Some Augusta commissioners continued to rib Mayor Garnett Johnson Tuesday over his request to move part of a 2023 budget surplus into a 2024 line item for capital, such as office furniture.
But the commission, including one of his bigger critics, approved the ask Tuesday.
The city Finance Committee recommended approval for what was determined to be a $25,000 request last week, although some commissioners had questions that resurfaced Tuesday.
Johnson, who campaigned on fiscal conservatism, said he’d been unaware of how much money he hadn’t spent from his 2023 budget during the budgeting process, which concluded in November. So, he sought a way to keep some of it.
The mayor’s office budget, then around $550,000, funds staff salaries and benefits, memberships, travel and the like.
Johnson said the spending comes at no new burden to taxpayers and that he’s led the charge to save the city money, as seen by the amount of funds his office did not spend last year.
In extensive discussion that continued Tuesday, Finance Director Donna Williams said typically a department’s leftover funds are returned to the city’s overall fund balance rather than staying with the department.
For Johnson to keep all or part of the surplus for his office’s use in the new budget year requires a budget adjustment, she said.
Asked if the request could be considered a carryover or something other than a budget increase, Williams said no. Carryovers typically refer to encumbrances a government has already committed to make, she said.
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“It’s the reason most departments spend all their budgets that they have before the end of the year,” Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle said, adding Tuesday the discussion “reeked” of politics.
Commissioners Jordan Johnson, Francine Scott and Tony Lewis asked about the handouts other departments will seek when they learn of the opportunity.
“We have to be prepared to support their ask as well,” Johnson said.
Lewis said Tuesday he wasn’t in the chamber during the Finance Committee discussion last week.
“It’s strange to me that with the mayor being in that office for one year and in January, they see that they need new furniture,” Lewis said. “Who knows furniture better than the mayor?”
Lewis said the approval will open a “pandora’s box” for other department heads to request funds.
The mayor, who owns an office furniture business, said Tuesday he might not use the money for furniture and might not spend it at all.
The existing furniture was acquired around the time Augusta Municipal Building was remodeled, around 2014, and prior mayor Hardie Davis would have used it during his two terms.
Commissioner Catherine Smith McKnight said “we can bat the ball back and forth all day long,” but the mayor’s office needed new furniture.
“Other departments that I’ve been into have some dad-gum nice furniture,” she said.
Her motion to approve passed 7-2 with Lewis and Commissioner Alvin Mason opposed. Commissioner Stacy Pulliam was absent Tuesday.
Augusta mayor’s office budgets
- 2024 $570,070
- 2023 $554,020
- 2022 $554,020
- 2021 $486,050
- 2020 $453,030
- 2019 $419,090
- 2018 $412,140
- 2017 $409,840
- 2016 $308,950
From 2017-2021 Mayor Hardie Davis had a separate line item of $38,870 allocated for the My Brother’s Keeper project. In 2014, Mayor Deke Copenhaver’s budget of $605,701 included a $300,000 allocation for the Augusta Regional Collaboration Project.
Source: Augusta Budgetwatch tool https://appweb2.augustaga.gov/budget/watch/budgetwatch.html
