A bill calling for a referendum on giving Augusta’s mayor a vote cleared a state senate committee Monday, passing 4-2 along party lines.
Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 231, presented it to the Senate Committee on State and Local Government Operations. The bill was the only one considered at the 7 p.m. meeting.
Burns said a referendum, if it passes, would prevent a majority of commissioners from blocking the mayor’s current ability to break 5-5 ties by having one member abstain from voting.
“The issue is there’s a 10-member commission, and when a group of the commissioners do not feel that they’re comfortable with the actions, they choose not to participate so they leave the room,” Burns said.
Augusta commissioners typically don’t leave the room to abstain. They do it openly from their seats in the commission chamber. They aren’t required to give a reason, such as a conflict of interest, and rarely do.
Sen. Derek Mallow, D-Savannah, questioned the effect giving the mayor a vote would have on the commission’s existing voting power.
“With the chair voting in absence of a tie, what does that do in relation to the balance of power for the commission structure already established?” he said.
Burns said it would “allow for the majority to move forward” by adding the mayor’s 11th vote to the commission’s 10.
“What this bill does is it allows the commission to make decisions again,” Burns said. “There’s a lot of challenges. We’ve had some issues with making decisions and taking actions that are critical to the community and we need to be able to allow the commission and the mayor to move the city forward.”
An example was the bill itself, which had support from five commissioners and the mayor but not the commission, Burns said.
Mallow said it could have a different effect.
“It allows the mayor to have his vote potentially not necessarily to break a tie, so the mayor doesn’t have to work to get a majority. He just basically gets to say, “‘Hey, if you vote with me, I’ll get you whatever you want.’ I kind of think that dilutes the will of the people, especially if this is a consolidated form of government,” Mallow said.
The weak mayor-strong commission form of government was created by the bill that consolidated Augusta and Richmond County that voters approved in 1995.
Senate Bill 231 “will determine the will of the people,” Burns said.
The bill calls for a referendum to go on the ballot with next year’s party primaries. Burns said alongside it would be another referendum, on adding another 1% sales tax to fund construction of a new James Brown Arena.
The bill received a “do-pass” from Sen. Rick Williams, R-Milledgeville, and was seconded by Sen. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie. Committee secretary Gloria Butler joined Mallow in voting against it.
