The IRS is knocking at the city of Augusta’s door with another bill for $2 million, bringing the total owed to over $4 million.
According to sources inside the government who wish to be unnamed, this latest fine is for failing to file, in 2018, the proper forms as specified by the Affordable Care Act. The city has already received a $2 million-plus interest bill for 2017 and officials fear more charges are forthcoming since the required forms were apparently not filed for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
After it is all over with, the city may end up owing the IRS over $10 million, maybe up to $15 million, plus interest and attorney fees.
Documents obtained through open records requests show that employees have known about the fines since last year and they may have known there was a problem going back several years, since the IRS has sent multiple notices.
Employees of the Human Resources Department and Finance Department are now pointing fingers across the hall at each other.
A former Human Resources Department manager sent Director Anita Rookard a lengthy email describing the filing process and claimed that it actually takes three departments to file the IRS document in question.
The form only asks employees to acknowledge that they were offered health care through the city and that they either accepted or declined the offer.
Sources within the government say that at the executive session held on March 28, commissioners discussed behind closed doors whether to fire Rookard or Finance Director Donna Williams.
Neither side could muster the six votes necessary to act, meaning both directors will keep their jobs for now. Williams is closing in on retirement age and Rookard has only been on the job for two years.
Apparently, there was a conference call on March 8 between Williams, Interim City Administrator Takiyah Douse and a tax attorney, presumably from the firm Smith Gambrell and Russell of Atlanta.
This meeting occurred before the mayor and commissioners were made away of the first IRS bill and while the conference call meeting appears to have been set up by City Attorney Wayne Brown, he did not attend himself.
An open records request was returned that there were “no responsive documents” related to the meeting or Brown’s attendance. City records also do not show that Brown took the day off; so Brown was at work, just not in the conference call.
Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson and several commissioners declined to go on the record saying the matter is now under the umbrella of the law department, but all say they are bracing themselves for when the time comes for them to cobble together a budget for 2024.
