As it stands today, the people living in Districts 2, 6 and 8 have no representation on the Augusta charter review committee and will likely be left out of the process unless swift action is taken.
Of course, the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia is not known for amending signed contracts after the ink is dry, so they may likely say to Commissioners Tony Lewis, Brandon Garrett and Stacy Pulliam: “You snooze, you lose.”
The deadline for submitting appointments to the charter review committee came and went two weeks ago, and only Garrett, who was out on leave, has anything close to a viable excuse for not submitting a name.
Once again, Lewis and Pulliam attempted to play “chicken” with Mayor Garnett Johnson and ended up totaling their car in a ditch.
Actually, the two have become more like twin Wile E. Coyotes going after the Roadrunner; again, they stood on a cliff, holding the rope tied to a boulder, ready to drop the rock on the Roadrunner, oblivious to the fact that the other end of the rope was tied to their own ankles.
Not only did they miss the Roadrunner, but they went careening headfirst over the ledge and lodged their own faces in the dirt.
It seems that this pair never learns.
When Johnson won as mayor over their pick, Steven Kendrick, they wasted no time in aligning with Bobby Williams and Jordan Johnson. However, they lacked the bellicosity of the former and the glibness of the latter.
The “Dysfunctional Duo” ran around and proclaimed Johnson was trying to anoint himself dictator by asking for a vote on the commission and when that never happened, they turned their sights to the charter committee. They figured that if they simply ignored the deadlines, the whole thing would implode in Johnson’s face.
Only, the city signed a contract to provide a list of names to the Carl Vinson Institute, and the contract only offered a deadline for doing so, with no language as to how many must be named or what number would constitute a quorum.
This time, Commissioners Johnson and Francine Scott wisely chose not to get in the car with the Duo and submitted their names as required.
Pulliam and Lewis’s game of chicken played out played as was expected. They figured they would gum up the works by not naming anyone, and by doing so, they have now denied their constituents the ability to have a say in the process.
Lewis was quoted recently stating that limiting the appointees to people who have never held elective office makes the choice difficult.
“I guess having Carl Vinson is going to be beneficial, but it does a disservice because now you’re going to have, maybe, neophytes to city (sic) government,” he said.
Oh, and what was he before he got elected two years ago? A boffin of bureaucracy?
Well, at least Lewis learned a new word.
Business owners all up and down Broad Street are now getting active on social media as the city gears up to finally make much needed improvements to the downtown area.
People are complaining that green spaces and bike trails will destroy what is left of the parking downtown and could eventually put them out of business.
Naturally, no one wants to see long standing businesses like Luigi’s suffer, but when the bulldozers are already on site, holding up a picket sign is not going to help much.
This Transportation Infrastructure Act, or TIA, initiative is actually two years behind schedule, says Engineering Director Hameed Malik, and if the city waits any longer, the price will balloon way past the $62 million mark.
It is true that people may have to walk further, a block or two, to get to their destination, and there is still some contention as to how making Ellis Street and Reynolds Street one-way will solve anything; but the business owners have had ample time to voice concerns.
Malik says that the city has held the required public meetings and that he personally made sure everyone downtown was aware of the meetings, but no one showed up. He rightly says that is not his concern any longer.
What is of concern is a lack of knowing what is underneath the areas of Broad Street, as well as the crossroads.
A decade or so ago, the city, led by the Downtown Development Authority, set about turning Tenth Street between Broad Street and Ellis Street, into a “demonstration block.” It was a great idea, and the mock-up drawings looked fantastic.
Director Margaret Woodard and her staff worked on this project diligently, but they all ended up with an Excedrin headache once the concrete was pulled up and the ground beneath exposed.
Underneath, there was century old infrastructure that broke apart to the touch, the old pipes didn’t show up on maps, and the people who installed them were likely long dead. There were also some interesting “holes” that were unearthed.
As soon as I saw those holes, I knew exactly what they were, as I had seen the same thing on the third level of the Augusta Canal when it was drained. We called them “critter holes,” and these were not the size holes one would want to stick a limb into, lest it might be bitten off at the shoulder.
It wasn’t long after the sidewalk was ripped up that business owners were being greeted at their front door by river rats the size of VWs wearing shades and singing: “Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?”
My crystal ball tells me that engineers are likely going to encounter the same problem when they go about ripping apart Broad Street.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter, Editorial Page Editor and weekly columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
