In a June column about the Emperor having no clothes and Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. having no receipts, I told you the city had hired former Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens to counsel Davis.
“Can you just imagine how much it’s going to cost Augusta taxpayers to pay Olens to help straighten out Hardie’s mess and try to put a good face on it when they’ve already paid $236,000 to keep him in the style to which he’s become accustomed?” I asked.
Well, you no longer have to imagine how much it cost taxpayers to help straighten out Hardie’s mess and try to put a good face on it.
Augusta officials spent $21,066.50 of your tax money last year on behalf of Davis to deal with The Augusta Press, and worse yet they tried to hide the bill to keep the public from seeing it.
Read all about it in Scott Hudson’s story in today’s Augusta Press.
City of Augusta spent thousands for outsourced attorney to fight media
Looking Forward Is Not a Pretty Sight
Last week, Janus, the mythological Roman god of gates and doors who has two heads facing in opposite directions looked back on 2021 in Augusta. This week, Janus looks forward to 2022.
Janus predicts it won’t be hard to count the votes in the May election. Voters are so mad at local government officials, nobody will vote. Not even the candidates themselves which shows they might be smarter than they look.
And in a surprise move, Regency Mall will be sold to a mafia family out of New York City causing outrage and fear of a crime wave. It will cause a crime wave, but at least now we’ll have a general idea of where the bodies are buried.
Janus predicts that new Fire Chief Antonio Burden will continue to receive the support of the department’s rank and file, which just goes to show if you don’t do anything, you can’t do anything wrong.
Janus also predicts that in 2022 Augusta Commissioner Sean Frantom will be faced with several major political decisions; thus, he’ll break the Guinness Book of World Records for sitting on the fence.
Commissioner John Clarke will continue to offer great quotes on numerous topics, all of which his colleagues will continue to ignore.
Former Commissioner Sammie Sias will discover that his new roommate at Estill federal prison really enjoys gospel music and has been known to preach to the choir. The seasoned inmates advised Sias not to let the new guy access his commissary account unless he provides receipts.
To shut commissioners Clarke and Catherine McKnight up, commissioners will finally approve the forensic audit Clarke and McKnight have been clamoring for. The audit will commence based on expenditures made after January 2024.
Janus also predicts downtown strip club owners will no longer allow their employees to remove their clothing. Because of the stripper shortage and the fact that it’s so hard to find good help, patrons will now be encouraged to tip the dancers whenever they put on an article of clothing.
During Masters Week, rumors begin to circulate that the Augusta National is in negotiations to buy up the entire city of Augusta. The rumors were fueled by new billboards at city gateways, saying, “Welcome to the Augusta National, Home of the City of Augusta.”
It turns out the rumors are not true and that, in fact, the city actually made a mistake when they were ordering new signs. Nobody will stand up and take the blame for the egregious error, but we do have an email showing where Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. approved the final draft. Despite the evidence, the mayor says he has no knowledge of the billboards and has never been a concerned citizen of Augusta.
Rumors are also running rampant that the mayor is going to step down and run for Georgia secretary of state or lieutenant governor. Janus predicts a decision as soon as he figures out which office has the largest travel budget.
City Administrator Odie Donald will announce his resignation to begin an internship based on his experience giving your tax dollars away to everybody else but you. Santa says that as soon as Odie figures out the difference between a gift and a bag of coal, he’ll be a shoo-in for the fulltime job as Santa Claus. He’s very experienced in keeping secrets. He’ll have to work on his ability to get along with the reindeer, though. They know an empty Santa Claus suit when they see one.
Janus predicts that after a series of unusually hard April showers, the Savannah River Bluff Lock and Dam will spring a leak, resulting in lots of May flowers in the mudflats formerly covered by water. The Savannah Riverkeeper takes out an ad. She would have rented a billboard, but they were all taken. The ad simply says, “I Told You So.”
Commissioners will vote to spend $2 million of American Rescue Plan money on the backlog of Augusta court cases. This backlog occurred while the courts were closed during the COVID-19 crises and nobody was doing anything but were being paid anyway. Later they also received “performance pay.”
Janus also says that by April 2022, The Augusta Chronicle will no longer have any real reporters in Augusta except for one. If you want to find anything out about local news, you need to subscribe to The Augusta Press.
Readers Didn’t See Much of Anything Pretty Either
Former Augusta Comptroller Butch McKie: Augusta will adopt two new sister cities: East St. Louis, Mo. and Compton, Calif. The mayor will visit both to discuss accounting issues and travel expenses.
