All the promises about transparency concerning a contract between the city and its new ambulance provider Central EMS seem to have turned into a bucket of mud.
Since the subcommittee of city department heads and local hospital representatives that were appointed to work on a contract with Central met publicly a month ago, there hasn’t been a peep about what’s going on.
Well, except for rumors. Lots of them since Gold Cross EMS bailed on its month-to-month contract two weeks ago because so many of its employees had gone to work for Central, Gold Cross couldn’t staff its ambulances.
Reportedly, Central called Gold Cross employees and said, “Quit today, and we’ll hire you right now with a cash bonus in your hand.”
“It put me in a bind because I couldn’t do it anymore,” said Gold Cross President and CEO Vince Brogdon.
Rumors abound of long waits for ambulances and a rebellion in the city ‘s 911 center over all the extra work created by taking on dispatching calls, which sounds an awful lot like the Augusta firefighters’ rebellion when the city tried to take over ambulance service a few years ago.
Augusta commissioners expected to see and possibly approve a contract Tuesday with the dollar amount Central must have for transporting the county’s large nonpaying population and still make a 10 percent profit. But the contract details weren’t complete. And you know what’s always in the details.
Meanwhile, Mayor Garnett Johnson said he hasn’t heard a word about anything and is trying to stay out of it.
Their Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost
But the bad situation some commissioners created for Gold Cross by refusing to give them a contract and pay the company a decent subsidy couldn’t have ended worse for Gold Cross, in my opinion. I truly believe there was a concerted effort to bankrupt the company.
Former Commissioner Sammie Sias, former Mayor Hardie Davis, Commissioners Ben Hasan, Bobby Williams and others worked against Gold Cross, and some recruited people with complaints about the company to speak publicly at commission meetings.
Of course, you didn’t hear a word from any of the Gold Cross bashers when an ambulance the Augusta fire department was running answered a call and took away the elderly patient’s breathing machine, causing him to have a panic attack. And then they dropped him twice on the way to the ambulance. Not a word. And the man later died.
Prediction
Emergency 911 Center Director Daniel Dunlap will come before commissioners in a few weeks and say he must have more employees to dispatch ambulances and more money to pay them. And since he has more responsibility, he’ll need more money too.
After all, when former Fire Chief Chris James started running three ambulances, commissioners gave him a $25,000 raise.
Dunlap will need to hire six to eight more dispatchers for around $50,000 a year, plus benefits. And taxpayers will get the bill. Say, $350,000 to $500,00 more a year.o
“When You Bring My Name Up, I Will Respond”
At Tuesday’s meeting, resident Richard Jones addressed several items concerning ambulance service, including comments made by Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle about Central hiring Gold Cross employees by offering them more money.
“Mr. Guilfoyle mentioned to the media Central stealing Gold Cross employees,” Jones said. “From last year and this year, I had always been addressing the commission about accountability and service. I’ve heard from two people that said people working for Gold Cross only had three ambulances running because people didn’t feel they were being paid enough.
Guilfoyle said he appreciated Jones bringing his name up.
“When it comes to seeing a company coming in, and they’re taking employees from another company to benefit themselves, I do have a problem when they’re paying $2-to-$5 dollars more an hour,” Guilfoyle said. “But that $2-to-$5 an hour more is being put on taxpayers’ backs.
Guilfoyle said he didn’t think Jones understood that part of it.
“When you’ve got 80 to 100 employees that you’re paying probably 10-to-12 percent more per hour, that 10-to-12 percent more per hour times 1,766 hours per year that the average person works and then 10 percent on top of that comes out of our pockets,” Guilfoyle said.
“So, yes sir, I do have a problem with it when another company comes in and lsnatches employees out of a company. So, nothing changes. You change the name of the company. The employees are the same.”
Jones said anybody who was offered more money per hour for doing the same job would take it.
Another Day, Another Consultant
An Augusta Commission committee voted to spend $98,200 to hire a financial consulting firm to create a new “strategic plan” for the city’s parks and recreation department. The city has already hired the local company, Infrastructure Systems Management, for $7 million to help get the recreation department back on track.
So, how much money are city officials going to spend to get somebody to do Parks and Recreation Department Director Maurice McDowell’s job?
In 2016, the city paid $225,230 for a recreation master plan that called for $75 million in capital spending and more parks and walking trails around Augusta. Have you heard anything about that lately? Do you think you ever will?
“And Then They Come Back”
Best Friends Animal Society wants to spend $150,000 through the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia over the next three years to implement a Cat Community Program to Catch, Neuter and Release stray cats in Augusta. No strings attached and no obligation for Augusta.
But so far, it’s been a hard sell to Augusta commissioners.
The situation at Augusta Animal Services is dire for cats, and it’s also unusual compared with other metro counties in Georgia, said Carrie Ducote, Best Friends Shelter Collaborative Program Director.
In 2022, Augusta euthanized (killed) 1,383 cats. In comparison, Cobb, Gwinett and DeKalnb counties euthanized (killed) 380 cats.
