HomeMy WebLinkAboutRegular Commission Meeting August 6, 2013
REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION MEETING
AUGUST 6, 2013
Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 5:00 p.m., August 6, 2013, the Hon.
Corey Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem, presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. Lockett, Guilfoyle, Mason, D. Smith, Williams, Fennoy, Jackson,
Davis and G. Smith, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission.
ABSENT: Hon. Deke Copenhaver, Mayor.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I’ll go on ahead and get the meeting started. Madam Clerk, I’d like
to call the meeting to order. First and foremost I’d like to take an opportunity to thank you all
for being here today but we had a couple of events that took place this weekend and they wasn’t
very pleasant events. And, of course, you all know we lost our State Representative Quincy
Murphy on Friday. Prior to that Ms. Lena Bonner our Clerk of Commission she lost her mother.
And we also lost a lieutenant on the Fire Department Michael Beckham. So I’d like to take this
opportunity to just bow our heads for a moment of silence and honor those folks who have
passed on. Thank you. Madam Clerk, I’d like to call on, please stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance. I’m sorry our invocation first and then we’ll call on Dr. C.W. Joyner, Jr., Pastor
Broadway Baptist Church for our invocation.
The invocation was given by Dr. C. W. Joyner, Jr., Pastor, Broadway Baptist Church.
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Dr. Joyner, thank you for that enlightening prayer and we do have a
Proclamation from the Mayor’s Office if you will come up and receive this proclamation. By
these present be it known that Dr. C.W. Joyner, Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church is Chaplain
of the Day for his civic and spiritual guidance demonstrated throughout the community. Serves
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as an example for all of the faith community. Given unto his hand this 6 Day of August 2013,
Deke Copenhaver, Mayor. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Okay, Madam Clerk, we’ll go on and
take our delegation next here.
The Clerk:
DELEGATIONS
A. GAII Griffin Athletics International, Inc. RE: Augusta Municipal Golf Course Proposal.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: How’re doing Mr. Griffin?
Mr. Griffin: I’m doing fine.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Great. Great. If you could keep it to five minutes we’d definitely
appreciate it. And it’s good to see you.
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Mr. Griffin: Well, first of all thank you all for having me, the Commissioners and the
Mayor in his absence. And before we get started I’d like for my staff to stand. And ya’ll can be
seated. We’re going to make this short and sweet like you said. There’s been some talk about
The Patch. And first of all a lot of you all don’t know me but I’m and avid golfer. I love the
game of golf. I’m the inventor of the world’s first multi-functional pair of golf shoes that’s come
in out here this year and that’s just something to add to Augusta, okay? And golf what we’re
talking about now the game of golf The Patch there’s been proposals by First Tee to propose
working with the city and running the First Tee. And I understand I went into yesterday into the
meeting and First Tee had their proposal on the table where they’re going to work and do share
costs with the city and run the facility. And the city puts $2 million dollars and I understand
there’s some extra funds of $300,000 or five left over somewhere that was slated for the golf
course. So it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of two million three hundred and some thousand
to two million five hundred thousand, I don’t know. But that’s besides the point. My point is
today is that we come as a staff and we are going to match the monies of the city. The city’s
going to give two million and my corporation and my company we’re willing to partner with my
partners we’re going to do five million and renovate the golf course and also bring some more
attractions that’s not just renovating the golf course. Because just renovating the golf course
won’t produce you income that you should have coming in based on that location of that golf
course in the center of the city. It should be some more attractions to draw golfers that love the
game of golf to produce income for the city and not just the city but for the golfers to enjoy when
they place golf. You can’t just feed a golfer candy, cookies and crackers and think he wants to
play some golf and come back. There has to be something to keep the golfers there. Our
proposal is this and I’ll sum it up so it’ll be quick. Our proposal is that we turn it into a metro-
plex facility. The facility is going to have a practice facility, it’ll be an indoor driving range
where’s a top level two story lighted driving range that’s stays open to night to eleven o’clock to
be able to hit balls. And we have a practice facility where they can chip and practice and learn
the game of golf and get in depth in their skills at the game of golf. Now we could do this but
before I go any further you have 119 acres. We’ve researched it I have the drawings and the
plans for the building already and you can just show it to them. I have everything in place to do
this. And the renovation costs if we’re going to do these things in phases. Now when I say that
the first thing we’re going to turn on is Phase I that’s going to generate capital for the city and for
my company. No one goes into business expecting to lose at a loss but there is such a thing as
profit and loss. But what we’re putting in place is going to generate capital because it’s new,
innovative and different and it’s set in place to work. When I say that let me give you an
example. We’re going to put a four course restaurant in there that serves breakfast, lunch and
dinner. Everybody loves to eat, right? Okay so we know that so they’ll be there to do that.
Then we’re going to put a coffee shop in there. When golfers play and we’re going to have the
top, we’re going to put a second floor on the top of the club house. We’ve already got the
drawings. We’ll put a second floor on the top so they can look out and sit and drink coffee and
we’re going to put three hitting booths in there with our semi-pro club professional. They’re
going to do club fitting, they could do putting, they can hit they can talk and enjoy themselves
after their round of golf and spend more money in our clubhouse looking out over the open glass
that we’ll have open where they can see the course and golfers still coming up. And when it’s
raining we can still make money because we’re going to have an indoor putting facility and also
the driving range is a covered driving range where they can hit regardless of rain or whatever
they can always hit golf balls. And there’s never a time where we’re going to have it down.
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There’s always something going on. So what we put in place is really a state of the art facility
that generates capital. And I got this from traveling all around the world. I’ve been in the
military 30 years and half my staff if they stand back up again, stand back up, half my staff is
retired from the military with all the military experience. I’ve got two of them that covered in
golf management, etiquette and at the same time they teach lessons. I’ve got instructors I got
Myrtle Beach Golf Academy behind me where we’ll have a certified pro at mid level entry and
we’ll have a club pro that’s senior pro. We have two of them. We already go them lined up.
And what we’re going to do is make it a facility that’s inductive for people to learn the game of
golf enjoy the facility and at the same time generate capital for the city and us in a partnership
doing sixty/forty. And you don’t have to, your two million we’re going to use my five million
we’ll keep yours in escrow and we’ll show you after 18 months we’ll return $500,000 dollars to
the city right then. And my bankers will back us. After we discuss if you want to close get Mr.
Buddy Dallas we’ll make the closing and do everything you desire to make sure it’s a
meaningful and venture together as a joint city. Because this is golf and I love golf. And that’s
all I need to say and I know that you’re going to be voting for First Tee closure. I recommend
and ask that you consider us and that’s all I can say. And we’re willing to go to fight for you and
do a good job. We’re professional and people that know the game of golf and love the game of
golf. And I am local. We’ve been living here about 35 years, thirty five, forty years. I’m fifty-
one and I have kids programs in Texas and all over and I’m going to have them in Florida but
I’m just saying I want to do something here where I live and enjoy the game at the same time.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Well I definitely appreciate the presentation. I think you have a
great concept and that’s one of the things we’re very concerned about here. We do have a few
questions on the commission. I know Commissioner Fennoy and then Commissioner Lockett
had a question.
Mr. Fennoy: Mr. Griffin, a lot of the renovations around the golf course is contingent
upon TSPLOST, I mean not TSPLOST it’s SPLOST VII. If we decide to and then SPLOST VI
will not, I mean SPLOST VII, okay SPLOST VII funds for that would probably not be available
until 2015. And I guess my question is if we decide to go along with your proposal how soon
would you be able to start the renovation process knowing that the two million for the city may
not be approved by the citizens of Richmond County.
Mr. Griffin: Well, I’m glad you asked that. And then my, the CEO, I don’t know if he
made it here yet and our partners did address that and this is all we need from you. All we need
from the city we know you’re going to get the money. All we need is a let of intent to support
Griffin Athletics International Inc. with the development and the projects here and we can start
yesterday with five million of our money and wait on your money later. So we don’t really need
your money to start it. We need your letter of intentment and agreement to support us as a
commitment letter to you will back us and the financial people know how to do it. We already
got them. We’ll meet with yours and ours and all we do is execute that and we move forward.
Then we start putting these things in place. Close the back nine and start the renovations and
we’ll wait on your money. Now the fact what we’ll do your money will just sit. We really don’t
need it. We just need a letter to, we need the facility because my owner and one of my partners
in Atlanta he asked to buy it and I talked to some of your Commissioners they said we ain’t
selling. So I told him that’s out. So he said well let’s just run it so that’s all we want to do a
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commitment a lease of 15 to 20 years. I know Paul Simon did mention in there that someone
would be wanting 25-30 years. Well, I don’t want 25-30 years I’ll just take 15-20 and if you
could work that out if you can’t go 15-20 I’ll just take fifteen you know. All we want to do is
being to run it and set it up and it will not be an eyesore it will be an icon for the city to see. And
we can make that happen real quick.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Griffin, first of all, I don’t want to offer an
apology but I was a little tough on you yesterday because I believe in structure and the meeting
we had yesterday did not involve you. That’s why I kind of politely cut you off.
Mr. Griffin: I understand. Thank you.
Mr. Lockett: What you said your presentation is quite interesting but one question I have
is what do you and your group expect of us?
Mr. Griffin: Okay, great. In my proposal I put that when we come in together you will
give your letter of intent to support us and be committed to the golf course. Now some of the
Commissioners did say that about the water situation and I understand that, Forest Hills paying a
certain amount certain places paying a certain amount we don’t want to be overwhelmed with
water costs and electrical bills and things. We want you to work with us on those because we’re
going to generate capital that will offset that once we get started because every golf course if it’s
going to be nice it needs some water. There’s not one golf course that does not need water. So it
needs water. But we need not to be charged hundreds and thousands of dollars in the water that
the city can adjust and help us with. So that’s one thing you will help us with. The other thing is
that your two million will give us the support to move forward because with my connections and
my people all they need is letters of intent. And we already have it set up in a process because
they developed golf courses in Myrtle Beach and Pennsylvania and Florida. They’re doing one
right now in Florida. All they need is just to move along. And what they really wanted and I go
to be earnest with the city they want to get their foot into Augusta because they love Augusta
National. And we’re going to make it look like Augusta National and they like golf. But I told
them that’s not a part of it. We’ve got to make it conducive for you and us so you will benefit by
not just giving up your money. We’re going to deal with my staff and some of your people. You
are augmented with we would like to keep your people in place. We don’t want anybody fired.
We don’t want anybody to lose their job. You keep your people in place and I know I want Ira
Miller because I’ve been over there and me and him played. He’s very knowledgeable he’s a
good attendant and I’m just saying that. I just got to throw that out there but I know he can be an
asset to the city if he had some support and funding and they could do that. And we can make
this a win, win situation for both parties.
Mr. Lockett: I have quite a few questions I’d like to ask but for the sake of time I’ll just
ask you one more. Mr. Simon’s proposal would be involvement with First Tee and The Patch.
I’m concerned about young people. Do you have anything in your plans that will accommodate
young people and not just the affluent but working (unintelligible)?
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Mr. Griffin: We do and I talked to Jill about that. What we’re doing we’re putting a state
of the art facility inside this facility we’re building. We’re going to have a computer lab and a
learning center to teach the kids etiquette and golf because every beginner needs to know how to
learn the game, how to go along the game, how the fundamentals are and the rules of the game.
And we have a kids academy coming out of Myrtle Beach. Two of the instructors are my
partners who play every day at different places. But they’re going to teach our class but we’re
not going to put the First Tee out. I told her we will give them access to the rooms, they don’t
have to pay anything, come on over utilize it when we don’t have a schedule going. And if we
do we will work the schedule so they can have the classroom. We’ll put some of ours out and
we could have it, a win, win situation. We’re not here to put kids out. That’s the number one
thing because my shoes and my product needs to be on kids because when you get old you don’t
bend down as much to pick the tees off your shoes so that’s how I need the young kids. And I’m
about you because some myself that we develop and we train so I have that in a mentorship
program. And my instructors, stand up, instructors. Golf instructors stand up. Bruce and Will. I
have two that we’re going to put together a program along with the Myrtle Beach program that
we already talked with them about and they’re sending me all the literature and we’re going to
run one separate but with First Tee and not against First Tee. They can utilize the facility,
anyone. And to make this a short story if you learn the game of golf and you learn the right
fundamentals and you learn the ball you’ll play it as a kid so we want to teach them when they’re
young and they can grow up and we can always watch them enjoy the game.
Mr. Lockett: Well, that course has been there since 1928 ---
Mr. Griffin: I got the history of it ---
Mr. Lockett: --- it’s known throughout the world and I know we’re talking about
colleagues that you talked that said it’s not for sale. I agree with them wholeheartedly it’s not for
sale.
Mr. Griffin: --- and I’ve got the history and you’re right and I, that’s why I want to keep
it going.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Grady Smith, Commissioner Marion Williams and
then Donnie Smith.
Mr. Smith: First of all, I want to apologize yesterday for you not being able to speak.
Well, you said enough yesterday I got the jest. But anyway can you bond you know what you
propose to do if we set guidelines and this much done by this time this much done by this time?
We’ve got a lot of folks coming in saying I would do this I would do this but you know it’s kind
of like that show Jerry McGuire, show me the money. And that’s the way that we do in private
enterprise as you well know probably from other events you’ve been in. Can you come in and
bond what you intend to do?
Mr. Griffin: Yes, we can. All we need from you is your letter of commitment of two
million and we can do everything from that point on. We can make whistles turn bells, now
there’s more but I don’t want to say no more but there’s more. All we need is you to say let’s
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see this happen and we can start yesterday. We have the figures we have the people we can get
all that. That’s not a problem. All we need is your letter of intent and approval to move forward
with our plan and proposal and we can do that.
Mr. Smith: What if SPLOST VII kind of falls by the wayside?
Mr. Griffin: Say again now?
Mr. Smith: If SPLOST VII falls by the wayside is that going to be a problem?
Mr. Griffin: Well, let me help you out. Once again I know the city, we don’t I don’t
think you heard what I said. We don’t need the city’s money. We need the city’s commitment
letter saying they’re willing to let us have it and that you can keep the, as a matter of fact let’s do
this. You keep the two million just give us a letter that you will support us and we will show you
what we’re talking about. All we need is you keep it. As a matter of fact as of today letter of
record hold the two million until we finish doing everything we say. You just give us a letter of
intent and that’s all we need to move my partners and us, that’s all we need. We are sitting
already we’ve been doing it for about the last few months. They’re just waiting and we will have
enough funding and then we can show you the earnestness of what we’re doing. And really all
we really want to do we really want to buy it, I got to be honest. We really want to buy it buy
you ain’t selling it. So keep it, keep your money there and just let us get the letter of intent to
move forward and we can get this out of the way and we can show you. And we’re here. We’re
not running. I’m not going anywhere. Am I going anywhere? Not anymore I’ve been overseas
but I’m not going anywhere.
Mr. Smith: Well, the main thing I’m concerned about is this is a public golf course.
Mr. Griffin: And it’s going to stay public.
Mr. Smith: And what I’d like to see is you know right now the disposal incomes in most
homes of the average person is tighter than it used to be.
Mr. Griffin: I understand.
Mr. Smith: But I don’t want to see the game of golf get out of the reach to most people.
I was talking with a guy with PGA the other day and he was telling me a lot of golf courses are
going back getting back towards the naturalization of the landscape and everything. A lot of
times all these continuous cart paths and all that they’re kind of doing away with and going back
to the natural look but it’s playable and enjoyable but it doesn’t have to be of the country club on
Washington Road or the Augusta National we’re all famous for and love and the other places
around town. They’ve got a little different levels of playing.
