With two new members on board, the Augusta Commission takes up several familiar measures at the first meeting of the new year.
When the meeting starts Tuesday, however, the first order of business is electing a new mayor pro tem for a two-year term. The new pro tem will replace Commissioner Brandon Garrett, who has been absent since September for personal reasons.
With a rarely-absent mayor in Garnett Johnson, the position of mayor pro tem is largely symbolic but does garner a higher salary than that of a regular commissioner. Garrett earned about $41,000 last year, significantly more than the $30,000-$32,000 a regular commissioner takes home before taxes.
Floating property tax exemption
The commission has a scheduled discussion of the city’s “path forward” for House Bill 581. Approved by the general assembly last year and by voters in November, the bill creates a “floating” homestead exemption that spares homeowners from indirect tax increases based on annual reassessments of their real estate values.
The bill limits any increases to the amount of inflation, based on a state index, but allows local governments to “opt out” and collect the extra money instead. So far, Richmond County Board of Education has announced it will opt out and has scheduled three required public hearings that begin Jan. 14.
Revising the city charter
The commission appeared to agree last year on hiring the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia to facilitate a review of the legislation that created consolidated Augusta-Richmond County. But commissioners disagreed on some terms, including who can serve on the charter review committee.’
The agenda item, including the makeup of the committee – which Johnson suggested exclude all current and former elected officials – goes back before the commission Tuesday.
The commission will be joined for the first time Tuesday by incoming members Don Clark and Tina Slendak, who were elected last year. Slendak and Commissioner Catherine Smith McKnight will take their oaths of office before the meeting, while the others who begin terms this year have already taken their oaths.
In other business
Other items going before the commission Tuesday include:
- Johnson’s request to hire an emergency management agency director. The position, created by state law, is a mayoral appointment, but Augusta has instead assigned its duties to the city’s fire chief for many years
- Selecting commission members and leadership for the commission’s standing committees, which is typically done by the mayor and newly-selected mayor pro tem
- Commissioner Francine Scott will recognize Cheryl Evans Jones on her retirement after five years as president and more than 31 years with Paine College
- McKnight is requesting an audit of the Recreation and Parks department, which the city has rarely, if ever, done
- The commission will designate Feb. 9, Super Bowl Sunday, as the annual Sunday bars can apply to offer Sunday alcohol sales
