Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. is in a tailspin, and his tomfoolery is front and center for Augusta to see.
In a hastily thrown-together press release that barely gave anyone time to show up, Davis referred to allegations of him doing anything wrong as “tomfoolery.”
The state Ethics Commission didn’t think it was tomfoolery when evidence was found that Davis was involved in a “dark money” campaign. Neither did they think it was “tomfoolery” when the second ethics complaint was filed against his campaign.
After all, hard evidence has been provided that not only did Davis know who was behind the campaign, he was involved in some capacity, and not only did he know where the renderings of the Regency Mall came from, he paid for them out of city funds himself.
The mayor has chosen to lie to the public on camera twice, claiming he did not know who funded the dark money campaign and saying that he was not involved. All of this despite hard, physical evidence to the contrary. The mayor’s behavior is foolish and silly, which is the definition of tomfoolery.
At his press conference, Davis also failed to address the second ethics investigation or to answer any questions from the media.
The documents related to the first ethics investigation are clear. Davis’ name is all over campaign emails, and his office paid for the mock-ups or renderings of the proposed building that ultimately ended up on the billboards.
Invoices from the architectural firm The Sizemore Group for renderings of the building and the Mayor’s Office’s own check ledger refute Davis’ denial of being involved in the dark money campaign.
Davis has now switched tactics and is attempting to paint himself as the victim of a partisan witch hunt.
If Davis is a victim, he is a victim of his own devices.
In the midst of the investigations, Davis’ jetted off to the Middle Eastern country Qatar for a week to discuss climate change with the Qatari Ministry of Municipalities and called the trip “official business.”
For the benefit of Augusta, neither citizens nor the local press should look the other way during Davis’s last year, as he wants. It will be far more beneficial for Augusta to make an example out of Davis so that the next is aware that he or she is not above the law and that citizens will expect accountability. Instead, citizens and media both must do their duties and demand the mayor be accountable for his actions.
