At the full Augusta Commission on Aug. 2, commissioners quietly approved a bailout package for the Parks and Recreation Department to the tune of nearly $7 million with no discussion.
The measure was moved to the consent agenda to avoid public discussion.
The near unanimous decision awarded Infrastructure Systems Management, LLC with a five-year consulting project at an overall cost of $6,801,521 to oversee many projects including Riverwalk, which has been the subject of public outcry due to the park’s dilapidated condition.
The only commissioner to vote against the measure was District 10 Commissioner John Clarke, who wanted to make it clear he was against hiring a consulting company to do the job that Parks and Rec Director Maurice McDowell has been paid to do for the past two and a half years.
“The person you pay to do the job, should be able to do the job, and if they can’t you should find someone who can. Instead, we are making the citizens pay more money for work they have already paid to have done,” Clarke said.
District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom was not in attendance at the meeting and did not vote.
Even though McDowell has a work background in capital project management, many city parks, recreation buildings and even cemeteries have fallen into serious neglect during his tenure.
The Augusta Press has documented that the Boathouse at the Augusta Marina is closed to the public due to safety concerns, the approved renovations on the Henry Brigham Center have been stalled for years, pools across the city have needed hundreds of thousands of dollars of repair due to neglect, other pools are unusable and, of course, Riverwalk is just a shadow of its former self.
Citizens complain constantly that grass at city park, and Magnolia Cemetery are chronically left overgrown.
When the Augusta Commission allocated $1 million of American Rescue Plan funding to work on infrastructure at Riverwalk and the plumbing issues Diamond Lakes, a facility that has had to employ portable toilets because of faulty plumbing, McDowell tried to steer that money to the Julian Smith Casino Barbeque Pit, a facility with no emergency or structural issues.
The Parks and Recreation Department has faced some of the highest employee turn-over with many people quitting, being fired or forced into retirement as District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett was quoted as saying in a July 7 article of The Augusta Press.
“He’s gotten rid of or forced out most of the staff with institutional knowledge and abilities to run these programs. We keep hearing of plans to make improvements, but none seems to come to fruition,” Garrett said one month ago.
Despite all of the failures, according to Clarke, the commission doesn’t have the stomach to fire McDowell, an act that would take six commission votes.
Garrett and District 3 Commissioner Catherine McKnight both said they agreed to bring in outside help to jumpstart the projects and keep them moving forward.
“(McDowell) brought it to the agenda and asked for help, and it was the will of the commission to give him the help,” Garrett said.
According to the Procurement Department, 35 requests for quotes were sent out in March and the lowest competent bidder was Infrastructure Systems Management, LLC, a company owned by Abie Ladson and Steve Cassell, formerly of the Engineering and Traffic Departments, respectively.
Ladson and Cassell are also both former deputy administrators for Augusta and the pair are largely given the credit for the massive traffic engineering project centered at Washington Road, Berckmans Road and Alexander Drive at the Augusta National Golf Course which eased traffic during Masters Week and ended the traffic snarls that were almost as famous as the tournament.
“I have tremendous faith in (Ladson and Cassell) and if anyone can get the work done, those guys can,” Garrett said.
According to Procurement Department records, the majority of the funding will come from special purpose local-option sales tax funding and the contract budget for Infrastructure Systems Management, LLC will have to be reapproved each year for the five-year term.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
