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I wanted this to be a straightforward news story about the proposed $350 million lagoon resort concept currently in the works and set out writing it as such after the Council approved entering a private-public partnership agreement with Texas-based University Beach LLC.

But the more I thought about it, I found myself being reminded that I was born here and there’s far too much at stake for me not to offer my long-winded commentary if there are folks out there willing to listen to it. Sometimes, as is the case here, perspective gives you more context than can be gleaned from black-and-white facts, complex figures and canned quotes.

For the better part of the two hours that followed the first salvo of shouting, there were murmurs in the crowd and muffled shouts of “he has the gavel” as Hogg forced a patronizing smile while cutting someone off at the lectern when their time expired.

This teasing on the part of frustrated citizens also saw those in the crowd deride Hogg for interrupting those attempting to speak, with some yelling “time’s up” to the couple of attendees who spoke in favor of the proposed development.

Hogg was a guest on the Steve & D.C. Morning Show Tuesday and addressed the verbal hostilities displayed the night before by fittingly quoting former President Richard Nixon’s concept of the “silent majority.”

“My slogan has always been that ‘we have to take the word ‘no’ out of Northport’ … we’re the 17th largest city and it’s time we start acting like it,” Hogg said, before mentioning that sometimes when citizens act like children, they must be dealt with appropriately.

Egos And Influencers

Folks speaking during the public hearing Monday were initially granted three minutes each, but once the City Council began to yawn and get frustrated hearing nothing but criticisms and questions that wouldn’t be answered, the decision was made to cut that speaking time down to a solitary minute.

If I’m being honest, the petulant arrogance displayed by Hogg Monday night and over the last week made this Northport native and career community journalist embarrassed to even be associated with the leadership in my hometown. As has been the case in the past, the other elected officials were mostly silent and did nothing to ease tensions.

COLUMN: Is Northport Water Park Cause For Celebration Or Concern?

Never mind this was the same council who stood by staring at their hands as its council president hollered for the police to quash dissent from mostly women and older taxpayers when the city was on the precipice of walking back its controversial decision regarding its unilaterally forced plans to sell the Northport Community Center to become some pork-barrel, mixed-used development for a friend of the council president.

If that lone chapter in the saga of trying to understand how Northport conducts business doesn’t show you who holds the power on the Council then I’m not sure what anecdote will — apart from one we’ll discuss shortly.

And never mind Hogg is the same elected official who those walking the halls of the Kentuck Art Center and the others in the periphery of their support network are sure to tell you became the final toxic straw that made it a pretty easy decision to move the nonprofit’s annual festival to Tuscaloosa.

Hogg’s brash attitude wasn’t the only reason, no, but those on the inside of the nonprofit and on its board of directors are likely to list him among the bullet points for why the nonprofit decided to move an annual event that is a deep-rooted part of Northport’s cultural identity. Not to mention the loss of revenue.

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Even his own colleagues and elected officials on other governmental bodies in the metro lament the crude approach taken by the council president when it comes to how he treats those around him and members of the public.

This was also on display Monday night when only a small group of supporters showed up for the public hearing, with only a couple having enough misplaced courage to speak out in favor of the $350 million development.

It’s crucial to keep in mind, dear reader, that the figurative scorecard over the last three and some odd years of this council term can easily reduce this group’s accomplishments to little more than street resurfacing, raising its sales tax without your input and providing raises to city employees.

But all one has to do is ask elected officials current and former about the root cause of the dysfunction on the Northport City Council and how it has led the community to its present divide over the University Beach project.

Former Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon told Patch in an interview that he misses being in office, but could no longer work with the council under its present leadership. This prompted his decision at the end of 2022 to step down after he and Hogg — along with Hogg’s small core of die-hard acolytes — were publicly at odds over the city’s appointment to the DCH Board and regarding Herndon’s push to have the street in front of his business renamed.

Herndon also recalled just before his resignation that 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. And when he realized he was no longer going to have the support in City Hall to accomplish even basic goals, he decided to give it up.

Indeed, Bobby Herndon is a more than decent man who, despite defeating my father by a landslide in a run-off election for mayor in 2020, earned my respect pretty quickly for the good he does and his heart for people of all backgrounds and beliefs.

Herndon’s insight also raised serious concerns about kickbacks from developers and sounded alarm bells regarding what kind of compromising dirt members of the council hold over one another to get their way.

After all, that’s one of the funny things about dirt.

Whether holding something incriminating over a colleague for political gain, turning campaign donors against a fellow elected official or moving earth for a $350 million capital project, it’s all about what you do with the dirt. That right?

Nevertheless, Herndon was there over the years as the idea of a water park for Northport began to take shape and even said he initially supported the much smaller concept on the 11-acre parcel purchased by the city.

