Buckets of ink have been devoted to pointing out wasteful government spending, but it is the sheer incompetence from the top down in city government that is beginning to attract the public’s attention.
The chickens, so to speak, have found their roost and now they are leaving their droppings all over the place.
My favorite story of bureaucratic incompetence relates to the long-gone Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and Botanical Gardens, or as I like to call it, “the fish story.”
Back in the early 2000s, state government funding created the GGHF, and it was proposed that a massive museum, situated next to an artificial lake and a stately pergola amid lush gardens, be created.
The building itself never came to fruition, and the GGHF consisted of just a double-wide trailer with a tacky gift shop that probably caused Bobby Jones to rotate in his grave.
No one thought to get the Augusta National involved or even ask the club for advice, considering the National, itself, is a botanical garden with a golf course in the middle. No, the director of the GGHF at the time was too busy running his own Masters related business, so the day-to-day operations of the botanical garden was left up to a staff that admittedly did not know the first thing about running such a venture.
It was decided to create a Japanese garden complete with a koi pond. Native plants and expensive fish were imported, and it looked great for all of a week.
No one on the staff took into account that the gardens were situated a levy apart from the Savannah River, a river with wildlife…lots of wildlife.
It took no time for the egrets, hawks and other fish-loving birds to discover there was a new buffet in town.
The birds ate the fish, so the good folks at the GGHF went to Walmart and purchased a fake alligator and restocked the pond.
The fake alligator provided the perfect landing spot, and the birds received a second feast, this time while sitting on the head of the fake alligator.
Undeterred, the staff bought some fishing line and constructed a makeshift net that did nothing other than pose a strangulation danger to the birds. The waterfowl returned and consumed all of the fish.
At this point, one might surmise that the GGHF staff would conclude the koi pond was a bad idea; however, that would not be the case. This time, the pond was restocked with a heavy mesh to where the fish were no longer even visible.
If memory serves correctly, the heavy duty mesh worked, and the fish were fine until a freeze set in the following winter and all of the fish froze to death.
The staff didn’t care that thousands and thousands of dollars were wasted; after all, it wasn’t their money.
This level of incompetence can be found everywhere one looks in Augusta city government.
The Parks and Recreation Department has taken incompetence to award-winning levels. Director Maurice McDowell has proven so inept that the Augusta Commission voted last year to pay a consulting service nearly $7 million to tell the director how to do his job.
It obviously has not worked. Riverwalk remains a disaster, and the idea is now being circulated that grass cutting duties be transferred from Parks and Rec over to Central Services, a department that has proven it doesn’t know the first thing about cutting grass either.
If a call is placed to 311 asking which public pools are open this summer, the staff at 311 will direct the caller to the Parks and Recreation Department. Once the call is routed to Parks and Rec, the caller is told the staff doesn’t know which pools are open, and the call is routed to the Augusta Aquatics center.
However, the employees at the Aquatic Center can only list the hours at their facility and claim not to know about other swimming locations.
Finally, if a call is placed to the Henry Brigham Swim Center, the staff says curtly, “We don’t have a pool.”
So, perhaps, instead of swimming, the person would like to go downtown, sit under a shade tree and read a good book.
Good luck at that! The city has declared war on trees.
Over the past several weeks, the majority of the trees lining both 13th and 5th Streets have been cut down, leaving only the exposed stumps. Somehow, the Augusta National can demolish an entire building and parking lot and replace them with an entire arbor overnight; yet, the city can’t figure out how to properly dispose of a stump.
Engineering Director Hameed Malik has been quoted as saying that the trees being cut downtown are a safety risk; however, with all due respect as Dr. Malik is one of the most competent bureaucrats left in city government, Malik does not have an arborist on staff.
Downtown activist Kevin de l’Aigle says the old and diseased trees on lower Broad Street are ignored and young, vibrant trees near the gateways are the ones being removed.
“I was told that the trees along 5th Street weren’t even supposed to be removed. It was a mistake,” de l’Aigle said.
Meanwhile, McDowell defends the tree removal, stating in an email that removing the trees is a homeless deterrent. Using that logic, perhaps the city needs to demolish all of the highway overpasses.
Speaking of the homeless, this has been a years-long problem that has finally boiled over.
Rather than put into practice strict observance of the law, Sheriff Richard Roundtree has focused more on putting out cheesy YouTube videos and complaining about a lack of funding while instructing his police force to ignore burglar alarms.
Of course, with next year being an election year, Roundtree finally decided to hold a town hall meeting, but he didn’t find the warm reception that he might have expected.
At least the citizenry is waking up to the fact government incompetence eventually sullies their own doorsteps. Let’s hope the public participation continues and is reflected the next time we all go to the polls.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
