(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
When I wrote a column for the Valdosta newspaper way back when, sometimes the ideas wouldn’t come and then I’d turn to the city editor and say, “Help me, I can’t think of anything to write about.”
If Tim, the features writer, was there he’d say, “Write about dogs.”
Opinion
Tim had a framed cartoon of a man with wads of paper on the floor beside his chair and his wife standing in the doorway saying, “Write about dogs.”
I used to stop by Tim’s desk and pick up the cartoon, and we’d have a good laugh.
Tim did write about dogs, though. He wrote about a three-legged dog named Sarge who rode on a wrecker truck. Tim got a big kick out of Sarge and wrote about him for weeks.
He was also going to write a story about a Billy Goat in Lake Park who jumped up and down on a bed so he could look at himself in a mirror. But Tim left the paper before he could get around to it. I suppose it’s probably just as well because nobody would have believed him anyway.
I never wrote about dogs in Valdosta, but I did write a 30-inch story about a dog cemetery, complete with the names of the dogs and epitaphs their owners put on their tombstones. It brought tears to many an eye, especially mine, while I was writing it.
I do write about dogs now on occasion with captions like “Barkrupt,” “Skunked” and “Rainbow Bridge” but not too often because, unlike Valdosta, Augusta has so much political news, I seldom need to write about dogs.
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The Water Might be Warmer on the Other Side of the River
If I were part of the Augusta Rowing Club, I’d be careful. It looks like they’re coming after you like they came after Gold Cross EMS and the Aiken-Augusta Swim League that uses the Aquatics Center.
That’s what came to mind when I heard new District 2 Commissioner Stacy Pulliam quizzing General Counsel Wayne Brown about an old lease between Augusta and the rowing club that called for the rowing club to be responsible for all maintenance and repairs to the Boathouse.
I don’t know how Pulliam found that lease among the reams of agenda backup papers a courier delivers to commissioners most every week, but she did, which was all the more remarkable because she helped defeat a proposed Gold Cross EMS contract in January because she hadn’t had time to read it and had questions. Never mind that the city and Gold Cross had been negotiating the proposed contract for a year-and-a-half and the final draft had been attached to their backup papers earlier.
Anyway, at Tuesday’s committee meeting, Pulliam questioned General Counsel Wayne Brown about the lease.
“With the lease agreement dated July 17, 1996, is Augusta responsible financially in whole or in part for making repairs to the Boathouse?” she asked. “What portion, according to our lease, Attorney Brown, what part, if any, is Augusta-Richmond County responsible for as it pertains to the Boathouse and fees for estimates for those repairs?”
“Ms. Pulliam, the lease does not hold Augusta responsible for such repairs, and of course, whatever estimates the city has gotten are not binding on Augusta,” Brown said.
Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle seemed taken aback and said, “Normally, they would store their boats up under the deck, but everything above the deck is the responsibility of Augusta-Richmond County.”
“Well, for some reason, the lease says the lessee shall make such repairs as necessary on the leased property,” Brown said. “That’s not a customary position you will find in a lease, but in this particular lease, that’s what the rowing club agreed to do.”
Guilfoyle pressed on, asking Brown whether the rowing club was responsible for the water damage from broken pipes during the recent freeze.
“Help me out because we’re pointing fingers by the wording of this document, but Augusta holds responsibility as well.”
From Pillars to Posts
Brown replied that the rowing club was responsible and obligated for repairs to the roof, the downspouts and structural parts of the leased property.
“I will add that although the lessee assumed the responsibility, the lease does not prevent Augusta from assuming some of those responsibilities,” Brown said. “Augusta could make these repairs if it so desires.”
The discussion was postponed for two weeks.
It seems to me the city doesn’t want to be responsible for anything, from cutting the grass, to keeping the streetlights on and maintaining city buildings.
Meanwhile, rowing club coach Brad Holdren said he knew about the lease but was blindsided by Brown’s interpretation.
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“I can’t imagine a lawyer or anybody signing a lease with that clause in it,” he said.
The rowing club’s law firm was the Fletcher Group, Holdren said. He didn’t know who the city’s lawyer was in 1996. The club’s copy is in their office in the Boathouse, but they can’t get to it because building is dangerous, and they’re locked out.
“We’re in a wait-and-see mode right now,” he said. “We’re waiting for a meeting in two weeks.”
But as for whether the club is responsible for the water damage from the freeze, Holdren said, “That was them that shut the heat off. Not us.”
