Well, as you probably know by now, the Georgia General Assembly passed a sweeping election reform bill and Gov. Brian Kemp rushed to sign it in hopes of saving his political future.
As you also know, Kemp angered most Republicans in the aftermath of the Nov. 3 presidential election by refusing even to consider that everything in Fulton County’s vote counting and elsewhere might not have been on the up-and-up. That, on top of appointing millionaires political newcomer Kelly Loeffler to fill the U.S. Senate seat that many Georgians thought rightly should have gone to Rep. Doug Collins.
More from Sylvia Cooper: Sheriff Roundtree Gets Back to His Roots In New YouTube Video Series
Meanwhile, the divorce between the Augusta Judicial Circuit and Columbia County was granted Thursday after it passed out of the state Senate and Kemp rushed to sign that too. He might not be the most astute governor the state has ever had, but he knows the difference between Republicans and Democrats, and he knows how to count.
Now, all the parties in the judicial split have to do is continue deciding how to divide up the chattels and goods.
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Question of the Week
Is Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis going to go to the southern border around El Paso to protest the separation of families and children as he did in 2018 when Donald Trump was president? If not, it will just prove what a total hypocrite he really is. But maybe he’s just been too busy peddling the Democrat voter suppression lie about Republican state lawmakers’ efforts to reform election laws to restore accountability and integrity to the election process.
Meanwhile, senile President Joe Biden has created a catastrophe on our southern border in order to pack Democrat voter rolls by reversing Trump’s successful policies and announcing an open borders policy. He has sown the wind, and we shall reap the whirlwind. They’re trying to hide the chaos there with the help of a disgraceful mainstream media.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Which will come first for 401 Walton Way? The wrecking ball or a decision from a senior judge from the Pataula Judicial Circuit in southwest Georgia that might save the old jail complex?
Augusta commissioners voted recently to proceed with tearing down the entire abandoned structure, which must have been another blow to Richmond County Superior Court Chief Judge Carl C. Brown who’s been trying for years to get them to remodel the courtrooms and administrative sections into a juvenile justice center.
In 2017, Brown’s team of volunteer experts developed a plan whereby the city could demolish the jail portion and remodel the rest for far less money than city officials estimated. Augusta developer Jim Hull even offered to pay for the needed renovations and let the city pay the debt back as rent.
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Then in July, Brown ordered the city to pay for renovating 401 Walton Way and the closed Craig Houghton Elementary school into judicial space. Well, that went over like a lead cloud. The city rejected his demands and sued. The case went to the Georgia Supreme Court and the Georgia Court of Appeals, neither of which wanted to fool with it.
Then an objection to Brown’s order was filed in Richmond County Superior Court, and since nobody there wanted to fool with it either, it was assigned to a senior judge from outside the circuit who probably doesn’t want to fool with it either. And with the wheels of justice turning even slower nowadays than usual, I’m betting on the wrecking ball.
Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?
“Cops,” by any other name, is “Car One to Dispatch, RCSO.” And the first episode is on YouTube. It stars Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree and as an added bonus, a high-speed car chase co-starring Deputy Cole Thompson, Deputy John Tarpley and Sgt. D. Humphries.
Car One begins with Roundtree sitting in his SUV thanking everybody for tuning in and explaining that what he’s trying to do is a drivers’ awareness campaign.
“Alright. Here we go. Alright, let’s see if we can go up Walton Way a little today.”
He drives along to rapper Chamillionaire’s “Drivin’ Dirty:”
“They see me rolling. They’re patrolling and tryin’ to catch me ridin’ dirty.
Tryin’ to catch me ridin’ dirty.
Tryin’ to catch me ridin’ dirty
Tryin’ to catch me ridin’ dirty.”
“Just riding up Walton Way a little bit,” Roundtree says, looking around. “And hopefully we can catch some individuals. (He sees a man in a silver pickup truck looking at his cell phone.)
“Stopped here at the light. We’ll see if he travels through it.”
(More music as he pursues the truck, which pulls into the Advance Auto Parts parking lot off Walton Way. Roundtree exits his vehicle and walks over.)
He and the driver exchange pleasantries.
“What’s goin’ on?”