“As far as the water park, lagoon beach — whatever it is — a price tag of that magnitude and the city investing that much while it’s that close to the residences worries me,” Herndon told me. “I think it would be better for the citizens to vote on (A ) the project and (B) the location. But it was shoved down the throats of the people. I miss being mayor, but I’m glad I’m not there.”

I’ve mentioned several failed big-picture initiatives just at this point and, other than a few restaurants that were likely to come do business in Northport anyways, this council is batting nearly .000 on long-term goals and they are sweating hard about it hoping you don’t notice.

Hogg was asked about this council’s accomplishments during his radio appearance Tuesday morning, pointing to the water park and the big pile of McWright’s Ferry Road dirt the city got for a bargain for its planned youth sports tournament complex on the banks of the Black Warrior River.

Hogg also spoke at length about paving and resurfacing projects, in addition to raises for city employees. Oddly enough, he failed to mention the city’s 1-cent sales tax increase that was passed by a simple vote of the council.

Regardless, spending money on unfinished projects does not a policy victory make.

As for street resurfacing and cost of living adjustment raises for city employees, these are not policies so much as they are the most basic responsibilities of any municipal body this size.

Don’t let them fool you, people.

But in considering exactly why the Council has been so dysfunctional, many will tell you to look no further than how its most powerful official treats his own elected colleagues in Northport and the taxpayers.

Surely you remember March 2022 when Hogg, in a leaked email, reminded his fellow council members of the influence and power of developers when it comes to getting re-elected — pretty much encouraging them to toe the line lest they run afoul of developers who have the money to run candidates against them.

On this council, including the mayor, Patch previously reported that only one — District 2’s Woodrow Washington III — was the lone elected member to not receive money from a developer that exceeded the threshold required to disclose campaign contributions.

“These individuals [complaining] don’t donate to anyone’s campaign or hold signs,” Hogg wrote to his colleagues of citizens being vocally opposed to an inconsequential development project. “But guess who does? Developers and Builders! … They are the ones with disposable money. If you received any PAC donations in the past, this is typically Developers and Builders. They all work together. And trust me, they will work just as hard getting you out of office than any neighborhood will.”

In short: “Your campaign contributions are more important than the interests of the people who elected you.”

ALSO READ: The Anatomy Of A Northport Political Scandal

Send In The Clowns

Ahead of Monday night’s meeting and after Hogg rescheduled a previously announced radio appearance with the Steve & D.C Morning Show earlier in the day, the council president took the time to jeer at critics on social media after being called a “clown,” and responded by posting a picture of himself in a generic red clown nose.

He might as well have still been wearing the tacky thing during the meeting Monday night when he tossed out multiple passive-aggressive remarks obvious to anyone in attendance, while at the same time very much portraying himself as some kind of misunderstood victim with a great and lofty idea that he seems to be the only one smart enough to understand apart from those sinking money into the gambit.

He was mocking most of you. That’s the short of it.

Hogg’s impulsive and immature behavior aimed at his colleagues and members of his own community should be incredibly telling of his political and personal insecurity. Many of his most ardent supporters, likely at Hogg’s encouragement, take a similar approach in the realm of social media whenever anyone so much as criticizes the council president.

As the iconic novelist Kurt Vonnegut so famously penned, though, “so it goes.”

Indeed, in one visible lapse of judgment Monday night, Hogg sarcastically apologized to the folks in the crowd who took the time to show up, telling them he was “sorry” that those faces looking back him were not regular meeting attendees and did not have a full understanding of the mechanisms at play. “Bless their hearts,” he was likely thinking.

This unwarranted remark elicited a deluge of shouts and did little to keep the discussions civil, which might have been the point — just Hogg poking the bear.

Even this reporter broke his ironclad ethical code of not participating in a story to join in the chorus of shouts against such pithy behavior and disrespect shown to taxpayers in the crowd exercising their constitutionally protected right to disagree.

Within reason, these folks have the right to dissension and Hogg has the right to be a jerk in response. But in such a situation, only one side of that dynamic can truly claim any actual moral high ground and it’s something more folks are taking note of, whether Hogg and the folks in his ear want to admit it.

‘Again, It’s Not A Water Park’

“I have the gavel,” a red-faced Hogg reiterated just above his bowtie at one man in the audience sitting in his chair who kept trying to ask a question out of turn. It was a phrase that became an intentionally ironic rallying cry for those frustrated with the approach of the council president and the looming decision regarding the $350 million development.

Sure, the initial Fayette-style, 11-acre water park might have been Hogg’s idea, but even the developers confirmed to Patch that they viewed such a concept as a fool’s errand for the city to sink taxpayer money into a few plastic water slides that fade in the sun and a single lazy river that would do little more than leave the city holding the bag.

The University Beach developers told city officials as much, too — City Administrator Glenda Webb and City Engineer Tera Tubbs — and this perspective is what saw an 11-acre albatross of a project transform seemingly overnight into something far more expansive and complex.

