DETAILS ON THE MISADVENTURES OF THE
D.O.T.
TO BE SEEN ON THE WEB SITE
www.DumbassDOT.com
STARRING:
A FEW SURPRISE GUEST APPEARANCES
(This Site is not intended to be aimed at the many hardworking men and women of D.O.T but rather their inept leaders)
This site is a vehicle to express our displeasure, and our fellow citizens, with governmental officials who believe that they are the ones who sets up the rules and regulations with no regards to the US Constitution.
Here is the latest stupidity by DOT officials.
Mr. Jim Aube
with
Ga. DOT Outdoor Advertising
Near the end of January of 04, I returned to my office to find a message on my answering machine from Mr. Jim Aube, Director of Outdoor Advertising for Ga. DOT, with a number to call. I returned his call and and was met with the most incredible phone call from this asshole. He asked how long the length of time was on Cafe Risque's lease, for their Lavonia store in Franklin County, for our billboards along I-85. I told him they had a very long term contract to advertise. He then asked if there was some way we could look into removing the advertising for Cafe Risque sooner. When I told him that wasn't possible he then told me that the Legislature was in session and insinuated that he could make some trouble for us with the Legislature. I immediately gave him our Georgia Attorneys name, Mr. Tom Maddox, and told Mr. Aube to contact him if he had any more questions.
Well incredibly this idiot, Jim Aube, did just that. He contacted our Attorney and repeated the threat of legislative action against our firm if we did not remove the Cafe from our signs. Our Attorney immediately fired off a letter to Mr. Aube ( Letter to Mr. Aube) and the State Attorney General warning Mr Aube that his threats were illegal and inappropriate. This inbreed, bible thumping bureaucrat has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury as to what can and can not be placed on billboards. Never mind that the Supreme Court of Georgia has found this advertising to be perfectly legal. I have attached a copy of the decision here for you to look at.
Georgia Supreme Court ruling on Advertising
Now it gets even worse. This right wing asshole has gone after one of our signs. He has taken it upon himself to revoke a permit for one of our signs. He believes that if he makes our life uncomfortable enough we will remove the Cafe signs from along I-85. He is very mistaken. See Jim Aube ,you illiterate dumb fuck, this type of action is illegal. We will see you in court.
As we speak a Federal lawsuit is being prepared against you personally, Jim Aube, for attempting to violate our civil rights as guaranteed under the First Amendment! The second will be against the State of Georgia, in some form of Administrative action to block this boneheaded move of yours. You have attempted to violate our rights as allowed under both the laws of the State of Georgia and the US Constitution and for that you will pay! ( Draft of Federal Lawsuit )
I imagine that in a few days your bosses will see the mess you have deliberately made or our rights while trampling all over the law of the land and request a meeting with you. If I were you I would be looking for bags to put my belongings in for when they kick you to the curb. I would use the same plastic bags that you brought your trash in with to carry it out. That won't stop our lawsuit against you, though it may be what we need to drop the State from our action after they rescind your order.
The question I have is how did this guy come from bridge inspection and adopt a highway programs to lead the very complicated area of outdoor advertising? Secondly wasn't his agenda of self righteousness known before he was placed in this position? We all know that most of the senior DOT officials have retired. A a short course on ethics and proper procedures should be mandatory for this position especially when you think of how much money this person will cost the State , and its taxpayers, in legal fees.
Follow Up to the Above Incident
The State of Georgia sent us a letter apologizing for Jim Aube's mistake. It seems that Jim Aube has not been to management school yet and so has no knowledge of the proper way to do things. Here is the real scary thing folks, we have found letter's, with his name on them, dating from Sept of 03. These letter's means he has been on the job for close to a year, at this point, without any training. What kind of idiot Department allows the Head person to be in charge when he doesn't know his Ass from a hole in the ground?
Standard Intelligence Test for Senior Management with DOT
Please circle your answer on the following questions to determine where exactly in Senior Management your backside will be placed.
1. If faced with a choice of either getting up from behind your desk to actually check something out or to simply rely on reports from the field you would
a. find out who actually knew where your office was.
b. discover why your secretary didn’t lock the door when she left with all your work to do for the day.
c. exit the game of Hearts you have been playing for the last two weeks, turn off your office lights and sleep on the matter.
d. not bother to do anything, you are in Senior Management and are secure in your job.
2. Your office somehow gets a call, even with all the voice mail and unknown phone numbers, from someone complaining about an employee in your Department. You would
a. find out who actually knew where your office was.
b. discover why your secretary didn’t lock the door when she left with all your work to do for the day.
c. exit the game of Hearts you have been playing for the last two weeks, turn off your office lights and sleep on the matter.
d. not bother to do anything, you are in Senior Management and are secure in your job.
