GUEST COLUMN: The Ghost Council Haunting Northport

*The following is an op-ed submitted to Tuscaloosa Patch by Northport resident Kimberly Madison*

NORTHPORT, AL — Northport is tired.

Not just “end-of-the-day tired,” but “prop-your-eyelids-open-with-toothpicks tired.”

We are exhausted from decisions made in rooms we can’t enter, behind doors slammed in our faces, by people who pretend we don’t exist the second the gavel falls.

The Hogg Smog Still Hangs Over City Hall

What in the University Beach is going on at City Hall? Rhetorical, I know. But how long do we have to choke on this thick haze of half-truths and arrogance — or, as I call it, the “Hogg Smog”?

Jeff Hogg may have resigned, but his influence — and the puppeteers behind him — still lingers like the stench of sewage rising from a creek bed. What many would call a “shadow government” looks a lot like the Ghost Council he installed before stepping down. Today, his loyalists still haunt City Hall, rushing approvals, whispering deals and doing “new” math.

The humiliating Community Center fiasco and the heavy-handed feud that drove out the 50-year Kentuck Arts Festival will impact our city for years.

The Ghost Council Exposed

The seats currently occupied by Christy Bobo, Karl Wiggins and Woodrow Washington are the pillars of this mess. They’ve carried forward Hogg’s legacy of secrecy and control, pretending to serve residents while bowing to backroom power.

What Aug. 26 Is Really About

Make no mistake: The Aug. 26 election is not about one man or his cronies. It’s about cleaning house like company’s arriving in an hour. It’s about cutting off the head of the snake.

Trying to predict whatever scheme they’re plotting next is pointless — they don’t care what we think anyway. Keeping track of constant district changes is designed to confuse, and since those changes always seem to benefit them, we’re left with one option:

Completely dismantle Hogg’s Northport City Council.

That means saying goodbye to Bobo, Wiggins and Washington. It means rejecting Hogg’s handpicked mayoral candidate, Jason Barksdale. Sorry — not personal. It’s us, not you.

Last Gasp for Northport’s Future

The Aug. 26 election is our last gasp before what’s left of the people’s power is gone. If we don’t upend this council, we’ll cement a system that rewards insiders while ignoring residents. Baseball fields and water parks might dazzle, but bread and circuses don’t change the fact that we’re being entertained into silence.

We don’t have to keep fighting uphill battles, begging for documents we’re entitled to or pleading for scraps of transparency.

One Exception, Many Replacements

With one exception — the exceptional Councilwoman Jamie Dykes (unfortunately not in my district) — the entire council must be replaced.

The challengers running against Bobo, Wiggins and Washington share our nausea.

This election isn’t about polishing résumés; it’s about throwing out the Ghost Council like Jesus cast out a legion of demons into a herd of pigs — before they plunged off a cliff.

Zero pun intended.

The Only Table That Matters

After one of our so-called “100-year floods,” a council member advised me to “take a seat at the table” if I wanted to be heard.

What table? Certainly not the one where Bobo, Wiggins and Washington rest their elbows.

The real table of power in Northport is in our homes. It’s where we pray, feed our families, open our Bibles and stretch our paychecks. It’s where neighbors sat during the flood, wondering if anyone in government was listening — or if they even cared.

For too long, we’ve been forced to watch City Hall through the lobby glass. Some council members silenced us with oppressive rules. Police officers — sworn to protect us — were instead used to serve them.

We don’t need their permission to speak. And we don’t need a seat at their table.

Because the only table that matters — the one where real power lives — is already ours.

This is an opinion column written by Northport resident Kimberly Madison. The views expressed in this op-ed are her's and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Tuscaloosa Patch or our parent company.