Augusta commissioners unanimously accepted City Administrator Odie Donald’s resignation Tuesday with no recommendation for severance pay.
Donald called commissioners after last Tuesday’s commission meeting and told them he was resigning for another position, and he followed it up with a formal letter Wednesday morning. He will serve his last day Feb. 25 before moving on to become chief of staff for Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens on Feb. 28.
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Donald’s resignation was just two weeks shy of meeting the city’s requirement of 45 days notice to receive a year’s severance pay. His contract calls for a minimum 45 days notice unless both parties agree in writing to waive that requirement.
Commissioners apparently did not discuss severance in their legal meeting Tuesday, ending speculation that they might ask Donald to stay on longer. His resignation letter indicated he would be amenable to that if need be.
In other action Tuesday, a request from Housing and Development Director Hawthorne Welcher to spend $5,000 on continued support for the Laney Walker Farmer’s Market, in partnership with the American Heart Association and Augusta Locally Grown, to provide support and eradication of the food desert in that area triggered a recommendation to spend $150,000 instead.
Mayor Hardie Davis said he thought it was nice to have $5,000 for marketing, but the challenge of food insecurity goes beyond that. He said more money needs to go to actually solving the food insecurity challenge up to and including SNAP benefits that could be doubled because Locally Grown is affiliated with Wholesome Way of Georgia, the only entity in the state of Georgia that can double SNAP dollars. And then the city could provide funding for the number of days and hours the market is open while also funding pop-up markets.
SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the largest federal nutrition assistance program. SNAP provides benefits to eligible low-income people via an electronic benefits transfer card.
“I’m suggesting that this number increase, based on the number of people we have in Augusta and based on the number of people we have on SNAP. The number should be on the order of $150,000 to be helpful to eradicate and meet the needs of food insecurity as opposed to marketing,” Davis said.
Donald said that Welcher and his team had looked at available project funds and had come up with a lot less than $150,00O. Based on categories that were available and allowable, the number was $25,000 to $35,000.
And, he said, if the commission wanted to expand into that area Tuesday, he would be comfortable with that number.
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“But with it being a new conversation to expand 900 times that has been suggested and allocated, that would take us some time to go back and look at how much funding would be available and how to coordinate that,” Donald said.
Donald said Davis’ point about food insecurity didn’t fall on any deaf ears.
“And it shouldn’t be lost that the commission was just awarded about $4 million in partnership with the Golden Harvest Food to expand your capacity to reduce food insecurity,” Donald said. “That, along with increasing the $5,000 offering to about $30,000 in project funds is something I think from a staff level without any hesitation we know you could move forward. Now, for anything above that, I think we’d have to go back and do some additional research.”
Commissioner Sean Frantom proposed approving the initial request for $5,000 and having a discussion on Davis’ proposal later.
Davis said the administrator had said $30,000 was available that day, and they could spend the next week identifying the other $70,000.
“We’ve got people who can’t eat,” he said. “We’ve got people who need food. We’ve got people that are on SNAP. And because of the partnerships and the existing entities that are already connected to Augusta Locally Grown, they know how to do these things.
“Let’s not spend too much time in the huddle trying to get comfortable with feeding people that are hungry. You can give $5,000 for these two groups to go out and market and promote, but these people need to eat.”
The committee voted unanimously to approve the initial motion for $5,000.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