Mr. Griffin: We’re going to keep our prices. If you look in our handout we’re going to
keep the prices at what we call a fair market price. We’re going to be below the average ones
around town. My son and the staff did a research and we took up every cost and fee associated
with every golf course in Georgia and we went with what we call a happy medium and kept the
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price about just where you are. So it won’t be expensive. We’re not trying to make our money
on that. What we’re trying to make our money on and I got to be earnest is people eating, people
hanging at the facility, people practicing and that’s what we’re turning on other vehicles that we
don’t have to rely solely on them coming to play. So if a golf course does that we’re talking
about generating some serious capital and I believe we can do that. And there’s some other
things we’ll do is tournaments and events and special things and celebrities. And when the
Master’s come in I got to be earnest with you we’re not not going to raise our members’ price.
They’re going to keep paying the same thing just the out-of-towners because they don’t have
membership unless they want to pay $400.00, $500.00 dollars to be a member you can do it and
just go on and play that week. I don’t mind with me. But we’re not going to raise prices because
the Master’s come in. I totally believe that and I’m a person of understanding that’s not
necessary for the public. All we got to do is enjoy the course and put something in there that
generates capital. That’s what we’re going to do.
Mr. Smith: That’s good you know that’s the main thing I’m concerned about is the
affordability ---
Mr. Griffin: Thank you, we’ll keep it that way.
Mr. Smith: --- to you know the average people.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right Commissioners Williams and Commissioner Smith then
Commissioner Guilfoyle.
Mr. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Griffin, thank you for your presentation but I guess my
question to you is that you said you’ve been here a long time and we’ve been scuffling I guess is
what my granddaddy used to call it. We’ve been scuffling around here with the golf course for
many, many years and I just heard the proposal today since we’ve got something on the table.
My question to you is and I appreciate you thinking out of the box. I appreciate the vision that
you’ve got for the golf course and the things like that. I think that’s what it takes to change.
You can’t do the same things and expect different results. But I’d like to know why I had not
heard anything before today and today is the day we vote on an issue. Why isn’t that something
been proposed? We done had about three companies to come in and all three of those failed.
But I had not heard anything until today about what you’re proposing.
Mr. Griffin: Well good. I’ve been traveling. I’ve been overseas working for the military
for ten years plus I invented the world’s first multifunctional golf shoe and that was a big thing.
And I just now got invited to perfect it and it’s being made and manufactured. And I had it
produced and had 500 pair and they weren’t a success. So I recalled them and stopped. Then I
was on the fire wheel with that and so I didn’t want to pick up something else. No it is complete,
they are complete and they are ready to go. So when they got ready now I can pick on
something else that won’t take up my monies and produce it so I didn’t have the capital to speak
about it and no one told me about it until I came back. I’ve just been back in country probably
about less than 90 days. But anyway when I found out about it I said I was prayerful about it and
then I said okay I think we need to do that. The Lord blessed me with it and gave me the insight
and a vision to see it. Now I’m going to say this ---
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Mr. Williams: Let me cut you off just a minute. I understand about being out of the
country but I don’t care where you go if you had your feet on the ground then you know about
golf and you knew about Augusta. Because we are known all over the world and that’s why this
golf course in my mind would never be for sale as long as I sit here. Not to you or anybody
because we’re the golf capital of the world and we ought to be enhancing the golf course with
some of the things that you know that maybe you mentioned. But I just don’t understand why
you had not even sent somebody ---
Mr. Griffin: Well, I can’t send nobody until God tell me to send somebody. So when
God spoke to me and said do it I just do it.
Mr. Williams: Hold it hold it now. Let’s leave the Lord where he is right now. If you
want to start preaching hey I don’t mind. If you want to preach I can do that. But let’s leave the
Lord where he is now let’s talk about golf.
Mr. Griffin: That’s all I ---
Mr. Williams: --- because if he was here I believe he’d want us to have The Patch so we
can ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right ---
Mr. Williams: --- so we can, let’s get it back under control. We’re talking, I was talking
I had the floor I thought.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Continue Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Okay and what I’m saying about sending somebody don’t mean necessary
send any person but that should have been something put in place knowing that Augusta is the
golf capital of the world and you are from or been in Augusta all this time. You would have had
to have something or some if the Lord talked to you and I know he talks.
Mr. Griffin: I know that ---
Mr. Williams: Okay, well, it looked like you ought to have some message to tell
somebody about what the plans were coming up before now. I’m just wondering why is it just
coming to the table the same day that we’re supposed to vote. That doesn’t help me a lot.
Mr. Griffin: Unfortunately, I’m sorry for that and I apologize but unfortunately I
apologize for that and that’s all I can say I’m sorry for that. And you can consider our plan and
proposal that’s all I can say. And I apologize for being late but I believe our plan is a long time
plan. And this is the CEO from PBA and one of our partners and we’ve already been
(inaudible).
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Well, Commissioner Smith, did you have a question?
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Mr. Donnie Smith: It won’t be anywhere near as long as that one was I promise. Thank
you for appearing in front of us and having this vision but just two real quick questions. Have
you all operated a golf course before?
Mr. Griffin: Yes I’ve worked with them and now two of my partners actually on Apple
Wood, going to be working with it in Apple Wood with one of the owners and he’s going to give
us the turf and everything. He’s already a partner Paul Mason. He told me to mention his name.
Massey if you want to know him he will give the turf and everything. He’s already a partner
with them and he also owned a golf course and he sold his golf course. He’s one of my partners
and I’ve been working with golf courses for years and I’ve got partners that went to golf course
management school and got degrees. And we also have three pros that’s going to be working
with us and we’re all low handicappers and we all know the game of golf and we’re all in
management and we’re all in business.
Mr. D. Smith: Okay. But currently you’re organization does not own a golf course.
Mr. Griffin: We don’t own one.
Mr. D. Smith: Okay, you don’t so and that’s really my question was did you all own a
golf course. You’re talking about Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach places of that nature.
Mr. Griffin: No, we don’t own them, I just play everywhere.
Mr. D. Smith: Okay. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Griffin: Thank you.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Guilfoyle.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Griffin, thank you for being here. It’s a
lot of information given to us at one time. You’ve definitely got the energy I know that but you
wanted a commitment letter from this government for the cost of $2 million dollars.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Guilfoyle, pull your mike a little bit closer.
Mr. Guilfoyle: How’s that.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: You’re so soft spoken. Go ahead.
Mr. Guilfoyle: All right. You wanted a commitment letter from this government for two
million dollars, you’re going to put it in escrow and in a year and a half two years you’re going
to give us a half a million dollars back. For us to invest $2 million dollars I understand that
you’re going to be pulling money out of your pocket but you’re going to reap the rewards from
the profit and gains from the facility from running the operations. What is in it for this
government to invest $2 million dollars?
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Mr. Griffin: I just ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: I had left the room early on.
Mr. Griffin: You’re going to get, you can keep your two million.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Right.
Mr. Griffin: You didn’t lose anything. I’m putting my money up and I will give you
some. You will earn some money on yours and you’re keeping your two million.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay, so we don’t even need to have the two million dollars in the
discussion.
Mr. Griffin: Well, yes, you do. The two million has to be there because it shows your
commitment. Nobody has, if you don’t have any skin in the game they say that you’re not
committed and how do we know that you’re not committed to us? So we have to have
something that commits you to us. Our money commits us together. So when we’re doing this
it’s a joint venture. And what you do you become committed to me I’m committed to you then I
know that I’ve got your back that you would support me in making sure it be a success and not
set up for failure as your commissioners have already said that The Patch has been set up for
failure as far as you are. I need your support when I find out things that are not right and bring it
to your attention. You have to make sure it’s done validly and all across the board with all of the
communities and anybody that’s getting public services from the government. I wanted to be
fair and earnest up front. So your skin in the game makes a commitment.
Mr. Guilfoyle: What about the property and the facility that’s not yours?
Mr. Griffin: It’s yours I didn’t want it. The asset is yours. And if I send you my hand
out I’ll show you that you keep the asset. We just run and manage it and at the end time we gave
you and increase on the facility after 15/20 years you can keep it. If you want us to keep going
we’ll keep going. We’ll depart after I leave.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay, so you actually was talking about we will actually receive revenue
from you.
Mr. Griffin: That’s correct. I think I’ve said that. Did I not say that?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yeah, it was said.
Mr. Guilfoyle: In what amount, sir ---
Mr. Griffin: Well ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: --- because you wouldn’t that at this time. I realize that.
10
Mr. Mayor: All right. Commissioner Mason.
Mr. Mason
: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. And thank you, Mr. Griffin, and your
folks for coming here. Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, I think at this point although we’ve received some
good information I don’t believe that this is the appropriate forum to discuss potential proposal.
We have a protocol that is in place and although it is some good information and I’m very
interested in what’s being said here I don’t believe that this is the appropriate forum for it
because we could sit here I’m not going to make up my mind on this particular proposal in five
minutes or the ten minutes. And I’ve been going three months working on this other proposal.
Whether we accept it today or not is a whole different issue but certainly I wouldn’t be in any
position to correctly address a proposal today in five minutes. That wouldn’t be fair to you and it
wouldn’t be fair to this community and those who have come through the appropriate process.
Now this is not inappropriate in terms of you addressing this commission. That’s not what I’m
saying. It’s generally a five minute deal and you’re generally over maybe ten at the most. No, I
understand no this is, let’s relax here. It’s an order and appropriate order that goes on and I’m
trying to get us back to where we need to be so that we can address this appropriately because
you’re not going to get appropriate addressing of your proposal today because this isn’t the
forum for it. And so I just wanted it to be the appropriate forum and will give the due process
that it deserves and not a hatchet job trying to sell in five minutes because you’re doing yourself
a disservice in my opinion if we try to go down that route. So we want to be correct in how we
operate up here on this commission and how we operate within the city. So in this particular
motion to receive this as information ---
case where we at right now I would simply make a
Mr. D. Smith: Second.
Mr. Mason: --- and we’ll kind of go from there. And I think, Fred, if you want to get
with Mr. Griffin on depending on what happens here as we go through on the next appropriate
move it takes so we can give you the time that you deserve on this particular issue and anybody
else that’s interested. I think that would be appropriate. So that’s my motion to receive it as
information.
Mr. Mayor: All right we have a motion on the table and a second. Any further
discussion? And now vote by the usual sign of voting.
Motion Passes 10-0.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you. Thank you again for your presentation and you can
definitely get with the Administrator and then he’ll give you the next line of I guess process if
you will moving forward depending on what happens here today with the other proposal. Okay?
All right, Madam Clerk, we’ll move on to item delegation ‘B’.
The Clerk:
DELEGATIONS
B. Rev. Larry Fryer: RE: Beloved Community.
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Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Is Reverend Fryer here today? He’s not here? All right, all right
we’ll move on to our delegation ‘C’. Is Mr. Kendrick here? I know he was here earlier. All
right, Mr. Kendrick.
DELEGATIONS
C. Hons. Steven Kendrick, Tax Commissioner. RE: Introduction of Summer Interns.
Mr. Kendrick: Good afternoon.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Good afternoon or good evening.
Mr. Kendrick: Good evening. I’m here to present to you the interns we had this summer
from the Youth Leadership Richmond County Program. They served in seven departments
throughout our city government. I want to present them with a certificate for their work this
summer. I want to ask them to come up so you can at least see who the young ladies and
gentlemen are and they’re department director so you’ll know the kind of impact you are having
on the community with these students and the kind of impact they’re having on you. What we
try to do with the program is make sure that these students, we want our very best and brightest
to come back and live in Augusta and work in Augusta and do things and pay taxes in Augusta.
That’s real important to me so one of the ways we do that is make sure they see opportunities
that fit them. And so five of them are here today. Two young men could not be here this
afternoon. They work for the Utilities Department and the other that works for the Engineering
Department. But the young ladies are here so I want to introduce first from the Procurement
Department Ms. Chelsea Bridges and Ms. Geri Sams. Ms. Bridges?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Kendrick, if you want to come up we can do it here if you
would like.
Mr. Kendrick: Present ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yeah, yes.
Mr. Kendrick: I just want to give her a chance to (inaudible).
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, I got you.
Ms. Speaker: Hi, my name is Chelsea Bridges and I worked in the Procurement
Department. It’s been a good eight weeks. I did a lot when it comes to like purchasing and you
know filing and everything we had to do. And I worked with Ms. Sams and Ms. Sheila and it
was really fun and I would love to come back and do it again but I know that you know it’s only
a one year type thing but I had a good time doing it.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Well, thank you so much and we hope that you hopefully one day
become Ms. Sams replacement when she, not now. You’re going to give it up at some point
right?
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Ms. Sams: That’s right.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right then.
Ms. Sams: I have really enjoyed this young lady and I think that the program that
Augusta allowed Mr. Kendrick to put together was quite successful. And I’m hoping next year
we are able to get more interns throughout the city of Augusta because it does matter when we
retire or when we just leave ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: That’s right.
Ms. Sams: --- it’s good to know that there are young people who can step in and help
with the department. And you know I’m going to miss your right? And you know we love you.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right.
Ms. Sams: On behalf of the Procurement Department I want you to take this and it’s a
little shopping cart so that you can buy some school supplies. I love you. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Fennoy: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Would you ask them to give the names of the schools
that they attended also?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yeah, could you, the school they attended?
Mr. Fennoy: Yeah, the schools that you attended.
Mr. Kendrick: Davidson Fine Arts.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Do we have somebody to take a picture?
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. D. Smith: Sylvia’s not here and her camera folks?
Mr. Kendrick: While we’re taking that picture I’m going to call up the next intern from
the (inaudible) office, I’m sorry. Ms. Rachel Hedgepath and Alvino Ross. And I just want to
say to Alvino before we start you don’t be up here but thirty seconds.
Ms. Hedgepath: Hello, my name is Rachel Hedgepath. I’m a rising senior at Davidson
Fine Arts. And I had the opportunity to be at the Tax Assessors office this summer and it was
great learning all the ways and getting the real world experience of being a Tax Assessor. And
I’m just very grateful for it. Thank you. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Ross: Don’t need thirty seconds. No, sir, that was, we were so impressed that I am
putting in my budget for 2014 commissioner to request this commission on an intern program if I
13
am to get the likes of this individual. She was indeed a delight but beyond that she was very
effect. The return mail impact for our operation is during an assessment mailing period is pretty
great. There was no need to tell her steps 1-22. You instructed her on what was necessary she
structured the (unintelligible) and done it without review until the end and it was all proper and
correct. We were very pleased to have this young lady with us and if we had to pay her out of
our own pockets we’d have to find a way to do it. Thank you so much. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Kendrick: All right next we have Ms. Rachel Wakefield who is an intern in the Fire
Department.
Ms. Wakefield: Hi, my name is Rachel Wakefield. I go to Hephzibah High School and a
rising senior. And I had the pleasure of working at the Fire Administration Office this summer
and I did things from filing to ordering papers, it was a very wide range of what I did. But I’m
going to let him say it if he would.
Chief James: The Fire Department truly, truly enjoyed Ms. Wakefield. She helped us
through a lot of things to make some of our files electronic. As of Monday we were looking
around the ladies in the office were still saying where is Rachel? You know we set up a little
office in the workspace and she really truly became part of the staff. And so this past week
we’ve truly, it’s like a hole’s that’s there that we can’t fill, we’re looking around. And so this
staff truly enjoyed her. Friday they threw a little party for her and gave her a gift certificate,
cake and ice cream and the whole deal because they truly appreciated her coming and working
with us. And they work that she done was truly needed to help the Fire Department move
forward. She pulled fire reports, she did she was just part of the staff and next year we definitely
hope to have another intern. And I wish it lasted longer than eight weeks. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Kendrick: Next we have Amanda Dojack who was in the Environmental Services
Division.
