The past couple of weeks of public discussions have been very contentious, passionate, opinionated, name-calling and at times, downright hateful rhetoric. People have a right to their personal opinions, and just because their opinion differs from yours does not mean the other person is stupid, as some people have expressed.
Have your opinion, but please, be civil and kind.
The 1/2 cent sales tax to fund a new arena has passed. Even though there was a dismal voter turnout, it was enough to pass the tax. So be it. Now the waiting, watching and spending will soon begin.
Even though I was out of the country, I was still able to keep up with what was going on here at home. I received a text from someone I know very well stating that I should check my email for a video they had sent for me to watch.
The video was of commissioners Jordan Johnson and Sean Frantom as the Arena Boyz.
Now, the premise of the video was of a professional wrestling tag team. Those of you that keep up with the drama of pro wrestling storylines know wrestlers cut promos of their upcoming matches and boast of the damage they will inflict upon their opponents or some other such nonsense.
Now the Arena Boyz are based off of a once real team known as the Dudley Brothers, Devon and Bubba Ray. As the promo for the Arena Boyz started taking shape to boast of what they will do to get a new arena built, it became quite obvious that Commissioner Frantom was having quite the identity crisis.
He really didn’t know who he was. In fact, he went through five wrestlers’ characters in two minutes. If you are a wrestling fan, you would know the names.
Frantom went through the personas of Ric “The Nature Boy” Flair, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Randy “Macho Man” Savage and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. If you haven’t seen that video, please, go back and watch it. It is hilarious.
The only thing Frantom didn’t do in that video was break out in his “Ice, Ice Baby” dance. I’ve seen that also.
In no way am I knocking Commissioner Frantom. In fact, he is to be commended for being willing to put himself out there in such a manner to get the vote.
It’s budget time in Augusta. That’s right. $1.16 billion dollars to run this city. A city that can’t pave roads, replace water and sewer lines, can’t cut grass or maintain cemeteries. Why? Because there’s just not enough money.
Can we all say, forensic audit?
Maybe if Augusta stopped giving outlandish raises to inept employees and hired qualified people instead, things could get done.
Augusta has an office full of degreed engineers that can’t seem to be able to draw a straight line using a ruler. They have to outsource everything. Why are we paying them to sit and do what’s called “busy work?”
In last year’s budget, money was put into demolition for the removal of blighted buildings. In fact both Environmental Services as well as the Land Bank got, as recalled, a couple of million dollars to perform the removal of blighted buildings.
In this past week’s commission meeting, it was stated that no money was available for demolition. What happened to the money? The last heard was that each property could be removed for around $9,000 each. A couple of million should have taken care of a lot of the problem. Again, where is the money?
The budgeted money for the maintenance of the three city1owned cemeteries seems to be going somewhere. But, no repairs or maintenance are being done.
The grass cutting duties were taken from Parks and Recreation and given to RCCI for the inmates to cut the grass. Yes, some of the money should go for paying the guards that oversee the inmate crews. Where is the rest of the money? Why is there no maintenance?
Mayor Johnson and Commissioner’s Frantom, McKnight, Garrett and Guilfoyle seem to be the only ones that want to see a real budget that works and cuts the fat. The other commissioners want to spend, spend and spend. Handing out bonuses and coddling special interests is the business as usual.
Mayor Johnson made a pledge during his run for office that he would not seek an increase in the Mayor’s office budget. Somehow, the interim administrator raised the Mayor’s budget without him requesting more money.
If he didn’t ask for more, why then would she put more money in that budget? Could it be a designed plan to discredit the mayor? Or was it just a well intended gift? Either way, Mayor Johnson, you should reject that raise loudly and clearly. Maintain your integrity.
The people are indeed watching.
Someone stated that they had not heard about much of what is being written about the Augusta government’s behind closed doors happenings and the general malfeasance that goes on within Augusta’s government. I don’t understand how someone who lives in Augusta, especially a long time, doesn’t know what goes on.
Yes, I was a commissioner, in fact, commissioner for super district 10. I managed to get a few things done. Some, not the majority though, the commission actually worked for the citizens.
Those of us in the minority tried to get the right things done.
We pushed for infrastructure to be fixed, budget controls enacted, and hiring the right fit for a position. However, it takes six votes to get anything done. When the six votes don’t want what you want for the people, it becomes a no winner.
For instance, just this past week. Commissioner Jordon Johnson took his ‘better than thou’ stance and absolutely fought against cutting the budget anywhere. He even spoke of the quality of service for the citizens would be affected if the budget was cut.
Now that is laughable.
Someone else commented about all of the negative talk. Well, the citizens who work hard, pay their taxes, raise their children and do the right things do have a right to complain.
Let’s take a look at the quality of service they are getting for their tax dollar:
Once a week, hit or miss, garbage pick up, street lights that don’t work, washboard and potholed streets to drive on, police that don’t respond to your property being broken into unless you can give them proof that it is happening, a school system that stays near the bottom half of the states school rating, a storm water fee that gives back nothing in return and crime and killings are out of control.
Do you get the picture as to negativity? And these are just a few issues and that only scratches the surface.
Augusta is my hometown. In my professional career as well as my personal life, I have had the pleasure of traveling the world, but I have always maintained my home in Augusta.
We have a city full of great people. Each and every citizen is to be rewarded for what they work hard to achieve. But it seems this government is intent on wasting taxpayers money on giveaways, handouts and special interest.
This past Thursday, former Commissioner Moses Todd hosted a past commissioner’s luncheon. Of course, it was held at past Mayor Sconyers’s Bar B Que restaurant.
It was an interesting and entertaining group of people. My dear friend Sylvia Cooper was in attendance ,and I hope she will tell all about it in the way that only Sylvia can.
Folks, as always, you just can’t make this stuff up.
