The Augusta Commission elected a temporary new member Tuesday in Tanya Barnhill-Turnley, who will replace Alvin Mason who resigned last month for health reasons.
Barnhill-Turnley, who has a consulting business, is Mason’s longtime campaign chairwoman as well as his appointee on the Charter Review Committee.
She will hold the District 4 commission seat until an election is held Nov. 4. The winner will serve the remainder of Mason’s term next year.
Asked to speak, Barnhill-Turnley thanked God, her sister, her two lead consultants, the commission and her Good Shepherd Baptist Church family.
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“I appreciate the opportunity to serve and represent directly the 25,000-plus people of District 4 and the 200,000-plus people that call Augusta-Richmond County home,” she said.
Barnhill-Turnley is expected to resign her seat on the charter committee. Members of city governing bodies were excluded from serving on the committee.
The commission was divided 6-3 Tuesday between two candidates, Barnhill-Turnley and Augustus Palmer.
Commissioner Jordan Johnson abstained on both votes, saying the public should decide. Commissioner Brandon Garrett voted by phone.
Barnhill-Turnley had support from Mayor Garnett Johnson and Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Guilfoyle and commissioners Catherine Smith-Rice, Don Clark, Tina Slendak and Garrett.
Palmer, the retired chief of police in Waynesboro, had support for the interim Augusta position from commissioners Stacy Pulliam, Tony Lewis and Francine Scott.
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Arena chairman, Brown’s daughter speak about name issue
Augusta-Richmond County Coliseum Authority Chairman Cedric Johnson and Deanna Brown Thomas, the daughter of James Brown, spoke about the controversy over removing Brown’s name from Augusta’s James Brown Arena as the facility was being torn down to be rebuilt.
Johnson told the commission the authority began calling the facility the New Augusta Arena in 2023, believing rights to Brown’s name “had been sold” and couldn’t be used.
He said most new arena facilities sell naming rights and that brands might pay $1 million to $1.2 million to have their name on the arena under construction.
It’s expected to be finished in two-and-a-half years and selling naming rights would avoid the authority having to “come back to the taxpayers for more money,” he said.
Commissioner Don Clark said community response to the naming issue was deep, heartfelt and impossible to ignore. “Any way that we can honor such a pivotal figure as James Brown, I think it’s all of our responsibility to do so,” he said.
Brown Thomas strode to the podium and said her father’s legacy in the arena was significant and nothing to trifle with.
“There is no other arena, named after no other artist, no place, no where, no how. This is it. Augusta got it. We’re the only one,” she said.
As names of other legends are being stripped from history, the James Brown Arena name “was given to him in his lifetime,” she said. “Let’s not take it away after he’s gone.”
Voters who approved implementing a new sales tax to fund construction of the new arena had one goal in mind, she said.
“My ask is that we find a way to come together, because that’s what my father would want, and we give the voters what the voters voted for, and they made it clear.”
In other action: Maxwell House, water park
In other action, the commission directed codes enforcement to sweep the Maxwell House, the subsidized apartment complex on Greene Street, after a resident addressed the commission about broken elevators and air conditioning.
Commissioner Jordan Johnson said once again, the city is “dealing with slumlords who don’t give a damn.”
Elevators were also out over the weekend at the Richmond Summit and residents were sleeping in stairwells, Johnson said.
The commission has put Redwood Housing, which owns the Richmond Summit and the Bon Air, on notice it may suspend its business licenses at an Aug. 5 hearing.
In another matter, the commission tried to appease former Commissioner Moses Todd, who relayed his “No splash, no SPLOST” campaign against SPLOST 9 if the commission doesn’t move forward with plans for a water park.
Augusta’s ninth special purpose, local option sales tax is expected to go for voter approval in November.
Sales Tax 8, approved in 2021, included $5 million in seed money for the water park, but the city hasn’t taken steps toward construction of one, several officials said.
Todd asked if the city had attempted to identify a private partner for the project; the answer was no.
“If you need some help finding someone just let me know,” Todd said.
