Cover Story

How will 2006 be remembered locally? By most counts, probably as the year we DIDN’T have a hurricane. But there were plenty of other exciting occurrences. Most of these involved a new local game called “Six Degrees of David Thomas,” whereby anyone who had anything remotely to do with former School Board Member David Thomas ended up indicted or unemployed.

But there were also plenty of highlights that didn’t involve jail sentences and Land Rovers. And at one point, the city was stark-raving mad about leprechauns – from Crichton. Well, it’s all too much to explain in the first paragraph or two. Read on to see what we thought were the most important events of 2006…

Deadly David Thomas

Though the saga of former Mobile County School Board Member David Thomas began in 2005, it all came to a head in 2006. Thomas’ decision to use school board funds to buy $9,000 in Mardi Gras throws became his eventual undoing – and perhaps the undoing of a number of other local officials. Thomas was eventually bumped from his school board position, but harsh feelings appear to have remained with fellow board member and bead-thrower Hazel Fournier.

Fournier was among the school board members who led the charge to replace longtime School Superintendent Harold Dodge after “Beadgate.” Although he was the reigning Alabama Superintendent of the Year, Dodge appears to have been targeted because Fournier resented him not telling her she and Thomas were being investigated by the District Attorney for their role in using school money to buy Mardi Gras throws.

Thomas was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident for running over a little girl’s foot while intoxicated during Mardi Gras 2005, which cost him his post on the school board and earned him a week in Metro lockup and the forfeiture of his driver’s license. When it was discovered in June that his cousin, Circuit Judge Herman Thomas, had pulled strings to allow David to serve his time in the much cushier Prichard jail, well, a whole new scandal was begun. David Thomas ended up having to serve a second sentence in Metro, and Herman Thomas is still under investigation by the state’s Judicial Inquiries Commission.

In 2006, it didn’t pay to have an association with David Thomas.

Municipal Judges

On Monday, Aug. 14, longtime Mobile Municipal Court judges James Lackey and Wanda Rahman learned they would not be reappointed to the bench by the Mobile City Council. This announcement came after a grueling 10-hour interview process of 14 candidates, which largely focused on the practice of expunging records – a practice that came to light and under scrutiny after it was discovered former school board president David Thomas had a the record of a 1998 DUI expunged.

Thomas’ expungement was discovered after he received a DUI and ran over a girl’s foot while driving the wrong way down a one-way street on Mardi Gras day 2005.

During the process, Judge Wanda Rahman, who expunged the 1998 record, said she did so with presiding Judge Lackey’s approval and at the behest of circuit judge Herman Thomas, who is David Thomas’ cousin and fraternity brother. Judge Thomas denied any such involvement and is currently under investigation by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in March 2006 municipal court judges do no have the authority to expunge records.

Part-time Judge John Coleman also lost his position, leaving part-time, environmental court judge Holmes Whiddon as the only one to escape this judicial house-cleaning. Whiddon now serves as the full-time, presiding judge of the court. He is assisted by former city prosecutor Shelbonnie Hall, who also received a full-time appointment as well as part-time judges Matt Green and Rose McPhillips. Green was an assistant Baldwin County prosecutor, and McPhillips was a fill-in municipal judge.

Kennedy and Bishop State

Over the years, Bishop State College President Yvonne Kennedy has built up a reputation as a political powerhouse. After all, who else is both the president of a university and a state representative? In 2006, though, Kennedy and her school were engulfed in a scandal that leaves many doubting whether she will last much longer as the school’s president.

The investigation, which led to Kennedy taking a lengthy leave of absence, centered on employees improperly obtaining financial aid for themselves and relatives, and not attending classes. The investigation has also spread into the college’s foundation, which it appears Kennedy has controlled. She even directed her entire $94,000 in legislative discretionary monies to the fund in 2003. Next year should be an interesting one at Bishop.

Tillman KO’ed

Longtime Mobile County Sheriff Jack Tillman was allowed to quietly slip away this year after District Attorney John Tyson’s investigation into his handling of the Metro Jail’s “food fund,” and other operations within the sheriff’s department.

Tillman was eventually indicted on five felony charges pertaining to his handling of the food fund, as well as his testimony in a 2003 criminal case against his sister-in-law Brenda Pate. Tillman pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, perjury and an ethics offense, agreed to repay some of the $13,000 he shifted from the food fund to his personal retirement account and resigned office.

His departure cleared the way for former Mobile Police Chief Sam Cochran to eventually be appointed interim sheriff, an office he won in the general election.

Placing the RSA Tower spire

The RSA Tower has been heralded for over three years as a godsend project for Mobile that has sent a wave of investment and development into downtown.

Though the RSA Tower won’t be ready for occupancy until late in 2007, when a pair of helicopters lifted the 91-foot spire into place Sept. 16, crowds flocked to downtown and the Causeway to watch history in motion as the symbolic crowning of the skyscraper signaled brighter days ahead for the Port City.

Cruise ship return

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Carnival Cruise Lines offered ships to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as emergency shelters for 1,800 evacuees and emergency workers for six months. The Carnival ship Holiday, based out of Mobile since 2004, was pressed into service in New Orleans and Pascagoula.

