Underlying tensions erupted Thursday over the content of a meeting agenda at an Augusta charter review subcommittee. Two members got up from their seats and one later resigned from the subcommittee.
Member Lonnie Wimberly, who announced his run for Augusta Commission this week, questioned why the “form of government” subcommittee meeting was advertised as a workshop and did not have his agenda items tabled two weeks ago on the agenda.
The items involved hiring a county manager who reports to the mayor with commission consent, but took away the vote on commission actions voters gave the mayor last year in a referendum.
Two weeks ago the subcommittee voted to “table those motions’ until consultants with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government “give us our briefing at the next meeting.”
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Changing to a manager – Augusta has an administrator – received earlier discussion at the Charter Review Committee’s regular meeting Thursday.
An expert on government corruption recommended strongly the “council-manager” form of government told the committee was the least likely to breed corruption.
The full committee voted 7-3 at the suggestion of member Steve Foushee to have the Vinson institute draft language for adopting the council-manager form, with a manager sworn to a professional code of ethics.
But on the form of government subcommittee, Foushee, who is chairman, said he told Wimberly in an email he could re-submit his earlier motions to Clerk of Commission Lena Bonner. Wimberly questioned why that was necessary.
“I don’t have to do anything – they come up automatically because they were tabled,” Wimberly said.
Former Commissioner Moses Todd, who arrived in a wheelchair due to a “bout of the gout,” took credit for suggesting a workshop format, so the subcommittee could meet without voting and avoid public comment.
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Once the meeting was advertised as a workshop, though, no action could be taken, said Jim Plunkett, the city attorney acting as parliamentarian for the charter review committee.
When member Sheffie Robinson told Foushee he could not convert the advertised workshop to a regular meeting, Foushee announced the meeting was adjourned.
Robinson got up to leave, but later returned. Member Roderick Pearson moved outside the meeting video field of view. The subcommittee gradually resumed discussion.
“I do not understand why you continue down this road,” Foushee said. He said the prior motion on Wimberly’s items hadn’t been clear to him.
“Because you push me,” responded Wimberly. He accused Foushee of being a “dictator.”
“You may be chair of this subcommittee, but we are still people,” added Robinson.
Charter Review Committee Vice Chairman Clint Bryant, the former Augusta University athletics director, isn’t on the subcommittee but expressed exasperation at its conduct.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves,” Bryant said. “If the chair needs to have better communication with his subcommittee then so be it,” he said. “It embarrasses me to sit through this public hearing and then look at the bickering that happens between the chair and the members of the committee.”
Bryant said the entire state is watching. “Everybody is watching Augusta to see what our next steps are going to be, and God knows I don’t want them to think our next steps are what’s being given today,” he said.
Conversations remained charged throughout the rest of the subcommittee meeting. Foushee told Robinson she was “restating everything that Carl Vinson just said.” Robinson said he was rude.
Later Thursday, Robinson informed the committee she is stepping down from the subcommittee.
“I do not think Mr. Foushee respects me or my input as a woman and he makes it very plain in how he treats me versus our male counterparts,” she said. “Going forward, I will address my form of government questions and motions within the main body directly, as that is the only place I trust I can speak without being demeaned by Mr. Foushee.”
She also accused Pearson, Mayor Garnett Johnson’s appointee on the committee, of collaborating with Foushee on agenda items.