Ms. Speaker: Hi my name is Amanda Dojack I’m a rising senior at West Side High
School and I worked at the landfill. It was absolutely spectacular and I think I told so many
people about it that by the end of my eight weeks I had the whole place where my Mom worked
the whole place was excited for me. And I was just sad that I had to leave. Mr. Mark was so
wonderful to me and I learned so much. There’s a lot more that goes than what you think.
(APPLAUSE)
Mr. Johnson: So for anybody in the rooms who’s called 311 had issues with service this
is the resolution. She came in at a difficult time at a time when it was needed for us rose to the
occasion and helped us through some of our difficult times. She met the needs of the citizens,
she met the needs of the department and she added value to our organization unilaterally. Just
like the Chief said when she’s gone she was missed. That to me is a sign of excellence. A lot of
employees as they leave our organization you don’t miss them. They didn’t have an impact but
she did. And we would have a place for a person like this tomorrow and into the future.
(APPLAUSE)
14
Mr. Kendrick: The last student that we have here today with us is Ms. Monica Mohanty
from the 911 Department and I’ll just say because I don’t think Mr. Nutter is here today or
anyone from the 911 Department. I talked to Mr. Nutter several times about his experience with
Monica. And one of the things he mentioned to me was that he liked to put her to work as a 911
person right away. He said that she was quite capable. As you heard with most of the students
these are rising seniors. These are 17 year old students and yet they’re the very best and
brightest leaders we have in our community and they came in and made an impact immediately.
She was there, she was there daily she was dressed appropriately and she is, was a great addition.
I’ll let you speak Ms. Monica.
Ms. Mohanty: Thank you so much, Mr. Kendrick, I greatly appreciate it. My name is
Monica Mohanty. I’m a rising senior at Davidson Fine Arts and I worked at the Augusta 911
Department this summer. To sum up my experience in the 911 Department I got to shadow
some of the dispatchers which was a very interesting an humbling experience to see how they
operated, how they responded to the emergencies that we have in our community. And I
definitely have a lot more respect for everything that goes on including Mr. Nutter’s leadership
and management style. He was very prompt in dealing with issues and he helped to kind of work
on my leadership skills. I also assisted him in planning the budget this year so it’s good. And I
greatly enjoyed the experience it’s something that I will cherish and look upon for the rest of my
life. Thank you. (APPLAUSE).
Mr. Russell: Just for the record she did not answer the 911 calls.
Mr. Kendrick: As I mentioned in Utilities there was Willy Yarborough from Richmond
Academy. He’s not here today he couldn’t be here this afternoon. I know Mr. Wiedmeier was
here and he spoke highly of him. I don’t know if you’d care to say anything about him if you
like. And we also had Quentin Allsbrooks. He was with the Engineering Department. Quentin
worked so much. A little story Quentin I got his time card because their salaries come out of my
budget and when the timecard came in it had a full 80 hours or 75 hours and they were restricted
to 40 hours every two weeks. And so I called I said Quentin you know what happened? You
can’t get paid for this much. You must’ve been volunteering. He said I got so excited I just
couldn’t leave work every day so I just stayed everyday and thought that this was the way it
worked. And so I said well we need more people like you working for the government overall.
People who want to work for free. Those are your interns. We are proud of them they did a
great job. I think they made an impact and I think it’s a testament to both the Commission, Fred
Russell who was very an important part. This is actually the third year we’ve done this. The
first couple of years we only did a few this year we expanded the program and hopefully they’ll
take the message back because here’s what I heard from them. They now understand that
government’s not everything that you’re reading and see on TV. It’s a lot more to what goes, is
that right? It’s a lot more to it than that. I think that message coming from those lips will do a
lot to help people understand what it is we do. If they can get it everybody else can get it too.
So congratulations to you students. Hopefully your senior year will be great. Any parents here
or guardians for any of these students? (APPLAUSE)
15
Mr. Kendrick: I don’t want to take too much of your time but I just wanted you guys
before they go back to school next week to see the products we have here in Richmond County.
We’re doing a good job.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Steven, it’s great to hear great news like that.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: First of all, thank you, Steven, and thanks to all of the department
heads who allowed these young ladies and young men an opportunity to participate. It just
shows that we have some bright people here in Augusta Richmond County. And I’m just excited
about the future knowing that we’re going to leave it in the hands of young people like this so
again thank you all for your diligence and just taking the job serious knowing how important it is
every day in government. There are people out there who rely on us to really do the job they
elected us to do (inaudible). Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Lockett: I just want to say thank you, Mr. Kendrick, for the outstanding job he has
done in leading this and those department directors that were involved. And I’m so excited
because Richmond County school system doesn’t regularly get the praise that they so rightfully
deserve. But you can see these young people here I hope they’re going to go back to the
classroom and they’re going to be role models. They’re going to talk to their piers about what
government is really like what actually having a real job is really like. I think this is so important
to us and again thank all of you interns keep on working hard and, Mr. Kendrick, thank you so
very much also. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Madam Clerk, we’ll move on to our consent agenda.
The Clerk: Yes, sir. Our consent agenda consists of items 1-35. And under the Public
Services portion of the agenda I’ll read the alcohol applications and if there are any objectors to
any of these applications would you please signify your objection by raising your hand.
Item 2: Is a request for an on premise consumption Beer license to be used in connection
with Mag Company, LLC DBA Moe’s Southwest Grill located at 3450 Wrightsboro Road, Suite
#225 D.
Item 3: IS a request for an on premise consumption Liquor, Beer & Wine license to be
used in connection with Mohini, Inc. located at 1370 Gordon Highway.
Item 4: Is a request for an on premise consumption Liquor, Beer & Wine license to be
used in connection with Perseus located at 730 Broad Street.
Item 5: Is a request for a retail package Beer & Wine license to be used in connection
with Mohini, Inc. DBA Motel One located at 1370 Gordon Highway.
The Clerk: Are there any objectors to any of these alcohol petitions?
Mr. Russell: None noted, Madam Clerk.
The Clerk: So our consent agenda consists of items 1-35.
Mr. G. Smith: Motion to approve.
16
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Madam Clerk, we do have a deletion and an ---
The Clerk: Yes, sir ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: --- addition to the agenda correct?
PUBLIC SAFETY
41. Motion to approve award of Bid item 13-161, to Thomson Roofing for replacement of
the roof at the Coroner’s office in the amount of $53,825.
The Clerk: --- that is correct. You have a request for a deletion of item #41 which has
been requested by Mr. Grover Tuten, the Coroner.
ADDENDUM
47. Resolution of condolences to the family and friends of Representative William
“Quincy” Murphy.
The Clerk: And you have a request for an addition to the agenda. It is a resolution of
condolences to the family and friends of Representative Williams Quincy Murphy.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Do we have unanimous consent to delete item #41 and add item,
the addition to the agenda? Do we have unanimous consent? Okay.
Mr. G. Smith: Do you want a motion?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yeah, if I could get a motion to ---
Mr. G. Smith: I’ll make a motion on that.
Mr. Jackson: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a proper motion and second. Any further
discussion? Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting.
Motion Passes 10-0.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, do we have any items to be added to consent?
Mr. D. Smith: Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Donnie Smith.
Mr. D. Smith: Yes, sir, if I can get my colleagues to go along with adding number 43 to
the consent agenda.
17
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay and Commissioner Davis.
Ms. Davis: I’d like to consent 41 please.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Forty-one’s been pulled. That was pulled.
Ms. Davis: Okay.
Mr. Russell: Forty-four I believe was the one we talked about.
Mr. Williams: It was deleted, it wasn’t pulled.
Mr. Mayor: Yeah, that one was deleted. Forty-one was deleted.
Ms. Davis: So I consent forty-four. Sorry about that.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Forty-four? All right everybody good with adding forty-four? All
right. Any more? Commissioner Jackson.
Mr. Jackson: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Talking with the Coroner I know we
deleted item 41 but is that something that needs to be addressed today?
Mr. Russell: No, sir, we could take care of that. It can’t go forward as written. It needs
to be done but we need to change the verbiage there.
Mr. Jackson: Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right, do we have any more items to be added? All right, any
items to be deleted or be pulled, I’m sorry, to be pulled from consent? Commissioner Donnie
Smith Commissioner Lockett Commissioner Guilfoyle.
Mr. D. Smith: Never mind I think we’ll deal with it in a different way. Thank you.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Lockett: Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to pull agenda items 14, 24 and 28.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: I’d like to pull item 32.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, do we have any more items to be deleted?
Mr. Guilfoyle: I was going to pull number 24 but Mr. Lockett pilled it.
18
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: If not, can I get a motion to --
Ms. Davis: So moved.
Mr. Lockett: Second.
CONSENT AGENDA
PUBLIC SERVICES
1. Motion to approve the 2014 Cooperative Agreement with CSRA Regional Commission
for Senior Nutrition Services for Augusta-Richmond County. (Approved by Public Services
Committee July 29, 2013)
2. Motion to approve New Application: A.N. 13-21: request by Mat Saxon for an on
premise consumption Beer license to be used in connection with Mag Company, LLC DBA
Moe’s Southwest Grill located at 3450 Wrightsboro Rd., Suite #225 D. There will be
Sunday Sales. District 3. Super District 10. (Approved by Public Services Committee July
29, 2013)
3. Motion to approve New Application: A.N. 13-22: request by Jignasa V. Engineer for an
on premise consumption Liquor, Beer & Wine license to be used in connection with
Mohini, Inc. located at 1370 Gordon Hwy. There will be Dance. District 1. Super District 9.
(Approved by Public Services Committee July 29, 2013)
4. Motion to approve New Application: A.N. 13-24: request by Veronica McGuire for an
on premise consumption Liquor, Beer & Wine license to be used in connection with
Perseus located at 730 Broad St. There will be Dance. District 1. Super District 9.
(Approved by Public Services Committee July 29, 2013)
5. Motion to approve New Application: A.N. 13-23: A request by Jignasa V. Engineer for a
retail package Beer & Wine license to be used in connection with Mohini, Inc. DBA Motel
One located at 1370 Gordon Hwy. District 1. Super District 9. (Approved by Public
Services Committee July 29, 2013)
6. Motion to approve the reappointment of Mr. Larry Jones to the Construction Advisory
Board for a four-year term to serve as the Master Plumber appointee. (Approved by Public
Services Committee July 29, 2013)
7. Motion to approve Mead & Hunt Work Authorization #5-Master Plan Update Project
as approved by the Augusta Aviation Commission at their June 20, 2013 Meeting.
(Approved by Public Services Committee July 29, 2013)
8. Motion to provide authorization to Turner Construction Company to award Bid
Package #4 (Electrical and Fire Protection) and Bid Package #5 (Exterior Skin, Drywall
and Elevators) in the amount of $7,088,986, which provides for ongoing construction of the
Augusta Georgia Municipal Building Renovations and Modernization. (Approved by
Public Services Committee July 29, 2013)
9. Motion to approve Reeves Construction Contract Modification #8 as approved by the
Augusta Aviation Commission at their June 20, 2013 meeting. (Approve by Public Services
Committee July 29, 2013)
10. Motion to approve amendments to Augusta-Richmond County Code Sections 6-6
Secondhand Goods, Article 1 Brokers, so as to provide the time period for disposing of goods
obtained through purchase, credit or trade; to establish the minimum allowable age for a
19
seller; and text corrections for clarity. (Approved by the Commission July 16, 2013 –
second reading.
11. Motion to approve the expenditure of SPLOST funds dedicated to the Webster
Detention Center Phase II and Renovations for sole source purchase of two inmate finger
print machines in the amount of $74,261.00 from Morpho Trust USA as requested by the
Sheriff’s Office. (Approved by Public Services Committee July 29, 2013)
12. Motion to approve a request by Sandy Black for a Therapeutic Massage Operators
license to be used in connection with Sandy Black, LMT NCTMB located at 211 Pleasant
Home Rd. District 7. Super District 10. (Approved by Public Services Committee July 29,
2013)
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
13. Motion to approve one (1) annual bid item. The item requires Commission approval
due to the fact that purchases on the individual item $25,000.00 per order. (Approved by
Administrative Services Committee July 29, 2013)
PUBLIC SAFETY
15. Motion to approve a request from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office (RCS0) for
funding to purchase Mobile Data Computers (MDT’s) in the amount of $35,000.00 through
a grant award from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS). (Approved by
Public Safety Committee July 29, 2013)
16. Motion to re-appoint Christopher E. James, Fire Chief, to East Central Georgia Region
VI EMS Advisory Council. (Approved by Public Safety Committee July 29, 2013)
17. Motion to approve Augusta, GA entering into an agreement with the Georgia
Department of Transportation to provide Inmate Work Crews to assist in maintenance of
DOT equipment, buildings, right-of-ways, and public works projects. (Approved by Public
Safety Committee July 29, 2013)
18. Motion to approve an extension of the current agreement for probation services
between the State Court of Richmond County, Georgia and Sentinel Offender Services
LLC for a two month period of time. (Approved by Public Safety Committee July 29, 2013)
19. Motion to approve a request for a VOCA Grant for the District Attorney Victim
Assistance Program in the amount of $35,261 with a required match for the period from
10/1/13 through 9/30/14. (Approved by Public Safety Committee July 29, 2013)
FINANCE
20. Motion to approve request from the Augusta Utilities Department-Facilities
Maintenance Division to purchase one (1) maintenance truck. (Approved by Finance
Committee July, 29, 2013)
21. Motion to approve 2014 Budget Calendar. (Approved by Finance Committee July 29,
2013)
22. Motion to approve to lease a landfill compactor from Aljon Manufacturing for bid item
#13-134. (Approved by Finance Committee July 29, 2013)
23. Motion to approve an ordinance to designate “McBean Enterprise Zone”. (Approved
by Commission July 16, 2013 – second reading)
ENGINEERING SERVICES
20
25. Motion to authorize condemnation to acquire title of a portion of property for
permanent easement and temporary easement, (Parcel 052-0-057-00-0) 3812 Belair Road.
(Approved by Engineering Services Committee July 29, 2013)
26. Motion to authorize condemnation to acquire title of a portion of property for
permanent easement and temporary easement, (Parcel 053-0-0410-0) 3708 Belair Road.
(Approved by Engineering Services Committee July 29, 2013)
27. Motion to authorize condemnation to acquire title of a portion of property for
permanent easement and temporary easement, (Parcel 053-0-032-00-0) 372 Belair Road.
(Approved by Engineering Services Committee July 29, 2013)
29. Motion to approve funding to Harris Construction in the amount of $94,933.75 for the
costs associated with performing the requirements to provide asphalt pavement patch
repairs, concrete curb and sidewalk replacement for various Augusta Utilities Projects.
(Approved by Engineering Services Committee July 29, 2013)
30. Motion to approve funding for the final phase of the Design Consultant Services
Agreement to Pond and Company, CPB (328-041110-211828701,211828704) Change
Number One and Supplemental Agreement Number One on the Berckmans Road
Widening, Realignment and Bridge Replacement Project in the amount of $787,933.40.
Project to be funded from SPLOST Phase VI. (Approved by Engineering Services
Committee July 29, 2013)
31. Motion to approve Cost Sharing Agreement with Tobacco Augusta Development, LLC
(TAD). (Approved by Engineering Services Committee July 29, 2013)
33. Motion t ratify the payment of $122, 452.50 to Avrett Plumbing for emergency support
services, pipe lining and /or pipe bursting at sewer collapses on Polo Road, Polo Court and
Wooten Rd. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee July 29, 2013)
PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
35. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the Commission held July 16,
2013 and Special Called Legal Meetings held July 16 and July 29, 2013)
ADMINISTRATOR
44. Motion to approve resolution approving the 2013 Mill Rate.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a proper motion and a second. Any further
discussion? Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Madam Clerk, will you show before I vote I’m abstaining on item
number 34.