Euthanizing (killing) that many cats is inhumane for the cats and for shelter employees, Cody said.
If commissioners vote for the CNR program, the shelter would quit accepting healthy outdoor cats and refer the cases to the Best Friends’ local employee, who would take the cat to be neutered or spayed as the case might be at a mobile facility that would be in Augusta twice a week and then return the cat to its neighborhood.
Shelter Director James Hill said “operationally” the program would be good for the shelter because they wouldn’t be taking in and euthanizing cats, although people who don’t like cats would object.
Commissioner Bobby Williams said he saw both sides, and Commissioner Francine Scott said, “People are actually gonna’ think the cats are gone, and then they come back.”
Mayor Pro Tem Brandon Garrett’s motion to accept the program for three years failed for lack of a second, after which Commissioner Alvin Mason, saying he needed more time to think about the program, made a motion to send the matter to the full commission without a recommendation.
HB230
I’d like to say I was just checking to see if you were paying attention when I omitted Rep. Mark Newton’s important House Bill 230 in my recent report of bills authored by the Augusta legislative delegation this year, but I knew you wouldn’t fall for that old ruse.
What happened is I forgot about it. Imagine that. Forgetting about that very important bill calling for a referendum to raise the sales tax a half-penny in Richmond County to fund a new James Brown Arena.
But I was quickly reminded by Rep. Newton who texted me with an “update on bills.”
“My HB230, regarding allowing Augusta voters to decide on funding the Coliseum Authority (NOT the Commission) to receive a half-penny sales tax to build a new Arena, passed both House and Senate and is going to the Governor; then to the people of Augusta for a vote,” Newton wrote.
He then noted that Brad Usry, chairman of the new arena committee, and Coliseum Authority Chairman Cedric Johnson have overseen development of “an amazing plan for a regionally significant arena. HB2311, the half-penny sales tax, provides a pathway for ALL who benefit, including those from the SC side of the river plus other out-of-county residents, to contribute (rather than just Augusta-Richmond property taxpayers.) I look forward to further discussions on building this state-of-the-art facility!”
So, I’d failed to mention the most significant legislation, except for Sen. Max Burns’ SB 231 calling for a referendum on giving the mayor a vote, and I immediately responded, apologized and promised to try to make up for it soon.
Then he texted, “Well, from reading a few comments, maybe the omission was a blessing…. I will say any discussion of this referendum on a new sales tax definitely needs the more through reporting on why this is so much better than a property tax and 35-40 percent will be paid by people outside our county.”
I assured him there would be more thorough reporting and discussion in the days, weeks and months to come.
So, this column is a start which I hope helps, but still I’m worried that I’m slipping in my old age, which there’s no doubt about, really. But does this lapse warrant my fourth and final retirement from journalism? I pondered the possibility for about a week and decided that it does not. Not quite yet. After all, I’ve been making mistakes for years. Bigger ones than not mentioning a tax bill I still don’t understand. How do they plan to tax people a half-penny?
I Learned from My Mistakes, but it Was Too Late. I’d Already Made Them.
When I was in college, I made the mistake of signing up for a class in “Curriculum” without the foggiest notion of what “Curriculum” was and furthermore didn’t even bother to look up the definition of curriculum before the first day of class when, of all things, the professor told us to write an essay on what we expected to gain from the curriculum class.
I can’t remember what I wrote, but it had the word “curriculum” in it a whole lot.
And when I worked at The Valdosta Daily Times, I wrote a story about a mother delivering her daughter’s baby at home following the instructions from a 911 operator. It was such a good story. The mother, who was actually the grandmother to the baby on the way, was so excited telling the story, and I was so excited writing down what she said, I got the grandmother and daughter’s names mixed up and had the daughter delivering the mother’s baby.
Yes, I have made many mistakes during my journalistic career and more than that before I had a journalistic career. Well, not that many really, but a lot. Some worse than others, but seldom a dozen or so in one article as once happened.
A new Farmer’s Furniture store was about to open at the Five Points Shopping Center in Valdosta, and I was assigned to write a story about the grand opening. So, I called and asked to speak to Mr. Farmer. When a man came on the line, I said, “Mr. Farmer, I’m with the Valdosta Times, and I’m supposed to write about your new store there at Five Points and the grand opening.”
“Oh, that’s nice of you,” Mr. Farmer said. “How would you like to start?”
“Well, you could tell me what kinds of furniture Farmer’s Furniture will be selling,” Mr. Farmer. “And tell me about the grand opening. When will that be?”
That’s essentially how it went. He talked, and I wrote down what he said about the full line of appliances and reasonably priced furniture, and so forth and so on. And then I wrote the article repeating what Mr. Farmer had said.
The day the story ran in the newspaper, Mr. Farmer called and said he thought it was a very good story, but there was one problem with it.
“Uh, really?” I said. “What was that?”
“My name is not Mr. Farmer,” he said.
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
“Well, I called you Mr. Farmer a dozen times when we were talking,” I gasped. “Why didn’t you tell me your name wasn’t Mr. Farmer then?”
He didn’t have a good answer as I recall.
