(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
There are 151 days left in King Hardie Davis mayoral reign. Thank goodness.
I’m not looking forward to those days, but I’m going to keep my eye on where he’s traveling and what he’s spending your money on. Although he’s never talked publicly about where he goes or what he does when he gets there, last week was an exception. During Tuesday’s commission meeting he said he wanted to share some of the work he’d been engaged in to combat the rising tide of gun violence nationally and locally (Easier said than done because there is no such thing as “gun” violence.).
After thanking local law enforcement who are doing everything they can to make sure we live in a safe city and the coroner for the work he does, Davis said, “I know there’s a sentiment that with the perceived increase in gun violence our city is not safe, and that’s just not the case.” (Of course, that is exactly the case! And oh, by the way, if the city is so safe, why is the coroner so busy that the mayor says he’s praying for him?)
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Then he talked about being at the White House for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns conference and the Safer America Act, which is slated for $35 billion in the 2023 federal budget for crime prevention, part of which will fund 100,000 more police officers and equip communities with additional technology and needed personnel. (Who believes the sworn anti-law-enforcement Democrat Party is going to do any of those things?)
I’ve been reading and hearing about big city mayors and city councils defunding their police departments and implementing no-bail policies and lack of criminal prosecution. Oh, that’s not working? What a surprise. Crime has spiraled out of control, so they’re taking a different tack. They’re talking about gun violence. (With the hope they can deprive law abiding citizens of their rights.)
Anyway, after addressing gun manufacturers, the most villainous being Glock, which is manufactured in Georgia, Davis said, “It’s important for us to take a holistic approach to drive out gun violence.” (Okay. Eliminate the criminals who commit violent acts with a gun, a knife, a bottle, an egg beater, whatever.)
Part of the plan is to image every bullet casing and make ballistic matches, he said. (What a steaming crock!)
And lo and behold, amidst his speech and flowery words, he said, “It’s not a time for speeches and flowery words. It’s time for consistent and collaborative action.”
But not one word about just who is doing most of this gun violence. Oh no. That would be political suicide. That’s why they call it “gun violence” instead of what it is overwhelmingly: young male violence.
It’s just so hypocritical for King Hardie to be blaming guns for the violence while one of the few programs that was designed to hit home at the needs of young black and Latino males, his My Brother’s Keeper’s program, was wasted on consultants and anything else he wanted to spend the $37,500 a year of taxpayers’ money on.
So, he cannot come out here in the last few months of his eight-year tenure and start praying and preaching sermons about gun violence and think he’s impressing anybody. Anybody who’s been paying attention anyway.
More Grandstanding
And anybody who doesn’t believe that Davis and a majority of the commission are out to drive Gold Cross out of business should just listen to what he said after former Augusta Commissioner Moses Todd spoke against increasing the ambulance company’s subsidy Tuesday.
It’s not worth going into verbatim. Really, it’s not. He just said the city wasn’t going to give the company more money for providing what he considers poor service and that they were considering “every other option.”
Oh, no, not another fire-department-run ambulance service! Don’t tell me that’s one of them.
After that, commissioners approved Commissioner Dennis Williams’ two agenda items to include in ongoing contract negotiations between the city and Gold Cross. One would require the company to send the city invoices each quarter outlining the cases they’d provided service for that were unable to pay and a breakdown of the claims, or the type of ambulance run it was. The other was a requirement for implementing a system for logging and investigating complaints against Gold Cross.
Double Standard
Well, what was the system the Augusta Fire Department had for its billing system and method of investigating complaints when it was running ambulances year before last? They didn’t have one. They sure didn’t do much investigating when they took away that sick old man’s inhaler and sent him into a panic attack and then dropped him off the stretcher taking him to the ambulance, not once but twice. The only way anybody knew about that was when the family went public after the man died.
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And, as far as providing invoices about who didn’t pay, the city’s policy was if they couldn’t pay, they didn’t have to. But you couldn’t get any information about anything like that, especially the amount of money the city lost. But it was $2 million at least, not counting the cost of the new ambulances they bought and the turmoil and near insurrection among firefighters forced to be EMTs against their wills.
Anyway, I thought Commissioner Brandon Garrett’s comment about the investigation requirement was insightful:
“In regards to the investigation part of this, I’m just trying to wrap my head around that one ‘cause we have a lot of vendors out there that do work for us, and I’m not sure that with any of them we do any investigations on the work they provide.”
