in the Arts Award. Folmar was criticized by some of the city's residents that he didn't do enough to attract minor league baseball back to the city nor secure the location of a Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail facility in the city. One of the premier golf trails in the nation, the RTJ course in the area was finally located in Prattville, a nearby bedroom community. However, Folmar supporters say that this was a shrewd decision that risked no capital outlay, but allowed the city to reap the benefits of filling its abundant hotel rooms with golfers traveling to play the Trail. At the time, Montgomery's Lagoon Park Golf Course was one of America's top 50 municipal golf courses. After the Montgomery Rebels departed in 1980, leaving the 7,000 seat Paterson Field in poor upkeep, Folmar decreed the facility and nearby Cramton Bowl would remain dedicated to amateur sports. City administration and political philosophy His 22 years in office marked the longest consecutive period of any mayor in the city's history although his tenure began in the wake of a racially divisive scandal. The controversy took down his predecessor, the city's public safety director and many subordinate leaders of Montgomery's Police Department. While pursuing suspects after a robbery, a police officer mistook Bernard Whitehurst for the robbery suspect when he failed to heed officer's commands to halt, and they fatally shot him in the back as he was fleeing. Then an officer at the scene planted a weapon near Whitehurst that was later determined to have been confiscated by the police in another case and filed a report saying he was shot in the front of his body. Folmar, then the president of the City Council, assumed the mayor job. In the special election that followed, Folmar beat out 40 challengers without a runoff. A fiscal conservative, Folmar was known for the tight fist with which he held onto the city's coffers, an effective steward of the taxpayer dollars with which the city was entrusted. He was criticized for not taking as many chances for growing some areas of the community's development of entertainment and sporting venues. Although Folmar prided himself in keeping roads paved, potholes filled, water flowing and garbage collected, he was criticized at some points for not being sufficiently proactive in repairing infrastructure in poor, minority sections on the periphery of the city limits. His leadership style