Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. filed for divorce from his wife of almost 27 years, Evett Davis, on April 8, and in her response, she has claimed Hardie Davis has maintained a long-term affair with city-paid consultant Carla Smith.
Evett Davis’ counterclaim filing, made in Richmond County Superior Court on April 13, states that the marriage has been “irretrievably broken with no hope of reconciliation and adultery committed by the Plaintiff with Carla C. Smith that is still an ongoing affair.”
At first, Davis said only that he had not seen the documents Evett Davis filed and that “this is a private matter and not a public issue.”
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After the mayor read Evett Davis’ response to his divorce filing, he replied by email, “The allegation in the counter-claim regarding Carla C. Smith is false. Ms. Smith provided support services on behalf of the Office of the Mayor during the pandemic for which her company received payment.”
Even before Smith became a consultant for the Augusta Mayor’s Office, she served as an aide for Davis when he was a member of the Georgia Senate. She is now the owner of Georgia Consulting Firm, LLC, which is located in Avondale Estates, Ga. just outside Atlanta.
In 2021, the Mayor’s Office paid Smith’s Georgia consulting firm $34,425 for her work over seven months. Smith’s company was formed in 2010 but administratively dissolved by the Secretary of State on May 9, 2015. Smith’s LinkedIn profile indicates the company was closed in May 2016. Smith had the company reactivated with the Secretary of State on May 15, 2020, one day before the first check was paid to the company by the city of Augusta.
Smith’s $2,975 April 2021 invoice to the mayor listed items such as a “Completed Declaration – COVID-19 Relief Fund”; a “Hazard Pay Draft”; a “Hazard Pay Press Release;” a “Draft Letter to Citizens of Augusta”; “National Media Scheduling/Prep – ABC, CNN, GPB, NPR”; “Strategy Sessions, email analysis/review re: COVID-19 response;” and a half-dozen other items.
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Evett Davis responded to a request for comment through an intermediary, Lauren Thornton, who says that Evett Davis is brokenhearted and devastated by the actions of her husband.
“Ms. Davis has had health problems recently, and she has not had the support of Mayor Davis. In fact, it seems that Mayor Davis prefers to support Carla Smith and her son over his own wife,” Thornton said.
Carla Smith could not be reached for comment.
In her response, Evett Davis asked that all local Superior Court judges recuse themselves from the case, and they did. Senior Judge Kathy Palmer of Swainsboro has been assigned to hear the matter.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
Courts reporter Sandy Hodson also contributed to this article.
