COLUMN: Hogg's Abrupt Exit Is Only The Beginning Of The Circus

*This is an opinion column*

NORTHPORT, AL — For the second time in exactly 486 days, I found myself breaking every highway traffic law known to man to get back home from Columbus, Mississippi after yet another Northport elected official abruptly resigned from office while I was in the Friendly City.

Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts.

I had been on a podcast with a dear friend and UA graduate school classmate I had already canceled on once and for an hour felt my phone vibrating in the pocket of my blue jeans as we discussed everything from the Northport water park and the death penalty to the literary merits of Stephen King.

When I finally checked my overheated phone and relayed the news to the two hosts, we all looked at each other befuddled and unaware of what to do at the moment, especially considering the podcast wasn't relevant anymore.

Indeed, as Patch previously reported, Northport Council President Jeff Hogg abruptly resigned Thursday, citing threats to his safety and, most importantly, concerns about the future of his private sector job.

Hogg prefaced his reasons to resign with the threats, sure, but, it rings a bit hollow when considering so much of what Northport City Hall insiders and trusted sources are saying — everything from serious trouble at work to state ethics investigators on the ground in Northport.

This is an opinion column and these are rumors, though, but generally, where there's smoke, there's at least a smoldering ember or two of truth. Experience has taught me as much.

The most telling information gleaned from the resignation letter, though, came when Hogg said these actions on the part of the political opposition have had an "adverse effect on my career and future with my employer ..."

Hogg has worked as an insurance agent at the Fitts Agency since 2004 and has a focus on commercial insurance.

As a career journalist who has received and archived hand-written threats via prison snail mail, I find it odd that the threats mentioned by Hogg were bookended with concerns over the future of his job. No day job is more important than someone's safety and there's no real point in mentioning the two in the same sentence.

I've kicked over a bunch of rocks in four years in Tuscaloosa, too, and can honestly say to my own relief that I've never received a single threat to my physical safety or that of my family.

So why did Hogg resign?

I've tried to a fault to find sympathy for his political approach, but I'd argue where we've found ourselves today is the result of the now-former elected official dealing with the consequences of his actions.

"Follow the money" is how I will remember his tenure in office.

Even today, the City of Northport honored a public records request I made regarding local developers donating to the Political Action Committees (PACs) that supported Hogg and others during the last election.

ALSO READ: Following The Money: The Influence Of Developers In Northport

Thanks to Hogg's suggestion, Patch requested the total amount of contracts granted by the city during this council term to the eight biggest relevant contributors to the PACs dumping big money into Northport politics and narrowed it down to three firms.

As a quick update for that story, here's what was provided:

TTL, Inc. — 10 contracts, totaling $1,847,716.83

S.T. Bunn Construction — Seven contracts, totaling $4,299,043.60

Burk-Kleinpeter — Five contracts, totaling $654,912

If this is a forensic look at Hogg's time in office, the best place to start is the latitude and grace this reporter has shown him for the better part of four years after I moved back home just a few years removed from his election win over my Dad in a runoff to secure his first term.

The whole idea of even covering him spooked me for the sole notion that the second I got on his bad side, his followers could have a pretty fair claim to accuse me of being a compromised political operative laboring under some vengeful agenda.

Former Mayor Bobby Herndon, who abruptly resigned when I was speaking to a class at the Mississippi School of Math & Science in Columbus on Nov. 7, 2022, will also be quick to tell you I made it a point to put my bias aside to treat him fairly.

If Hogg is being fair amid the tumult of the $350 million resort-style water park draped around his neck like an albatross, he will also tell you my bias never informed the way I treated him and I went to painstaking lengths to prove it.

No, my issues with this latest chapter were grounded solely in policy — failed policy at that, which the city has nothing to show for at present other than some repaved streets and employee pay raises.

As I've harped on so many times, those examples aren't policy victories so much as they are the basic functions of government.

For the sake of maintaining the outside perception of my ethics in getting this digital news outlet off the ground here, I gave him more professional slack than I did any other politician in the area over this time and told him multiple times, as I tell just about every source, "I'll be your friend until I can't anymore."

I came close to that point after I saw the way he handled the backlash of a capital project that he has touted for years as the panacea for Northport's bedroom community complex.

As I said on two podcasts this week, my issues were never regarding the concept, no, but fixed squarely on the location, the size of the investment and the way he and other elected officials handled dissent as this deal was rushed through with little prior notice.

At a time when so much of this country is so politically divided over things most people don't even seem to fully understand, it gets under the skin of this truth merchant when a politician like Hogg openly tells his constituents that he is the only one in the University Beach narrative telling the truth.

