College Park mayor blocks arts festival over ‘mean’ comments

[TexasTowelie]

College Park Mayor Jack Longino has been reelected to the city’s top job six times, but every time he has faced opposition.

Last year, he beat his opponent — a former chief of the city police force — by just 36 votes to earn another four years at City Hall. With a history of political battles, it’s reasonable that Longino, 62, knows he has enemies, but people in the arts community were shocked when hard feelings from the campaign spilled out into regular city business.

In June, Longino cast the deciding vote against permitting the annual College Park Arts Festival and then gave organizers a piece of his mind.

“I think that sometimes the do-gooders in this city need to figure out where you want to be and what you want to be and how you want to be,” he said.

Read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/college-park-mayor-blocks-arts-festival-over-mean-/nsD8P/

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. More...

But Longino wasn’t done. When a reporter for the South Metro Neighbor last month asked him about the festival, Longino threatened the newspaper. He said he would pull the city’s legally required advertisements, such as announcements of city meetings or zoning decisions.

“The paper should not be writing stuff like that. And if you write something that I don’t like, and you make me mad, we will quit using y’all as our city organ,” he told the paper. “We will find somebody else to use. We’ve come close to doing that before.”


http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/mayor-settles-political-score-blocks-arts-festival/nsDMJ/

[monmouth4]

2. Been in the job too long..n/t