(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column of those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
I’d bet a dollar to a hole in a donut that most of the educated, engaged and involved people reading this column voted in the very important runoff elections. Oh, wait! Not “most,” but “all of the educated, engaged and involved people voted” because you all are, no doubt, those people. So, I’ll skip the lecture about how people who don’t vote shouldn’t complain about waste, fraud and abuse in their government.
As former Mayor Bob Young said, “Based on voter turnout, 81 percent of voters don’t care who the mayor is. The real winner in the mayor’s election was not on the ballot – Chris Johnson who walked away with $55,000 cash, plus a new job as tax commissioner with a huge pay raise.”
And the fact that Johnson is tax commissioner because Steven Kendrick appointed him before he stepped down to run for mayor, and Johnson turned around and appointed Kendrick as deputy tax commissioner so Kendrick could stay on the city payroll was the first and possibly fatal blunder of Kendrick’s campaign. And taking inactive status hoping to quell the uproar didn’t help all that much, especially when Johnson immediately retired from his former position as deputy tax commissioner and received a $55,000 severance and big raise.
There were other blunders that led to underdog Garnett Johnson upsetting the well-funded front-runner Kendrick, including suddenly pulling the Regency Mall revitalization project out of his hat like a rabbit at a one-man magic show.
Kendrick says he’s not going to be tax commissioner anymore. Maybe he’ll be successful in developing the mall site and the rest of Gordon Highway, which will then be Eisenhower Highway due to our woke and go broke federal government.
Garnett Johnson might have been the underdog in the race, but we hope he’s not going to be like the legendary dog who chased the car until he caught it and then said, “Now what?”
Place your bets on a winner if you can. It could pay off.
With so few registered voters voting in the runoff for mayor, you’d think, as Young says, 81 percent of voters don’t care who the mayor is. But there are some who care very much, and they put their money where they think it will do the most good.
In the weeks between the general election and the runoff, Kendrick received $46,712.79 in campaign contributions, bringing his total contributions to $247,089.82.
He received 18 contributions of $1,000 each in that period, including from Bettis Rainsford Jr. of Edgefield; Joseph Faulkner Warlick; attorney David Bell; Burnside Law Firm; attorney Sam Nicholson; Nimmons & Malchow; Paul King; John Bell Jr.; Builders Pac; Southern States PBA; Rick Toole; R.O. Barton; Trotter General; Neil Douglas; Deanna Specialty Transport; Express Employment Professionals; Dr. Mac Bowman; and Ray Cupid of Charlotte.
William Hagler donated $1,500; and Bobbie Collins; John Manton; John Mills, executive; James Jones, investor; and Kelly Mahoney, Hillpointe donated $1,600 each.
Southern States PBA donated $2,000, as did Jones and Godley. AdMax Advertising donated $2,002.
Garnett Johnson received $41,030 in donations between the general election and runoff. His total contributions were $166,030, which included a $125,000 loan to himself.
He received nine contributions of $1,000 each, including from Randall and Marilee Hatcher; Builders Political Action Committee; Franklin and Mary Abbot; Greg Howard; Aces Inc.; LeTray Walker; Cecilia Badger; Butch Gallop; Allen and Angela Griffin.
George Snelling, real estate, donated $1,500. Southern Industries; ISM LLC and Robbi Raitt donated $1,600 each. James Hull donated $2,000, and Vince and Robin Brogdon; James Felton; and Jeff and Beth Annis donated $2,800 each, while Nick and Anna Dickinson donated $3,000.
District 10
Former commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle, who successfully challenged incumbent John Clarke for his Super District 10 seat, raised $28,007.30 during the final reporting period – four times as much as Clarke’s $6,900.
Guilfoyle’s received $50,907.30 in total campaign contributions to Clarke’s $9,492.62.
Yohe Plumbing, Heating & Air; Builders Political Action Committee of the CSRA and Richard Hudson of Thomson each donated $1,000. James Holloway donated $1,439.
Sitting District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett donated $2,000 to Guilfoyle, and Chris and Trisha Hensley donated $2,500; and Constantine Constructors LLC of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., donated $2,500 twice, according to the report.
Clarke received a $750 donation from the Police Benevolent Association and $750 from Hudson Farms. Infrastructure Systems Management contributed $1,000. Constantine Consultants LLC contributed $2,000 and the Constantine Group contributed $2,000, according to the report.
Should Augusta’s Napoleon Be Exiled?
The 76-year-old retired Richmond County school teacher that Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams insulted when she offered to bump fists instead of shaking hands at a mayoral and candidate forum came before the Augusta Commission Tuesday to voice her outrage.
And while Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. and commissioners didn’t seem to be outraged at all, some people are, so much so they’re calling for Williams to be recalled from office.
“I’m here to express about the unethical behavior of Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams,” Maggie Hill told commissioners. “I was assailed by Mr. Williams. On June 1, 2022, during a forum at Mount Canaan Greater Baptist Church, Mr. Williams was shaking hands. When he approached me for a handshake, I extended the fist bump. He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want to shake my hand?’ And much to my dismay, he said the expletive, F.U.
