam Millsaps/Chip Herrington playbook. Somethings never change.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:12 am
It is a sad day in life when people will go to the extreme of airing a
a person’s dirty laundry for a $12,000 a year position that has no
monetary value for his church or his family. I know that if we could look
into some of our own closets, we would find plenty of dirty laundry. The
problems probably did not occur because of mismanagement of funds, but
probably because of lack of funds. Contrary to what people may think…a
church is operated by Tithes and Offerings that are taken in each Sunday,
so, if the funds are not there, bills can not be paid.
The articles printed in your paper are a shame and a disgrace to the credi-
bility and quality of your paper. When I first saw your paper, I was
impressed, but when people resort to stooping so low and grasping for any
straw they could find to discredit Reverend Belle and publish it is
amazing to me. I realize that politics is a dirty game, but that is just
awful. If we would take the time, we could find something as derogatory as
the articles are and retaliate also. Does someone want Manzie to win that bad that they would be so petty.
As far as his appointmemts to family members, that is a vague accusation because any school system that is employed with the system is employed because of their qualification,
not because they are related to him. This is just an example of his ability to lead his family in the field of education so they may educate our future generation.
Since Reverend Belle has been on the school board, I can honestly say that
I have seen major changes at the schools in his district. We must realize that no board member can do anything good or bad without the approval of the rest of the board and
certainly not without the stamp from Dr. Roy Nichols, Board President. Reverend Belle is fully qualified, capable, and intelligent enough to to hold that position,so why not embrace a man that we all know is qualified to do the job.
June 27th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
“When I first saw your paper, I was impressed, but when people resort to stooping so low and grasping for any straw they could find to discredit Reverend Belle and publish it is amazing to me.”
As a voter, I’m not extremely worried about Belle’s personal tax problems either. Maybe he’s some kind of hip tax protester. The old argument that the 16th amendment was not technically ratified does smell similar to the argument that an election law technicality interest outweighs the general spirit of the election process.
I’m not worried about his personal finances all that much either, as long as he knows how to use a calculator during his 9-5 (or whatever hours are considered “business” to the clergy).
The financial problems at the church are a bigger concern to me. It may not be definitive, but it definitely provides valuable insight into his general management skills. If Manzie has a similar record of professional financial difficulty, then I would find it just as relevant for consideration.
Those who are accustomed to not being related to important people are always going to be irritated by any story that even kind of looks like nepotism. At least do an airtight job of hiding it (whispers and handshakes rather than letters)! Same thing applies to the election shenanigans. It’s not like we expect these things to stop happening, but it’s too much to take when it’s right in our faces.
“If we would take the time, we could find something as derogatory as the articles are and retaliate also.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it obliterates the argument against dirty politics to even suggest retaliation against a journalist for opining on details regarding an elected official that are already a matter of public record; OR to even suggest retaliation against Manzie for the actions of a journalist who very clearly stated that he did not know Manzie. I wasn’t clear which one “we” could retaliate against (IF the time was taken).
I can only hope this person wasn’t coached by Belle’s campaign too. That would look very, very bad.
June 28th, 2008 at 8:24 am
First, we believe Rev. Belle’s management (or inability to do so) of his church’s money is absolutely relevant. Sure, we can all say if the money’s not there, then the bills can’t be paid. But what about the people who have had to sue the church and Rev. Belle personally to be paid. Those include Griffith’s Shell station and cell phone companies.
Certainly the tax issue is one any business owner can feel some compassion about, but no one NEEDS a cell phone. A church just does GET to screw a legitimate business out of the money they contractually deserve.
As for your vague threats, have a ball. I assure you neither I nor my company have any tax liens against us and haven’t had judgments against us personally for ripping people off.
Also, you can defend Rev. Belle’s use of his position to promote relatives all you’d like, but the situation is fairly obvious.
Perhaps you can explain why Rev. Belle is spending all his time trying to turn some tiny filing mistake by Manzie into a reason to disenfranchise voters? He doesn’t seem to even feel people should have a choice.
I don’t know Levon Manzie, and I don’t really know Rev. Belle either. He wont’ talk to us or anyone else for that matter. All we can look at are his actions, and, unfortunately, they don’t speak well of him.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I had the privilege (not) of speaking before the Rev. @ a school board meeting a couple months ago. What an inadequate, egotistical, idiot. He cannot even speak correctly and has no idea how to lead such a meeting. I simply could not believe that people such as Bill Megginson, Judy Stout, and Bill Meredith would sit and allow someone with absolutely not a clue what was going on around him, lead meetings of such importance to our children’s educational future. Hazel Fournier, I can see being a part of this ridiculous display, but the others really took me aback. There are many, many skeletons in the closet of Brother Belle. I urge those with the means to find them to keep looking. I have little to no respect for the sitting board members and after our last meeting, I know that those feelings have been earned and are certainly justified.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Manzie broke the law. What part of that don’t you people understand? Do you expect for us to put someone in office who can’t even complete his paper work out properly. You people have some nerve calling Rev. Belle an idiot. It seems as if you people are idiots including this cheap paper (Lagniappe)that you continue to print. You can’t even afford to print a daily newspaper. In response to you DEBI, you must be the idiot. You called Mr. Ken Megginson {Bill Megginson}, do you even know the school board members? Honey the facts are Rev. Belle has helped the schools in his district trememdously. Did you know teachers called MCEA for help with a mold problem at their school and the union never bothered to respond, however they have gone to great lengths to use union members money to try to get rid of one of the best commissioners sitting on the board. All I can tell you is we are voting to Keep Fleet and doing our best to send Mr. Manzie back to college to get his first degree.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Well, you’re a gigantic poo-poo head!
July 11th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Well, if you think Manzie is the best candidate you are bigger poo-poo head than me sister!!!!!!!1