County Manager Scott D. Johnson and his two deputies have quietly earned hundreds of thousands of dollars doing consulting work in other Georgia counties over the last four years, according to documents obtained through an open records request.
Johnson and his two deputy managers, Glenn A. Kennedy II and J. Matthew Schlachter, went into business together as Excellence Exceeded Consultants, LLC in May 2017, according to articles of incorporation on file with the Georgia Secretary of State. The registered agent for the company is Janeabeth B. Wells, a Columbia County employee and executive assistant for Johnson’s office. The registered office for the company is her home address.
Former longtime county EMA director Pam Tucker helped bring the partnership to light in 2017, after she resigned, claiming a hostile work environment. Johnson downplayed the side business in early 2018, just after he, Kennedy and Schlachter secured four-year employment contracts.
At the time, Johnson said it was “planning for the future” and not something he would pursue while working for Columbia County. Within a few months, however, the firm landed a gig in Cook County, which then relied largely on an all-volunteer firefighting force to protect its 17,000 residents.
Excellence Exceeded came forward with a proposal to consolidate the various volunteer departments into a new unified force, with a reorganized structure, new standards and a fire chief. The Cook County Board of Commissioners approved the proposal, along with its $40,000 price tag in June 2018.
The Excellence Exceeded website now lists among its clients Cook, Brooks, Henry, Jones, Lincoln, Monroe, Marion and Cobb counties, as well as the Columbia County and Augusta Metro chambers of commerce and the Washington and Columbia County boards of education. The spokesperson for the Columbia County school district said neither Johnson nor the firm had been paid for any services rendered.
Reached Friday for comment, Johnson defended the consulting gig, saying it’s not as time-consuming as it might appear.
“What you have to understand is this is not just Scott Johnson – I own a consulting company and I have partners that are in that consulting company, but then we also have subconsultants. I have people that work with me that provide services to some of the people that we do business with,” he said.
Johnson said raising concerns about the work right now is “to either embarrass me or make the SPLOST not go through.”
Columbia County has a $288 million special purpose, local option sales tax package on the ballot Tuesday. Johnson’s consulting work has included working with counties to develop and manage SPLOST programs.
Over the last four years, Johnson’s county base salary has gone up roughly 26% to at least $208,893, which he was being paid in January 2022. The two deputies’ pay has increased approximately 22% to $155,388 each.
Records of much of Excellence Exceeded’s work for other entities were not immediately available.
Starting around May 2019, Brooks County was paying the company a retainer, plus additional fees for other services, mileage from Evans to the county seat of Quitman and more. Among tasks that could be identified, the firm conducted a human resources investigation, performed consulting on a sales tax package, assessed the conditions of county buildings and developed a plan to build new ones using sales tax funds.
Payment records do not go into much detail, but the county paid Excellence Exceeded the $5,000 monthly retainer from around May 2019 through December 2020. By that month Brooks County had spent $109,685 with the firm.
In August 2021, Glynn County began paying the firm a $5,000 monthly retainer. With that came at least one site visit per month by a senior partner and 20 hours of direct consultation. Potential tasks could include improving efficiency, budgeting, sales tax planning and improving the coastal county’s image. The firm would later conduct a search for a county manager and perform a salary study.
As of October, Glynn had paid Excellence Exceeded some $107,888.54.
Susan McCord is a staff writer with The Augusta Press. Reach her at susan@theaugustapress.com