The Clerk: Abstaining on 34.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes Ma’am.
The Clerk: Okay.
Mr. Guilfoyle abstains.
Motion Passes 9-0-1. [Item 34]
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Motion Passes 10-0. [Items 1-13, 15-23, 25-27, 29-31, 33, 35, 44]
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Madam Clerk, we’ll go with the first pulled item here.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
14. Motion to approve tasking the Law Department and Human Resources to present to
the commission for review options for implementing and evaluation process for
commission’s direct reports in the next sixty days based on the goals and objectives
established by the commission at the retreat in January (Approved by Administrative
Services Committee July 29, 2013)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Lockett, you had this item.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, my concern there weren’t any
attachments or anything showing that something had been done to this agenda item. If
something had been done on it my motion would be to have it go back to Administrative
Services where we can tweak it before it comes to the full Commission for a vote providing the
Law Department has done it. I don’t know.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Mr. Russell.
Mr. Russell: Mr. Chairman, that’s just asking him to do that. I assume you haven’t taken
any action until this body would vote to actually tell him to do it. That was a committee action.
The full commission action would ask him to do that and they would bring that back and then the
decision would be mine so.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, you understand what he’s saying, Commissioner Lockett? It
hadn’t actually happened. They just wanted to put together a plan so they can get them to bring
something back.
Mr. Lockett: My motion would be, Mr. Chairman, whenever it does happen send it
to Administrative Services for tweaking before it comes to the full Commission for a vote.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Right, right.
Ms. Davis: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a motion and a second on that. Any further
discussion? Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting.
Motion Passes 10-0.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Madam Clerk, item 24.
22
The Clerk:
FINANCE
24. Motion to approve tasking the attorney to meet with the Tax Assessor’s Office in order
to clarify what the local laws and state law specify in this case and whether one law
supersedes another so that a decision can be made regarding a request from Mr. Richard
Lee Crawford for a refund of taxes overpaid for the last three years for property located at
4354 Bath Edie Road, Hephzibah, GA. (Approved by Finance Committee July 29, 2013)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Commissioner Lockett you had this item pulled as well.
Mr. Lockett: Commissioner Guilfoyle was going to speak, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Commissioner Guilfoyle.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Yes as of committee last week we was unclear about certain law issues.
And I’m glad that we got the Alvino Ross here from the Tax Assessor’s. Alvino, would you be
kind enough to enlighten us on this issue?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Ross?
Mr. Ross: Thank you, Commissioners. We were tasked to review the petition of Mr.
Richard Crawford regarding a petition for a retroactive application for a S-5 Veterans Disability
Veterans Exemption. This matter was originally addressed by Commissioner Kendrick in a
response to Mr. Crawford on July 2, ’05. I will be brief. After analyzing 2006 Homestead
Application all exemptions were applied based on a recommendation received by the Tax
Commissioner’s Office. The recent application for the S-5 Exemption once approved by the Tax
Assessor’s Office will take effect on 2014. After thoroughly reviewing this information I find
that the applications were processed correctly. Under statute OCG 485-380 I believe it’s the
intent of Mr. Crawford to petition this board for a refund retroactive under a specified exemption
in which he only applied a few weeks ago. And that application is to be considered digest year
2014 by the Board of Assessors which has not occurred. Under the refund statute it would be my
opinion that it would be a mute consideration to consider granting an exemption in the arrear in
which the application had never be filed before the assessors. We believe at the heart of the
matter is that Mr. Crawford was provided upon request and estimated difference between what
his projected taxes would be in 2012 which exceeded $2,000 dollars. And the advantage of the
S-5 which would reduce his tax liability on that same value on $173,690.00 dollars to just under
$300.00 dollars. We’ve reviewed the application information in advance. Obviously it would
not be appropriate for me to give the opinion of the Board of Assessors. It would be that this
matter would be reviewed timely for the 2014 digest and as our review at this time it would be
my opinion that it would get processed for digest year 2014. I’m certain this board is very
familiar with the limitations of the Board of Assessors in which it has no statutory authority to
modify and or adjust any deadline as required on the state statutes. In short should this board
view a retroactive consideration on the application at this time it would appear that any person
could come before this Commission to stump (unintelligible) basis for I’ve been living in the
house for ten years and I’d like for you to reestablish my exemption to cover those short fields.
23
Mr. Guilfoyle: Well taken, Mr. Ross. Andrew, as far as clarification what the gentleman
had brought forth during the committee meetings as far as the state laws supersedes our local
law, did you find any information on that?
Mr. MacKenzie: Yeah, I also reviewed the same statute referenced by Mr. Ross 485-380.
It is the refund statute but it only allows for refund for where there was erroneous or illegally
assessed and collected tax or an overpayment by the taxpayer. In this circumstance I don’t think
it will fall within that realm because there was no application for the exemption timely made so it
wouldn’t be an overpayment forfeiture it would be a proper refund.
Mr. GuilfoyleI’d like to
: All right. I appreciate both of y’all doing your due diligence.
make a motion to receive as information on this.
Mr. Lockett: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All there’s a proper motion and second. Commissioner ---
Mr. Fennoy: Yes ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: --- I know you had a question?
Mr. Fennoy: --- I had a question to Andrew.
Mr. MacKenzie: Yes, sir.
Mr. Fennoy: The statute that the Mr. Crawford made reference to. What is your position
on that section?
Mr. MacKenzie: It’s the same one. If you remember from committee there was a
discussion whether or not he had the right to come and ask for it. He does have the procedural
right to come and seek to have a refund paid back. He can come and ask for it but the legal
standard which is under the statute that he had be able to do that it has to properly fit within the
legal definition of what’s called an over payment. As typically in the instance where there was
some kind of error or mistake where he paid more than what he should have based on his current
exemptions. In this instance there was no error of overpayment based on the exemptions he had.
So it wouldn’t be proper to use that as a way to refund any taxes.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Mason.
Mr. Mason: Is Mr. Crawford here, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Crawford? Is he here today?
24
Mr. Mason: I guess I can’t ask that question then. All right.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I don’t think so. All right, we have a motion and a second on the
floor. Any further discussion? Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting and that’s to
receive as information. Correct?
The Clerk: Yes, sir.
Motion Passes 10-0.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Madam Clerk, item number 28.
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
28. Motion to approve a contract for RFP 12-167, Waste Diversion Renewable Energy
Program to Rational Energy. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee July 29, 2013)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Lockett, you had that pulled as well?
Mr. Lockett: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m not in opposition to this I don’t think
but I would just like to have a little explanation as to what we’re asked to do here and what they
plan on doing.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Johnson: Thank you. We wrote an RFP that asked people basically to borrow our
trash. We would lease them space on the landfill, we would keep 100% of the revenues from the
scale house. The trash would go into a material recovery facility. They recover what they can
take out of the trash and they give us the residual. This proposal would pay us 25 cents a ton on
every ton that goes in that building. So they’re basically buying our trash, they’ve committed to
a diversion rate close to 15% so I bring in 100% of my trash and I bury 85% of my trash. So I
keep 100% of my revenue and I lower my costs for future capital outlay on the landfill. What
they do is they’re looking to recover the metals and the plastics. The metals because it’s easy.
They use a magnet (unintelligible) current and they sell those. And then the plastics they’re
looking for plastic bags. They want film plastic and they use a technology called pyrologist and
they’re reversing generic back into oil products. So what we’re asking you to do is the contract
specifically allows us to lease them the space. It’s a no risk contract in that it’s a limited risk
contract in that if they become nonviable they have a time period to pack up and leave. We do
not let them operate under our environmental permits. They have to get their own and they
compensate us for the materials.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
25
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Are you done?
Mr. Lockett: I’m finished.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Johnson, is there anyone now to
bring in materials of any kind to the landfill that’s being what’s the word that’s being ---
Mr. Russell: Hazardous?
Mr. Williams: Not hazardous, no, no. Recycled. Thank you, Donnie. Is there anybody
bringing any kind of material now not just trash but any kind of material that’s recycled? That’s
grinding them up they’re taking them and using our landfill to crush or to bend stuff to do stuff
with and then take that stuff and take it somewhere else on our landfill now?
Mr. Johnson: No, sir.
Mr. Williams: Okay. I just needed an answer. Just a simple yes. Thank you, sir. Okay.
This material that you’re talking about now is it strictly household trash or what kind of garbage
what kind of trash is this because I mean some flags done flew up and I need to know that the
stuff you’re talking about. If you’re talking about people recycling and you’re talking about
bringing 100% in you’re going to take plastic out but you got metals that you mentioned there
too. So I’m thinking where’s this coming from? It’s not coming from the household stuff it’s
got to be coming from some material from some building or some other area versus the trash that
you know the people collect somewhere and bring in.
Mr. Johnson: The, one if we took a poll of the people who recycle in this room ---
Mr. Williams: My question ---
Mr. Johnson: --- some of it would come from residential homes.
Mr. Williams: My question was were there all or part, piece was it coming from other
areas besides homes because you mentioned and we’re talking about recycling. We’re talking
about people who don’t. I know a lot of people who don’t. Commissioner Lockett and I talk
about that all the time. But you got a lot of people that do recycle but I want to know the
material you’re talking about. Sounds as if somebody’s coming in to use our landfill and we’re
going to take their trash and they’re going to make money off the stuff they bring to us and we’re
going to make the tipping fees you said. We’re going to get that. But where is that stuff coming
from because it don’t sound like it’s coming from household stuff to me.
Mr. Johnson: It’s only, it’s waste that we currently receive today whether it comes from
a Wal-Mart, whether it comes from a house, whether it comes from an industrial process. It’s the
garbage that we currently receive today and then they would be taking out pieces of that garbage.
26
Mr. Williams: I’ve still got some questions. I still don’t understand what you’re saying.
I hear you but I don’t understand the explanation that you’re giving where you’re going to take
the old garbage that we have that we’ve been burying but somebody’s going to go through that.
Mr. Johnson: No, sir.
Mr. Williams: Okay, well, then it’s got to be different material and that’s what my
question was it coming from you said Wal-Mart. But I’m asking is it coming from some we’re
doing some demolition work out here. I’m mean that stuff’s got to be carried somewhere.
There’s a lot of materials that’s going to be in there. Now whether it be plastic whether it be
metals whether it be other materials that’s going to be in there and you only mentioned two and
that was plastic and the metal. But there’s other materials as well. So is that coming from any
other entity besides the household stuff because you presented to me as if it’s just going to be
garbage coming from another part of the county coming into our landfill and we’re going to be
going through, somebody’s going to be going through the plastic bags and just the metals. But
metals don’t come out of homes like that.
Mr. Johnson: Okay the, when a vehicle shows up at the landfill and it has garbage in it, it
would weigh on our scale we would collect the money from them and then it would go in a
building and get dumped on the floor. At that point we would recover the metals and the plastics
and then whatever’s left would go to the landfill. Right now when that truck shows up it gets
weighed, we take the money and it goes to the landfill and gets dumped. We’re not digging
through the landfill. We’re not doing anything like that. We’re just basically loaning them our
trash, letting them take whatever they want, getting some revenue for that and then burying the
residual.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Davis, you had a question?
Ms. Davis: I was just going to make a motion to approve.
Mr. Jackson: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a proper motion and second. Any further
discussion? Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. D. Smith: Mr. Pro Tem.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yes.
Mr. D. Smith: Mr. Johnson, I just want to say while we’re waiting on the vote to be
counted. A week has gone by and I have not had a garbage complaint. So thank you.
Mr. Russell: I really wish you hadn’t have said that.
Mr. Williams votes No.
Mr. Fennoy out.
27
Motion Passes 8-1.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay Madam Clerk item 32.
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
32. Motion to approve tasking Mark Johnson, Director of Solid Waste to meet with Ms.
Beaurine Wilkinson in order to try to reach an amenable solution to the problem with here
garbage collection. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee July 29, 2013)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner, this is the lady that was here last week?
Mr. Williams: That’s right.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: We did get that taken care of?
Mr. Williams: No, sir, we didn’t.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I was under the impression that I talked to her last week she was
able ---
Mr. Williams: I just talked to her today and that’s why I had this pulled ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Oh, okay.
Mr. Williams: --- if I can address this.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yeah, go ahead Commissioner.
Mr. Williams: Thank you, sir. Ms. Wilkinson spoke with me this afternoon. She called
and I asked if she had met with Mr. Johnson and Mr. Russell. And she’s still not satisfied and
I’m not satisfied with it at all myself. She was asked, she was told that she would be given some,
some leniency to her garbage bill, they would subtract something from her garbage bill but they
wouldn’t pick up her waste the outside stuff she put outside. Now, Mr. Smith, you spoke a little
bit too quick about garbage because I’ve got some burning issues with that. Often I hear about
downtown you probably don’t see none of that but trash is just everywhere. And Ms. Wilkinson
is very upset and she’s disappointed and I’m disappointed as well for we asked her to opt out of
the contract and she refused. And she lives off of Lumpkin Road in the heart of this city and Mr.
Johnson explained to her that he would not pick up her solid waste, not solid was it solid waste?
Mr. Johnson: Bulk waste.
Mr. Williams: Bulk waste, I’m sorry, I want to get it right. Now I hate saying it’s true
but no taxpayers and I don’t think you have a smirk on your face when you talk about a taxpayer
who you’re going to ask to opt out from not picking up her waste. Her taxes her trash she’s still
28
being charged and if she wasn’t being charged she’s in the heart of this city and I said to her that
she should not just agree to anything she should make sure that her garbage is picked up. It was
picked up before. No problem. Now we got a new service the same container with more costs
and you’re still not picking up her service. Now I said to her she needs to hold to making sure
that her garbage gets picked up like it was picked up before. She had no problem before until we
changed to this grand service this brand new service that we supposed to have now. So I need to
hear what are we going to do about continuing to pick up her service, her bulk waste all of her
garbage needs. She should (unintelligible) just like any of the taxpayers.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mark?
Mr. Johnson: What we offered to her was she has bulk waste at her residence right now.
We offered to get that picked up. We offered her a credit of $51.76 as that was two months
worth of service which she had poor service. What she’s asking for is outside the confines of our
program. On assisted collection we come up to your house to get your trash and your recycles
and both yard waste and yard waste is picked up from the curb. It is like that unilaterally for
everybody. So she lives about 600 feet from the road. She wanted our service. We made her
aware that she had an option where she could have private service if she wanted it which she
declined or we would come get trash and recycle and pick up the yard waste and the bulk waste
from the curb. What we’ve also done is that one piece where it impasses because our rules have
been in place on yard waste and bulk waste for some time but we asked to do was to incorporate
her into the discussion of the 45 day review where we would include that as a discussion piece
and that 45 day review and involve her in that conversation so that if we want to make a change
to the contract for assisted collections we do it for everybody. Not make an exception for an
individual.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Johnson ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams, you had another question?
Mr. Williams: Yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right and then Commissioner Fennoy.
