Talk was the Augusta Commission was going to create a “Blue Ribbon Panel” to discuss changes to the Augusta city charter.
Such a panel would be set up primarily to petition the legislature for salary upgrades for the mayor and commissioners. However, the discussion at last Tuesday’s commission meeting was halted as the commissioner who put the blue-ribbon panel on the agenda yanked it at the last moment. He also didn’t attend the meeting.
District 6 Commissioner Ben Hassan says he pulled the item because it was moot, but he did not want to elaborate any further.
“The mayor wanted a blue-ribbon panel to discuss the charter, but we all decided that there was no need for one. I took it off the agenda and it is not coming back,” Hassan says.
That has left many scratching their heads.
[adrotate banner=”19″]
What exactly was this blue-ribbon panel supposed to do?
Why did some think it was needed?
And why was it unceremoniously discarded before any public discussion on the matter?
First, consider Miriam-Webster’s definition of a blue-ribbon panel: “an independent and exclusive commission of nonpartisan statesmen and experts formed to investigate some important governmental issue.”
Following that definition, then, if the mayor, Hassan or any other commissioner sat on the panel, then it would not be independent and nonpartisan. Especially if raises for the commission and mayor were the intended topic.
According to other commissioners, though, the blue-ribbon panel was about much more than just raises.
[adrotate banner=”23″]
“The mayor has stated from day one that he wants the mayor’s office to encompass more power,” says District 8 Commissioner Brandon Garrett. “It seems (the mayor) attempted to use the pay raise issue to bring in that narrative.”
Garrett says that he fully supports a broad discussion on the charter as long as that discussion is in public.
“We haven’t even looked at the charter seriously in 25 years, so we need to look at what is working and what isn’t,” Garrett says.
District 10 Commissioner John Clarke agrees with Garrett that any discussion on pay raises or changing the charter should be conducted in public.
‘We all knew what the job paid and what the job was when we took office,” Clarke says. “We don’t need a blue-ribbon panel to discuss any of this.”
Scott Hudson is the Editorial Page Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
[adrotate banner=”41″]
