Augusta commissioners voted to affirm the $1.3 million purchase of the Weed School at a special called meeting on Jan. 30 and later discussed the land bank structure in committee.
It was determined in a closed door session that the commission had discussed and agreed on negotiations to purchase the property, located at 2403 Mt. Auburn St., but had never specifically voted to allow the purchase.
The Augusta Department of Housing and Community Development (ADHCD) closed on the property in November of 2023 and then turned it over to the Augusta Land Bank Authority.
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ADHCD Director Hawthorne Welcher told the commission he was satisfied that the sales price was appropriate even though the city paid $1 million over the appraised value and an environmental study shows that the building is riddled with contaminants such as asbestos.
District 3 Commissioner Catherine McKnight was the lone no vote on affirming the purchase.
The Administrative Services Committee, which met later in the day, brought forward Augusta Tax Commissioner Chris Johnson, who also serves as Land Bank Authority chairman, to discuss the overall structure of the Augusta Land Bank Authority; however, embattled Land Bank Director Shawn Edwards was not brought forward to answer questions.
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Johnson’s answers to commissioners were riddled with contradictions.
When asked if the Land Bank was operating as a development organization that duplicated the services of the ADHCD and the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), at first, Johnson said no, but then backtracked.
“The Land Bank’s role is to return blighted properties to the tax rolls and state code gives a wide range of latitude to get that done,” Johnson said.
Johnson was then asked if he and Edwards went to Tampa, Fla. to meet with potential developers of the old Curtis Baptist School property when the DDA was already working on development of the property. His reply was that, yes, he and Edwards met with the developers, but that he was not aware that the DDA was already working on a project at the location.
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When it came to how many properties the Land Bank had returned to the tax rolls, Johnson first said 39 properties over a two-year span of time and later that figure became over 40 properties per year.
At one point, Johnson confirmed that the Land Bank keeps all the proceeds for land sales, but then claimed the Land Bank only made roughly $20,000 off of $3.7 million in sales.
There is no way that the commission can verify any of the claims because the Land Bank hires its own auditors and keeps a private general fund.
“The Land Bank is an outside authority. We govern our own money,” Johnson said.
When asked about the structure of the Land Bank Authority governing board, which consists of a majority of government employees of some form, Johnson said the set up was common throughout the state; however, when pressed, he could not name, off the top of his head, another city with the same board structure.
Johnson acknowledged that the Land Bank has received from the city half of the $1 million in American Rescue Plan funds to demolish blighted buildings, but no one on the panel asked if any demolition has occurred over the past year.
District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom asked if the Land Bank Authority had disciplined Edwards over racist texts he sent that made it into the public record, and Johnson replied that the personnel committee of the Land Bank Authority had not met recently, so Edwards had not been disciplined.
District 10 Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle followed up asking if the authority had discussed Edwards lavish spending, to which Johnson said the personnel committee only meets “as needed.”
Guilfoyle replied to that, saying: “It might be needed.”
The committee took no action other than voting to accept Johnson’s remarks as information.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
