The vice chairman of Augusta’s charter review committee suggested the subcommittee studying the form of government be dissolved, saying the group exhibited the same “dysfunction” the committee was created to address.
Vice Chairman Clint Bryant made the comments Thursday as subcommittee members voted on motions related to replacing Augusta’s administrator with a manager, a change intended to put more focused authority over the government.
The committee has met for six months and made one significant recommendation so far — to keep the current structure of 10 commissioners elected by district. Two subcommittees have explored various topics but had made no firm recommendations as of Thursday.
The latest motions came from Subcommittee Vice Chairman Lonnie Wimberly, who said he revised them after the panel heard from a speaker on government corruption. Wimberly presented three new motions, but Subcommittee Chairman Steve Foushee and member Roderick Pearson would not allow him to withdraw his earlier versions, forcing votes on all.
As a result, the subcommittee sent conflicting recommendations to the full committee, including motions both to approve and to make no recommendation on adopting a manager form of government. It also forwarded motions with no recommendation for the mayor to appoint the manager and county attorney, and for the manager to report to the mayor and have hiring and firing authority over department directors. Both would be subject to commission consent.
The subcommittee recommended approval on three items:
- Adopting a manager form of government
- Granting the manager hiring and firing authority over department directors with commission consent
- Keeping the mayor as spokesperson while retaining a vote on all commission actions
As the group worked its way through motions and substitute motions, Bryant, who is not on the subcommittee, objected that it was not following “protocol.” He argued Wimberly’s withdrawals should have ended debate on the earlier motions.
“For a sitting member to make a motion and then withdraw it, and that not be respected,” Bryant said, “it almost feels like the dysfunction that we talk about all the time.”
Foushee responded, “I apologize, but we don’t agree on that,” prompting Bryant to say the two would “agree to disagree.”
Bryant, who has chided the group previously about its conduct during meetings, added he considered a stronger step if subcommittees continue to stall.
“I considered making a motion to dissolve the subcommittees, period, if they are not going to get the business of the citizens done in a fashion that we need to get it done,” he said.
Bryant, who attended the subcommittee with Chairman Marcie Wilhelmi and several other committee members, took another step regarding meeting conduct Thursday by ejecting a League of Women Voters representative from the meeting table where she was seated.
He called for a point of order and asked co-chair Gayla Keesee of the CSRA league to “remove yourself from the table” because she walked over and spoke to a committee member during the discussion.
Seating at the subcommittee sessions tends to be limited, while Keesee was the only member of the public seated at one of the meeting tables which were arranged in a square.
The league issued a statement Friday saying Bryant could not raise a point of order because he was not a subcommittee member and that Keesee had not disrupted the meeting.
Augusta’s Charter Review Committee and subcommittees meet every other Thursday.
