(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
Suspended Augusta Commissioner Sammie Sias walked to the stand like a peacock and testified at his own trial Friday against the advice of his attorneys, and when it was over, he was plucked.
It took the jury just over two hours to find him guilty on both counts of destroying evidence material to a federal investigation and lying to an FBI agent in 2019.
Sias was accused of deleting files – 7,400 of them to be exact – from his computer a few minutes after he was served with a grand jury subpoena for bank records related to SPLOST 6 spending at the Jamestown Community Center.
A lot of people think that all politicians are liars. In this case, a jury of Sias’ peers made it official.
A Birdseye View
“So he went up there like a peacock,” said former Augusta Commissioner Moses Todd, who attended all four days of the trial. “The defense attorney gave him softball questions, so Sammie could talk about how great he was.
“The attorney asked him a question that should have been answered ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and Sammie gave him one of those cocky presentations.
“So, when the defense attorney asked him a question he knew the prosecution was going to ask him which was, ‘Why did you transfer $131,000 of SPLOST money into your personal bank account? Sammie’s answer was long. He said, ‘We learned a lesson from SPLOST 5 at Jamestown. We didn’t have a tax ID and weren’t tax exempt like the city, so I transferred the money from the Sandridge SPLOST account to my personal account so I could get the Lowe’s military discount.’
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“When the prosecution got up there, and he started giving long answers, she told him she didn’t want to hear all of that. He was giving a presentation on how great he was, and she told him to give short answers.”
Todd said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara Lyons shocked him when she said she knew Sias lied to the FBI agent about having turned over all of the records when she listened to the taped conversation between Sias and the agent.
“He started stuttering. She said she knew he was scared because he started stuttering,” Todd said. “So basically, she said that’s the way she knew he was lying.
“When the defense got up there, they talked about the Bill of Rights.”
“When the jury went out, I thought they had him on both counts,” Todd continued. “And I feel the taxpayers got justice. Don’t blame Sandridge. Blame Sammie Sias.”
It should be noted that Todd campaigned for a challenger to Sias’ District 4 seat in the runup to two elections.
Sias will remain free on bond until sentencing. He said he doesn’t know whether he’ll appeal the verdict.
“It Could Have Been Avoided”
When asked his opinion about the jury’s verdict, former Commissioner Marion Williams, who complained publicly for years about Sias having complete control of the Jamestown Community Center and being the only commissioner with a key to the city owned facility, said he didn’t want to kick a man when he’s down.
Sias was president of the Sandridge Community Association which received $150,000 in SPLOST 6 money in 2014 to renovate the Jamestown center. City officials did not oversee the work there nor require Sias to submit receipts for anything he bought or had done there.
“I think it could have been avoided when I first started talking about it,” Williams said. “So, it’s unfortunate it had to come to this. When he first got on the commission, I started addressing it because the rules say you can’t use public money and be an elected official.
“As an elected official, you’ve got to keep your hands off taxpayers’ money. I didn’t know how he was using it, but I knew it was against the rules. I asked for a key and never did get it.”
Commissioner John Clarke said, “The federal prosecutors are much like the IRS. When they go after you, they always get their man.”
Commissioner Catherine McKnight said elected officials need to be held accountable, and it seems like Sias has been.
“It just goes to show that at the end of the day, if you do wrong, you’re going to get caught,” she said. “We work for the taxpayers. We need to be doing a better job of handling their money. Politicians get a bad rap. We need to change that.”
Former Commissioner Jerry Brigham said he thought the jury did the right thing.
“I was pleased the jury took an interest in what the prosecution said and listened to Sias’ story and made their decision, and I agree with their decision,” Brigham said.
It Won’t Stop. A Cautionary Tale.
Political consultant Dave Barbee said the case against Sias was simple for the prosecutors.
“All they had to do was prove Sias lied to the FBI and that he destroyed evidence,” Barbee said. “Sias had no defense and admitted as much in his testimony when cross examined. The big problem is with the Augusta Commission’s continual authorization of funds to organizations with no accountability. Until there is a true oversight of the disbursement of taxpayers; money, it will not stop. We will now have to wait and see whether the mayor will receive the same scrutiny as Mr. Sias.”
