(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column of those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
After reading that Augusta commissioners agreed to pay newly appointed Tax Commissioner Chris Johnson an estimated $55,000 severance package for resigning his old job as deputy tax commissioner and a $23,000 raise for his new job, I thought it must be an April Fool’s Day joke come early.
And when I read it was a unanimous vote, I was sure it was an April Fool’s joke, like some fake headline saying, “Mayor Hardie Davis Confesses to Ethics Violations and Wasting Taxpayers’ Money.” But Johnson’s severance package is no April Fool’s joke. It’s more like legalized theft of taxpayers’ money in my opinion. The Augusta Press reported that the commission was obliged to grant severance to certain city employees even if they resign or take another job in the government.
Obliged?
I’ve never seen anything that makes me think Augusta commissioners were obliged to do anything except what they wanted to do. And Johnson is in no way “obliged” to take it. I thought severance was designed to provide some degree of financial security to people who accept jobs with Augusta government and serve at the whim of commissioners. Recruiting quality people for the top jobs proved to be difficult once they were told they’d be working for 10 different commissioners who could fire them for no reason whatsoever.
But when did severance pay to any department director who’s worked for the city more than 10 minutes and resigns to take a job somewhere else became the norm?
No Foolin’
For all the praise mayoral hopeful Steven Kendrick likes to heap on himself for creating a modern and efficient tax office, the events of the past two weeks have shown us that underneath that façade is a politics-as-usual cesspool.
Kendrick and his successor, former chief deputy Johnson, clearly have put their own self-interests ahead of the taxpayers who fund the office. If Kendrick’s campaign for mayor is successful, we can expect more, just on a grander scale, as he says he’ll need an office budget larger than that of any mayor in the more than two-hundred-year history of this city.
It was insulting that Kendrick and Johnson literally exchanged jobs to enable Kendrick to keep a paycheck and his city-subsidized health insurance during his mayoral run. Once exposed, Kendrick said he’d give up the pay, but not the chief deputy position, something Johnson obviously supported.
Then Johnson sought to cash in himself by collecting about $70,000 in salary increase severance from the chief deputy’s position when he resigned as deputy tax commissioner.
There’s a lot of back scratching going on here. But this is not the end of it. When Kendrick loses the mayor’s election, Johnson will resign, allowing his non-working chief deputy Kendrick to be appointed Tax Commissioner. Then Kendrick will put Johnson back into his former position.
Steven Kendrick lacks the trust, truthfulness and transparency one expects from a mayor. His self-serving political scheming has also tarnished the reputation of a once-respected city employee, Chris Johnson.
But it Doesn’t Pass the Smell Test
Commissioner John Clarke said commissioners didn’t vote on the severance package per se but on Johnson’s resignation and pay increase because they were assured what they were doing was legal.
“They had it all worked out, so that everything was legal,” he said.
And who might “they” be?
“The powers that be had it all worked out,” Clarke said.
Well, mayoral candidate Marion Williams isn’t buying the “everything was legal” line.
“Steven thinks he’s smarter than everybody else,” Williams said. “But the city is setting itself up for a lawsuit because when IT Director Tameka Allen became interim administrator in 2014, she didn’t get a severance package from her IT position. She just wore two hats.
“They’re discriminating in my opinion,” said Williams. “If you do it for one, you’ve got to do it for everybody. And being an elected official has nothing to do with it. I want to see something in writing that says it does.
“Steven appointed his chief deputy to be tax commissioner, and he hired Steven back as chief deputy and didn’t consider anybody else. They needed to go through the process. The process says you consider two or three people and say, ‘This is the best one.’ The law says you got to do that. Other employees in the office may have wanted to be appointed, but they weren’t even considered. They could file a lawsuit.”
And Charlie Hannah, also a candidate for mayor, said he thinks commissioners got bad legal advice, or something was orchestrated that didn’t come out in the taxpayers’ best interest.
“It is truly unprecedented and to me perpetuates the negative stereotype that is applied to Augusta-Richmond County government,” Hannah said. “Either you’re skimming, incompetent or just don’t care.”
Match Game
Match the mayoral candidates to the descriptions below. Get a perfect score and win bragging rights.
