Augusta’s Charter Review Committee took two major steps Thursday toward recommending a new government structure, voting for a commission-manager form.
The structure gives the position of manager – which replaces the current administrator – the authority to hire and fire top city staff. The manager reports to the 11-member commission, on which the mayor is a voting member.
The series of votes appeared to fall in line with recommendations voiced by the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce earlier in the meeting.
Chamber President Angie Cox told the panel the current commission-administrator framework, in place since the late 1990s, leaves elected officials mired in direct oversight of department directors.
“For decades, the Augusta-Richmond Commission has operated with an organizational structure where the commission itself — a political body – maintains a high level of direct management and oversight over department directors,” Cox said.
“This dynamic creates significant difficulties in the management of operations and services, where clear lines of accountability do not exist and consumes the time of officials who are elected to govern rather than to manage,” she said.
Cox said the chamber began pushing the commission in 2022 for a more nimble structure with a clearer organizational chart and distinct roles for elected leaders and professional managers. The effort stalled, making the committee’s current charge vitally important, she said.
“We support a city manager form of government where public service career professionals manage the operations of the city,” she said.
The changes would be a significant shift from the current commission-administrator structure, in which department heads and an administrator report to the 10-member commission. In votes that followed the charter committee appeared to embrace them. The committee has met for about six months, and the Thursday decisions are the first substantive changes it has recommended.
The committee took the votes after rejecting earlier motions delineating greater powers in the mayor. The rejected motions included having the manager “report directly” to the mayor, or giving the mayor power to hire and fire the manager and attorney. Both required commission consent.
Committee member Frank Lewis’s substitute motion ensured the mayor was included as member of the “commission,” to which the manager would directly report. Augusta voters approved a referendum last year that gave the mayor the 11th vote on all commission decisions.
The change to a commission-manager structure “shall include all corresponding updates to titles, roles, intergovernmental relationships to reflect a streamlined, modernized executive framework that improves responsiveness and operational oversight,” the motion said. All the motions passed 11-0 Thursday.
Member Roderick Pearson, Mayor Garnett Johnson’s appointee to the committee, asked if manager would report to or through the mayor as he or she reports to the commission and hires and fires department heads.
Committee Chairman Marcie Wilhelmi said the changes define a line of communication required between the manager and commission, which includes the mayor. But, the committee may “add further punctuation points to that” at its next meeting Oct. 16, she said.
“That will be taken up in the next meetings coming up,” she said.
The recommendations won’t be final until the committee finalizes them; they then go to the legislature and eventually to Augusta voters in a referendum.
In other business Thursday, the committee voted to effectively dissolve its Form of Government subcommittee. Committee Vice Chairman Clint Bryant called the panel dysfunctional two weeks ago based on its handling of motions related to the manager structure.
Committee meetings held every other Thursday at 10 a.m. will now be followed by a 1:30 p.m. non-voting work session of the committee of the whole.
