Augusta’s elected leaders laid the groundwork Wednesday for amending the city’s 28-year-old Consolidation Act.
In a meeting with Lori Brill, an attorney with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, they looked at the options.
Brill said she had 25 years of experience working with local and state governments and had helped from the smallest of towns to counties of more than one million people revise their charters.
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The process requires the commission pass a resolution creating an entity, typically an appointed committee, to decide what changes need to be made, she said.
All decisions about who serves on the committee are up to the elected officials to make, she said.
Ideally, no elected officials or city employees would serve on the committee, Brill said.
“The committee should be completely independent,” she said.
The process for a government the size of Augusta would likely take about 18 months, she said.
Ultimately, the state legislature must approve any changes, she said.
“If they don’t agree with it, it’s not going to go through,” she said.
Should Augusta decide to have Carl Vinson officials facilitate the process, Brill estimated it would cost the city between $150,000 and $200,000.
The changes would likely not go to the legislature for several years, she said.
“The fact that we haven’t done this in the number of years is kind of embarrassing, frankly. I’m not scared by the cost because we’ve never done it,” Commissioner Sean Frantom, who leaves office this year, said.
Commissioner Francine Scott said an 11-member committee might be “a bit much.”
Commissioner Jordan Johnson said using the Vinson institute to conduct an independent review would help avoid “political implications” inherent in the process.
“If that is not the will of this body, then politics is what’s going to guide this decision,” he said.
In other business, the commission deferred discussion of the widespread removal of trees downtown in conjunction with the Transportation Investment Act sales tax streetscape overhaul.
While many of the trees are already being removed, Johnson said he wanted to wait until a Monday town hall meeting to discuss it.
