The Augusta city government has been as quiet as the famous French mime, Marcel Marceau.
They must have received the “Keep Quiet” directive from the city attorney, interim administrator and public information officer.
Even the mayor has gone as mute as a mummery.
Augusta had a public information officer who was hired under a previous administrator. He lived in the Columbia, S.C. area where he remained living during his tenure here in Augusta. I asked him once exactly what was his job since he never held press conferences or really made many press release statements.
The PIO’s answer was that he technically oversaw what others were to answer if asked any questions from the media. In other words, he coached them to say,” No Comment At This Time.” He would frame what the answer should be, but always talk of transparency.
In other words, the rule is to sidestep, re-direct, blame others and stall; but always speak of and claim transparency. Taxpayers paid around $75,000 a year salary plus 30% back-end benefits and auto allowance. That PIO didn’t last long.
When the fire truck rolled over at Washington Road and I-20, the fire department information officer didn’t say much at all about the incident. I guess that whole mess fell under the heading of a little boo-boo. The second fire truck that was also a total lost was a mere bigger boo-boo.
Then, a third fire truck accident and nothing much was said, and later a fire department officer ran over a corpse and nothing. They must have sent out the crickets to give a statement because all you could hear was chirping.
No worries, Chief Burton, the city will cover for you. They always take care of those who keep their mouths shut.
They always take care of their own, so much so that in this past Tuesday’s commission meeting, Chief Burton was given a $25,000 a year raise. After all, he is the emergency disaster director as well as fire department chief.
Augusta officials feel they owe the Augusta citizens and taxpayers no explanation ever about anything.
The expect us to just be good citizens, pay our taxes and not ask nettlesome questions like, ‘How much money is really in the reserve fund?’
With the recent hacking of the city’s computer systems, it looks like the city officials may have taken the knowledgeable view of not paying the ransom demand. History indicates that once the ransom is paid to a blackmailer, they always come back for more. The old saying goes, “in for a dime, in for a dollar,” but who knows truly if they did or didn’t entertain paying the ransom?
Lets discuss taxes for a paragraph or two. The last over-paid city administrator managed to talk the commissioners into getting the city taxpayers into more obligated debt than ever before. Federal covid-related rescue funds that were a one-time payment to the city resulted in employee bonuses for some stated reason or another, pay raises and other items that led the city budget to an amazing $1 billion dollar mark.
Mind you, not a single city employee missed a paycheck even though they were not required to punch a time clock, well maybe they did from the comfort of their sofas. They were allowed to work from home or really anywhere they choose to be. It is always a wonder when the announcement that non-essential workers don’t have to come report for work. If they are non-essential, why are they on the payroll at all?
This billion-dollar budget will have to be met, and there is no way any salaries will be decreased. Duplicate or triplicate positions will not be cut, and there will be no mercy on the property owner’s tax payments because someone has to pay for all of the redundancy.
We might as well forget the pending report of “right sizing” the city government.
Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle spoke of hard decisions that were going to have to be made. He said positions would have to be eliminated, people laid off temporarily or lose their jobs all together; but Guilfoyle is just one commissioner. I doubt very seriously any of this will ever happen.
The only way to meet this next budget will be to raise property taxes.
Now, remember it only takes six votes to get any agenda passed. The commission touted the last time property tax went up that they were able to keep the millage rate flat.
However, you might have noticed that the appraisal for your property went up. They even had the gall to tell you that you should be happy and thrilled that your appraisal went up. You should thank them. After all, when you go to sell your property, you can get a higher price for it. Never mind that not everyone wants to sell, especially retired people on fixed incomes.
Most likely, the property appraisals will soon go up again, and the same gobble-de-goop will again be repeated.
If you ever look at the break down of your property tax bill, you will see that the Board of Education receives 51% of the total amount. That leaves the city government to operate on 49% of the property tax, plus sales tax income.
Do you realize that 11.6% of your tax goes to solid waste disposal? That is for a once-a-week pickup. The rest goes to the landfill operations. The landfill is so horribly operated that those in charge should all be replaced. The landfill gorges on money with no end in sight and this is an operation that once made a profit for the city.
The Fire Department receives 4.65% and Capital Outlay takes 28.9% to operate the general fund. This takes care of things that include the judicial system, recreation department and public safety. Don’t forget, even if you don’t have streetlights, you pay 1.2% of your tax bill for them anyway.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the people that have paid property taxes on their home for all those years get a break when they finally get to retire? In some cities, when the homeowner reaches age 65, there is a freeze on the property taxes. As long as the taxpayer personally resides in the house, their taxes never go up. The tax would indeed stay flat. Just a thought, but it will never happen in Augusta.
Here’s another bit of food for thought: The Richmond County school system receives 51% of property taxes and also receives monies from the state and federal sources. The school system also receives money, it is presumed, from the Georgia Education Lottery. Plus, there is an education SPLOST.
Yet, the Augusta school system ranks near the bottom of the state system and all the while the school board claims there is not enough money to educate the little munchkins. Board members who have served several terms always have one platform they run on for reelection: “We need time to fix it.”
The school board and city commission have one thing in common: both have three or four members who want to do the right things and the rest have a special agenda. It’s up to the citizens to watch, listen, be involved and figure out which ones are which.
During this past Tuesday’s commission meeting I, along with many others, heard and witnessed the most unbelievable motion I have ever heard.
The Augusta Library is in debt to the city government to the tune of $1.3 million dollars. The largest expense, it seems, is payroll and building maintenance. Keep in mind that the employees are state employees, and Augusta just processes their payroll.
The problem presented for building maintenance is for the main branch on Greene Street. The library moved from a building, now the public defender’s building, that was slightly over 30,000 square feet to the current building that is slightly over 90,000 square feet. The city budget to the library was never increased, so they got behind financially. Think of how many years this has been, and the problem is only now being presented. Why doesn’t the state provide more funding?
When asked how they spent the $500,000 dollars the city provided them with this past December, the answer was carpet. That’s correct. They spent a large portion of the city funding on carpet.
Good ‘ole Commissioner Bobby Williams came up with a great plan, and it is one that any red-blooded con artist would be proud of. Kind of along the lines of bait and switch, his motion was to give the library the $1.3 million out of what is left of the slightly over the $2 million dollars left in American Rescue funding. Then, the library would turn right around and write the city a check for the $1.3 million dollar debt that is owed.
The money paid back by the library would then be deposited into the general fund. Therefore, having the library free of debt and the general fund richer by $1.3 million dollars.
There is a legal term for that. It is called money laundering.
Yes, this motion passed. The five usual suspects plus one voted YES like a largemouth bass going for that shiny minnow lure. The four who voted NO were Commissioners Wayne Guilfoyle, Catherine McKnight, Sean Frantom and Mayor Pro Tem Branden Garrett.
Folks, you just can’t make this stuff up.