3. You unearth some gross inadequacies in the way your Department promotes folks into Senior positions, as a member of Senior Management you would
a. find out who actually knew where your office was.
b. discover why your secretary didn’t lock the door when she left with all your work to do for the day.
c. exit the game of Hearts you have been playing for the last two weeks, turn off your office lights and sleep on the matter.
d. not bother to do anything, you are in Senior Management and are secure in your job.
If you discover any correct answers in the above questions you too can be in the highly lucrative, revolving door of Senior Management . Please remember that this position is but a step away from commercial work where your actions or inactions now reap big benefits later.
A Bone Headed Decision
There is a gentleman whose name is Monty Koon, Monty is just a family guy who has hopes of improving his families well being. So Monty goes out and find this nice stretch of I-75 near Valdosta that is zoned properly for billboards. Monty spent hundreds of hours after work and on weekends getting all the paper work in order, meeting with developers and the people who run Wild Adventures in Valdosta. They had expressed a great interest in buying the Permits from Monty when all was approved.
Monty and his family were understandably thrilled. Here was their chance for the big ticket and all of the time away from his family was going to pay off. Well Jim Aube decided that he was not going to allow Monty to place any signs there and he didn't care if it met all the criteria that was necessary. His words were " I am going to not allow this to happen as a test case to see just how much power I do have". What an asshole. Here a guys plays by the rules, follows everything that the State asked and then this idiot, Jim Aube, decides that the rules don't matter. This is the same guy that has no training ( see section above this one).
Another Bone Headed DOT Official Mistake
We have a sign that is located along the I-85 corridor in NE Georgia, in fact if you are reading this web site it is the billboard that you got this address from. Well somebody vandalized this sign, cut it down to the stumps. We, of course, filed a report with the Sheriff's Dept. who came out and investigated it and wrote a report up.
Out of courtesy to the State we called and informed them of the criminal act and alerted them that we would be shortly rebuilding the sign. There are rules and regulations governing non-conforming signs. You see if a non-conforming sign is destroyed by an act of nature, over a certain percentage, you can not rebuild the sign. That is not the case here. Our sign was intentionally destroyed by persons, not nature, unknown. If the DOT is right, and they are not, what is to stop anyone from cutting down any sign they feel like and the business owner has no recourse?
What follows below is DOT's own Rules and Regulations regarding signs. If you can read in here anywhere that says we can not rebuild our sign that was destroyed by a criminal please let me know!
32-6-81.
(a) It shall be cause for the department to revoke a sign permit or refuse to
issue a sign permit if any of the department's property on the rights of way,
including but not limited to trees, vegetation, or fences, is destroyed,
damaged, converted, or altered by or on behalf of a person, firm, or corporation
who owns, erects, maintains, leases, or uses any sign which is controlled by
this part. When the department believes that any of the aforesaid property has
been destroyed, damaged, converted, or altered, the department shall make a
preliminary investigation and based on its findings may:
(1) Revoke the permit or permits of any owner of a sign or signs if the
department determines that the person, firm, or corporation who owns the land or
who owns, erects, maintains, leases, or uses the sign or signs caused, hired,
procured, or consciously or by design consented to any of the illegal acts
described in this paragraph at or near the sign site, thereby depriving the sign
owner of the permit to use that site; or
(2) Refuse to issue a permit or permits for a sign site or sites for a period
not to exceed five years if the department determines that the applicant has
caused, hired, procured, or consciously or by design consented to any of the
illegal acts described in this subsection on the department´s rights of way
within 500 feet on either side of that sign site or sites.
(b) Before the actions listed in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of this Code
section may be taken, the department shall give 30 days´ written notice via
certified mail or statutory overnight delivery to the permit holder; and this
notice shall apprise the permit holder of a hearing that will be held in
accordance with Code Sections 50-13-13 through 50-13-18. If the action described
in paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of this Code section is taken, the department
shall state this in its refusal to issue a permit, and the applicant shall have
the right to an administrative review of this action as provided by Code
Sections 50-13-13 through 50-13-18.
We of course did none of this, as they we know. Again just a bone headed way to waste our tax dollars in futile litigation. The following attachment is our letter to the State asking where is our notice is at so that we may respond to their actions, as is required by law. Our Letter
Well my fellow taxpayers of this State. If you have had any run ins with this or any other government officials with DOT and would like a venue to speak your displeasure of their actions or inactions feel free to email us and we will be happy to air your complaints. This is your right as a citizen. We will not publish your name unless you agree to it the the body of the email.
Please forward all email to fotoads@bellsouth.net