Let’s talk qualifying.

We’ll have two very interesting Athens-Clarke Commission races to follow: Elton Dodson versus Mike Hamby in District 10 and Red Petrovs versus Ed Robinson in District 6.

I know Petrovs far better than Robinson because I’ve been covering OneAthens and I wasn’t around for the 2004 election. This will be a race of contrasting ideas and styles where there’s a clear-cut choice.

Petrovs is a tough-talking, no-nonsense kind of guy who is conservative, especially fiscally, but is driven by facts and not ideology. His voice would be unique on the commission. He could get stuck with the Chamber of Commerce tag – the kiss of death in recent elections – but he says the chamber’s changed so much since Larry McKinney left that it’s not such an albatross anymore.

Or, Somewhere Something Cooler Is Happening and I’m Not There

Athfest was awesome. The worst part of the whole weekend was trying to decide who to go see. Here’s how it all went down:

• Dark Meat is not quite as mind-blowing when you’re standing 100 yards away from the stage surrounded by creepy 50-year-old dudes more interested in checking out high school girls than the music. I overheard a few hilarious conversations between parents and their kids involving the parents trying to look hip by saying how much they wanted to see Dark Meat. The band responded to the non-hipster segment of the audience by generally keeping it clean, encouraging the front rows to dance and substituting “hug” for an unprintable word in one chorus. It didn’t go over well – the crowd shrank by half by the end of the set.

A couple things real quick to ponder and discuss for the next few days.

One, the NBAF EIS is out. It’s 1,000 pages long. Guess I know how I’ll be spending my weekend.

Two, I spoke to Carl Jordan earlier today and he is not running for re-election.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com

When I saw the list of expenses Athens-Clarke Manager Alan Reddish suggested the commission cut during its May budget talks, there were two I immediately knew would cause a stir: traffic patrols and fireworks.

Commissioners did cut the fireworks, saving $13,000. Talk immediately started about rounding up private donors to put on the Fourth of July show. As is our custom in Athens, we waited until the last second to quit talking and do it.

It’s a widely-held believe around town that the fireworks display was a poison pill cut out of the budget to take revenge on the pesky taxpayers who demanded no millage rate increase. A “See what you’ve made us do!” sort of thing.

The story I wrote last week about who’d e-mailed A-CC commissioners about the budget drove some people up the wall.

Yes, the headline was a bit misleading. No, we weren’t trying to imply that the whole Athens population thinks higher taxes are awesome. The point, as I explained in the story’s lede and again to several readers, was to show that the people who’ve talked to commissioners favored higher taxes as long as they funded OneAthens recommendations.

In this week’s Flagpole, publisher Pete McCommons urges Athens-Clarke Commissioner Carl Jordan to run for re-election.

I don’t know if he will. The last election energized Jordan. He believed newcomers Kelly Girtz and Doug Lowry would finally create a political atmosphere where he’d be more than just the commission’s version of Paul Broun: contrary, idealistic, uncompromising and on the wrong end of every 9-1 vote.

It didn’t happen. The commission is just as dysfunctional, paralyzed and easily distracted as ever, and has achieved virtually nothing it set out to do a year and a half ago. Jordan is now leaning toward leaving, unless Pete can talk him out of it, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s down at the Board of Elections as qualifying winds down, if no one to his liking steps up to take his place.

If you think this year’s Athens-Clarke budget battle was bruising, just wait ‘til next year.

Commissioners couldn’t quite bring themselves to cut the $1.75 million necessary to avoid a tax increase, settling at about $1.2 million after Manager Alan Reddish told them gas prices and other expenses are rising even more quickly then anticipated. I just finished writing a story about it, and if you’re reading this on Thursday, it’s in the paper (that’s why no link).

Stopped into a church
I passed along the way
Well I got down on my knees
'Cause they were marryin' gays

As many readers no doubt already heard, the California Supreme Court recently legalized same-sex marriage.

No right-thinking Georgia Republican could let this pass. Gays + California = an election-year gift from God. Of course, He disapproves of both, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. What’s a few Adam and Steves on the Left Coast if you can drum up support at the ballot box in the flyover states? Heck, maybe Hillary will divorce Bill and marry Nancy Pelosi. And maybe Jeremiah Wright will officiate. Then the GOP could really go to town.

I made a bit of a mess with my story Wednesday on Athens-Clarke commissioners’ property taxes.

The statistics accompanying the story included only what they owed the county in taxes, not state taxes, school taxes or the refund from the state. Unfortunately, the “county taxes” label for some reason didn’t make it into the paper. So suspicious taxpayers pulled out their own bills for comparison, then called me, the tax assessor’s office and the tax commissioner’s office wanting to know why commissioners are getting such a great deal.

They’re not.

We ran a clarification today, but for anyone who’s interested, here’s exactly how Mayor Heidi Davison and commissioners’ 2007 taxes broke down. The 2008 bills won’t be sent out for a few months.

Mayor Heidi Davison is going to the mat for her budget as commissioners look for ways to trim it by $1.75 million to avoid a tax increase.

Davison is especially interested in protecting poverty-related expenses like $192,500 for more frequent bus service along Atlanta Highway, Barnett Shoals Road and Cedar Shoals Drive, $93,000 to start a fund for affordable housing and $26,900 to hire a coordinator for a new mental health court.

Democratic activist Maddy Powell and Athens Grow Green’s Beth Gavrilles both forwarded an e-mail Davison is sending around encouraging citizens to tell commissioners they’ll accept a tax increase for such programs. Says the e-mail: