This past Sunday, Aug. 27, Monique Braswell hosted an event entitled, “Hear Our Cry.” It was widely promoted via social media and invitations. Those invited to hear the concerns of citizens and parents, according to the flier and social media posts, were community leaders, state representatives, county commissioners, RCBOE board members and the superintendent.
Opinion
The Parks and Recreation Department, district attorney and Department of Family and Children Services were also invited to attend. A guest speaker, a 15-year-old student currently attending the Academy of Richmond County was promoted on the flier.
Since there was no one named on the public flier that was personally invited, and I do not know personally who was invited nor know personally why they were not in attendance; therefore, it is with prudence that I not share names that I have been told.
I can only say without doubt or hesitation that no one connected with any entity mentioned was in attendance at the gathering. NO one, Nobody, Zip, Nada, Zilch.
However, I can say I was there. That pretty much sums that up.
Now, on the public attendance side of things, it was certainly nothing to brag about. Only 11 adults attended and three children. Can we say, community involvement?
Where were all the parents and citizens that seemingly are all outraged at the lack of control and random violence in the city schools and streets?
The special 15-year-old speaker was there to tell his story of there being no programs for which youth can earn money. Instead of joining a gang and getting into selling drugs or stealing, he leaves school early and sells bottled water along the roadside.
While that is commendable on some levels, where are his parents and the school when it comes to his leaving early almost daily? Does the school not notify his parents? Will this get him into higher education or college? What are his goals?
This young man is said to come from an upper-class lifestyle, living with working professional parents in a community where house values exceed $250,000. So why is he out there on the side of the road “getting his money?”
The statement that was trying to be made was that we, as a city, need to have after school programs and employment opportunities for our youth.
Granted, the type jobs that I had as a teenager are really obsolete in today’s world. I was an usher at the Miller Theater, pumped gas and cleaned windshields at the Broad Street Pure Oil service station, bagged groceries at Winn Dixie, delivered telegrams for Western Union and cut grass in our neighborhood.
No, these were not highly skilled jobs. They did, however, set for me a standard of responsibility and a work ethic that continues to this day. Those jobs helped pay for my school clothes and helped buy and maintain a car. The jobs also kept me busy and otherwise occupied.
This is what this young gentleman and so many more young ladies and gentlemen are seeking. But, where’s the help? Where are the programs? Where’s the part time jobs?
Once upon a time in Augusta, the community centers were a haven of safety and activity. The students could go directly from school to the community center where they could participate in many programs and even have an afternoon snack. The parents would pick them up after they got off work. So, it worked out well for everyone, and it didn’t cost a parent more money to have these programs. What happened?
Even though the group was small, it was quite interesting to hear their concerns. They were being open and honest and only honest dialogue such as that can reap any benefits.
As I listened, I heard of the concern about the trend of more fights and violence in the schools. There were two of the issues discussed. One issue brought up was when a child gets attacked by another student, the student getting attacked can’t defend themself without getting punished. The other issue was the use of cell phones while in school.
Of course, all the students want to be popular. So, an incident is created and videoed on a cell phone and then put out instantly across social media. The kids want to rack up as many hits and likes as possible. It seems that’s a standard bearer of popularity status these days.
When one incident is said to be taking place, the location is put out on media and the students rush to that area to video and observe. This makes it more difficult for control of the situation to be contained.
The school system will tell the public that many of the students come to school hungry and without breakfast because their parents can’t afford to properly feed them. What they don’t tell you is that many of those same hungry students not only come to school hungry but, they come carrying a $1,000 cell phone; and ain’t nobody going to take that phone from the child.
One concerned citizen that was in attendance was Jamilah Dukes. She made a statement that really sums it up from many.
“Our children have become desensitized,” Dukes said.
It seems that the students accept these issues at school as normal these days. People, that is a sad commentary.
I would be remiss in not informing everyone that Braswell has declared to run for the Richmond County School Board district 5 seat in the upcoming election. We will be listening to her thoughts and ideas on how and what she will try to do to make the school system better. Knowing Braswell, she indeed will have ideas of change in mind.
In the upcoming commission district elections, Tina Slendak has announced her bid for the district 7 commission seat.
In the coming weeks, I will have more on the upcoming elections. Already the rumor mill has started to churn out possible names. As yet no one has proclaimed their intentions publicly, so at this time they will continue as rumors only.
This past week’s commission meeting continued to be as entertaining as always. They were again late getting started. They were deciding how they would vote to settle several lawsuits filed against the city.
As usual, the commission voted to settle to the tune of around a combined $750,000.
These days, anything to do with creating or modifying a city ordinance to take care of ongoing problems needs a workshop. That is what has happened with not only the problems with panhandlers all over town, but also non-paying and overstaying motel occupants as well as a food truck ordinance.
Commissioner Stacy Pulliam is always ready to call for a workshop study. In fact, if given the opportunity, she would call for a workshop on how to call for more workshops and then breakout into focus groups to come up with a suitable definition for the term workshop.
To me, it is like watching a dock-tailed Doberman chasing its nub.
One workshop could be on how to continually kick the same can down the same road, and Commissioner Jordan Johnson seems to want Commissioner Francine Scott to oversee every ordinance workshop created.
They want to credit Scott for the discrimination ordinance of a couple of years ago. When in reality the ordinance was fully written by all commissioners that were involved and was on the consent agenda for passage when Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. pulled it. He wanted Commissioner Scott to see if anything needed changing.
The ordinance didn’t need any revisions; Davis just wanted to have Scott credited so she could have more credibility. Trust me. I was there.
Now, Jordan Johnson will not vote to approve anything that holds panhandlers or the overstaying occupants at the local motels responsible for their own actions. He says he doesn’t want to criminalize poverty.
Johnson and Pulliam wanted to slow down and take a closer look at the ordinances. Surprisingly, Commissioner Catherine McKnight agreed with Johnson.
As it turns out, the city already has ordinances on all three of the aforementioned issues, but the commissioners were unaware of them. The ordinances have been discussed for weeks, and just now the director of Planning and Zoning, Carla Delaney, informed them. Can we take a guess on why?
Commissioner Sean Frantom asked about how the violations of the food trucks and outside vendors were being handled to make sure they were in compliance. Frantom wanted to know why the trucks weren’t being issued warnings or citations for violations, especially on weekend nights.
Delaney explained that code enforcement doesn’t work at night or much on weekends, either. When Frantom pushed and asked why schedules couldn’t be changed to cover these times, because, after all, people were selling food from tables on the street. Even backyard grills were fired up on the sidewalks as well as alcohol being sold presumably without a license.
The answer, according to Delaney, was that it was too dangerous for code enforcement to be downtown trying to enforce the regulations. After all, they aren’t law officers. Remember, this is the same woman that took away the Kevlar vests and has inspectors visiting blighted properties in the most crime ridden areas of town in Polo shirts handing out vouchers to rent lawn mowers.
Maybe this is the exact right time to turn all code enforcement over to the Marshal’s Department. Marshal Ramone Lampkin and his staff of officers are fully capable of doing the job.
Mayor Garnett Johnson asked for a 5% to 10% cut on departments for the upcoming 2024 yearly budget. Interim Administrator Takiyah Douse took this opportunity to state that she was closely looking at that, as well as all rightsizing plans. Douse says she is also looking at how the under-used city vehicles could be reassigned so they could be used more affectively.
Now, the under-used city vehicles really made me stop and wonder. If the city has under-used vehicles, why, at the same meeting, are they asking for $818,612 to purchase 19 Ford F150s from Allan Vigil Ford for various departments?
It reminds me of a severely dehydrated person searching the sofa cushions for coins to go buy a six-pack of beer.
While they’re at it, maybe they should have procurement seek bids for a huge blower fan to be used by the city. That way the commissioners and department directors could blow more smoke up the taxpayer’s wazoos.
Folks, as always, you just can’t make this stuff up.
