“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,” wrote George Orwell in his novel 1984.
That was surely what must have been happening in Augusta’s commission chambers Tuesday April 18, 2023. The commissioners approved a multi-months long, hotly debated ambulance contract for a new service provider while yet again failing to approve a city wide in-depth audit.
Seems as if certain elected officials, influencers and wheelers and dealers deemed the previous ambulance provider, after years of being on the job, as inadequate in every aspect of getting the job done.
Therefore, a committee was formed to negotiate a new deal with a new ambulance provider and what a new deal it was.
The deal went from the old service provider receiving $1.9 million a year subsidy to provide 8 to 10 ambulances along with quick response vehicles (QRV). The deal with Gold Cross EMS also would have stipulated the company’s vehicles to be housed in locations bought and paid or rented by the provider while paying property taxes on said bought properties, no built-in profit structure and the ambulance company agreed to provide their own dispatchers.
The new deal with Central EMT calls for a fluctuating number of ambulances to be on call in Augusta with eight dedicated units along with three QRVs on-call 24 hours a day, every day with six units being on standby.
These units will be housed in the Augusta Fire Department stations. Each station used will be paid $350 a month for usage. There is a built in 6% profit structure along with a yearly 3% increase to the subsidy amount.
Augusta 911 center will handle all of the dispatches in their entirety. All of this for the tidy sum of $2.65 million dollars for a five-year contract.
It’s a mystery as to where the six ambulances on standby will be located at this time, but EMTs will be sitting around doing whatever, just waiting to be put into service. It sounds kind of like a baseball team’s bullpen.
District 10 Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle asked the service provider’s CEO if the number of ambulances in the deal with Augusta was the same number as stated when they applied to the state for the Augusta zone. After a couple of “ums” and the shuffling of feet the answer was NO.
The number Central EMT used for applying for the zone was 17.
Not to be derailed, and believing this to be such a good deal, Mayor Pro Tem Brandon Garrett made the motion to pass it. District 9 Commissioner Francine Scott readily seconded the motion.
Guilfoyle made a substitute motion to reduce the subsidy by $300,000 and eliminate the 3% yearly subsidy increase. This motion failed to get a second, therefore the original motion was voted on. It passed by a vote of eight YES and one NO with Commissioner Alvin Mason being absent.
The lone NO vote came from Guilfoyle. There must be something about that particular seat that makes the occupant (District 10) want to do the right things for the tax paying citizens of Augusta.
As far as trying once again to get a forensic or in-depth audit passed, it is the same old song with different lyrics. It was Commissioner McKnight’s motion this time, and this is the exact wording she used:
“I make a motion to hire a local third party accounting firm, separate and independent from the external auditors who perform financial statements, and it’s on an annual basis, to perform regularly scheduled internal financial and operational audits on all city departments, ensuring every department is audited at a minimum of once every four years. Said firm will present findings quarterly to the full commission.”
This motion was seconded by District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom and then the usual cast of characters went into their acts lead by Commissioners Bobby Williams and Jordan Johnson.
Commissioners Francine Scott, Stacy Pulliam and Tony Lewis played their assigned parts as well, feigning bewilderment of the motion. The why’s. The cost. Don’t we already do an annual audit? There is no need. Explain again why?
Yes, the same old same old. All of this was to cause the motion to never receive a vote.
A substitute motion by Commissioner McKnight was made to send it back to the finance committee. It received a second and the vote was again eight Yes one No and Commissioner Mason absent. The No vote was from Commissioner Jordon Johnson.
To Mayor Garnett Johnson’s credit, he supports some audit structure being put into place like some other cities have. The mayor stated his office can be audited at any time. He welcomed it.
This is a drastic difference in attitude from the last administration.
Just a reminder of the four commissioners that are on the finance committee: Wayne Guilfoyle, Jordon Johnson, Francine Scott and Stacy Pulliam.
All Augustans know that the streets and yards flood in certain areas after a rainfall. One such area is that which consists of the neighborhoods of Lakemont, Bedford and Fruitland. These are all located near Lake Olmstead.
These houses were built in the mid-1950s. There are no sidewalks. The streets are in long neglected condition, and there are open ditches in front of the homeowner’s property that serve as the storm drains system.
To say the infrastructure in these neighborhoods is collapsing is not accurate. The adjective to describe it best would be collapsed.
A water line ruptured on Bedford Drive. The utility department located the problem under a driveway. The driveway was dug up and a patch was applied to the pipe. This was not the first patch in this 10-foot section of pipe. So the driveway had been dug up on more than one occasion. Now the question should be, “why the continued patching and not a fix?”
To keep pressure off of the patch, it was presumed, the fire hydrant at the top of the hill was left turned on with a slow flow for a couple of days.
On many occasions in these neighborhoods, it has been reported that the water pressure is so low that flushing a toilet while washing clothes can be a problem.
Questions were being asked in the online Lakemont Watch group by the homeowners. On July 20, 2021, Paul Pearman asked if the neighborhood could get some assistance on the flooding issues. He attached photos showing the flooding.
To Commissioner Sean Frantom’s credit, he did reply with, “This area is a part of the $20 million in drainage line item of SPLOST 8 starts Jan. 2022. I will be getting a timeline from the director soon.”
Well, here it is April of 2023. Has anyone heard a timeline?
There are many, many areas that are in this state of infrastructure failure. Why have these needs not been fixed? Not just merely addressed with the same old jargon.
There have been and continue to be monies collected for this purpose. Property tax, sales tax, SPLOST, TIA and Stormwater fees. What and how are they being spent? Here is a good way to find out and that is an AUDIT.
Meanwhile, the drumbeat of dysfunction continues to beat its steady rhythm.
