Under Mayor Hardie Davis’ watch, Augusta lost its status as the second-largest city in Georgia and dropped to third.
Of course, they say size doesn’t matter, but you’d never know it by the way Davis has bragged about it for the past seven years.
Now he’s going to have to have his $500 resume redone because I can assure you, it stated he was the mayor of the second-largest city in Georgia. Of course, nobody has seen the resume except for the people in Washington, D.C., he’s been sending it to. But he’s refused to let the taxpayers who paid for it even get a peek at it.
You don’t suppose he’s afraid that reporters like those at The Augusta Press who initially exposed his profligate spending would take the time to fact check it, do you?
More from Sylvia Cooper: Garrett Leads Effort to Get City Property Cleaned Up
While Augusta had only 315 fewer residents than Columbus, without the influx of people for the Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Gordon and related cyber businesses, Augusta might have been the 10th largest city in Georgia.
It looks like Davis has finally gotten the message that taxpayers are tired of paying for his local meals, makeup and thousands of dollars to out-of-town vendors for videos.
After reviewing his July bill totaling $3,489, all of the expenses appear to be legitimate and the bill much lower, compared with those earlier in the year.
In going back through the bills, I noticed that on some occasions, he has supported local businesses, as opposed to those in Florida, home of his new chief of staff, Petula Burks. He rented the Miller theater for $7,750 to hold an inauguration party for himself in 2019 and sold tickets to those who wanted to attend the reception. We can only be happy Burks wasn’t here then. He might have had the party at the Orange Bowl.
[adrotate banner=”54″]
Political Theater
So, there goes Davis grandstanding again by signing a letter, along with other Democrat mayors in Georgia, condemning Gov. Brian Kemp for heading off potential local government lockdowns and mask mandates during the latest Covid surge.
Kemp signed an executive order Thursday that allows businesses to ignore local COVID-19 restrictions, which I believe will save more lives than lockdowns that cause more harm than good. Not only do lockdowns destroy people’s businesses and everything they’ve worked years for, lockdowns create unemployment, contribute to overeating and/or alcoholism, as well as domestic violence.
Politicians like Davis want people to think the government is there to protect and save them when, in fact, the government is there to control you, steal your money and make you weak and dependent on handouts.
Politicians like Davis want people to think they’re the guardians of the health and welfare of the citizens, but they are just would-be dictators in my opinion.
How many times have politicians been caught violating their own mandates for masks and lockdowns? So many that it has become comical, or would be comical, if it weren’t maddening.
Davis and the other mayors accused Kemp of putting politics above public safety. which I think is pure political theater. I can’t think of anybody more politically motivated than Davis. After all, he put politics above the stewardship of Augusta taxpayers’ money by spending thousands of dollars to promote himself.
In 2018, Davis and nine or so other mayors went to the border to protest children being separated from their parents when they crossed the border into the United States illegally. Since Biden has been president, the situation at the border has been utter chaos, much worse than in 2018, and I’ve been waiting for Davis and his fellow mayors to go back to the border to protest, if only to show they aren’t political hypocrites.
And while Davis was down there, he might bring a busload or two of the immigrants back to Augusta to boost the population.
We Have Another Survey for You
Why do you think Augusta’s population growth is stagnant and people are continuing to flee to other areas? Check the ones you think apply.
_______ Failing schools
_______ Section 8 renters moving in and ruining the neighborhood and property values
_______ Lack of confidence in the city’s leadership
_______ Fear that crime will get worse
_______ Too many drive-by shootings
_______ Don’t like the way Augusta looks and smells
_______ Tired of panhandlers begging them for money to buy drugs and alcohol
_______ Want a government that values them and their tax money
_______ Other (fill in the blank)
[adrotate banner=”31″]
Not That Satisfied
Peach Orchard Road resident Woodrow Fryer voiced his complaints about his garbage service during a city commission meeting a week ago. In his remarks, he said the city should include a questionnaire in residents’ tax bills, so citizens could grade city services to let officials know what they thought about them. Recognizing a good idea when we heard one, we included a questionnaire in last week’s column about city services and sought your input. Some 106 people participated in the survey, and with 1 being the least satisfactory and 10 being the most satisfactory, these are the weighted averages of the scores:
Ambulance Service: 5.97
Fire Department: 5.84
Commissioner: 5.30
Garbage Pickup: 4.99
Sheriff’s Office: 4.97
Water Bill: 4.54
Local Park: 4.18
Appearance of downtown Augusta: 1.95
City property maintenance: 1.94
Mayor: 1.68
Ambulance service ranked the highest with the fire department close behind. These top rankings are strange because these are the two departments that commissioners complain the most about, especially about the county’s service provider, Gold Cross EMS.