“The reason I pulled you over…”
“Probably ‘cause I was on the phone,” the man said.
“There you go! There you go!” Roundtree replies. “Just tryin’ to do an awareness campaign. Just tryin’ to get some safety of drivers. We’ve had some fatalities this year and last year. I believe you realize the violation. “
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Holy Coyote!
“One of my employees sent me a picture of a coyote under the Aiken Library,” the man says. “He’s been working there for two days, and he came crawling out.”
“How big was it?” Roundtree asks.
“I think it was a coyote,” the man says.
(He shows Roundtree the picture on his cell phone.)
“Yeah.”
“I think it’s a coyote.”
“I believe you’re right,” Roundtree says.
“He’s been under there working for two days, and the thing comes crawling out watching him,” the man repeats.
“Yeah, we’re just doing a campaign, trying to get everyone to be safe,” Roundtree repeats himself too. “You know what it is. So be good.”
Back in his vehicle Roundtree thanked everyone for their “enormous” support of the video and said he also wanted to use it to highlight some of the heroic work his deputies do on a daily basis, their bravery and teamwork. With that comes a video of a high-speed chase of a suspected hijacker that is as good as anything you ever saw on the TV “Cops.” See for yourself.
New episodes of “Car One to Dispatch, RCSO” will be on You Tube at 12 p.m. on Thursdays.
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The Happiest Days Are When Babies are Born
Congratulations to Candace Garrett and husband Augusta Commissioner Brandon Garrett on the birth of 9-pound, 5-ounce baby girl, Adalee, Thursday. The couple also has two sons.
Time Marches On
March 2020: Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis was conducting a social media campaign for Democrat presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg, posting and boasting of Bloomberg’s accomplishments.
March 2019: An item on the commission meeting agenda called for going out to bid on a Chevrolet Suburban LTZ for use by the mayor’s office. The starting price for a Chevrolet Suburban was $50,800, but that didn’t include all the fancy stuff those letters that come after the word “Suburban” mean. The Premier edition with four-wheel drive and a big engine was listed at $74,000.
He later had to settle for a Tahoe.
March 2019: Twelfth District Republican Congressman Rick Allen said the words most folks at a public hearing on the New Savannah River Bluff Lock and Dam wanted to hear:
“That Lock and Dam is going to stay in place. It is going to be repaired. And it’s going to be maintained. Period.”
Allen supposedly had the president’s ear. Now that president is gone, we don’t know whose ear Allen has.
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March 2016: Augusta commissioners held a marathon meeting, during which they discussed, among many, many other things, a nationwide movement to “Ban the Box,” which initially bans employers from asking jobseekers whether they’ve ever been convicted of a felony.
Perhaps unbeknownst to Mayor Hardie Davis and commissioners, Augusta had been on the cutting edge of that for years. A 2010 newspaper investigation showed that manslaughter, drug violations, sex crimes and even a contract murder hadn’t deterred the city from hiring felons.
But they felt like they needed a new Ban the Box and good PR for their constituents.
The mayor made a few more announcements before someone from the tax commissioner’s office gave a slide presentation about automation advances in customer services statistics.
I was soon slumped down in my chair, and by the time the clerk read the planning commission items and alcohol license applications, my eyelids were growing heavy. And before they were halfway through discussing amendments to the zoning ordinance, I was near comatose.
I tried to perk up and pay attention when they started talking about the drone ordinance, but they droned on and on about two or three different versions at the same time, which was so confusing even they didn’t know what they were talking about. I could hardly keep my eyes open, so I decided to stretch out on the floor and watch from there.
More from Sylvia Cooper: Davis’ Discrimination Ordinance
That’s when I started reading the list of warnings glued to the bottom of the swivel chair – things like “Do not stand in this chair or use this chair for a step ladder.”
Who in the world, pray tell, would use a swivel chair for a step ladder?
After that, I dozed off until the dogs came in and started licking my face. I got back up then and heard commissioners talking about going green by putting solar panels on the old public library, a $50,000 boondoggle that’s going to cost taxpayers more than it saves them. If it doesn’t, I’ll be dead by then and won’t care.
Sylvia Cooper is a Columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
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