For unknown reasons, the local and state political establishment has circled the wagons around Sen. Harold Jones as they did with former Mayor Hardie Davis Jr., and the time has come to put an end to the practice.
Good people do not want to get into politics because they feel they will be painted with the same brush as the grifters currently in office and that is a shame.
When it came to Davis, despite ample proof of his out-of-control spending, almost constant travel on the taxpayer’s dime and operating a slush fund under the guise of a charity, the commission did not have the stomach to allow for a full audit. Also, despite numerous lawsuits and ethics investigations, the state attorney general’s office has not engaged on the issue.
Davis has signaled that he is waiting for the heat to die down before making his grand political comeback, and why not? With the exception of his personal life, he got away unscathed.
In the case of Jones, first it was determined that he had been given a cushy $85,000 a year job where he is only required to work five hours a week. The entire thing reeked of Jones being paid an illegal gratuity, but not one elected official would say so.
Then, it was determined that Jones’ law firm has billed the city of Augusta for work to the tune of nearly $877,000 since 2017, and people just shrugged.
Now it comes out that Jones’ law partner, Randy Frails, has sued the Board of Regents, a state agency, multiple times. This appears to be a violation of the professional standards code of the Georgia Bar because the two attorneys are in partnership, and Jones collects a paycheck from the state.
Throughout all of this, Jones refuses to speak to the media and to the constituents who elected him to office and pay his paycheck(s).
Political figures here locally seem to feel like they belong to an exclusive club and do not dare to speak out against other members. It is easier to get information out of the notoriously secretive Augusta National than it is to get the local political club members to talk.
The responsibility has now fallen on citizens to take action and report Jones to the State Bar. Perhaps the State Bar will then sift through the web of Jones’ financial dealings to determine just what is what.
Remember, all it took was one scorned woman to come forward and lodge a complaint against Sammie Sias, and now the disgraced former commissioner is looking at spending his golden years in federal prison. Imagine the consequences if those in power grew a spine and started to speak out and take action when wrongdoing is blatantly occurring.