The question, “Are you satisfied with your commissioner?” ranks third, right below ambulance service and the fire department. So, it seems logical to conclude that people like their commissioner but not the rest of them.
The sheriff’s office ranked slightly below garbage pickup.
The survey rankings then went downhill with survey participants ranking satisfaction with the way the city is maintained and the appearance of downtown slightly higher than with the mayor who was at the bottom.
While I don’t want to get down in the weeds, which based on the survey are pretty high in Augusta, I did want to mention that 82 people gave the mayor the lowest score and only two gave him 10 stars. Can you imagine who those two people were?
[adrotate banner=”19″]
Cut and Dried
There was no suspense at Thursday’s Augusta Commission special called meeting to vote on the 2021 tax rate, nor on the outcome of a commission vote on Administrator Odie Donald’s three-part agenda item on paying folks $100 to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
It was obvious a majority was going to go for the whole ball of wax, including bonuses to public safety workers, premium pay to who-knows-who because nobody has said who, and a $15 minimum wage for all employees. So now that the city is going to have $60,000-a-year grass cutters when fringe benefits are taken into account, there’ll be no excuse for grass on city property to be 6 feet tall, blocking drivers’ views at intersections. No excuse for Riverwalk and downtown Augusta to look like, I would say “crap,” but that doesn’t sound ladylike. So, I’ll just say “unkempt.”
Where’s all this money coming from? Your good old Uncle Sam, that’s who. Uncle Sam is already so deep in debt, he doesn’t even care anymore. He just keeps printing money and buying votes. He’s not worried about the future. He won’t be here.
Part of Uncle Sam’s $82.3 million free gift to Augusta will pay for the raises and a whole lot of other stuff, especially for “unserved and underserved areas,” which is a euphemism for poor folks.
And when the city runs out of other people’s money to pay for the higher salaries next year, what do you think will happen?
Yes, you are correct! The city will go looking for more other people’s money.
At one meeting Commissioner John Clarke asked where the money would come from but didn’t get an answer.
Clarke and Commissioner Catherine McKnight surely knew they were tilting at windmills Thursday when they said they wanted to separate the items in Donald’s agenda item and vote on them individually. But, as usual, they were outvoted. McKnight’s motion to vote on each one individually didn’t even come up for a vote because Commissioner Ben Hasan immediately made a substitute motion to do them all in one fell swoop. And it passed 6-2 with only McKnight and Clarke voting no. Voting to approve were Hasan, Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams and commissioners Dennis Williams, Francine Scott, Jordan Johnson and Sean Frantom.
Who Knew?
Commissioners Brandon Garrett and Sammie Sias were not deemed eligible to vote by phone on the agenda item as they had planned to do. Sias had already voted twice by phone this year, which is the limit for a year, unless certified by a doctor to be too ill to attend, according to General Counsel Wayne Brown. Garrett was reportedly in Richmond County at the time of voting, and state law requires that the person voting must be out of the jurisdiction to vote by phone.
[adrotate banner=”54″]
Effective Immediately for First-Time Takers Only
McKnight said she received a voice message on her phone from a man who said he and his wife got a COVID-19 shot when they first came out, and he wanted to know where they should go to pick up their $100.
“So, I forwarded the message over to Odie Donald, and his response back to me in regards to the message was, ‘Eligibility is from commission action forward.’” McKnight said. “So that means from Thursday, Aug. 19, when commissioners voted to approve the incentive.
A Prediction by Seer Clarke
“I will state that the Augusta government will soon declare that the $100 incentive to be vaccinated is a rousing success.
Much like the magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat, the numbers to support the decision will also magically appear. The preservers of the illusion of transparency for the power can never be anything but correct in their decisions.
More from Sylvia Cooper: ‘Smell Test’ Could Clear Up Audit/Not Audit Confusion
FYI One More Time
Donald’s spending plan calls for $2,500 bonuses to full-time public safety employees and $1,250 bonuses for part-time employees. Full-time employees would receive $500 bonuses and part-time personnel, $250.
The total of the one-time payments, including $747,274 for COVID-19 vacation payouts, would be $4.6 million.
Recurring costs through 2021 total $1.96 million, which includes implementing the $15 per hour minimum wage for all employees beginning Sept. 10, and $700,202 to address salary compression, which means that hourly workers will be getting a raise to compensate in scale with the raise of the minimum wage.
The total 2021 projected cost of one-time bonuses and increased salaries is $6.56 million.
Sylvia Cooper is a Columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com.
[adrotate banner=”67″]
