A passage I read in Andrew Roberts’ biography of Winston Churchill “Churchill, Walking With Destiny,” made me think of Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis, who seems to be planning ahead to run for state or national office if his travel, speeches at national mayors associations, appearances on CNN, ABC, GPB and NPR are any indication. Not to mention what he’s been spending taxpayers’ money on.
In 1942, in the continued absence of victory in the Western Desert, Churchill was politically vulnerable, and some wondered whether former Ambassador to Russia Stafford Cripps was about to “create an alternative government and take Winston’s place.”
“Churchill believed that his time as ambassador had gone to his head, ‘There, but for the grace of God, goes God,’ Churchill said.
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“A foolproof indication of when politicians are on ‘manoeuvers’ for the premiership is when they tramp around the country making speeches far outside their portfolios,” was the considered opinion of the day.
And a foolproof indication of when politicians are on ‘manoeuvers’ for higher office in the 21st century is when they start creating websites, hiring political and elections consultants, marketers, having surveys done and enhancing their images through professional photography and resumes.
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After The Augusta Press began looking at charges Davis had put on his city credit card account, his Economic Development/Public Relations account and his My Brother’s Keeper account (they’re on the city’s website), we wanted to see the receipts and invoices for the listed purchases. It’s been a struggle to get any, but after studying the few we did get, it looks like Davis has been packaging himself to run for higher office when his second and final term ends next year.
Either that, or he’s planning to go into show business.
What’s a Survey Monkey Doing in Here?
Davis paid MediumFour, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company, $5,000 of your tax dollars to design his “Office of Public Engagement” website which has sponsors who pay $250 a month or so to be on there.
And in the past 15 months, Davis has paid Clermont, Fla., company SQLC Studios, LLC $19,017 for video design and production. Nobody we know has seen a video design, a website or anything else yet and are anxiously awaiting the Grand Reveal.
Davis also paid Creative Data, a Michigan company that specializes in web applications, graphics, photography and video $1,487 of your tax dollars. And he paid EIG Hostgator, a web hosting firm, $285, which might not seem like much unless it’s coming out of your pocket, which it did.
Also coming out of your pocket was $357 to WIX, a company that urges you to “create a website you’re proud of.” Davis bought their Premium Plan and The Remix.
The mayor paid Show Mark Media, a marketing and advertising company based out of the U.S., $302.
And he paid B&H Photo, a New York City firm that sells video, digital cameras, computers and home theaters, $2,215.
In addition, Davis bought enough photographic and recording equipment from Amazon to turn his office into a sound stage when the occasion arises.
And he’s also upgraded his social media dashboard with Hootsuite for $189 taxpayers’ dollars a month. Meanwhile, he paid Constant Contact $243 a month for several months.
Well, of course, the mayor needs to be in constant contact with potential voters, doesn’t he?
Davis also paid Survey Monkey $384 for what I suppose would be a survey of some kind since that’s what Survey Monkey does. Maybe he was surveying his chances of winning the governor’s office or a U.S. Senate seat in the next election.
And then, there is the photography, but nobody we know has seen any of the pictures yet.
Davis’s office paid A.J. Shorter Photography $3,075; Sweet Plans LLC, also known as Styling Purpose fashion consultants, $607; and Red Eye Entertainment $662. They are all located in Fort Lauderdale, the area his chief of staff Petula Burks lived until Davis hired her last fall.
And he paid Lume Cube, which specializes in cameras and photography, $199.90.
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And of course, there has to be some serious grooming done before a photo shoot, and taxpayers has picked up a tab totaling $476.25 to pay HelloChrisMakeup.
One thing that I wonder about is why Davis paid $2,279 to Chism Strategies of Jackson, Miss., a firm that specializes in “Advocacy and Elections” when his term is almost over, and he can’t run for reelection.
Another thing I question is, why did he pay Resume Professionals., a California company, $436.50 to help him tell everybody how great he is if he’s not running for some big office in the next election.
And why did he spend $11,752 on conference fees, airline tickets, hotels, executive car and limousine service for himself and staff members the past 15 months if he’s not trying to enhance his political profile? He’d say it was to enhance Augusta’s profile on the national scene.
Do you believe it?
The Mayor’s Office Wants Open Records to be a Closed Case
On March 23, The Augusta Press made its initial open records request for copies of receipts and invoices for expenditures Mayor Hardie Davis made using his city issued credit card.
On April 7, Publisher Joe Edge received a few records, and on April 10, a few more.
After seven follow-up requests for the information from Edge, The Augusta Press’s lawyer David Hudson of Hull Barrett P.C. sent a letter to the city requesting the records.
The next day, April 29, Davis called Hudson and asked for more time to produce the records.
On April 30, the city’s General Counsel Wayne Brown sent a letter to Hudson.
On May 3, the Augusta Press scheduled a meeting with the mayor for May 4. The mayor canceled the meeting.
The Augusta Press scheduled a meeting with Davis for May 6, but the mayor canceled that meeting too.
Then, Davis called Edge and said he welcomed the opportunity to sit down with him, and said he was surprised the information request had not been fulfilled. He said he would call him the next morning, but he never did.
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Burks also told Edge more than once she thought all of the requested information had been turned over to the Augusta Press.
Now, obviously Davis is practicing for higher office by speaking intentional inaccuracies. I would say he’s lying his butt off, but I’m too much of a lady. As for Burks, she’s planning on helping him get there. But if it doesn’t work out, maybe they could both go into show business.
Burned
Some people think Augusta Commissioner Bobby Williams’ new position as mayor pro tem has gone to his head and that he’s acting like the principal of Glenn Hills High School, a position he held before he retired.
Williams apparently thinks Georgia’s public information laws and rules that apply to school systems are exactly the same as those that apply to local governments. And since some commissioners publicly voiced their objections to the underhanded way DeKalb Deputy Fire Chief Antonio Burden became the finalist for the Augusta fire chief’s job,
Williams has been taking the outspoken commissioners to task in legal meetings like they were high school sophomores.
Although Williams did not mention them by name, everybody knew he was talking about commissioners John Clarke and Catherine McKnight when he fumed that commissioners should stop talking to the media.
Clarke and McKnight spoke openly about their displeasure at being kept in the dark about the candidates until the last minute, not being given scoring sheets and about their closed-door “consensus” vote to choose Burden.
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Commissioner Brandon Garrett kept quiet on the matter until Superior Court Judge Jesse Stone ruled on the media’s lawsuit against the city, saying the city could not withhold all other finalists’ names from the public. And Commissioner Sean Frantom wanted to go along to get along and not say anything publicly, perhaps because he thought it might jeopardize his political future.
Williams and other commissioners might think commissioners should keep the public in the dark at all costs and that their fellow commissioners are doing something illegal by speaking out, but they are dead wrong. Quite the contrary, commissioners have an obligation to notify their constituents when they witness something they believe is wrong, such as the selection process for Burden, the least desirable candidate of all, by a commission cabal who want a fire chief they can control.
Commissioners Williams, Sammie Sias, Ben Hasan and others are determined to get rid of the private Gold Cross EMS, which provides ambulance service to Richmond County. They want to resurrect the failed fire department ambulance service that created such turmoil among firefighters, they had to park the ambulances last year.
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