Garnett Johnson ran away with the mayoral runoff election, receiving more than 53% of the vote, and the mayor-elect says he is already rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.
According to Johnson, he spent the day after the election picking up campaign signs. Despite the sweltering heat, Johnson and his team picked up well over a thousand signs throughout the county.
“One of my major initiatives is going to be for us to clean up Augusta. I can’t stand to see litter all over our streets, so it’s up to me to pick up the signs immediately, and if we miss one, people can call me, and I’ll bring out my truck,” Johnson said.
Johnson is a gubernatorial appointee on the Georgia Department of Economic Development Board of Directors and says he will be using his time before he is sworn in as mayor in January to work with his contacts on the board to continue to brainstorm creative ideas for Augusta’s future economic success.
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“By continuing to serve on that board, I will have a louder bullhorn, and I want to start collaborating with our sister counties, Columbia, Burke and Jefferson Counties on how we can get some of these wins that some of these counties in other parts of the state are realizing,” Johnson said.
Prior to the swearing-in, Johnson says that he would like to meet with all 10 commissioners one-on-one to learn more about the needs of the citizens in the individual districts.
According to Johnson, on day one of taking his job, he will begin lobbying the commission to launch an operational efficiency review for all county departments. Johnson says that, rather than an audit, which would likely take years, an operational review would simply show where and how the city spends its 1$ billion budget and would identify waste and help install what are called “best practices” in the business world.
The majority of Augustans are fiscally conservative, Johnson says, and he added that his success as a business person who has always kept a strict eye on the books is one of the main reasons he was elected. Johnson says financial accountability will be a hallmark of his mayoral administration.
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“We owe it to the taxpayers to know and understand how we are spending their tax dollars and how we utilize our resources to provide the services that we provide,” Johnson said.
One issue that has divided the city is whether the Confederate Memorial on Broad Street should be relocated or left in its prominent place downtown. Johnson says that if it is the will of the people that the monument be moved, then he has no problem with it as long as city funds are not used.
However, Johnson says that he feels he has a better idea than simply removing a monument that has been in place for over 150 years. Johnson says he would like to see a statue of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. be erected on Broad Street.
“Maybe we can use that Confederate statue as a form of our past, then you move over, and we have the James Brown statue showing us as the center of music and honoring Mr. Brown, and lastly we can show through Dr. King where we are now by creating a ‘unity park,’” Johnson said.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
