Grovetown taxpayers spent $64,000, including overtime pay, to host a rodeo that was never approved by a vote of the city council.
On Monday night, two council members lambasted the mayor for organizing the rodeo without a vote.
“This isn’t the first time information has been withheld from me as a city council member,” said Grovetown Council Member Ceretta Smith. “I promise you if I walked into this city the next week and said ‘I want to bring Mary J. Blige here, let’s make it happen.’ It’s not going to happen.”
Smith said if she had known the rodeo would have cost so much, she would have voted against it.
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Mayor Gary Jones was the driving force behind bringing the rodeo to Grovetown on April 15-16. All proceeds from ticket sales went to a Thomson non-profit, Old Frontier Outreach, which offers horse therapy to disabled children. The director of the program, Chris Jones, said he hopes to offer the same therapy for military veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD).
Gary Jones said he followed the law, which allows the city administrator to spend up to $50,000 without city council approval. The city spent $30,000 on materials, such as fencing and lighting, and another $34,000 in overtime. Wages and overtime pay are not part of the calculation to determine $50,000 limit, Gary Jones said.
“Now if there’s a problem with the purchasing policy or whatever, then present to council and let’s change it. But I’m going by what we have in place now,” the mayor said. “The Easter egg hunt, the Summer Jam, Halloween, the July 4th barbeque, the Christmas festival and parade – all of these cost an astronomical amount of money. We don’t make money on these events. We don’t. None of these events are brought before council to approve for the overtime. Or approve what’s spent at the function.”
Gary Jones said the attack was political because someone wants to run against him when he is up for reelection next year.
“This is not political in any way,” Smith said.
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The issue split the city council along racial lines, with the two white city council members backing the mayor, who is also white. Smith was backed by Council Member Deborah Fisher. Both Smith and Fisher are black.
Grovetown also prevented animal rights protesters from demonstrating at the rodeo.
Alexa Martinelli, a Grovetown resident, dentist, vegetarian and animal rights advocate, attempted to protest at the rodeo but was told she needed to apply for a permit 14 days before an event. When she showed up on the second day of the rodeo with protest signs affixed to her car, a police officer told her she would be arrested for trespassing, she said.
“I feel like my freedom of speech was squashed because I was no longer able to speak about how I feel,” Martinelli said. “I think it further supports that the mayor is not being transparent. I think he is self-serving. I don’t think he is caring about what we actually want.”
In 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Shuttlesworth v Birmingham that the city of Birmingham, Ala. violated Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth’s First Amendment rights to free speech after his arrest and conviction for holding a protest without a permit.
Martinelli weighs 120 pounds. When asked if Grovetown was afraid of a 120-pound woman, Grovetown City Attorney Christopher Dube said “We’re not afraid.”
He said he believes he could successfully defend the ordinance in court. Martinelli said she was afraid going to jail would harm her career, so she didn’t want to risk an arrest.
Joshua B. Good is a staff reporter covering Columbia County and military/veterans’ issues for The Augusta Press. Reach him at joshua@theaugustapress.com