Mr. Williams: Mr. Wilkinson’s trash was being picked up before with no problems, she
had no complaints. She came in at the end of July and said her garbage was not picked up since
the second week in June. She had to pay someone to remove some of it. Now I don’t think any
of our taxpayers ought to be have to have a special hauler to come by and get their garbage when
we’re paying twice as much for the garbage to be picked up now that we had two pickups and
only getting one. So I don’t whether the landfill sends somebody personally to get it or the new
hauler gets it but if that’s in the contract like these people who got to pay because they’re in the
contract she’s got to be served. And I expect for her to get served. I expect to have it on the
agenda every week if she’s not served. I expect for Mr. Russell to find somebody to put in that
department that can serve her if she’s not served. So she’s not asking for any specialties. She’s
not asking for anything other than any other taxpayer gets and that is to have her bulk waste
when she has it be picked up. Now remember she had called and you had asked her you had told
29
her you would send somebody to pick up her household garbage but wouldn’t pick up her bulk
waste. Okay? All right. Well, it was being picked up then. The new contract you just can’t
pick and choose who you what side of town you want to work on and what side of town they’re
going to pick up. If it was picked up before you’re still charging her. Now if you’re not going to
charge her at all that might be something different, she shouldn’t pay for a service that she’s not
getting. But she’s paying twice as much and still not getting the service Mr. Johnson. So this
will be on the agenda. We’ll be talking every week about because she will get her service.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I think before I go to Commissioner Fennoy this is the issue I think
with this Commissioner Williams. She and not just to you know I guess be harsh to her but I
think in defense of what Mark is saying the new contract basically states that nobody gets that
exception to the bulk waste. Correct? Or was it the yard waste or whatever it is.
Mr. Johnson: In assisted collection we come to your house and pick up your trash and
your recycle. Yard waste and bulk waste is collected from the curb. We would be happy to pick
her yard waste and bulk waste up from the curb.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Right but what I’m ---
Mr. Johnson: If we change the rules which means contract for haulers to make those.
Right now the contractors’ only exceptions are trash and recycle which is the same it’s been for
years.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: But the bulk waste is exempt from that. I think that’s the key here
but let’s keep in mind she do want the service and I did talk to her last week too. She says she
wants the service but she had the option, she do have the option if she don’t want it to be exempt
to get somebody to provide the full service that she needs. Now in my opinion, it’s just me I
would, if I can’t get the service from the provider that I’m with now I would get the service from
the provider who can give me the service I want to pay for. So mind you she has had that option
to do that and she may want to exercise that if she can’t get the service if this contract is not
amended to provide that service for all people because he’s right they don’t go and pick up bulk
waste out of the yard. If you’ve a tire, well they don’t do tires anymore but even in the past if
you had tires or yard waste or whatever they won’t come up and get that but they will get the can
the recycle can the garbage can and wheel it out to the street and then take it back to once it’s
done take it back up to the side of the house or wherever they have it located. Commission
Fennoy then Commissioner Mason.
Mr. Fennoy: I think Mark just answered my question as far as assisted and bulk waste
and yard waste.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Commissioner Mason.
Mr. Mason: All right, thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Given the fact that we know this
is an assisted collection so that tells us that there’s some additional things going on with the
citizen that doesn’t allow her to bring things all the way down to that point. So we already know
one that that’s an issue. Number two if in fact that’s a service that is not going to be rendered to
30
her because of the distance that you have in the contract then is there an option for her to have a
reduced cost because she’s paying for bulk pickup in the overall cost of the contract but because
of the situation that requires her to have collected assistance does not allow her to bring that to
the street. So then is there something in the contract or is there a way that there could be a
reduced cost for the portion of that bulk that cannot be picked up at the street level. Is that an
option?
Mr. Johnson: That could be an administrative option. It’s not there today. It’s defined in
our resolution that would be an action that we could possibly look at.
Mr. Mason: I mean the reason why I said that, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, is because I mean
when you unfortunately every situation is not encountered when you’re going through contract
negotiations. So this seems like a situation that has come up. It’s an exception versus the rule
although there probably are a few more out there that are like that. And they’re our citizens and I
clearly heard her say that she wants the service from Richmond County she does not want to
necessarily go to another service for one because there’s a cost she’s inherited in the overall cost
of the package for solid waste pickup. So in my mind the most appropriate thing to do if at all
possible in those types of situations because there’s exceptions to policy to everything. In this
particular case that it would seem to me that it would warrant maybe some type of rate shield
reduction of that particular piece of the service because if that’s not something we’re willing to
go out and contract and do and cause the contract to totally change well then perhaps on the
smaller end of the scale instead of just saying we’re not going to do anything it’s her problem or
whatever we could look at that as being a potential option to perhaps rectify the situation.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mark?
Mr. Johnson: That’s where we saw the benefit of a 45 day review and bringing that back
some version of a solution like what you’re talking about.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Fennoy.
Mr. Fennoy: Mark, is it anyway where we could look at maybe once a month pickup for
both and yard from assisted as opposed to?
Mr. Johnson: When we bid the contract we have some package options if you will. For
the downtown business district we bid trash and recycle as a package. We already have a cost
structure for that. We have a cost structure for vacant lots with yard waste and bulk waste for the
downtown or the old city area so it’s more plausible to use the methodology that Commissioner
Mason just outlined because if I go back and ask for a once a month that’s nowhere in our
structure and we would be opening up a contract to ask for something specific. So it can be done
but you would be negotiating contracts rather than modifying our administrative process.
Mr. Fennoy: And my second question. How many approximately how many residents
do we have under assisted pickup at this time?
Mr. Johnson: We started at 700. In the new program we’re probably close to 1000.
31
Mr. Fennoy: Okay.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I spoke with Mr. Johnson before the meeting
and what they’re trying to do is they realize there’s some tweaking if necessary on this particular
contract but every time one item comes up you’re wanting to go back and review the contract.
So what they’re trying to do is wait until a specific period of time and see what concerns that
they have and then at that point try and work on them and maybe get some changes to the
contract. So I think the approach they’re taking is quite good. Thank you, Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: I don’t where Mr. Russell is, the Administrator is, but Mrs. Wilkinson has
spent some money. She had to have somebody to come in and pay a service I think $60.00 she
said to have the stuff in front of her house removed. Had her garbage not been picked up in
some two or three weeks and I can imagine how it was. Did we reimburse her for the money she
spent or did we tell her we’re just going to alleviate some of her trash there?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mark?
Mr. Johnson: We issued her a refund for two months of service which totaled $51.76.
Mr. Williams: You gave her a refund.
Mr. Johnson: A credit. A bill hasn’t gone out yet so it would be a credit against her
future tax bill.
Mr. Williams: Now she done spent her money but she’s got to get a credit.
Mr. Johnson: We bill on the tax bill.
Mr. Williams: I mean you write checks all the time. You need to reimburse her. I think
a tax credit sounds good but she had to spend her hard earned money and I think the city ought to
be able to give her the money she spent back because we did not do the job we’re supposed to
do.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right, do we have a motion?
Mr. Jackson: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, I’d like to make a motion to receive as
information at this point in time.
Mr. Lockett: Second.
32
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a proper motion and second. Any further
discussion? Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Williams: Madam Clerk, would you put this back on Administrative Services ---
The Clerk: Yes, sir.
Mr. Williams: --- for the next committee meeting? I’m not through with it.
Mr. Mason votes No.
Ms. Davis out.
Motion Passes 8-1.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Mason? Okay, all right. All right, Madam Clerk,
we’re going with the regular agenda.
The Clerk:
PLANNING
36. Z-13-37 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to
deny a petition by Sarah Ellison, on behalf of Faraj Zahra, requesting a change of zoning
from Zone R-1C (One-family Residential) to Zone R-3B (Multiple-family Residential)
affecting property containing l19 acres and known as 1136 Beman Street. (Tax Map 045-2-
024-00-0) DISTRICT 1 (Deferred from the Commission’s July 16, 2013 meeting)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, who do we have here to speak regarding this?
Mr. Speaker: My name is ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Hold on one second.
Mr. Russell: Just a second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Patty? We’ll get to you in just a second, Mr. Ross.
Mr. Patty: Yes, sir, just a brief summary of what we’ve got here. This is an older
neighborhood between Central Avenue, Walton Way, Paine College and Richmond Academy.
Basically it’s mostly single family residential although there are some rentals in there. And at
one time years ago this was zoned for duplexes so there’s some legal two family structures and
some of them have probably been converted illegally to be honest with you. This is a big house.
It’s much bigger than the other houses in the area. The petitioner has testified that the house has
been converted to six bedrooms four bathrooms. He got it at some sort of a Sheriff’s sale or
whatever and wants to convert it to a congregate personal care home which would allow him to
house between seven and fifteen patients or residents in the home. In order to get it zoned as
congregate personal care home he needs R-3B Zoning which is Multiple Family Zoning which
allows apartments, rooming houses and that sort of thing. He initially I believe wanted only
33
wanted it to be zoned in order to allow him to use it as family personal care home which allows
less than six, six or less residents in the same environment. He later changed that to the bigger
one which R-3B. We have petitions in favor of it and objecting to it we have objectors here that
are opposed to it. The real issue is the zoning not necessarily the use in order to zone this R-3B.
You set a precedent in this area that would be essentially a first and it’s a fragile area because
you’ve got a lot of long term residents a lot of renters. It’s a good stable area other than that and
we feel that the R-3B zoning would be dangerous and recommend you deny it.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, I guess first and foremost we’ll hear from the petitioner.
How many people, Fred, do we have him get a head count of the objectors and those who are in
support?
Mr. Russell: If you object please raise your hand. Eight people have objected.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: And those in favor?
Mr. Russell: Ones in favor other than? One, two, three anybody else in favor? Three
would be in favor.
The Clerk: Okay.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay and if we could hear from the petitioner.
Mr. Samadi: Good afternoon. My name is Mike Samadi. My address is 4555 Betty’s
Branch Way Evans Georgia. I’m trying I requested for the Special Exception because of the
situation that Director Patty mentioned. This property was previously used for multifamily.
There was more than one family living at the property. I was trying to do the right thing. I
wasn’t trying to go around the corner and do something illegal. There are as Director Patty
stated there are some properties that are used for multifamily. They are divided into multifamily.
The zoning doesn’t the county zoning doesn’t recognize it but that’s what it is. But if I may ask
the Commission for one thing first because I believe me talking with the neighbors I believe
there is a misunderstanding between what some may recognize as a personal care home versus
senior living. And I asked the petition to I ask the Commission to consider the word senior
living versus personal care home because from what speaking with a lot of neighbors which you
have a pamphlet you see that a lot of petitioners a lot of neighbors have signed the petition.
Since then they misunderstood that they think that I’m going to have a rehab center or some kind
of a mental facility or things like that which that’s not what I’m trying to do. And you
Commissioners recognize that but unfortunately some of us the neighbors don’t. So with that
saying I ask to please consider this as a senior living not anything else. Now I’m trying to turn
this property into a 7-8 senior citizens home. You’re talking about these are disabled veterans
and again let me explain the disabled. It doesn’t mean that these senior citizens are physically or
mentally handicapped or challenged. It means that they’re just senior citizens just like. They’re
able to bathe, eat, walk, talk and do their bodily functions or cosmetic functions. And what we
do for them we provide a home, beautiful, clean and quiet home in order for them to have a place
since their family members are not in town. Their family members are out of town or some of
them don’t have family members. And if they need besides cleaning, cooking and doing the
34
laundry, take them to church to have you know to go to do shopping or do those type of things.
So eventually these senior citizens are very capable of handling their affairs and we provide that
service to them. The first requirement that we need to do in order to actually get the property
into a situation for operation is the fact that we have to fix the house to the best possible way to
make it look the best. In fact looking better than most of the houses in the neighborhood and not
being challenged. In fact I think what we’ve done just about three or four weeks ago I’m very
proud of what we’ve done is we cut a lot of trees down and things and as we were trying to work
before we got stopped but as we cleaned up the bushes and cleaned up the yard and things I’m
very proud that my neighbors my opposing neighbors have done the same thing which is very
good for improving the neighborhood. Then besides getting the house ready the house has to go
through several steps. The first step is the county has to inspect. The Fire Marshal has to come
out and inspect. You have to have electrical systems, smoke alarms and things like that in place.
Then the state has to come and inspect frequently. First the state comes and inspects before ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Right.
Mr. Samadi: --- we move anyone in there and then since these are senior citizens and
funding comes from the federal government then the federal government also has a say so and
has to approve. Now after the senior citizens move in then eventually the state does frequent
inspections. So now Director Patty mentioned something and you know he’s in agreement with
me if I have six people or less. And I tried to explain to Director Patty that having six or less
people in there eventually we’re going to have two issues one the state would wonder what are
going to do with the extra room. Director Patty said this is a huge house seven bedrooms four
bathrooms 2 ½ kitchen. We don’t need 2 ½ kitchen for one family or senior citizens you only
need one kitchen so we have to convert the other 1 ½ kitchen into a room. So the state is going
to wonder if we’re going to be doing something else in there.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: With the vacant room.
Mr. Samadi: Pardon me?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: With the vacant room
Mr. Samadi: With the vacant room. Thank you, yes. And also the second thing is that to
have six people this is a big house. The maintenance and upkeep the utilities and cost of having
someone 24 hours there as three shifts to you know to be awake and take care of the senior
citizens needs these costs exceed much more than what I can have six people in there. Now if I,
you know, as an investor, sir, I have to look at the profits and losses and it becomes a complete
loss. And I was trying to do the right thing but (unintelligible) not doing something that was a
continuation of the past. The past the history of the past before we bought the property a year
and a half ago a year and four/five months ago was that it was used for multifamily it was used
for drug and other traffic. From what I hear from the neighbors water was stolen and electricity
was stolen and so on and so forth. For me for us to be on the right track we started by doing the
right thing trying to get the application going before going in the right direction. It seems like
trying to do the right think has became a slap on my face by continuously being blocked from
doing things. Director Sherman’s office of course at no fault of his has been informed that you
35
are doing something illegal work therefore continuously stopped from that angle or even receive
threats of different sorts of way. But anyway the bottom line is that this ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, we’ve done had five minutes here. Let’s see what we can do
here. We understand what you had to do. We pretty much deal with this day in and day out as it
relates to what has to be done. But let’s hear from the objector here then we’ll get George back
up if we can.
Mr. Mills: Yeah my name is Raeford Mills. I live at 3312 Forest Estates Drive. I also
own the property directly across the street from 1131 Beman which is 953 Beman Street. I
bought that property it’s a two bedroom home for my mother. She had been sick. She had
cancer so I bought her the house in the neighborhood so she would have access to the Medical
College of Georgia. By me getting that and putting her there I also signed an agreement with the
housing association that I was not just offering such low rent or help to people because it was my
mother. So I signed an agreement with him to let them know that anyone that was in need and
needed adequate housing that I would rent it to them for that because I’m also an investor. I was
the electrical designer for Georgia Tech I bought up the properties around there for the building
of the Olympic Village. I’ve managed the construction for Tech. I retired about five years ago
at 55. The thing about that is Mr. Samadi says he would like to try to do things right that was
prudent. That’s not the case. What I have here is pictures that show where he has put in mind
you I’ve had this property twenty years. He’s put in illegal sprinkler systems. He’s also put in --
-
Mr. Guilfoyle: Hold on one second, sir.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Can we have some assistance with the slides here?
Mr. Mills: Now I design all the fire alarms, interlocking control systems for Georgia
Tech elevators, life safety systems, shutting down mechanical code 90’s managing projects such
as this for $36-119 million dollars. I did that for them for 25 years. The thing about it is this.
What you see here on this screen is a chandelier and an illegal sprinkler system that’s tied in. It
shouldn’t be tied into the water system is should be tied directly into the city’s main. That is not
how that operates. I talked to this man here. A young man named Randy Gardner who runs
Gardner Electric, I’m sure the inspection department is familiar with it. He gave them a price to
rewire the home as a single family dwelling. What Mr. Samadi did was he contacted my tenant
right here to get my number to try to solicit me to underbid him. I told him no that’s not how
things go. He’s a young man he has a family he’s starting out just as I did. So what he
proceeded to do is own illegal work and he asked me would I permit it. My objection is why am
I going to stick my neck out to be liable for something that is illegal and it’s definitely a hazard.
I’ve seen this home. I have known people as he’s talking about the time when the things were
going on in the home and what it was. Well the thing about it is basically this here. We do not
want this zoned in such a manner because we’re trying to keep a stable community. He has
came down here and every time he came he has, what he wanted was a personal care home.