Sometimes Hard Work, Like Crime, Don’t Pay
Sias’ scorned lover Willa Hilton, who started it all with a seven-page letter to Augusta commissioners accusing Sias of a variety of misdeeds such as pocketing sales-tax money, creating false invoices, mistreating children, using alcohol and watching porn, among other things, did not testify at the trial. However, her letter was forwarded to the FBI by Commissioner Brandon Garrett.
Near the end of the trial, Lyons said no one was saying Sias was a bad man and didn’t do some good work at the Jamestown center.
“Sometimes good, hard-working people do illegal things,” Lyons said.
Sias was hardworking as a community volunteer. But if he didn’t do anything wrong, why did he destroy files and then lie about it?
Speaking of files, I wonder whether the next saga will involve the mayor and his missing receipts.
It’s Not the Money, Stupid!
In 2016, the Augusta employee vacancy rate was 18%. This year, it’s above 25%, Augusta interim Administrator Takiyah Douse told city commissioners Tuesday.
The statistic was part of interim city Administrator Takiyah Douse’s presentation about the city’s “Path Forward,“ her plan for improving employee retention by doubling the cost of living increase given the past two years and giving one-time retention bonuses of either $1,000, $2000 or $2,500 in October.
Employees making from $50,001 to $70,000 a year would receive $1,000 bonuses. Those making from $35,001 and $50,000 would receive $2,000 bonuses and those making $30,000 to $35,000 would receive $2,500, under Douse’s plan.
Plans are in the works for a new pay classification and compensation study costing around $250,000. The last pay study was done in 2016 and implemented in 2018.
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So, in 2018, most of the city’s workforce got raises, or as they say, “salary adjustments,” which sometimes means their pay is brought up to that of employees in similar positions in entirely different city departments. During former Administrator Odie Donald’s tenure last year, salary adjustments, also known as “employee retention packages” the Utilities Department and Engineering totaled $2 million.
In 2019 and 2020, city employees received 1.5% cost of living raises, costing taxpayers about $500,000. For this year, Douse proposes increasing that to 3% which will almost triple the cost to $1.9 million.
The 3% cost of living adjustments are expected to be paid for through sales-tax money. Money for the bonuses will be baked into the 2023 annual budget.
And don’t forget, last year, city employees and sheriff’s deputies received $6 million in raises from American Rescue Plan money. And the minimum salary was increased to $15 an hour, with $30,000 a year being the goal for the minimum annual pay.
Some causes for employee turnover cited by Douse were little opportunity for growth and advancement; outdated techniques or products; lack of engagement; and inflexibility in the workplace.
So, let me get this straight. The Augusta employee vacancy rate has increased by almost 8 percent in six years, and employees are leaving despite receiving regular raises, bonuses, great health insurance benefits; two more holidays a year – a mental health day and Juneteenth – bringing the total to around two-weeks of paid holidays a year.
I think Commissioner Sean Frantom is onto something when he said officials need to know why there’s so much turnover, which they could get a feeling for by conducting exit interviews.
“It’s going to continue to be a problem until we identify the source,” he said.
(How about weeding out incompetent managers who run off good employees with experience and the knowledge to make things work, and hiring based on qualifications, not kinfolks, cronies and color?)
Commissioner Brandon Garrett asked City Attorney Wayne Brown whether the bonuses would be legal, and Brown said, “It could be achieved with different wording.”
Frantom said he’d like to see the bonuses given in a “more tiered approach” than as one-time payments.
“Is there a way to add a caveat that once you accept this one-time bonus you agree to stay an additional year?” Garrett asked.
“Give us time to look at that,” Brown said.
Before the committee unanimously approved Douse’s plan forward, Commissioner Ben Hasan said they were moving in the right direction.
“We lost a lot of great employees the last two years, with industry and other governments picking them off,” he said.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