You also have non-elected officials, like appointed District 3 Councilman Karl Wiggins, co-opting a tired joke on Facebook to ask a random constituent: "Show me where the city council hurt you."

This is a question typically offered up to children testifying in court about being abused and has no place in political discourse. So it should come as a surprise to no one that such a tasteless statement came from an appointed official who has never been elected to office and seems to have little empathy for the people they serve.

Again, Wiggins has few policy wins to his credit and has very much followed in Hogg's footsteps in learning how to talk to constituents.

There's so much more with this term, though.

If you recall, dear reader, this council term alone saw the failed push for a Northport city school system and the debacle over the city's failed attempt to sell and redevelop the Northport Community Center property.

For this lifelong Northport native, though, no bigger sin has been committed during this term than the loss of the Kentuck Arts Festival, which will be held for the very first time this fall on the other side of the bridge in Snow Hinton Park.

Even with the proposed $350 million resort moving forward off of Harper Road, of all places, the loss of the Kentuck festival was due in large part to the nonprofit's negotiations with the City of Northport breaking down for the very first time in our city's history.

But who did multiple sources blame?

If you've followed along with my extensive reporting, you already know the answer and it's little more than a rhetorical question at this point.

Hogg didn't grow up in Northport and made his connection in west Alabama in Tuscaloosa during college. So, one can fairly assume he had little understanding of the true cultural significance of the Kentuck Festival to the folks who have called Northport home their entire lives.

No, Hogg was never a kid enamored with the folksy festival or went on field trips to the downtown campus growing up. Rather, his progress-at-any-cost agenda and combative nature cost us such a luxury and I'd wager the other lifelong Northport residents like the author of this story could care less about the economic impact of such an event.

The Kentuck Festival of the Arts is embedded in our cultural DNA in Northport and losing it is arguably the most regrettable chapter of this council term. That is, had it not been for the way "University Beach" entered our local lexicon and, less than two weeks later, was shoved down our throats.

These same city leaders, no less, also mocked us when we offered up our concerns as residents and forced the measure through, anyway.

Chief among them was Hogg, with his red clown nose as he derided constituents in the comments on Facebook posts and from his council seat. Never mind he spent more energy tilting at those windmills and, in the process, lost far more political capital than he would have retained by being quiet.

If the failed school system effort, the Community Center failure and the loss of the Kentuck Arts Festival wasn't enough, though, Hogg's Waterloo ended up being the "water park" he fought so hard for over the years.

Indeed, Hogg publicly called the investigative reporting by Tuscaloosa Patch on this questionable development "stupid," without offering evidence to the contrary and had no corrections to our reporting that highlighted his stolen valor in taking credit for luring the $350 million University Beach development to Northport.

Never mind that his single biggest political benefactor, Tuscaloosa developer Ron Turner, agreed with this reporter concerning Hogg's push for the questionable location and the way he talked to those who expressed concerns.

Remember, as Hogg told so many, don't listen to what the media and everyone else is saying.

Dear reader, given this established pattern of behavior, I would caution heavily against believing much of Hogg's resignation letter apart from where it shows his true fears. While I don't question the possibility that he received ugly feedback or even weird threats, there's much to be considered when realizing the final point he harped on concerning his private sector job.

I've covered local politics longer than elected officials have been in office in Northport City Hall and it threw up immediate red flags when Hogg abruptly resigned today. Never in my career have I seen such a quick heel turn without the individual being under a serious threat — never once was it over fears of losing a private sector job.

That is, other than when former Mayor Bobby Herndon abruptly resigned in November 2022.

The truth has a pretty predictable track record of finding its way to the surface and, as Herndon told me in an interview on Feb. 20, he said he resigned mostly because he was beginning to feel threatened with the possibility of retaliation from politically active developers and the council members they bankroll working on their behalf.

He wouldn't say his name, no, but it was pretty easy to deduce who he was talking about.

District 4 Councilwoman Jamie Dykes offered similar on-record insight in the same calendar week that the atmosphere in City Hall had become one of intimidation and abuse — damn near extortion if so much intel gathered on background by this reporter is true.

Still, like the eventual loss of Napoleon in George Orwell's classic novella "Animal Farm," we've now found ourselves in an unimaginable power vacuum, with District 1 Councilwoman and Pro Tem Christy Bobo ascending to the council presidency by default and an open seat in District 5 that will need to be appointed by the council or the governor.

Hogg's resignation is just the latest domino to fall in this saga, but as this chapter of my professional life has taught me, the entire elected body should be in the process of self-reflection amid such a seismic shift in small-town government power.

After all, at no time during this term have each of them been under the sharp focus of such a microscope.

Now isn't a time to gloat or be impulsive. No, friends, now is the time when we as citizens can finally realize the true authority we have and act upon it.

Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com