Then he started cutting in this illegal electrical work adding panels and a stop work was put on
him. He didn’t stop right there. After the stop work he has his guys they’re back there working
again. I pass by this morning took another shot he’s taken the county’s stop work off the door
36
and he’s still proceeding to do work. The work’s so fine he’s telling you about that he cut down
the shrubbery and this and that and the other, no what he did he’s infringed on some of the
elderly people in the neighborhood next door, went over destroyed their shrubbery on their
property and now this is in question because they’re taking him to small claims court to
recuperate this here. This has something that has been that he has tried to do over and over. He
bought it as a single family dwelling we want our neighborhood to stay there. What he’s telling
you about now just think. If he’s going to have all these veterans there there’s going to be so
much traffic there until the lot will not even accommodate parking space for the workers much
less someone who comes visit them or to have any type of life. Yeah, he says they are disabled
but have no disabilities. I don’t think you can get disabled money from the government if you
don’t have disabilities.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay let me stop you there to give you an equal amount of time.
George, if you can, I think we need to get with Rob as well. How much of this information have
you all known about the permit and all this here stuff? I guess Rob you can speak to that.
Mr. Sherman: A couple weeks ago Raeford gave me the pictures that he was just
showing you. We had previously posted a stop work order. I guess soon after the following
Monday we posted another stop work order. The work obviously needs a permit. We’re not
certain who did the work or when the work was done but for it to go forward it definitely has to
be permitted by a licensed contractor, electrician, plumber, mechanical.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay Commissioner Guilfoyle, Commissioner Lockett then
Commissioner Jackson.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Sir, you spoke of a neighborhood association before you put your mother
there. Is that correct?
Mr. Mills: No, what I basically said was this here. Not a neighborhood. I think there is a
neighborhood association being formed there. I bought the property it was a VA property it
needed renovation.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay.
Mr. Mills: I purchased the property because basically that’s part of what I did. I ran RG
Mills General Electrical Contractors. I developed subdivisions, strip malls and as I said I worked
out of the Engineering Department for Georgia Tech Design and Construction for 27 years.
Basically this property that’s in question it is if you look at it, it is so close to the next piece of
property. This right here would be the home in question. This is the property that’s right next
door. It’s about three feet away. The actual eaves overlap each other. If you look at the
construction of the house and the way it is configured when you come in there’s a hallway and a
staircase that goes up. A lot of renovation would even have to be done from that staircase. I’ve
watched that house for twenty years. I could’ve bought it but I mean I have enough properties.
That’s not something that I ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you for your response.
37
Mr. Mills: But we would like for it to remain that way and to try to keep our
neighborhood because it’s right there one of our most precious commodities, Paine College, a
historically black institution. And I’m going to tell you as a kid seeing that neighborhood I have
seen it go from a quiet peaceful neighborhood to a transient, crime riddled street. And if you call
the Augusta police department and look at the complaints the end of that street near Walton Way
that has been converted to multifamily dwellings and have transient people and very high traffic
where the kids cannot even play I don’t think that’s what we want in our community. And I
don’t think that’s what we need encroaching on people who send their most precious
commodities ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Lockett then Commissioner Jackson then
Commission Fennoy.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I approve with the recommendation
made by the Planning Commission and I move that this agenda item be approved.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Do we have a second?
Mr. Mason: I want to make sure I understand the motion. You’re ---
Mr. Lockett: It’s a motion to deny.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: To deny.
Mr. Mason: Motion to deny. Approve the denial. Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Jackson and the Commissioner ---
Mr. Jackson: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Rob, as an electrician myself without a
masters license I can’t go get a permit, correct, or as a contractor?
Mr. Sherman: Correct.
Mr. Jackson: I’d be damned if I’m going to put citizens in risk without a licensed
contractor on this homeowner do it yourself. It’s one thing when you own a property and you do
it yourself but it’s another when you put veterans with little disability or none to and I know that
they make sprinkler systems out of PVC. I’m smart enough to know that but ---
Mr. Samadi: The statements made are not all accurate.
Mr. Jackson: Well, just looking at the picture as an electrician I wouldn’t do that.
Mr. Samadi: But there is no work being done (inaudible).
38
Mr. Jackson: But you’ve had two stop work order permits.
Mr. Samadi: But then (inaudible).
Mr. Jackson: With that I still go along with my colleague motion to deny and hopefully
I’ll get a second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: No, it’s already been motion and a second.
Mr. Jackson: Let’s vote.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Fennoy, you had a question?
Mr. Fennoy: Yes and I guess my question is why were the stop orders initiated. What
initiated the stop orders?
Mr. Sherman: Work going on without a permit. The first one I’m not real sure how the
first one came about but we received a call, the inspector went out there no one was there but you
could tell something was going on and so attached, it’s a sticker that says stop work. That
apparently was removed then Mr. Raeford at the meeting last week or a couple of weeks ago
showed me the pictures. I asked the inspector to go back by there. I previously didn’t know that
a stop work order had been issued on that property but I asked him to go over there and look at it.
He saw that work was going on and knew that a permit had not been issued for any work and
attached the stop work order to the door.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay and I guess my next question is why was it necessary for the city to
issue two ---
Mr. Samadi: The first time that the stop order was placed by Mr. Jerry Smith from the
director’s office. I spoke with him extensively on the phone. I in fact invited the director as well
as his staff to come and see the house. And I explained to them they are not doing any electrical
work. They’ve done very little plumbing work in order just to stop the leak so that they can
repair the plaster the sheet rocks the wood and things of that nature and paint. They have not
done electrical work. In fact they have been using generators to cut their wood for the past year.
Whenever we go to do electrical work we use generator and I explained that to Director
Sherman. In fact when his team came on Monday yesterday morning they saw that in fact they
even agreed after the inspector came they agreed that it doesn’t seem like the work has been
done.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay and my last question is the stop order still in existence?
Mr. Sherman: It’s in effect.
Mr. Samadi: But from what I understood from Mr. Smith ---
39
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Hold on, hold on. We’ve got a motion and a second on the floor.
Mr. D. Smith: Let’s vote.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Vote by the usual sign of voting please.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Repeat the motion, Madam Clerk.
The Clerk: Yes, sir, the motion was to concur in the denial by the Planning Commission.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Madam Clerk.
Mr. Samadi: If I’m not supposed to ---
Ms. Davis out.
Motion Passes 9-0.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Get with Mr. Sherman and they can explain it at this point what
happens.
Mr. Samadi: I understand what it says, but if I’m not ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yeah, we already voted and it’s been disposed of so you need to
get with them on it. Thank you. Madam Clerk, can we move on to item 38 please?
The Clerk: Item 37?
Mr. Mason: Whatever the next one is.
Mr. D. Smith: Whatever the next one is.
The Clerk: Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, 37?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I’m sorry 37.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
37. Consider for approval presentation by Mr. Ellis Albright of the CSRA Business League
regarding minority, women and disadvantaged businesses. (No recommendation from
Administrative Services Committee July 29, 2013)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, I guess this is yours, Mr. Smith?
Mr. D. Smith: No, sir, I was going to ask for a moment of lenience if you would. Tell
me how to go about this, Mr. Pro Tem. This is going to be a long thing I think and number 42 I
40
think we can just dispose of rather quickly before members of the Commission leave. Since it
takes everybody if you would move it up I’m asking if you’d move it up.
Mr. Lockett: Is everybody planning on leaving?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I don’t think ---
Mr. D. Smith: Well, I see Commissioner Jackson had his hand up.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: No, I don’t think, he’s gone, he went to the rest room so we should
be fine. I appreciate you know your concern on this item but I think we’ll be fine.
Mr. D. Smith: All right.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I think we can get through 37 fairly quickly so we’ll go ahead and
take 37. Mr. Albright.
Mr. Albright: Thank you, sir and I will make sure I stand back from the mike since the
Administrator told me my voice does carry. I’m a trained Toast Master and speech writer so it’s
understandable. But good afternoon, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem and Commissioners. Thank you again
for this wonderful opportunity. It was Gandhi who said that we should be the change we want to
see but because I’m committed to the change in the community I stand before you again and I
will stand before you as long as it takes until this proposal is approved. You see we believe that
our proposal fills the gap between what the city cannot do and what we as a nonprofit
organization can do and that is insure that women, small, minority and disadvantaged businesses
are treated fair in this city. I understand what George Bernard Shaw said when he wrote that
progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change
anything. Nothing will change in this city until the minds and the attitudes are changed for we
are saddened that we and the leaders cannot have a conversation about the disparities that exist in
this city. It bothers us that we continue to hear the same questions, see the same motion made
and witness the same Commissioners vote against a proposal that the Administrator has stated is
worthy or having a conversation about. Leadership requires action. Change cannot come if we
fail to act wait for someone else to affect change or continue to make a motion to later change we
seek on the table for another time. Citizens elected each of you to move this city forward and to
be the change they wanted to see. We’re advocating on behalf of small, women, minority,
disadvantaged businesses and requesting that the governing body of Augusta Richmond County
join us in being the visionaries and changers you were elected to be by finally burying personal
agendas and petty views and being the change we all want to see by allowing a conversation that
the Administrator requested on last Monday to take place between his office, Ms. Gentry and the
CSRA Business League.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you for that, Mr. Albright, and you were definitely brief.
Commissioner Smith.
Mr. G. Smith: I’d like to make a motion we receive this as information.
41
Mr. Guilfoyle: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a motion and a second to receive as information.
Commissioner Fennoy you had a?
Mr. Fennoy: I’d like to make a substitute motion ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay.
Mr. Fennoy: --- that we receive as information and that we have a work session so that
we could deal with the Mr. Albright’s proposal as it relates to the disparity study.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right, do we have a? Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. Mr. Albright has been here several times
and we’ve been talking about and he just explained to us that the conversation that needs to take
place between the Administrator, DBE person and himself with his nonprofit agency to kind of
assist us, to help us. Even the Attorney ruled last either the committee meeting or the last
commission meeting that it was within the guidelines to do that. So I don’t think we need to
have a work session. I think we need to get some direction as to who goes into the room and sits
down and talks and let’s try and get this thing brought to a head because you know we keep
going back to the disparity study. We spent $500,000 dollars on and we have not did anything
with that. It’s been over four and a half years now, in fact four years and eight months now that
this study’s been brought back. So we need to get something on the table versus going in a
meeting and discussing this again. Can’t we get out of that motion you made Mr. Fennoy to get
those entities in place to go ahead and start the dialog that we need?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Mr. Fennoy?
Mr. Fennoy: Well, yeah, I will amend my motion to have the Administrator the DBE and
Mr. Albright to get together and come back to the Commission with a proposal.
Mr. Lockett: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a substitute motion and a second. I guess we’ll
vote in that order.
Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Mason, Mr. Lockett and Mr. Williams vote Yes.
Mr. Jackson, Mr. Donnie Smith, Mr. Guilfoyle and Mr. Grady Smith vote No.
Ms. Davis out.
Motion fails 5-4.
Mr. Williams: Madam Clerk, will you put this back on the agenda for committee and
maybe possibly Commission too? I mean we can dance as long as they want to dance.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: We have a primary motion on the table to receive as information.
42
Mr. Speaker: Did we have a second?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: We had a second, yeah.
Mr. Lockett: I’m ready to vote now.
Mr. D. Smith: Mr. Pro Tem, would you repeat the motion?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: It’s to receive this as information. Vote by the usual sign of voting
please.
Mr. Johnson, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Donnie Smith, Mr. Guilfoyle and Mr. Grady Smith vote Yes.
Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Mason, Mr. Lockett and Mr. Williams.
Ms. Davis out.
Motion Fails 5-4.
Mr. Lockett: Mr. Chairman?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yes, Commissioner.
Mr. Lockett: Point of personal privilege. For the last month we’ve talking about a
Disparity Study that will expire the end of December this year. The Disparity Study reflected
that there is gross discrimination within Augusta-Richmond County. One would think that the
governing body would be above and beyond those tactics. When we refuse to allow a
conversation between the Administrator, the DBE and the CSRA Business League we are
showing the world what August-Richmond County is like. And why would anyone want to
move here, bring a business here or whatever and we can’t even get together as something as
simple as this and no monies have been talked about? We don’t know if it would cost anything
at all. And if they have the conversation if they can reach a tentative agreement they come back
to us anyway but we will not even allow the conversation. What is that saying about us? Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you. Commissioner Grady Smith, you want a point of
personal privilege?
Mr. G. Smith: Yes, if you don’t mind, thank you.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right.
Mr. G. Smith: I appreciate it. What I’d like to say is I thought that we employ as a
county people to take care of this to make sure and insure that things are being done fairly,
equitably and that’s what they get paid for. If we’ve got folks on the payroll that we’re paying
my tax dollars and your tax dollars to do a job and not performing I’ll tell you what we do in the
private enterprise we make a move. Somebody’s got to hit the road and do what’s called for.
And we can sit here and do all this rhetoric and pay all this money for studies and yet we’ve got
43
people getting flooded out in their homes. I get calls about that, trash not being picked up things
like that we deal with everyday and we’re worried about some study that’s going to be done put
on a shelf and five years from now we’ll pull it back out refer it back to 2013 we did a study and
you know we had to have it done be December and we paid what half a million for it and this is
what they said we ought to do. Let’s have another restudy and then in 2020 we’ll vote on it
again. We’ve got people we pay to do this stuff. And if they’re not doing the job then I make a
motion we put the Administrator to check things out and somebody needs to find out what’s
going on and make a report back to this committee September first, right before Labor Day.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Commissioner Mason then Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I don’t necessarily agree with my
colleague Commissioner Smith. People should be held accountable. And the fact of the matter
is is that the question becomes whether or not we have people that are in place that are doing the
job. Clearly the results of the study show. Now we can talk about this and we can talk about
that but let’s talk about the results ---
Mr. G. Smith: Who did the study?
Mr. Mason: --- of the study.
Mr. G. Smith: Who did the study?
Mr. Mason: Hopefully you’ve researched that. The results of this study clearly show and
if no one was in denial in reference to that the discrimination that has taken place and that
continues to take place for that matter. Let’s just keep it real. So we can continue to go down
this same road in denial and nothing gets done. I’m embarrassed to say we can’t even have a
conversation about the situation let alone come to any conclusions or any results or path forward
to correct it. In your own minds or in our own minds we may feel that there’s not an issue but
we shouldn’t rest on our own minds we should rest on the reality of the situation and the results
of that that we requested. So the only reason why it sat on the shelf for five years is because it
wasn’t the will of this body to do anything different. Until we change our mind sets and our
thought process our actions will remain the same and that’s what we find up here today, Mr.
Mayor Pro Tem, where we can’t even get a discussion going on. I don’t know how we’re going
to get past this point and the citizens are tired of it. They really are. And so I would hope at
some point that we could at least have a discussion regardless what the results are from that it
certainly does not hurt and that’s what we ought to be doing is communicating appropriately.
And there’s not a single person sitting up here in my belief that does not know specifically
what’s going on here in Augusta-Richmond County. The question becomes what are we
prepared to do and do we have the intestinal fortitude to do that which is right and would be
pleasing in God’s sight. And I don’t see that right now. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams ---
Mr. Williams: Yes, sir ---
44
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: --- do you need a point of personal privilege?
Mr. Williams: --- I need it bad. I’m embarrassed and I don’t kind of disagree with
Commissioner Smith, I totally disagree with him. He’s talking about the employees that we pay
but I’m looking to vote. The employees will do their jobs if we vote to get them to do the job.