The cruise liner returned in late March, and has operated at 100 percent occupancy since, welcome relief for economic forecasters who speculate the industry’s future impact on Mobile to be worth $20 million annually. So positive has been the effect thus far, Mayor Sam Jones and other civic leaders have requested a second ship to be based in the Azalea City

No hurricanes

Prognostications from the National Hurricane Center were dismal for 2006 with a repeat of 2005’s horrors expected. As late as August, forecasters were calling for 12 to 15 named storms with seven to nine hurricanes and four of those becoming major.

In an average year, around 11 named storms will form with six becoming hurricanes, including two major hurricanes.

In 2005, there were 28 named storms, 15 of which became hurricanes, including two major ones.

The 2006 season was calm in comparison, with only nine storms receiving names and only five of those reached hurricane status, although the standard of two major hurricanes was met.

A late developing El Nino system in the Pacific was to thank for the wind shear and drier air that effectively dampened the autumnal onslaught.

LNG defeated

Corporate energy giant ConocoPhillips drew up plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal 12 miles south of Dauphin Island and raised the ire of local environmental groups. An “open loop” system would use 100 to 200 million gallons of warm Gulf seawater per day to heat the gas – chilled to 260 degrees below zero for transportation – before distribution.

Though verifiable data is scarce, opponents claim the “open loop” system would ravage populations of commercial and recreational fish. They demanded a “closed loop” system that ConocoPhillips claimed would harm the efficiency and viability of the facility.

ConocoPhillips asserted the LNG terminal would create 60 permanent jobs, each paying an average salary over $50,000, and over 690 jobs during the construction phase. A ConocoPhillips spokesman placed the project value at near $1 billion.

When Alabama Gov. Bob Riley hinted at plans to veto the proposal in late spring, the nation’s third largest energy company quickly withdrew their proposal.

EADS/International Shipholding

EADS announced in June 2005 that the aircraft manufacturer would start an operation in Mobile responsible for creating 200 jobs. Other plans to manufacture an extra-wide-body plane slotted to be used in a tanker fleet for the U.S. military could create over 1,000 jobs. Developments in 2006 seemed to jeopardize the projects, but little seems to have diminished the manufacturer’s intentions for Port City operations.

In June of 2006, International Shipholding Corp. announced it would move its 135-person headquarters to Mobile from New Orleans. The Fortune 500 company is relocating to the RSA Tower and promises to lend its considerable clout to the smaller Mobile market.

Mr. Brooks goes to Montgomery

District Four city councilman Ben Brooks bested former county commissioner and State Senator Gary Tanner for the District 35 state senate seat Nov. 7, leaving a vacant spot on the council.

Three candidates are vying for the position, which will be decided in a special election Tuesday, Jan. 23. The candidates include former city councilman Mabin Hicks, who Brooks ousted in 2001, retired U.S. Army Maj. John C. Williams and SSI software engineer Michael Sullivan, who also has over 20 years of military experience in the Marines and Army Reserves and National Guard.

Soul Patrol

Last January, many a Mobilian found themselves sitting on their sofas watching the fifth season of FOX’s uber-hit “American Idol,” when a familiar face framed by salt-and-pepper hair appeared. Birmingham native Taylor Hicks, who was no stranger to the Gulf Coast, playing Monsoon’s and the Flora-Bama regularly, auditioned for the show in Las Vegas.

Though nasty judge Simon Cowell did not think Hicks was “Idol” material, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul gave Hicks the go ahead and sent him to Hollywood.

“Soul Patrol” mania spread throughout the state as Hicks delivered solid performances every week with such classics as Elton John’s “Levon,” Elvis’s “In the Ghetto” and “Jailhouse Rock,” and the Doobie Brother’s “Taking it to the Streets,” among others. His powerful vocals coupled with spastic dance moves kept him from ever being in the “Bottom Three,” and on May 23, Hicks beat out Los Angeles’ Katharine McPhee to become the American Idol.

Since the show, Hicks toured with the other “Idol” contestants and on Dec. 14 released his self-titled debut album on Arista records. He will start a tour in mid-February in support of this release, which may very well include a stop right here in Mobile.

I want da gold!

Perhaps no local phenomenon had the social impact of the supposed sighting of “The Crichton Leprechaun” around St. Patrick’s Day. Hundreds of people gathered each night in Mobile’s Crichton community to stare into a large tree where a shadow cast in the branches looked to many like a leprechaun. The phenomenon really took off when WPMI’s Brian Johnson did a story it, and soon “I want da gold” was the city’s new catchphrase.

WPMI’s Web site had hundreds of thousands of hits from around the world, and someone even put together a rap song about the Crichton Leprechaun. Oh, and that famous “amateur sketch” still appears on a T-shirt now and again.

This past year’s cultural phenomena also include “Jesus in the Drywall,” and WBLX’s Inetta Da Moodsetta leaving the airwaves by saying “I quit this bitch.” But let’s face it, 2006 was The Year of the Leprechaun.

Rob Holbert, Kevin Lee and Ashley Toland contributed to this story.

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