Never mind Jeff Hogg’s reality and his alternative facts, though. And never mind the clinched teeth of one developer as he aired frustrations over the project being trotted around by Northport officials as a “water park” after their fledgling but deep-pocketed firm voluntarily entered the conversation without one interaction with Hogg or any other members of the City Council.

Had you been listening to the radio this morning, though, you’d think Hogg was a character straight from Faulkner who pulled up the entire concept from the cold earth, despite the real power brokers on this project likely shaking their heads at the damage he is unknowingly doing to their efforts for the sake of nothing more than exposure and making good on his promises to deliver a “water park.”

“There will be something for everybody,” developer John Hughes told me Monday morning. “Again, it’s not a water park.”

Despite exclusively referring to the massive development throughout the meeting as nothing more than a “water park,” Hogg still got his way Monday night and was never publicly corrected by developers in doing so.

Instead, the developers insist they found their way to Tuscaloosa County thanks to previously established personal connections.

If anything and now that the Non-Disclosure Agreements are moot, my reporting indicates that Hogg’s proclivity for taking credit on projects and publicly twisting kernels of intel to his own political benefit were viewed by the true powers that be as more of a liability than anything else in trying to get this particular development off the ground.

Just go ask city officials why they were all asked by the developers to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) — it certainly wasn’t for the sake of transparency or protecting the integrity of the deal.

After all, the city’s outside legal counsel bashfully informed elected officials Monday night that the NDAs they had signed had sunset the second the initial public notice hit newsstands, so nothing is blocking the Council from commenting on the project and its evolution up to this point — even though that’s the excuse this reporter was given at every turn in the days after the notice was published.

Pretty convenient, eh?

As was predicted, though, Hogg was determined Monday and quite curt with those in attendance, his face flushing with suppressed rage and loathing of those in the audience as he listened to numerous points from citizens asking justified questions about the project that he didn’t seem to have the wherewithal to answer directly … unless it provided the opportunity to use a tongue-in-cheek insult to slice at the person holding him to account in the hopes it might cut deep enough to send them back to their seat.

Tuscaloosa County resident Tom Morrison was unfazed as he received one such remark from Hogg when he approached the lectern and said his address. Morrison is a good man I’ve known almost all of my life and, despite us disagreeing on some national issues and him not being a resident living inside the city limits, this reporter can attest that he closely follows and understands local politics, regularly attends meetings and is far from a stranger to Hogg.

When mulling over Morrison’s address, Hogg cracked a half smile as he looked up and asked the rhetorical question “is that in the city?”

Hogg already knew the answer and attempted to discredit Morrison before the man could even make his point. It was poor form at best and simply disrespectful, not just to Morrison, but to the entire institution of local government.

THE DEAL GOES DOWN

Once the public hearing and presentation concluded, the Council first voted unanimously in favor of taking the matter under unanimous consent.

It should be worth noting that had the first vote not received unanimous support, then it would have forced the resolution to have a first and second reading instead of a subsequent vote immediately after the passage of the initial resolution.

But this likely would have only prolonged the inevitable.

At this point in the meeting, a noticeable contingent saw what was at play and uttered gruff remarks as they exited the chamber in disgust. Even this reporter is convinced many of them reckoned that the die had been cast and it was all over.

Following the vote for unanimous consent and with both developers present, the Council then voted 4-1 to approve entering the public-private partnership with University Beach LLC.

District 4’s Jamie Dykes was the lone vote in opposition in what amounted to a mostly symbolic gesture, after not voting against taking the matter under unanimous consent. This followed over a dozen individuals speaking out in opposition to the development, while only a couple of attendees offered up words of support.

As Patch previously reported, the mixed-use development would be constructed in two or more phases, with a water park that has a lazy river, a water slide tower with at least corresponding five slides, a “kid’s zone” with interactive water features and an approximately 10-acre lagoon with a sand beach.

Developer John Hughes, who spoke at length during a sit-down interview with Tuscaloosa Patch Monday morning, said the lagoon will be the central feature of the development and lamented how the city has couched the project as simply a “water park” — an amenity that makes up, in his words, approximately one-tenth of the project.

What’s more, the lagoon would feature a beach club with at least 10,000 square feet of indoor restaurant and bar space and an outdoor concert stage and facility with at least 12,000 square feet of outdoor seating, residential lots, hotels, retail space, an event center, and parking and other infrastructure.

ALSO READ: ‘It’s Not A Water Park’: Developer Discusses Northport Project

Perhaps the most consistent criticisms expressed over nearly three hours focused on the size and scope of the project, along with traffic and environmental impacts, uncertainty over the developers, how the developers plan to handle the existing wetlands on the proposed site and the sheer lack of public input up to this point.