A Bonus by Any Other Name is a Raise
Commissioners approved the interim Administrator Takiyah Douse’s employee retention plan of 3 percent cost of living raises and bonuses of $1,000, $2,000 and $2,500 based on the employee’s current pay with those making $70,000 or more getting $1,000 and so forth and so on. But they’re not calling them bonuses anymore.
Last week, when asked how the city could give the employees bonuses without violating the gratuities clause in the state constitution, General Counsel Wayne Brown said they could call them something else and that he’d study it.
Tuesday, he said, “They’re pay increases. We’re calling them pay increases.”
Tiny Houses, Big Prices
Commissioners approved a draft tiny house ordinance for Augusta on Tuesday that would allow for single family units of 400 square feet or less and tiny home villages for homeless people and veterans.
The villages would have 20 percent of the space dedicated to communal or open space on a Village Green. The owners of the Village Greens would be responsible for maintaining the Village Greens. Who the owners would be has not been determined and who would pay for the tiny homes has not been determined, but Planning and Development Director Carla Delaney mentioned something about their being “quasi governmental.”
When I was growing up we called places liked that trailer parks. We had them all over Tift County.
Some tiny houses range from 128 to 200 square feet and would cost between $107,000 and $150,000 and include the land, Delaney said. Another tiny home known as the Minimalist is 458 square feet and would cost $250,000.
A $125,000 tiny home would cost $833 a square foot, seven times more than the cost of residential construction in Augusta, and the smaller the house the more it costs based on Delaney’s estimates.
We know everything government does costs more, but the average cost of a tiny home in general is between $30,000 and $60,000. Home Depot sells one for $43,000. You might have to buy a washer and dryer for it, but former commissioner Sammie Sias might be able to get you one cheap. And you could probably find a lawnmower at the Keep Augusta Beautiful warehouse wherever that might be.
There must be many hidden costs in tiny homes which might be why they’re so expensive, so it might pay to hire Sias to keep the books and the mayor to set up a 401c-4 account and keep the amount of money in it a closely guarded secret.
Don’t Hesitate! Vaccinate!
Nothing causes pet owners as much angst as needing emergency medical care for an injured or dangerously ill animal and finding there is none in the Augusta area.
The Augusta Press had a story in Thursday’s newspaper, headlined, “Lack of 24-hour emergency veterinary care concerns residents.”
That’s really an understatement. I would have written, “Lack of 24-hour emergency veterinary care panics, terrifies and causes some pet owners to stroke out.”
But that would have been too long for a headline, which is why I never became an editor. Too wordy.
Anyway, my headline perfectly describes how I felt in June when a copperhead bit our Goldendoodle Gracie late one afternoon, and I began a desperate search to find an open emergency clinic in Augusta, only to hear the answering machines saying the clinic was closed until Monday morning. Emergency veterinarian clinics closed Saturday before dark and not open until after sunrise Monday! It’s outrageous. They shouldn’t be allowed to advertise that they’re emergency clinics.
I wrote about Gracie on my Facebook page when it happened and will write it here some slow news week. But now I want to tell you about the encounter Roy, our Lab, had with a coyote Monday evening.
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When we first moved to the country, there were some coyotes in the woods round about, but I only heard them and never saw one. We often walked to the creek in the woods with our dogs, but since then, coyotes have multiplied exponentially, so we never go into the woods anymore.
In the past, they’d come up around our house at night to eat pears and figs that had fallen on the ground. But the past week we’ve seen one around the trees during daylight hours, which is unusual. And when I walked the dogs out Monday evening, the coyote was under the fig tree. So, the dogs started barking and running after it and chased it into the woods where Roy caught up with it and came out the loser. The coyote tore his face up and barely missed his eyes. He had one especially deep bite near his left eye.
Well, I knew after what happened in June with Gracie it was futile to try to find a veterinarian clinic still open. So, I doctored him up the best I could and gave him a pain pill and stayed up with him most of the night. Ernie took him to the vet the next morning where they gave him an antibiotic, pain pills and salve for the injuries.
I am just glad he’d had a three-year rabies shot in June. I couldn’t exactly remember when I’d taken him and couldn’t find the record Monday night which made it easy to stay awake with Roy.
The bad news is that coyote is still hanging around the fig tree. He’s either rabid or has been cast out of his den.
Update – Ernie got three quick pistol shots off toward the fleeing coyote Friday afternoon. No blood shed but Wiley found a new gear.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
