Augusta isn’t looking far to replace General Counsel Wayne Brown.
The four finalists for the position released Tuesday by the city include three current city staff attorneys, plus the longtime former attorney for a smaller area city.
Last week after a closed session, the commission voted unanimously to interview the identified candidates in “an open setting.”
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Commissioner Sean Frantom said the open setting would “make sure that this process is pure and open” and asked if allowing department heads to weigh in is appropriate.
Brown, who’s been with the law office since 2008, said the general counsel needs to be “completely independent” and loyal to the commission alone.
The city’s June job ad asked for seven years of legal experience, admission to the Georgia bar, a minimum of four years in local government and substantial litigation experience.
The names of finalists released are:
- Brendan N. Fleming. The son of Judge William M. Fleming Jr., Fleming obtained his juris doctor from Mercer Law School and has been a member of the Georgia bar since 1999. He practices family, criminal and municipal law and served as city attorney for Grovetown for more than a decade.
- Robert Andrew Kerr. Kerr obtained his juris doctor from St. Thomas University College of Law in Miami and was admitted to the Georgia bar in 2009. He’s been a full-time city attorney since April 2022.
- Zena McClain-Haymon. An Augusta senior staff attorney, McClain-Haymon obtained her JD from St. Louis, Mo., University Law School and was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1996. She has had an active law practice in Savannah, where she ran for Chatham County district attorney three times prior to joining Augusta government in 2021.
- Samuel Ethan Meller. He was admitted to the Georgia bar in 2016 after obtaining a JD from UGA Law School in 2012. Meller worked for New York law firms and the Augusta Solicitor General’s Office, joined the city law office in 2021 and is now a senior staff attorney. The youngest of the candidates, Meller has educated the commission about First Amendment limits on panhandling ordinances.
Replacing Brown apparently bypassed an open procurement for an executive recruiting firm. Procurement’s request for proposals attracted nine vendor submissions from around the country, city records show.
The commission hasn’t gone outside the city law office for a general counsel since the office, which the Consolidation Act called for, was formed in 2006. The old county had a county attorney, while the city relied on outside lawyers brought in by the mayor.
After debating the need to keep an outside county attorney, the commission in 2007 hired Augusta’s first in-house general counsel, former Macon assistant attorney Eugene Jessup, along with deputies Andrew MacKenzie and Chiquita Johnson.
Commissioners quickly grew dissatisfied with Jessup, who was forced out after four months, and made Johnson general counsel, while Brown was hired in 2008.
After Johnson was ousted in January 2010, MacKenzie was named general counsel. He held the position until he was forced out in 2019 and Brown named general counsel.