Mayor what’s-his-name will not be asked to lecture on ethics at UGA law school.
Larry Garner: We’ll continue to see gas prices increase, even hit $5+ in this area and $7 in California. Inflation will continue at double digits. The D’s will continue to blame it on Trump and hide to keep from answering questions. The press will push them to the point they’ll stop all outside coverage and give them only false positive info but not answer questions. Harris may resign. Pelosi will have a medical problem that removes her from office. Schumer will try to take her place. Nadler will not win re-election. More D’s will not run for election and the R’s will tsunami win and take control of the House (like 80%).
Biden will go into hiding to keep the job and become like Howard Hughes did in the end. He may be forced out by the 25th amendment as he struggles to even talk. The liberal media may swing after they realize they’ve been had, and the D’s will do everything they can to change election laws to their advantage but will not, due to eyes opening. There may be a bigger uprising than Jan. 6th, and it’ll come to light just who was behind that. Denials will fly and sound more like a fantasy movie than real life. Several D’s will kill themselves when the truth about them comes out. And they’ll reveal that Epstein did not kill himself, but Hillary might try. As I said last year, “We ain’t seen nothing yet…”
Doug Chilton: Commissioners will pay for another study and not follow the suggestions.
Teresa Cheadle Boquist: I predict that Republicans will retake BOTH The House and The Senate! (Please Lord).
Doug Hastings: Prediction 1: Richmond County will replace the election process with one “musical seat.” All commission, school board, authority, and committee seats are written on a slip of paper and placed in a jar. Then all present members of those boards can draw for a new seat, thereby ensuring they always have a hand in running the county and collecting a paycheck. Except for the Coliseum Authority as they will have to keep those seats until they get it right. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Prediction 2: As the mayor comes under more heat for spending, he will write a lengthy Op Ed in the Augusta and Atlanta newspapers that will result in a nomination for a Pulitzer prize in fiction.
Prediction 3: The never-ending investigation of Sammy Sias will be put on hold to conduct the investigation of the federal COVID relief funds (taxpayer money) that was spent on the vaccine shot gift cards with zero accountability, which will have to be put on hold while they investigate alleged irregularities in the 2022 Georgia Governor and Senate election results.
Claudia Stovall: Joe Biden and the Squad will see the error of their ways, and we will have three great years of prosperity.
Henry Lee Winger: Russia will try Biden’s brainpower.
Jessie Ozlemek: With a progressive attitude, we’ll emerge from the doom and gloom of the past few years to find BLUE skies will brighten 2022!
Fritz Wurzinger: For the first half of 2022, my thinking is we will continue those “ups and downs,” and I hope the Administration’s Trillion Dollar stimulus, or call it what you want, doesn’t pass. This is insane!! and if (!!!) If it passes, inflation will hit hard. In addition, when the midterm election passes, and if one believes in the GOP getting a say, I believe the economy will take off.
Lill Walton: I predict Daylight Savings time will end in 2022.
Frank Read: Stacy Abrams will win the governor’s office with King Hardie as her running mate. However, she will be exposed and have to resign due to the fact that all of her steamy romance novels will be based on her personal conduct, and they will run her out of the office because of moral turpitude. King Hardie will appoint the biggest group of clowns and morons you’ve ever seen to key government positions, and Georgia will lose any economic advantage they have over other states. Here locally, Columbia County will be upended when a new slate of Democrats control every major office in the county and it becomes a minority-majority county.
Donald Boltz: Prediction for North Augusta. Highway 25 north from I-20 will become more congested than Washington Road, but Cracker Barrel will still not come.
Mandy Prescott Pennington: My prediction is the same as last year! I believe Jesus is going to return in 2022. I was looking for Him in 2021, because Bible prophecy is being fulfilled every day concerning the last days. I don’t know how a person without faith lives day to day! I was looking for Him in 2021 and I will still be looking for Him every day in 2022! God Bless you and keep up the good work!
Janet Cherokee Glabas: Let’s make 2022 a great year. Vote out corruption in Richmond County and the USA!
David Moretz: COVID-19 will have several more variants. Vaccines will be commonplace every 6 to 8 months. We will reach herd immunity in 2022…. We should have achieved it in the summer of 2021.
Lois Keasler: Sammy Sias is acquitted and runs for mayor
Van Walker Shearer: Biden wanders off from the White House and they let him.
Dug Her: Columbia County annexes that section of Augusta known as ‘The Hill.”