Meanwhile, the club is exploring their options, but paying “north of $3 million” for repairing the Boathouse isn’t one of them.
“That’s out of the question,” he said.
Holdren came to Augusta in 2015, and most of the club’s members weren’t even born when the lease was signed.
Ne Laissons Pas Trainer Les Choses
Pulliam and other commissioners got their noses out of joint because they weren’t consulted by Mayor Garnett Johnson before he submitted a resolution asking for a referendum that would change the city charter to give the mayor a vote.
See, he’s smarter than anybody knew because he didn’t want it to get bogged down in negativity and stalling tactics.
So, Pulliam placed an item on a commission committee agenda last week that proposed forming a study committee, hiring the Carl Vinson Institute of Government to conduct a study and having citizen “charettes,” which is a French word for “cart.” The cart goes around and picks up the final design and implementation plan from an interdisciplinary team. Sometimes it’s full of manure.
Anyway, before Pulliam could get really wound up, Commissioner Alvin Mason who’s more and more become the voice of reason on the board, shut her down.
“What we have in place right now is steps that can be taken right now,” he said.
Citizens count on their commissioners to find out relevant information and take it back to them at district breakfasts and meetings, he said.
“We bring such things to the forefront,” he said. “But at the very core we have to understand citizens will absolutely get an opportunity to weigh in. There’s absolutely nothing that is being done usurping them from this process. And they have that autonomy and authority to say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ If they say ‘yes,’ the majority rules. If they say ‘no,’ we continue to operate like we operate.”
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Augusta has had conversations with the Carl Vinson Institute on numerous occasions, and a Blue-Ribbon Committee studied the charter and didn’t want to give the mayor a vote or change anything, he said.
“My final point to this is ourselves,” he said. “The citizens have complained ad nauseum in terms of the government, how it is ran, at least since I came on the commission, so we can’t continue to do the same things and expect different results.”
Commissioner Jordan Johnson chimed in to say he’d never had a constituent call him and say, “Commissioner, we need to change that charter!” but they have called him to complain about garbage not being picked up.
“And that homeless man is still sleeping on a bench,” he said, before launching into a diatribe about commissioners playing politics.
So, see what we have there in Johnson? A most political politician complaining about others playing politics.
Then, lo and behold, Commissioner Francine Scott who’s hardly spoken more than three words in as many years, recently went off to some national county government conference and came back an expert on charter changes.
“I have been in talks with several counties all over the United States, and they have had charter changes,” she said. “We can have a Blue-Ribbon Committee and have people come forward like we did with the discrimination ordinance.”
Now if everybody’s impressed with Scott’s new-found knowledge and goes along with her suggestion, she won’t have to talk again for the entire balance of her term.
Out But Still Hanging In
WFXG-TV did a story last week about former Augusta elected officials having had access to city email accounts well after leaving office.
They were former Mayor Hardie Davis and commissioners Ben Hasan, Dennis Williams and John Clarke. Clarke had access but did not send any emails after leaving office, while the others did, according to WFXG.
Clarke’s, Williams’ and Hasan’s email accounts were deactivated Feb. 8. Davis’ email access was disabled Jan. 12, but is still active with all incoming messages being forwarded to Mayor Garnett Johnson.
In my opinion, Hasan’s forwarded email about Gold Cross EMS complaints indicate he was still trying to pull strings and using city email to do it.
On Wed., Jan 18, Hasan forwarded an Open Records Request he’d received from the city clerk in November about ambulance service complaints. The forwarded email was sent to two recipients whose names were redacted.
The November email from the clerk to commissioners concerned an Open Records Request from East Central Georgia Region 6 Council Chairman John Graham for ambulance service complaints in Augusta from Jan. 1, 2022, to the date of the request and included those from city departments, 911, the fire department, administrator, clerk and commissioners.
In my opinion, the evil forces were gearing up to sandbag Gold Cross EMS, which they most certainly did.
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Everybody Needs to Wake Up
Two deputies’ attack on an inmate at the Richmond County jail that led to their arrests and firings was a “wake-up call for Sheriff Richard Roundtree.
The deputies’ arrests bring to 14 the number arrested since January 2022.
“We do have a problem,” Roundtree said during a news conference Wednesday. “That tells me we need to go back and look at something that we’re missing. This is a wake-up call for us.”
The sheriff might be trying to do something good, but I’m concerned it took him so long to wake up.
Actually, the entire country needs to wake up about crime and criminals and support law enforcement, or soon when you call 911 nobody will be there to wake up and take the call.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
