An Augusta Charter Review subcommittee will consider changing the government to a “county manager” structure and giving the mayor authority over the manager, subject to commission approval.
The recommendation, from charter review committee member Lonnie Wimberly, authorizes the mayor to appoint and remove the manager, as well as the county attorney. The mayor’s actions are subject to the “advice and consent” of a majority of the Augusta Commission.
The change, going before the committee’s form of government subcommittee Thursday, would upend Augusta’s current form of government. Right now the city has an administrator with effectively 11 bosses, the 10-member commission and mayor. City department heads report to the same group.
Further, the new manager would “report directly to the mayor” and have the authority to hire and fire department heads, according to Wimberly’s agenda item. The manager’s authority again is subject to the advice and consent of a commission majority.
The mayor, meanwhile, will serve as “official spokesperson” for the consolidated government, “chief advocate” for government policy and the enforcer of city ordinances and resolutions, either in person or through officers directed by the mayor. The mayor would vote with the commission only “in the case of ties.” This would undo the 11th vote on the commission that Mayor Garnett Johnson gained last year through a referendum.
The subcommittee meets in Room 492 at Augusta Municipal Building at 1:35 p.m. or immediately after the subcommittee on finance, which meets in the same room. The full committee meets at 10 a.m. in the second-floor commission chamber.
In other business, former Mayor Hardie Davis, who pushed to expand the mayor’s duties while mayor, is expected to address both the full committee and form of government subcommittee.
John Hulsey, a financial management trainer for the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, will present to the committee on the role of audits in government and the types of audits.
Interim Finance Director Tim Schroer is expected to address the finance committee.
