(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
Citizens can breathe easy this week because most Augusta commissioners are in the great state of Colorado for the National Association of County Officers convention.
They’re not 40 miles from Denver, but closer, in Aurora, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center.
In Colorado, you can climb a mountain or breathe the cannabis-laced air.
“And the Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly
Rocky Mountain high”
Commissioner Catherine McKnight texted the names of some classes being offered at the Gaylord Rockies and Convention Center:
_ “Framework for Advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to Transform County Government”
(That’s a class on how to use buzzwords. Instead of going to Colorado they could just listen to Mayor King Hardie Davis bloviate.)
_ “Leveraging Technology for Today’s Modern County Government”
(They could get a 6-year-old to tell them how to use their iPads.)
Catherine and Commissioner John Clarke attended this class.
_ “Parks Prepare for Post Pandemic Pivot.”
(Everybody knows what the problem is with Augusta’s parks, and it doesn’t have anything to do with pivoting. Anyway, as high as the grass is at the parks, you can pivot all you want to, and nobody would notice it. Besides, getting the privies to work at Diamond Lakes Park would be a lot better than pivoting.)
During a follow-up phone call, McKnight asked, “How can we make people see we’re not just out here foolin’ around? I’m certainly not. I want to get something out of it.”
Of course, they don’t have a good time. They’re too busy going to classes. I wonder how many took their spouses with them this year and how bored they must be after sitting in a hotel all day waiting for them to come back after a long day of classes on “Post Pandemic Pivoting” and such. They’ll probably be so tired all they’ll want to do is grab a quick bite at Burger King and head straight to bed.
As a matter of fact, they’re going to be completely worn out going to conferences this year, now that they have $75,000 to spend on travel, up from $45,000 last year. There’s still the National League of Cities conference in Kansas City to go to in November. The state Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) Annual Conference was in Savannah in June, and the state Association County Commissioners Georgia (ACCG) has three major meetings a year, the Capitol Connection Conferences; the Annual Conference; and the Legislative Leadership Conference.
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I saw the Mayor King Hardie Davis on WJBF TV Channel 6 extolling the benefits of travel by elected officials.
“There are policy initiatives they can learn and glean from,” he said in the interview. “Hopefully, they will successfully come back with those things, and look for an opportunity to implement and execute without delay.”
As I see it, there are two fallacies in Davis’ statement.
The first is to think they’re going to be able to stay awake long enough to learn anything, much less “glean,” is a joke. And when in the history of Augusta has anything ever been done “without delay” except to give away your tax dollars to questionable groups or programs?
In that same TV interview, Davis also said, “There is this notion in Augusta that if I minimalize opportunities for those that we elected, we’re still going to be a successful city, and that is the most foolish thing I have ever heard.”
Well, sending the mayor to places like Miami, Washington, D.C., California, New York over and over and over and to Hawaii and Qatar expecting him to bring something of value back is the most foolish thing I have ever heard of.
Colorado Rocky Mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
Friends around the campfire and everybody’s high
Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain high (high in Colorado)”
Pay Them Now or Pay Them Later
Speaking of something happening without delay, let’s talk about the continuing saga of Gold Cross EMS which has been trying all year to get the city to increase the subsidy it pays for transporting Augusta’s indigent patients, which is a sizeable population.
Gold Cross has been seeking a $950,000 increase to $1.6 million to help cover the skyrocketing diesel costs during ongoing contract negotiations, which five commissioners have purposefully sabotaged out of nothing but spite, in my opinion. They’re mad because Gold Cross obtained the designation of sole emergency services provider for the EMS zone from the state in 2014, and being led by now-suspended Commissioner Sammie Sias they tried to have the Augusta Fire Department take over ambulance service, a costly failure if there ever was one.
The skyrocketing costs of diesel, supplies, maintenance, liability and employee health insurance costs, along with a drastic increase in non-paying patients brought Gold Cross Vice President Steven Vincent before the commission Tuesday to make his case.
Vincent said that during the past two years the pandemic, inflation and supply-chain disruptions have wreaked havoc on the entire emergency services industry.
Before the subsidy vote, Commissioner Brandon Garrett told his colleagues they need to make sure their citizens are provided the best care they can from Gold Cross.
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Do they care? Half do. Half just want to complain and try to embarrass Gold Cross by getting anyone with an ax to grind against the company to come grind it publicly at commission meetings. Sias actually recruited them.
