At the July 19 full commission meeting, Augusta Commissioners were deadlocked on whether to give Gold Cross EMS $1.6 million in emergency funding, and Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. was not in the meeting to break the tie.
The measure was introduced by District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett and included $750,000 in American Rescue Plan funding to help Gold Cross cover soaring diesel fuel costs. After lengthy debate, the commission tied 5 – 5.
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This is not the first time the mayor has missed meetings where his city charter power to break ties has been required on important city matters.
In fact, presiding over official meetings and breaking ties are the only non-ceremonial duties for the mayoral position that pays $84,983 annually.
In the past calendar year, Davis has been absent 14 times, according to the official commission minutes, which is about one-third of the total commission and committee meetings held over the span of a year.
It is unclear how many legal meetings the mayor has missed due to the fact that the minutes and attendance of legal meetings are not published.
It is well known that Davis has a penchant for travel, however, how often he travels and what meetings he has missed due to travel is largely unknown. The Mayor’s Office’s response to open records requests on Davis’ travels is that no such log is kept.
It is known that Davis has made two trips to the middle eastern country of Qatar over the past year, but the information only surfaced weeks after the trips, and the Mayor’s Office did not confirm exactly when Davis was out of the country.
However, Davis’ credit card statements show that he spends quite a bit of time in airport terminals.
Commissioners themselves do quite a bit of travel to various conferences and will be out of town from July 21 through July 25 for the National Association of Counties in Aurora, Colorado. The meetings scheduled for July 26 will go on despite the commission being out of town until the day before.
According to District 3 Commissioner Catherine McKnight, most commissioners try to schedule personal vacations around the five-week months where the commission skips a week, giving them two weeks of free time.
“That’s the way it should be. We asked for this job, so we have a responsibility to show up unless it just can’t be avoided,” McKnight said.
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McKnight says she is mystified as to why the mayor continues to miss meetings without any explanation or communication.
“We were dealing with a very heated issue with Gold Cross, and I don’t know how (Davis) would have voted, but we needed him there; his city needed him there,” McKnight said.
The majority of the commission has a near perfect track record of attendance, with the notable exception of one member. District 7 Commissioner Sean Frantom has long had a problem with attendance since winning election in 2017.
Official city minutes record Frantom as missing 10 meetings over the past year, including committee meetings where he is chairman.
Recently, Frantom attempted to have full commission meetings moved to later in the afternoon, however, Frantom abruptly pulled that item off of the July 19 meeting before it could be discussed.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
