The communications firm hoped to ease minds during ongoing streetscape work downtown made an appearance before the Augusta Commission Tuesday.
Engineering and Environmental Services Director Hameed Malik said the city had performed an emergency procurement to bring Paquin PR aboard, due to the urgency of the situation.
“This was one of the really pressing demands, to have a firm on board who’s actually experienced and that’s what they do,” Malik said. This will “help us to focus more on the construction.”
Maitland, Fla.-based Paquin specializes in high-stakes communications and has represented numerous government entities, said founder and CEO Megan Paquin.
The firm conducted a listening session last week and downtown business owners voiced extensive feedback about the city’s management of the massive project.
Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Guilfoyle said the business owners’ No. 2 concern was “communication.” The first was parking, he said. Many have complained about not knowing when the construction will start or stop.
“What we have is this company that’s going to be at the table every meeting that we have, and they’re going to get the word out in the quick and proper fashion,” he said.
Paquin said the firm had adjusted its scope of work to reduce its monthly budget from $20,000 to just over $16,000, a price that might not include some travel.
Malik put the initial budget for the agenda item at $315,000, while the timeframe is currently 15 months, he said.
Interim Commissioner Tanya Barnhill-Turnley, who owns a marketing business, praised Malik for hiring the company.
“My hat goes off to you for having the wherewithal to hire a professional company,” she said, but asked Paquin if the budget was sufficient. “What happens when the money runs out?” she said.
Commissioner Don Clark said downtown business owners need more feedback, including about the end of the project.
“They want to know that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
Mayor’s office had lead role in drafting charter resolution
In response to community concerns about the formation of Augusta’s Charter Review Committee, Commissioner Francine Scott continued a push Tuesday to find out who wrote the resolution creating the committee.
In response to an open records request, Scott said she found correspondence about it between the mayor’s office, Interim General Counsel Jim Plunkett and officials with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the UGA consulting group hired to facilitate the charter review.
“I ask again today how was it generated, who generated it and who gave the authorization for the mayor’s office to be involved in it?” Scott said.
Mayor Garnett Johnson said the institute had been the source of the language while his Chief of Staff Jasmine Sims assembled it into a resolution.
“Carl Vinson provided us not only with a draft but they also presented us with other resolutions that were created by other cities,” he said. The resulting document was “simply copy and paste based on other resolutions from other communities.”
The commission voted specifically against allowing current and former elected officials to be involved in the charter review process. Commissioner Tanya Barnhill-Turnley had to step down as vice chairman when she was named interim commissioner.
And then the commission had “an elected official’s office leading the charge on it,” Commissioner Jordan Johnson said.
Commissioner Stacy Pulliam asked Sims who directed her to copy and paste the resolution together.
“That was a continuous directive that came from the Carl Vinson Institute in our office,” Sims said.
Barnhill-Turnley said the experience was “a cautionary tale” about reading documents before approving them. The commission approved an earlier version of the resolution unanimously.
The behind-the-scenes maneuvering isn’t helping the effort succeed, Johnson said. “Transparency is key in this process and there’s been very little of it along the way,” he said.
Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice defended the mayor and attorney, saying the questioning commissioners were trying to “embarrass” them and delay the process.
While the people want a new charter, “from what I’m hearing today we’ve got folks out there that are wanting to hold this up,” she said.
