(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column of those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
Augusta mayoral candidates Donald Bradshaw, Lucas Johnson and Steven Kendrick say their top priority if elected would be to restore the public’s trust and confidence in the government.
They were among eight of nine candidates for mayor who spoke Thursday during an online forum hosted by the Alpha Kappa Sorority, Zeta Xi Chapter.
“My top priority would be to establish a sense of trust in the mayor’s office that has recently been lost, as well as trust for city government as a whole,” said candidate Johnson.
Top priorities for other candidates include cleaning up the city, eliminating blight, creating a strong partnership with the local school system and changing the name of the city from Augusta-Richmond County to Augusta.
“My first action would be to change the name of our city to Augusta,” said A.K. Hasan. ”Right now, when you read the charter, it refers to the name of our city as being Augusta hyphen Richmond. Or Augusta-Richmond County. The Augusta National spends millions of dollars a year promoting the name Augusta. James Brown, our former entertainer, told the world his hometown was Augusta, Ga. So, we are internationally known as Augusta and not as Augusta-Richmond. So, this confusion in terms of how we market ourselves being either-or is not good. It hurts us economically, and it does not allow us to promote ourselves with a single voice.”
Hasan said he suspects the lack of growth since consolidation might be attributed to being Augusta-Richmond County instead of just plain Augusta, which is just about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
Charlie Hannah said a strong partnership with the Richmond County School System is greatly needed to help develop Augusta’s workforce which local contractors have reported as being not so good.
The very first thing Garnett Johnson said he would do as mayor is launch a public service campaign to clean up the city.
“One of the complaints I hear all the time around the city is our roadways are littered with trash,” he said. “To me, it creates a challenge in recruiting economic development opportunities.”
Marion Williams said he would start with the blighted properties. Williams specifically mentioned abandoned properties that have been boarded up for 25 years.
“We need to get the Marshal’s Department and Code Enforcement to enforce those laws,” he said. “I agree with Mr. Johnson about a cleanup. I think we need to go back to twice-a-week garbage pickup.”
Candidate Lori Myles did not answer the question because she was fashionably late.
Should a Champagne Mayor Have to Live on a Beer Budget?
Former Augusta Mayor Bob Young submitted this question that forum moderator Dee Griffin asked the candidates to answer: Do you need a budget of a half-million dollars to maintain an office charged by law with presiding at meetings and signing documents?
Interestingly, the candidates who’ve been elected officials said they thought the mayor’s office needed that much or maybe even more, while the political novices said they didn’t think so.
“First of all, I don’t agree with how the mayor’s position has been interpreted,” said Hasan. “I’ve read the charter, and I think people underestimate the power the mayor has. And if the mayor does the job as I understand it to be, $500,000 may not actually be enough because the mayor has the job of overseeing the implementation of all the ordinances and policies that the commission approves. And he needs qualified staff to help to research things.”
Kendrick said he was more aligned with Hasan on the subject than with some of the others.
“I think that a mayor’s job is actually broader, as has been discussed,” he said. “I think constituent service is a great need in our community, and if you’re going to be able to deliver, that means you’re going to need qualified staff. And I think that of the mayor’s $500,000 budget, I think $50,000 of that will be salaries of the five employees that work there. About $100,000 of that budget is for economic development projects and the rest of it is for operational expenses. And so, to lessen that budget would lessen economic development, lessen the personnel to serve citizens.”
Williams said as the next mayor, he would look at the budget and possibly cut it, if necessary, but wouldn’t want to cut it until he knew what the actual line items were.
Garnett Johnson said he would not need a $500,000 budget to run the mayor’s office or a gas card or a county vehicle, and he’s going to pay his own travel expenses.
“I believe the leadership requires taking bold steps, and public service requires being a public servant,” Johnson said. “It’s giving back more than it’s taking. And that’s what I plan to do. It’s my goal to shrink the mayor’s budget instead of grow it.”
Bradshaw said he wouldn’t need $500,000 in the mayor’s office. Lucas Johnson said he wouldn’t either, or a city vehicle.
The Elephant in the Room
In response to the question, “What is your specific plan to attract businesses to Augusta to make people want to move to Augusta?” Garnett Johnson said, “My specific plan is we have to grow economic opportunities for our young people to want to move here. … I’m going to address the elephant in the room because it’s a relevant conversation. Families don’t move to Augusta-Richmond County because we have a poor school system. We have a poor school system. And everyone acknowledges that. And I can speak to that totally because I grew up in an area that was low income, high poverty, high crime, and I had a mother who stayed engaged with me, and she didn’t leave it up to the teachers to teach and to discipline me. So, until we deal with that elephant, we’re not going to move this city forward.”
Unanswered Questions
Former Mayor Young asked these questions in the online Chat Box during the forum that were not posed to the candidates:
– “For Charlie Hannah: Please tell us how many schools has the state classified as ‘failing’ while you have been serving on the Board of Education.”
– “Mr. Kendrick: Do you feel it is proper for the taxpayers to subsidize your lifestyle while you run for mayor while serving as deputy tax commissioner? Even if not drawing a salary, you are still drawing benefits.”
Richmond County Marshal Ramone Lamkin responded to Young’s question, writing, “Actually, he has to pay for the employee portion. I know because I had to do the same thing when I ran for Marshal.”
Young: “Then he should COBRA and pay all of it. A subsidy is a subsidy.”
Change the Charter?
Candidates were also asked to give a yes or no answer about whether they believed the city charter needs to be changed to give the mayor authority beyond presiding over meetings or signing documents.
Donald Bradshaw: No.
Hannah: No
Hasan: No
Garnett Johnson: No
Lucas Johnson: Yes
Kendrick: Yes
Myles: Yes
Williams: No
There were many other questions such as whether the government should be audited, which most said it should, as well as “What should the city do about Regency Mall?” which I will report on next week, God willing. Meanwhile,
Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows
Bob and Gwen Young and Republican political strategist Dave Barbee have endorsed Marion Williams.
“We know who he is, and we know what he’ll do,” said Barbee.
Young said, “He knows more about the operations of city government because he’s been doing it for 16 years. He understands what the limited role of the mayor is in the consolidated government. And he meets the three T’s for public service. He’s truthful, trustworthy and transparent.”
Oh, What a Tangled Web!
Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. is on Chapter 23 of “Politics 101,” titled “Make Yourself the Victim When You’ve Been Found Out.”
The Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission voted Monday to forward Davis’ political campaign case and the 2018 billboard case to the Office of State Administration of Hearings for further inquiry. Davis says he’s being held responsible for the actions of Regency Mall owners Cardinal Management, which paid for billboards urging voters to vote for building a new James Brown arena on mall property. The billboards were attributed to an unregistered ballot committee known as “Concerned Citizens of Richmond County.”
“I am now held responsible for their action because the ethics commission has not been able to make contact with Cardinal Management,” Davis said.
Davis contends he is the object of a political hit job. But Republican strategist Dave Barbee, who filed the original complaint about the billboards said that when he filed the complaint, he didn’t know who “Concerned Citizens of Richmond County” was.
“How could it be a hit job when I had no idea who it would hit?” he asked.
So, the question for Davis is, “Why did you tell us when questions about the billboards came up that you didn’t know anything about them? And now you’re telling us the only thing you did was respond via email that you liked the design for one before it was put up which raises the question, ‘Which lie do you want us to believe?’”
And we haven’t even mentioned that you used taxpayers’ money to pay an Atlanta consultant for the drawing of an arena that was reproduced on one of the billboards you said you didn’t know anything about.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