“Will this unethical behavior be allowed to continue?” she asked. “Commissioners, I appeal to you to be the recourse to possible and future behaviors. I have a suggestion for you, and the suggestion is, to prevent this from happening to others there needs to be the implementation of a neutral body to sanction unethical behavior of commissioners. In the media, I have seen some reckless behavior by some commissioners, but never did I think I would be assailed by such foolhardiness.”
Hill then addressed Williams directly.
“Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams, I worked with you as a teacher at Glenn Hills High School,” she said. “Your attitude and stigma hasn’t changed. Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams, you took this job to serve the citizens. Your vulgar comments…”
At that point, Davis intervened and asked Hill to refrain from what would appear to be “attacking.”
“You took the job to serve the citizens,” Hill continued. “Your vulgar comments, I did not deserve. You need to be more reserved.”
Hill said in an earlier interview that she thought Williams had “Napoleon Syndrome” – AKA: LMS or Little Man Syndrome.
Williams verbal assault on Hill marked the second time in less than a month he’d skirmished with someone, continuing a pattern of clashing with citizens and fellow commission members.
After speaking, Hill and her contingent there to support her left the chambers, and commissioners went on to the next delegation, Michael Galuucci, who spoke in favor of getting rid of Confederate monuments in Augusta.
Yackity, Yackity, Yak!
More stupid, stalemated commission arguing about the Gold Cross EMS contract versus the existing Memorandum of Understanding the ambulance company is operating under was to be endured during Tuesday’s Commission meeting. Yackity, Yackity Yak!
Same old thing, over and over, year after year after year. Yackity Yackity Yak!
Mayor Pro Tem Bobby Williams: Well, I think this Gold Cross am-bu-lance operation is cheating us. I’ve been talking to Sammie Sias. We need to get their books and take a look at them and make them send us a bill every month for what they do instead of us paying them a supplement. Yackity, Yackity, Yak!
Commissioner Ben Hasan: What I said last week that nobody could understand because I study up and get into the weeds so much I’ll say again. Yackity, Yackity, Yak!
Commissioner Dennis Williams: The people of Augusta need ambulance service, but we don’t care if Gold Cross goes out of business. Yackity, Yackity, Yak! We’re against private enterprises horning in on what should be government operations and making a profit. We need for them to send us an invoice before we pay them anything. We just want to run our own ambulances like we were doing two years ago. So it cost the taxpayers $5 million more to do. Pay me now or pay me later. Yackity, Yackity, Yak!
Mayor Hardie Davis: A MOU is just as good as a contract. It’s the same thing. I hate Gold Cross, and there’s no doubt about it. Yackity, Yackity, Yak! They didn’t come quick enough when my son got sick. I’m the mayor. I deserve priority. Another thing I’ve got against them is they’re capitalists who want to make a profit off the backs of the people of Augusta who I’ve made it so much better for them to work, play and live for the last eight years, traveling all over the world to looking to being them sustainable energy. Yackity, Yackity, Yak! Let’s just stick with the MOU instead of paying Gold Cross more supplement.
Commissioner Alvin Mason: We need a contract, and none of you know what you’re talking about. A MOU is not a contract. And I’m the only one sitting here who is a certified contract negotiator, among other things, too many to mention, actually, and I’m not even on the sub-committee. Yackity, Yackity, Yak!
Hasan: For the last several months, we’ve put together a contract. Gold Cross has a contract. Now we’re reverting back to a MOU. Yackity, Yackity, Yak!
Davis: Attorney Brown, Where are we? What is the status of our previous directive? We don’t know what we’re doing. Yackity, Yackity, Yak! Yak!
An Upside-down Shake to See His Brothers’ Money Fall Out of His Pockets
Seems like some commentators are saying that Mayor Davis wasn’t given a fair shake early on in his tenure. Oh, come on! But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. We’ll have to talk about that later…
Are You Old Enough …
Do you remember when the TV screen was round and the antenna was a bunch of wires and tinfoil? Do you even remember tinfoil? Or do you remember when parchment paper was used for writing instead of baking?
Are you old enough to remember when people had open wells and drew water up in a bucket? And do you remember ever seeing a snake in a well?
And do you remember watching your grandmother kill a chicken, no two chickens, to fry for Sunday dinner? Mama Ross would bait them up with corn, and when one got close enough to catch, she did so and quickly wrung its neck and threw it down in the yard to flop around and squawk until it didn’t. By that time, Mama Ross had caught another one who met the same fate. I guess that’s why they call them bird brains not to notice what just happened to their coop mate.
Anyway, when they’d quit flopping around, she’d hang them upside down on a hook and slit their throats and let them bleed into a bucket before she immersed them in boiling water and then plucked their feathers, after which she cut them open and took out the edible parts which was almost everything but the guts which she threw into a slop bucket for the hogs or the dogs. I can’t remember which. Then she washed the chickens good under cold running water, cut them up at the joints and rolled them in salted and peppered flour and fried them in hot lard. She fried everything in lard rendered from the hogs they killed when it went below freezing in November or December. I’ll tell you about that next week. I watched it all sitting on a picnic table.
Sylvia Cooper is a columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