He didn’t vote to get them to do the job how do he expect them to do it? Now I am really fed up
with the divide that we have in this community but we act like there’s nothing wrong. I’m sick
and tired of people telling me you love me but you treat me like you don’t. What you say don’t
mean nothing to me but your actions speak louder than any words. And I had not seen any
action up here as elected officials about any fairness. Now if you want to go down the line I can
start naming people that we have fired and we have got rid of because of the color of their skin.
Let’s be real this can of worms Mr. Albright’s been here several times to talk about why we can’t
even have a discussion and we won’t even vote to let people put them together to talk or give
them instructions to talk about it. But when you talk about firing folks, the little guy a little
while ago wanted to talk about preaching. And God don’t have no color. He ain’t got no
denomination. He got none of that. He loves all of us. But it’s bad when folks come up here
and pretend like they don’t know no better. Now all these business folks supposed to know how
to handle business and make money and anybody ain’t making money. Everybody ain’t got a
fair opportunity. And I’m really tired of, I really tired of sitting up here and pretending like
we’re all getting along we’re all everybody singing Kumbaya. We ain’t singing nothing up here.
And it’s a disgrace. I’m really fed up. The man couldn’t been here three or four times asking
just to put a conversation together and then we won’t even vote to do that. Don’t tell me no
more you love me now I don’t want to hear how much I love you. I understand, Grady, I know
you don’t and I appreciate that. I can respect the man who tell me he can’t stand ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Hold on, hold on, hold on (gavel)
Mr. Jackson: Motion to approve adjourning the meeting.
Mr. Smith: Second.
Mr. Williams: --- he can’t stand, I appreciate a man who can tell me to my face he can’t
stand me. And don’t pretend like it.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right it’s already been mentioned. The motion’s been made on
it. We’re going to move forward on this is one of items that we’re obviously not going agree on
today but we do need to have some conversation in the future on how we plan to move forward
and make the playing field level. And I will agree to that. I do know that as a minority
contractor it’s not totally fair but we will deal with that. Let’s move forward to item 38 Madam
Clerk.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
45
38. Motion to approve a “No Confidence Vote” relative to the performance or lack of
performance of the Augusta-Richmond County General Counsel. (Requested by
Commissioner Marion Williams)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams, you had this item?
Mr. Williams: Yes, sir, I did. The item was put on the agenda because of the response if
can call it of the information that we have been receiving from our attorney. It’s not been
accurate. He has flat-footed lied to us in this meeting and even in the committee room. I gave
him some information on last week to ask him to look at the document that came from this
government and for him to give me his opinion or give me a ruling on that. He took different
documents from somewhere else that I had never seen. The document that I gave him came from
this government it was this governments documents that I gave him. But he ruled against that. I
said that not only just that but the deal we dealt with back up a few weeks ago about a
Commissioner doing business with this government. He said in this meeting that he had no
knowledge of that. That was a lie. He had met with Reverend Hatney ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams, I don’t mean to cut you short but they
said we had a motion and a second down here to adjourn the meeting. So we need to take a vote
on that and then we can proceed forward. Okay?
Mr. Williams: Okay, let’s take a vote.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Let’s go in that order.
Mr. Lockett: Mr. Chairman, who made, I heard the motion ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Jackson and Commissioner Grady Smith made the
motion to adjourn. So, Madam Clerk, we can take a vote on that. Will you please vote by the
normal sign of voting please? And that’s the motion to adjourn.
Mr. Guilfoyle, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Grady Smith vote Yes.
Mr. Johnson, Mr. Mason, Mr. Lockett, Mr. Donnie Smith and Mr. Williams vote No.
Mr. Fennoy and Ms. Davis out.
Motion fails 3-5.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Madam Clerk, we will proceed on item 38.
Mr. Williams: May I continue?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Go ahead, Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Thank you, sir. The lie that was told about the knowledge of the
Commission doing business with this government was told by our attorney. And I asked him
point blank did he have any knowledge. And he said in this meeting no he did not. That was not
true. I have lost all confidence in his ability to do the job. He advised the Procurement
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Department to do a contract that I thought was it’s my opinion I felt was wrong because we took
out a million dollars for a service station out there and I said that the bid would be changed so
drastically that we needed to go back out for bid. He said that it didn’t need to do that so his
legal opinion in my mind is not there to do the job that we need. We need to have a county
attorney in that seat. He needs to be in Law Department office somewhere doing some other
kind of law but he shouldn’t be advising us in this capacity. And I think my colleague may have
some additional information they might want to share.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Mason. ---
Mr. Mason: Yes, I’m just going to ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: --- and then Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Mason: --- yeah, that’s fine. I’m going to refer to there’s a number of things we
could talk about here. The one I want to address most appropriately right now that causes some
st
dissention and no-confidence and we really need to get this cleared up. For example on July 31
which was last Wednesday I shot out an email to the entire Commission in particular the city
Attorney or General Counsel in reference to the Commission time change that we had discussed.
Now I see it on the agenda here today but I have yet to receive a response back from the city
attorney addressing my issue. And so I think it’s appropriate for the record to state specifically
what I said because there’s no secret. And it says in part in fact here thank you for your, this is
actually to Andrew. I’m looking for a response to the Commission timeframe and the motion
that was made by Commissioner Donnie Smith to change the Commission meetings as well as
the committee meetings. And the motion by Commissioner Smith was to approve rotating the
meeting schedule with Public Services being first and with the committee starting at twelve the
Commission starting at two. Committee starting at twelve, Commission starting at two. Motion
is amended by Commissioner Donnie Smith to have the committee start at twelve with the Public
Services Committee starting first every time followed by an alphabetic rotation of the
committees at a two month intervals. My question to the General Counsel well first of all I
thanked him for his response to my inquiry. However I have several concerns that I needed to be
addressed. First and foremost I’m not sure how the City Attorney can state what the intent of the
Commission was with the motion that was made. So there was a statement that it was the intent
of the Commission to do a certain thing. My statement was it would not require inference if it
was if it would be expressly implied and all that would need to be done is to execute the motion.
Secondly if the intent of the motion that you have cited below was to amend the code to reflect
the motion then the proposed motion that you have attached and what we see here today does not
adequately reflect the motion at all. The motion approved by the Commission was as follows:
Motion to approve rotating the Commission schedules, rotating the meeting schedules with
Public Service being first with committee starting at twelve and the Commission starting at two.
It was further amended by Commission Smith to read: Committee starting at twelve with Public
Service Committee starting first every time. Your attached proposed amendment ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Mason, I’ll recognize you for a second two minutes.
47
Mr. Mason: Thank you. Your attached proposed amendment does not reflect the portion
of the motion that requests committees to start at twelve on a rotational basis with Public
Services being first. For example what you have here is all regular meetings shall be held on the
second and last Monday of every month being at 12:45. That is not the motion. The motion said
twelve o’clock. And then what I went on to let you know was that that, it was an incomplete
motion to begin with in that it did not have an effective date nor did it have a ordinance to be
read nor did it have the two readings that is required by law to come into effect. And I gave you
nd
an example of a motion that I made back in March 2 of 2010 that had all of those parts that
were necessary and that motion passed. So clearly what you put together was not the intent of
what the motion was not what the motion reflects or the intent of the Commission’s motion. If
he said every meeting committee meetings start at twelve beginning with Public Services that
conflicts with Legal that starts at twelve o’clock and then that was not properly addressed. In
mind before we even got finished with that particular agenda item several weeks ago it would’ve
been appropriate for someone, yourself or someone on your staff to address those improprieties
of that motion which was not complete and was not effective. And these are the types of things.
And so when you come back with a attachment to show something different and you tell me well
we went to the Commissioner to find out what his intent was if the motion was appropriate in the
first place you wouldn’t have to go to a Commissioner to find out their intent. It was expressly
implied and annotated by recorder what his words were. If the intent is something different then
it would appear to me that it would be brought back and we relook at that because each
Commissioner that voted yes you would have to understand what their intent was and not just the
intent of the one individual because it goes together, it’s not just one person voting. So these are
the types of things that helps to cause confusion and lack of trust and confidence when there was
every opportunity for the General Counsel or someone from his staff to step up to the plate and
say hey look, this is not an appropriate motion at this time. Or at the very least give me the
proper respect and protocol due to answer my email when I address specific issues to you and
let’s not get here on the Commission dais today where we have to address it in this manner. I
prefer not to do that. That’s why I sent you an email addressing these situations. And the
appropriate way to get it done would’ve been to address that back to me and to this entire
Commission and address those pertinent items before we get up here on this Commission and
have to do it this way. I take no pleasure period in operating in this thrashing and I would hope
that we wouldn’t have to do that in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Lockett, you had a question?
Mr. Lockett: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I ditto what has been said. I’m going to talk
about something somewhat different. The Law Department is responsible for insuring that any
contract or obligation that we have the contracts are done appropriately and so forth. We’ve had
so many flaws with contracts that have gone through the Law Department that have been
complete abject failures. I’m not going to mention all of them. We can start off with the golf
course with Hendry from Scotland. Very poor contract. A thousand dollars a month. We didn’t
even collect on that. Ended up having to pay the employees because of a poor contract. We got
a transit Mobility. Very, very poor contract. Supposed to be saving us money. It cost us an
exorbitant amount of money. Poor contract that was allowed to be signed off. You have a
contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield. It was stated that a person involved was possibly a
conflict of interest but the General Counsel said no and that came back to bite us. There’s an
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obvious double standard. I recognized this my first few months on the Commission dealing with
the Personnel, Policy and Proced7ures Manual. Mr. MacKenzie will tweak anything to whoever
he’s trying to satisfy. He will do that. With the Personnel, Policy and Procedures Manual he
went back to the 1800’s to justify doing something. Mr. MacKenzie the General Counsel have
allowed select Commissioners to come to him and tell him to do something. No problem. But
another Commissioner even with the approval of his committee ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Lockett, I’ll recognize you for the second.
Mr. Lockett: Thank you. --- did not have enough clout to have him to do it. The
General Counsel has been inconsistent when it comes to retroactive pay. The General Counsel
loves to deflect things when it looks like a finger will be pointed towards him and makes
statements about department directors that are not completely true. The General Counsel refused
when provided the template for DBM to go to the Federal Transit Association over a year ago,
refused to do it had to do it his way and as of this particular date it still hasn’t been approved and
it could very well impact our federal grant money. So basically I’ve been dissatisfied with the
performance of the General Counsel almost since day one because of lack of consistency.
Because of inappropriate and unfair decisions made when he sits in that chair as Parliamentarian.
So I could go on but for the sake of time I will stop there for the moment.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you. Any further questions?
Mr. Guilfoyle: Andrew would like to speak.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Andrew?
Mr. MacKenzie: I guess I’ll start off by saying I appreciate the opportunity to respond to
these allegations. And a lot has been said from several different Commissioners. Instead of
utilizing all the time to go through every single allegation I’ll just make an initial statement that I
refute all if not substantially all of the factual allegations which has been made with respect to
many of these. I’m not going to go through all of them but I will start out by doing this. Item
#39 which is in your agenda was an item that Commissioner Mason raised regarding the
proposal and the motion with respect to times. And I actually provided a copy of all of, ya’ll that
as well as emailing to everyone in advance. And if you’ll look on the very first page of that it
says Section 2: The ordinance shall become effective upon approval. I think Commissioner
Mason has said that there was no effective date. This is a common way that we do our codes.
Amendments to have the effective date upon approval which obviously would be upon either the
Commission waiving the second reading or with the second reading. And that was one aspect of
it. But let me make some other facts known as well. There is something that I think even
Commissioner Mason would even agree with, with respect to this item that was not a part of the
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motion that was made on July 16 with regard to changing the minutes, the times of the meeting.
And that information was there was no clarity regarding what time the Legal meeting was to
start. So our office, Jody Smitherman in my office clarified with the Commissioners who made
that motion to determine what their intent was with respect to changing or not changing the legal,
the start of the Legal meeting. They explained it they meant for committee and Legal to still
continue to start at noon which means the committee meeting time will start at noon and the
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committee meeting time will continue to start at 12:45. That is the reason why the proposed
motion because there was not code amendment of that agenda. The proposed code amendment,
which have been distributed today and which remains on the Commission today for
consideration, did not include any additional language with respect to changing the legal time
because it was clarified by the Commissioners who made that motion what the Legal time would
be. And I’ll use that as an example to say with respect to all these other allegations in my
opinion they are completely unfounded. Obviously when I sit in this seat I give opinions that
either favor one political position or another but I try my hardest to be completely fair with
respect to all of these. I did graduate from law school. I do have a law degree and I have an
ethical obligation to represent my client to the highest degree and to be a person of integrity.
And I do everything I can to do that. I take serious offense to the allegation that I have lied to
this Commission. I take serious offense to that. That would be inconsistent with the ethical
obligations that I have as an attorney. If I have said something that you think is a lie I would
appreciate it if you would come to my office, talk to me about that and understand all of the
relevant facts before you call me a liar in public. I would appreciate that much respect before
you come and publicly slander me in that way to at least give me the respect of understanding
what the facts are because many of these allegations are completely unfounded. Lack consistent
procedural rulings with respect to the Commission? I’ve been working for this government for
six years. Granted some rules come out some way to favor one group. Some rules come out
another way to favor one group. If you’re sitting there as a Commissioner and you feel like
that’s unfair to you, I would appreciate the respect to come and look at the rule with me and
determine whether or not my ruling is wrong before you say it was an inconsistent ruling this
way and that way. In addition I don’t make rulings with respect to procedural matters. The
chairperson of the meeting makes the rulings. All I do is provide legal advice regarding what the
rule is. I’m not going to go through all of the other specific allegations in here but I will say it is
my goal sitting in this seat to make every Commissioner up here happy. And I realize I can’t
always do that. There’s political battles that are always raging on and I try not to enter into those
political battles. What I try to do is be fair and reasonable. And for some reason you don’t feel
that I hope that every Commissioner up here has confidence in me because I don’t know of one
single legal opinion that I have given that has been false or wrong or deemed improper in a court
of law. And if you think there is something along those lines then let’s sit down and reason
together and look at those. Until that time comes I just would appreciate the opportunity to just
work these out. There’s no reason for me to have to sit here and respond to these kinds of
allegations when many of those are relating to facts that I think if you looked at all of the facts
and looked deep into those you’d see that I have not made the kind of errors that are being
alleged. I do appreciate the opportunity to respond and I hope to be able to move forward in a
way that pleases everyone to the extent that I can in this seat.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Commissioner Donnie Smith and then Commissioner
Williams.
Mr. Smith: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For my colleagues on this Commission dais it
was brought out several months ago about our department heads being taken to task in the public
and several members and I won’t call out their names but I’m sure they will remember made
statements about our code of conduct. And the Commission is supposed to conduct ourselves in
a gentlemanly manner. And I apologize, Andrew, because whether you give information that is
50
contrary to what somebody up here wants to hear you should not have to be abused and called a
liar in public. And it is inconsistent with our code of conduct and the form of government that
we are supposed to operate under being a civil government. And these issues should be taken up
in a private manner and I apologize for my on behalf of my colleagues. Thank you.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams and then Commissioner Grady Smith.
Mr. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t apologize, Andrew. I said what I
meant and I meant what I said. Mayor Pro Tem, you was tasked to do something maybe we
can’t mention the personnel the matter that was assigned but you was tasked to do something that
the attorney drafted a letter and sent to someone who was very, very important to us. And we
shared. He said he didn’t know what the director was but as an attorney as an attorney he should
have been able to find out through the minutes or whatever what the director was. But he took it
upon himself and I don’t know who else we’re talking about but we’re talking about the attorney
right now to send the letter. And you’re very familiar as to what I’m talking about. But not only
that I asked him point blank about the doing business with this government that he didn’t know
anything about that. And he said to me no. Now if you lied in public, I’ll address you in public.