The loudest applause from those inside City Hall standing against the development, however, came after several speakers blasted the Council for the lack of transparency in how the project grew to its current incarnation while not allowing taxpayers to vote on such a large-scale development set to be positioned in a primarily residential area.

During an appearance on the Steve & D.C. Morning Show Tuesday, Hogg did his best to address the quick turnaround and lack of public input on the project, providing an insightful civics lesson with the takeaway that, in government, you elect officials to make decisions.

Yes, friends, that’s what he said. It was his entire response.

“That’s why you have elections of people to represent the city,” he said on the show. “If everything was supposed to just be up to the public, you would vote on every single thing that goes on in a city with the public.”

Hogg then likened the deal to a developer trying to build a new subdivision or a McDonald’s and the city not letting them do business without the public voting on it.

The popular radio hosts held him to account and put their regular good-time humor aside to mention concerns over the size, locations and cost of the development, while also asking the council president what prompted such a major change in the concept.

“In my opinion, it never changed, ” Hogg said. “The water park is going to be the same. We just have a developer who came in and bought adjacent land and wants to partner with us to build more.”

It’s also worth pointing out that Hogg Monday night when asked by a citizen flatly denied that the Rose Boulevard property that is now the intended site for an adventure sports park was the original proposed location for Northport’s water park.

After purchasing the Rose Boulevard property for around $700,000, city leaders then made the move to find a new location after realizing the cost associated with grading down the rugged terrain. While Hogg during the meeting blamed the media for setting such a narrative, this reporter is left with little recourse other than to call “bullshit” and I would wager my colleagues who stuck their recorders and microphones in Hogg’s face would agree.

ALSO READ: Northport Purchases Land For Proposed Water Park/Sportsplex

Former Councilman Bart Harper received some of the most thunderous applause Monday night as he took aim at the merits of the project and lamented the lack of a public vote being entertained by the city’s elected officials. And he could be heard telling everyone within earshot in the City Hall lobby that the entire council would be in trouble when the next election comes around in 2025.

But more than anything, the retired football coach and former politician spoke to the wholesale changes residents in the periphery of the project will face along places like Harper Road, where he lives. He also encouraged city leaders to use the $20 million set aside for the development to go toward something more practical, such as street paving and resurfacing.

“Let’s keep Northport, Northport,” Harper said.

Another taxpayer standing up in opposition was Jack Roberts, who referred to the entire project as “political bait-and-switch,” before also pointing out that the project is “nowhere near where we were led to believe.”

Other concerns expressed ongoing nationwide issues concerning the labor market — at one point even being brought up by District 4’s Jamie Dykes when she asked developer Kent Donahue how the development planned to staff such a large project.

Dykes was fair to mention businesses in Northport that have recently closed for little more than being unable to have the necessary labor to operate, to which Donahue responded by saying University Beach planned to cast a wide net for potential hires, including possibly bringing in international candidates for jobs.

It should come as little surprise that this last notion about international labor coming to Northport was not well-received by the overwhelmingly conservative voters in attendance, with some yelling “illegals” from their seats, referring to undocumented immigrants.

Myself and a friend sitting next to me I won’t name for his sake both hung our heads and muttered curses at the absurdity of the entire scene playing out.

Conversely, developers John Hughes and Kent Donahue touted the possibilities and their firm’s commitment to getting the project finished and even rolled out a brand-new website for the project that can be viewed here.

Indeed, Donahue estimates north of 440,000 annual visitors over 323 operating days for the lagoon concept, with discounts offered to Northport residents.

The individual entry fee for the development is expected to be in the neighborhood of $30-$35 — a notion opposed by one speaker who said they supported the overall idea of a water park but couldn’t afford to make such a destination a regular investment for her large family simply based on the price.

On its website, University Beach also says it plans to build 64 luxury beach homes with a starting price of $800,000 and is already taking reservations.

After meeting one of the developers and understanding more about their perspective, I can’t blame them for wanting to do business and both men do have actual connections to Tuscaloosa County apart from their business dealings. I believe they are experienced and I will even go so far as to say I’ll buy into their claims that they have already spent a small fortune in good faith to get the concept ready to present to the council and public.

Rather, my concerns as a Northport resident and taxpayer continue to swirl around the political comedy of errors that led us to the present — namely because of the poor leadership and caginess shown by our elected officials at every turn during the project’s evolution.

While the University Beach project may end up being a major win for the city, it will have done so without any real input from Northport residents, much less those living in the footprint or on the periphery of the proposed site.

As the developers told me Monday morning, once the Council voted on entering the partnership and has already committed their share of the investment, now it’s all in the hands of developers who have never turned a shovel of dirt in Tuscaloosa County.

Indeed, Hogg said on the radio Tuesday morning that he believes, if allowed to vote on the development, that residents would overwhelmingly support it.

Too bad those nice folks in Northport will likely never get that chance.

Dirt’s a funny thing, ain’t 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

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