CARLTON FLETCHER: Mayor Roger Marietta? Commissioner’s jest sparks response

It’s a hustler’s ambition. Close your eyes, listen, see my vision.

— 50 Cent

Ward IV Albany City Commissioner Roger Marietta laughs wryly, as if he’d anticipated the question.

“You had to know that was tongue-in-cheek, right?” he says. “I mean, come on, I used a Yoda (of ‘Star Wars’ fame) icon and said, ‘Run for mayor I will.’ I’ll admit I was a little frustrated, but I was just having some fun.”

While Marietta’s social media mayoral “announcement” this week may have been all in fun, it’s obvious more than a few people took it literally. Even after he’d “moved on” to other topics on his Facebook page, some 180 people responded to the commissioner’s post about his future political plans.

“Yeah, that caught me off guard,” Marietta laughed. “I guess I was blowing off a little steam about the Sabal Trail easement vote — I felt like the mayor (Dorothy Hubbard) had kind of let the people in the Indian Creek, Winterwood and (Countryside Village) trailer park area down with her vote to grant the easements — but a lot of people responded to that post.”

Which begs an obvious question.

“No, I am not starting a campaign for mayor,” Marietta said. “Sure, it’s something I’ve thought about and discussed, but this is not the time for me to make a decision like that. A lot can happen in four years.”

Still, it’s not hard to catch the hint of intrigue in the veteran city commissioner/college professor’s voice as he discusses the possibility.

“I feel like I’ve got my ward and neighborhood watches running smoothly,” he said. “But I am a little frustrated with the big picture in our community.”

Marietta knows a thing or two about sitting in the chief executive’s seat. He was elected mayor of north Georgia’s Fayetteville in 1988 and served for four years before he came to Albany and Darton College.

“Having been a mayor in the past, I know how important it is for the commission to support the person in that office,” he said. “And I want to make it clear that I support Mayor Hubbard. I just think in this case she was part of making a premature decision on the Sabal Trail easements that undercut the Georgia General Assembly’s vote.

“I’m disappointed that she, and other members of the commission, turned their backs on the people who live in the vicinity of the pipeline and the compressor station that will be built.”

Hubbard and commissioners B.J. Fletcher, Bob Langstaff and Tommie Postell voted at a special called meeting Tuesday to accept $165,000 from Sabal Trail for five easements that will allow construction of the 465-mile, $3.5 billion natural gas pipeline to pass through parts of southwestern Dougherty County and the Albany city limits.

The Georgia House voted a day later to reject a proposal that would have granted easements under waterways in the state, including the Flint River, then approved an amended measure a day later that would allow such easements in other parts of the state.

All of which makes Marietta’s Facebook “announcement,” even if delivered tongue-in-cheek, more than just a dash of local political humor. He’s already been playfully chided during commission meetings for “campaigning for mayor” shortly after his hard-fought but successful recent re-election bid against businessman Chad Warbington, and many political insiders say the Ward IV commissioner is quietly preparing behind the scenes for a 2019 mayoral run.

A lot can happen in four years. It remains to be seen whether the Force — or, conversely, the Dark Side — aligns itself with Yoda Marietta in that time.