So, Commissioners Catherine McKnight, Alvin Mason, Sean Frantom, John Clarke and Garrett voted to increase the subsidy. Commissioners Jordan Johnson, Dennis Williams, Ben Hasan, Francine Scott and Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams voted against it. To pass, a motion must receive six votes. Mayor King Hardie Davis, who could have voted to break the tie, was absent from the meeting.
So where was he Tuesday?
On another publicity seeking mission in New York City hobnobbing at Gracie Mansion with other Democrat mayors planning to target manufacturers of guns criminals use to commit crimes.
I don’t know your position on gun control or guns in general, but there’s no such thing as “gun violence.” Calling a criminal act “gun violence” doesn’t place the blame where it belongs. Of course, the obfuscating mayors know that very well.
Guns don’t sprout wings and fly out of the closet or gun cabinet and go out and do violence. Those mayors who met in New York are just trying to excuse their pathetic leadership and avoid placing responsibility on their constituents by blaming guns, in my opinion.
If King Hardie really wanted to do something about crime, he’d keep his butt in Augusta and work with his My Brother’s Keepers program. Oh wait, I forgot, he already spent all that money on himself.
The Sharks Are Circling
Shark Week begins Sunday and coincides with Sammie Sias’ trial in U.S. District Court in Augusta.
Sias is accused of destroying hundreds of pages of evidence and lying to an FBI agent during an investigation of the misuse of sales tax money. Jury selection is scheduled to start Tuesday.
In 2019, agents executed search warrants and removed boxes of documents and computers from Sias’ residence. The investigation began after Sias’ scorned lover, Willa Hilton, wrote Augusta commissioners a letter with bombshell allegations of porn and booze at the Jamestown Community Center that gave a whole new meaning to the word “recreation.”
According to Hilton, the Jamestown center was not only a recreation center for kids but also a place of a gun totin’ adult to indulge in X-rated activities and sexual proclivities.
Hilton, who was involved with the center for 12 years, went public with her allegations after Sias fired her in July 2019. She accused him of pocketing sales-tax money, drinking, watching porn and mistreating children at the center. But the last straw, according to Hilton, was when Sias opened the door to the center’s conference room and showed her a blowup mattress with new paisley sheets.
I always thought it was strange that she claimed the blowup mattress was the last straw since they’d been paramours for 20 years, according to Sias.
Somehow, it seems fitting that Sias’ trial is being held during Shark Week. The themes of both events are the same – sharks circling with blood in the water from ripping up seals and Sias sweating blood as he’s about to stand trial for ripping up evidence. Big difference in the themes do exist though. Nobody could ever accuse the sharks of destroying evidence after the fact because they devour it all. And nobody has ever heard of a shark whose mistress accused him of trying to get her into his cave by showing her a blowup bed with paisley sheets.
Pearls of Wisdom
One of Augusta Commissioner Jordan Johnson’s comments following a presentation at Tuesday’s commission meeting about the Confederate Monument on Broad Street drew some entertaining comments.
Russ Gambill spoke on behalf of the Facebook group “Save the Monuments in Augusta,” and likened the 76-foot-tall monument to a grave marker for all of the Confederate soldiers from Augusta who never made it home to their families.
During a following discussion, Johnson said his ancestors were slaves and while they did not fight in the Civil War, they “were probably dead because of what happened at the time here.”
He said he faces racism, that white women “clutch their pearls” when they get into an elevator with him.
Friday, Commissioner McKnight said that was funny. “I’ve been in the elevator with Jordan a couple of times with pearls on, and I didn’t clutch them.”
The pearl clutching comment drew some entertaining responses on the Augusta Political Watch site.
Political Watch Administrator Tina Slendak posted:
“Maybe Jordan Johnson needs to look up the definition of ‘clutching your pearls’ before he uses it in a rant on the Commission dais.”
Karen Gordon posted:
“Maybe, in this context, he meant clutching their pocketbooks… whatever the case, pearls or pocketbooks… they be clutching.”
Tina Slendak posted:
“Karen Gordon, as a white woman I was insulted”
Karen Gordon posted:
“Tina Slendak, aww, ok. I gotcha. Well, if you’re not clutching, then it doesn’t apply to you”
Anthony Stephens posted:
“IF I WERE AROUND JORDAN JOHNSON I WOULD BE CLUTCHING MY LUNCHBOX”
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