Candidates:
1. Robert Ingham ____
2. Lori Myles _____
3. A.K. Hasan _____
4. Steven Kendrick ____
5. Marion Williams ____
6. Lucas Johnson _____
7. Donald Bradshaw _____
8. Garnett Johnson _____
9. Charlie Hannah _____
Clues:
A. Wanted to run for the District 6 commission position, but redistricting forced him to seek a juxtaposition.
B. Has run as a Democrat for so many offices and lost, he’s given the Democrat Party a bad name.
C. Nobody can figure out why he’s running, but he said it’s because he knows he can’t do any worse than any of the other candidates.
D. Thinks Pink will bring the key to the city, but that won’t do. Other colors are needed, especially blue.
E. The front-runner until he stumbled getting out of the starting block.
F. An Army reservist and IT specialist who wants to make Augusta the Cyber Capital of the World, although nobody had heard of him until he qualified.
G. Knows more about paper clips and Post-it notes than about the mayor’s office.
H. Speaks his mind even when you’ve heard it at least a hundred times before.
I. Running based on his accomplishments on the local school board. It’s a very short list.
Answers: 1-B; 2-D; 3-A; 4-E; 5-H; 6-C; 7-F; 8-G; 9-I
OK. Enough With the Audits Already!
For the fourth time, Augusta commissioners have rejected calls for auditing the entire government. Last week, they even rejected a motion for a forensic audit only of the mayor’s office, which has supposedly already been audited although even the auditor who did the audit said it wasn’t really an audit, if that makes any sense.
The city is audited every year by reputable firms who specialize in government auditing using standard accounting principles and practices, and Augusta has had no findings the past three years. That’s not to say there’s no waste, fraud and abuse. Just look at what the editor and reporter at The Augusta Press dug up, or I should say, pried out of uncooperative bureaucrats’ fists about Mayor Hardie Davis’ use and abuse of taxpayers’ money using Open Records Requests. It was costly, time consuming and stressful. But a forensic or in-depth audit of every transaction in the billion-dollar government could cost a half-a-billion dollars and take years to do. By the time it was finished, anybody who could be indicted, would be long gone or possibly dead. It just makes no sense.
Besides, enough commissioners to pass a motion to audit the entire government will never pass. Not ever.
If you’ve just got to audit something, audit the landfill. That place reeks of mismanagement.
No Mr. Green Jeans
Augusta Commissioner Sean Frantom might think twice before he declares war on trees in downtown Augusta again.
For some reason, Frantom seems to think trees are a problem. When the city engineering department presented the plans and water-colored renderings of the makeover of Broad Street a few weeks ago, Frantom said he had no problem with the plans except it showed too many trees downtown. He said Augusta couldn‘t take care of the trees it has now and didn’t need that many more.
Shortly thereafter during a commission meeting, Frantom proposed cutting the trees down at the Common because they obstruct the view to the stage. Parks and Recreation Director Maurice McDowell agreed but said they should meet with the Augusta Tree Commission and its president LeRoy Simkins first.
Enter Simkins, who said he couldn’t see how anybody could come up with such an insane idea as cutting down 14 large healthy oak trees that provide shade and soften the appearance of the Common. And so McDowell and other city officials met with Simkins and the Tree Commission, accompanied by everybody who’s anybody from the world of horticulture and gardening in Augusta. And, as Simkins characterized it afterward, it was a “lively” meeting.
Nothing official was decided, but suffice it to say, they won’t be cutting the trees down. Instead, the non-profit Trees for Augusta is replacing two missing trees at the Common.
Now if somebody could just replace the missing bricks on Riverwalk.
Strong American Heritage
Former Augusta Commissioner Jerry Brigham’s wife, Debbie, has been busy tracing Jerry’s genealogy and found his ancestor Thomas Brigham, a Puritan who arrived in Cambridge, Mass., in 1635. Being a descendant of Thomas Brigham qualified Jerry Brigham to join the Society of Founders and Patriots this year. To be a member of that prestigious society requires you to have a direct line using only your father’s or your mother’s line. And to be a Founder, your ancestor had to have arrived in the Colonies in the early 1600s. You also must have an American patriot in that same line. Jerry’s patriot ancestor was Abijah Brigham, a lieutenant in the Sudbury Massachusetts Militia, which qualified Jerry to become a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
The Sudbury Militia marched to Concord to protect the supplies there after the Shot Heard ‘round the World was fired in Lexington in April 1775.
The Brighams came to Georgia from Massachusetts in in 1820.
Jerry Brigham also became a member of the Jamestown Society this year. His ancestor was William Clairborne, who was a councillor, treasurer and secretary of state in Jamestown.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
