THE SPIN DOCTOR OF THE WEEK – JOHNNY MONSON

This week's "Spin Doctor" of the week award goes to none other than Alpharetta city council candidate Johnny Monson. Monson, a former councilman, has put "Republican" and "Re-Elect" on his yard signs and campaign literature. Problem is, the council race is non-partisan, and Monson has been out of office for nine months. So his claims are  not only bogus, they're a blatant intentional attempt to mislead Alpharetta voters in his longshot bid to defeat Jim Paine.

Monson's shenanigans take a page right out of R.J. Kurey's book, the former Alpharetta Councilman who was kicked out of office and is now under Federal Indictment while hiding out somewhere in Las Vegas. Monson apparently thinks its just politics as usual. We call it unsavory voter misinformation, and for that, Johnny Monson is our spin-doctor of the week.

PREDICTION: Look for Alpharetta Councilman D.C. Aiken to get off the fence and endorse Paine in the next two weeks.

BOXILL'S BODACIOUS FAREWELL BID

Retiring Fulton County Commissioner Nancy Boxill's (D) bodacious farewell bid to Fulton County's beleaguered taxpayers goes something like this: Thanks for the memories…and the free trip…suckers.

Boxill, a lame duck that is not seeking re-election in November took four of her county workers on an all-taxpayer funded junket to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The purpose: they attended an international conference on "Gender Neutral Budgeting." Boxill won't be around to implement what she learned, but who cares? She deserves a little fun in the sun, right? And how about her staff? Sure, why not? Come one, come all. The county is only a few hundred million in debt, so what's another $150,000, right? BTW, that's what the trip cost: a tab of $30,000 per person. That's more than double what a minimum wage worker earns in an entire year. Think about it. How could you even spend $30,000 in a third-world country in a week? You'd have to fly first class and guzzle a lot of $1,000 bottles of wine, no doubt. But no worries, county manager Zachary Williams says well, not really, some of the tab was apparently picked up by the U.N. I guess Fulton County is waiting for the check.

Accompanying Boxill was county program manager Cheryl Estes -- who was under an internal fraud investigation for allegedly diverting $183,000 of taxpayer money to her shell company in the form of Wal-Mart gift cards and bogus invoices -- before Williams cancelled the investigation. Boxill's response to all this? She says the Commissioners don’t investigate themselves, so get over it. Suckers. 

BODKER MIFFED AT BEACON – CANCELS SUBSCRIPTION

After we poked fun at Johns Creek's burgeoning government in this column several weeks ago:

http://www.beaconcastmedia.com/insighter/US-Congressman-Tom-Price-2502 )

Johns Creek "Mayor For Life" Mike Bodker took exception. He called and chided me for writing that the city offers health insurance and a 401K plan to elected officials, which they do not, so this serves as my official retraction. But in fairness, I said Johns Creek grew from four cops to 69. After checking, they previously had two cops, not four. My bad.

Bodker then told me to cancel his subscription to this newspaper, in protest for my two-paragraph snippet. However, showing amazing grace, he said we could keep the rest of his subscription money, which came out to $17.87. As important as Bodker is, I ran this by my Beacon Media Board of Directors (Editor John Breech and CFO Anne Fredericks). After a 90-second closed-door emergency meeting, they emerged with their verdict and rendered their decision: REQUEST DENIED.

So by the board's directive, The Beacon will keep coming to Bodker. And in a selfless show of good faith, they also sanctioned six-month gift subscriptions to all Bodker's neighbors. So if you live by Mayor Bodker, you just got The Beacon free for six months!

See, we really do have a heart.