Reverend Hatney told me that you met with him and discussed the issue. But when I asked you
about the issue you said you didn’t know nothing about it. You didn’t know any such thing. So
now I’m not going to get back and forth back and forth I brought this to put a vote in. We have
gotten conflicting, I don’t expect you to come in here about a half hour. I don’t want you to meet
me here. I just want you to tell me what the legal what the law says about these issues where we
vote them up or down. All you can give is what the law says. You have been giving your
opinion in a lot of cases. The last time we met you stood right there I gave you some documents
that came from this government that I asked you to look at. And from those documents I asked
you to make a ruling on it. You took another set of documents and ruled from them. It was
totally different than the documents I had. I guess you don’t remember that but those things are
untrue. Those things are totally untrue so, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, I don’t apologize. I appreciate
the Grady Smith talked about employees we pay people to do their job and they need to do the
job. People ain’t go to like it I ain’t got to like it if it’s right it ought to be right. But you can’t
get up in the morning and let the wind blow one way and then tomorrow let it blow another way
the wind ought to blow the same.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Grady and then Commissioner Guilfoyle.
Mr. Smith: I appreciate it, Mr. Chairman. What I’d like to say and I appreciate
Commissioner Williams’ views. One minute he’s agreeing with me next minute he’s not
agreeing with me. I guess it’s like law you know everybody has got an opinion. And I will say
one thing about Mr. MacKenzie, you know, he’s got a whole ten people up here that he tries to
do right and please and like I’ve told him before when I call him or ask him something he gives
the way the law’s interpreted. He’s a lawyer he went to school knows all the ins and outs of the
law, been with us six years it’s hard. I’ve asked him a couple of things I didn’t like the answer
you know. And the thing about it is but that’s the law and you’ve got to be man enough to take it
and accept it. And the thing I’m saying being in private enterprise you know a lot of things don’t
go my way especially when I look at the bottom line and it’s a lot less than what I thought it
should be. But the thing about it is we all got to learn to work together then a minute ago I’m
51
getting a lecture about how we all in this county will never get ahead and all of a sudden you
know it’s like a pack of wolves. Jump on a man when he’s down that’s the easiest time to kick
him. But the thing about it is the man does a good job. He’s got ten folks up here. But there
again he can’t turn around and say what he might want to say but I can. And there again I’m a
grown man and it hurts my feelings that the man doesn’t love me but I can live with it. But you
know that’s just the way the world is. And we’ve got a good county here but if we all work
together when you got a problem air it out in the dugout. Don’t air it out on the field where all
the fans can see it. But the thing about it is no we got to bring it in here and blow it up. Let’s sit
at the table and talk like gentlemen. If we’ve got a problem be respectful both ways. It’s a two
way road and that’s the only way to get things done. That’s the way I was taught. I got friends
everywhere and thank God I do but the thing about it is if we’ve got issues with each other, hey,
I’m always available. Tell me what it is. If I’m wrong I’ll tell you and I’ll try to change. But
you know we’ve got to do better than what we do. We’re supposed to be up here setting
examples and I’m disappointed. You talk one side out of your mouth and then you talk the other
side and I’m grown man. I can live with it. I just have to do what I’ve got to do.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Guilfoyle and then we’re going to have to go and
dispose. We’ve got two more items that I know one in particular’s going to take some time
gentlemen.
Mr. Lockett: All I need is about thirty seconds after Mr. Guilfoyle finishes.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Let Mr. Guilfoyle go forward and then we can move forward.
Mr. Guilfoyle: It truly amazes me, it really does. I mean everybody in this room either
worked for somebody or they currently work for somebody right now. For the boss and superior
to call them out on the floor call them a liar, disgrace them, embarrass him, his family his friends
sitting there chiming in it’s going to be in the news. I run a business; I get ridiculed up here for
having a business. You know I try to do everything right in life. If I’ve got a problem with
somebody I’ve always believed in talking to them in private one on one. You would never see
me disrespect people in a way that just got disrespected. Now I hear a lot of darts being thrown.
It shouldn’t happen. We are here to represent the people. We’re supposed to carry ourselves in a
way that people elected us to do. For this to happen I’m truly embarrassed to be on this
Commission at this time because if it was a personnel problem it should held into the room to the
left of me not out here on this floor. Mr. Chairman, would you be kind enough to call for this
question so we could move forward with this agenda.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Guilfoyle, are you calling the ---
Mr. Lockett: I had my hand up for my thirty seconds.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: After Commissioner Lockett then we’ll vote on the matter. Go
ahead, Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Lockett: I asked for this because I think some of us are being a little hypocritical. I
think for the past months you all have been working on rules of conduct for employees and
52
public officials of Augusta. Some of you all are on that committee. In fact the person that
chaired that committee is sitting here now. And one of the things you said in here is if the Mayor
or a Commissioner of Augusta Georgia Commission has reason to believe that a public official
has violated the ethical requirements of this blank, blank, blank he or she may request that the
Commission authorizes a formal investigation of such person by placing such request on the full
Commission agenda in accordance with the commissions procedural rules. An allegation can be
made about one of us or somebody else it goes on the full agenda. This is what y’all decided on
the committee. And this is what we’re going be talking about in a minute. How hypocritical can
you be to say what we’re doing now is wrong. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mason: A point of personal privilege, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Go ahead, Commissioner Mason.
Mr. Mason: Very briefly let me be very clear. I try to be as respectful as I possibly could
be. I didn’t call anybody out of their name, didn’t do any of that. Just simply brought up the
facts of the matter. I set out an appropriate email requesting appropriate information that I did
not receive. He did not address that in any way shape or form. Those things that I brought to the
table were factual based on the minutes and the records that we have in place. So there was no
underlying or undercurrent method, methodology used to try to usurp the authority of our
General Counsel or anything to that effect. If in fact your statement is true and you want to be
fair and you try to do everything as fair as possible, a response to my email that was sent out last
Wednesday would have been the most appropriate thing to do and then we perhaps would never
even be here. I mean I’m not sure but the fact of the matter is that was my issue that there was
not a response to the person that you work for by the way who asked you some specific questions
for this entire Commission and there was no response to those questions. So let’s not get it
twisted that everybody’s up here trying to throw darts and blow somebody up. That’s not the
case but the respect that is due it does go both ways. And if an email is sent requested an
appropriate response the appropriate and the right thing to do is to respond.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Do we have a motion?
Mr. Guilfoyle: Receive as information.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Do we have a second?
Mr. Donald Smith: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Williams: I’ve got a substitute motion.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Go ahead Commissioner Williams.
Mr. Williams: Substitute motion is the no-confidence vote that I asked for on this item.
53
Mr. Mason: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a substitute motion and a second. Vote by the
usual sign of voting the substitute motion which is the original motion.
Mr. Lockett: Mr. Chairman could you read the substitute motion please?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: It’s actually the agenda item as it reads a vote of no-confidence.
That’s the substitute motion.
Mr. Mason, Mr. Lockett and Mr. Williams vote Yes.
Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Donnie Smith and Mr. Grady Smith vote No.
Ms. Davis and Mr. Guilfoyle out.
Motion Fails 3-5.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right, vote by the original motion.
Mr. D. Smith: Repeat, it please, sir.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: To receive as information.
Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Jackson, Mr. D. Smith, Mr. Guilfoyle and Mr. G. Smith
vote Yes.
Mr. Mason, Mr. Lockett and Mr. Williams vote No.
Ms. Davis out.
Motion Passes 6-3.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay Madam Clerk we’ll move to item 39.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
39. AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE AUGUSTA, GA CODE TITLE ONE CHAPTER
TWO ARTICLE ONE SECTION 1-2-2 RELATING TO THE TIME FOR COMMISSION
MEETINGS OF THE AUGUSTA, GEORGIA ROARD OF COMMISSIONERS; TO
REPEAL ALL CODE SECTIONS AND ORDINANCES AND PARTS OF CODE
SECTIONS AND ORDINANCES IN CONFICT HEREWITH; TO PROVIDE AN
EFFECTIVE DATE AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. (REQUESTED BY
COMMISSIONER GRADY SMITH)
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Commissioner Grady Smith you had this item.
Mr. G. Smith: Yes, I’d like to make a motion to set the starting time for Commission
meetings at 2:00 p.m. And then number two leave the legal meeting start time at noon and leave
the committee meetings that if we have a legal meeting it’ll start after the legal meeting usually
around 12:45.
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Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Andrew ---
Mr. D. Smith: We need clarification, Grady.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Yeah, let me let Andrew ---
Mr. G. Smith: Clarified.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: --- clarify what it is need to be done and what is it he’s asking in
general.
Mr. MacKenzie: Sure let me just initially say this is I distributed a draft a motion to
everyone. Obviously this Commission willed to do something different. This is just a draft but
what I have placed in the draft which is my understanding of what the intent of the
Commissioners were who made the motion was to amend the regular commission meeting time
to be a 2:00 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of each month where currently it is 5:00 p.m. To
leave the noon legal meeting time the same as it currently is which is twelve noon on the second
and last Monday of very month and to leave starting time of the committee meetings at 12:45 on
the second and last Monday of every month. Now part of the other discussion that was had in
committee was to rotate the schedule of the committees in an alphabetical manner. Those were
not added to the code amendment. And the reason for that is that’s currently not in the code and
it’s my understanding that would be a function that would performed by the Clerk’s office to
change not the time but change the order in which the committees appeared. So that is not in the
current amendment. But I distributed out to all of you a motion which is my understanding what
it was the intent of the Commissioners you made that motion to do which was amend the time as
I just described.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: So we’re talking specifically here just about the Commission time
on this particular item.
Mr. MacKenzie: That’s correct.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Not the committee times.
Mr. MacKenzie: Correct.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Ya’ll got that? Only the Commission, not committee. This is only
to reflect the Commission time change.
Mr. D. Smith: But we can ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Now hold on one second now what we have to vote to amend this
ordinance before anything take place because I don’t think you can vote simultaneously to do
that and amend the motion correct?
55
Mr. MacKenzie: Well, let me clarify that as well. The way that the code currently reads
before the amendment the regular commission meeting time is 5:00 p.m. However a majority
vote of the Commission or at the request of the Mayor the starting time of a specific commission
meeting can be changed from that if it’s necessary to do that.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Right.
Mr. MacKenzie: To change the permanent meeting start time for the Commission
requires a code amendment which is what has been distributed to you today.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Right.
Mr. MacKenzie: It would require two readings unless there’s unanimous consent to
waive the second reading. So the effective date would be as indicated on the front page upon
approval which would be the second reading.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. Commissioner Fennoy.
Mr. Fennoy: Motion to deny.
Mr. Mason: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a motion on the table and a second. Any further
discussion? Okay now vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Mason, Mr. Lockett and Mr. Williams vote Yes.
Mr. Jackson, Mr. D. Smith, Mr. Guilfoyle and Mr. G. Smith vote No.
Ms. Davis out.
Motion Fails 5-4.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we’ll move on with item 40, Madam Clerk.
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SAFETY
40. Motion to approve formalizing into a contract for approval the recommendation of the
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Administrator as presented in the July 29 Public Safety committee regarding the
ambulance contract. (Requested by Commissioner Marion Williams)
Mr. Williams: So moved.
Mr. D. Smith: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a motion and a second on the table. Any further
discussion? Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting.
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Mr. Johnson, Mr. Jackson, Mr. D. Smith, Mr. Guilfoyle, Mr. Williams and Mr. G. Smith
vote Yes.
Mr. Mason, Mr. Fennoy and Mr. Lockett vote No.
Ms. Davis out.
Motion Passes 6-3.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Madam Clerk, item 42.
The Clerk:
SUBCOMMITTEE
Ethics Reform Study Subcommittee
42. Motion to approve the recommendation of the Ethics Reform Study Subcommittee to
allow the sitting president of the Augusta Bar Association to select a qualified private
investigator to conduct a formal investigation of alleged ethical violations of public officials
on behalf of the Augusta Commission.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Commissioner Donnie Smith, you’re the Chairman of the
committee.
Mr. D. Smith: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my colleagues to the left and to the right I
would like to thank first of all I’d like to thank Commissioner Fennoy for bringing this to the
center of attention back a few months ago. And I’d like to thank the Pro Tem and Commissioner
Mason and Commissioner Davis who is not here for working so diligently to try to find a
solution to this problem. And then other Commissioners gave us input Commissioner Williams
and Commissioner Lockett both appeared along with I think Commissioner Smith. Everybody
gave us input. And this was directly in we were tasked with trying to find a solution for these
problems that occurred earlier in the year with members of our Commission doing work with the
city government. And so I’ll try and be real brief and then we’ll try to take a vote. We decided
early on that we would enter into three parts of this we’d divide the problem into three parts.
One we would rapidly identify whether or not we wanted the Commission members to be
allowed to do work with the city government. And part number one we this draft we
unanimously came up before said no we did not want the Commission members to be allowed to
do work directly with the Commission or directly with the government unless it was and we did
not want any exceptions other than those that are provided for in state law. So that was step one.
Step two was then we had to decide if somebody was alleged to have done business with the
government how we would go about investigating that. And we looked at eight other cities and
county’s Cobb, Fulton so on and so on to determine how they did it. And we decided that we
would allow, we would ask a none-partisan person being the elected president of the Augusta
Bar Association to we would approach them and ask them if they would conduct an investigation
trough a private investigator. They would go out and hire an private investigator of their
choosing, have a 45-day period where they would investigate it report back to this Commission
whether there was enough evidence to support the allegation. And then the Commission itself
would take that information and on a vote a majority vote of six the person that was being the
Commissioner that was being accused of this would be found to have violated our rule. The
third part was the penalty phase and this is where we got a lot of input. Some members of our
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community as well as our Commission felt that the penalties we had in place were not severe
enough and so the subcommittee decided and it’s all in the paperwork in front of you. I won’t
quote it but it says you can get either a by a vote of the Commission you can either get a
reprimand you can get a censure or you can get up to five years of debarment from doing
business with the government, five years from the date of that decision by the committee. And
so there’s been a lot of hard work put into it. I’m not saying this is a perfect thing. Certainly it
came out of our subcommittee with unanimous support all four of us agreed to it. I would ask
for your support in this and I do want to thank each one of you that’s work so hard for it and that
has given us input and I’d ask for your support.
Mr. Williams: So moved.
Mr. Grady Smith: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right, we have a motion and a second on the floor. Now,
Andrew, just for clarity are we voting on the actual reform of the ethics code as a whole or just to
allow the sitting president of the Augusta Bar Association chose to appoint somebody?
Mr. MacKenzie: The maker of the motion’s here it’s my understanding from his
statements that he’s asking for an approval of the code amendment that was provided to you
which would include a process that’s identified in item 42. So I would suggest a substitute
motion to approve the code amendments as indicated in the packet that was provided to you.
Mr. D. Smith: And I’ll amend my motion to ask that the members of the Commission
approve this in its entirety. Will that cover it, Andrew?
Mr. MacKenzie: Yes.
Mr. D. Smith: Thank you.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, so we’re voting to approve the reform of the ethics code and
to allow the sitting president of the Augusta Bar Association to appoint a qualified investigator in
any event.
Mr. MacKenzie: Sure, if I may. This will cover all of that. An Ordinance to amend the
Augusta Georgia Code Sections 1-23, 1-1-26 and 1-1-27 relating to employee or public official
conflicts of interest related to county employees.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Commissioner Lockett, you had a question?
Mr. Lockett: Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to applaud Commissioner
Smith and his adhoc committee. You all did an outstanding job but I have a few little small
things I would like to get clarification on and probably from the General Counsel. Under 1-1-27
alpha you use the term a immediate family. Is this immediate family from the Personnel Policy
and Procedures Manual or is this going have an addendum or something showing what an
immediate family is?
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Mr. MacKenzie: I can double check but I believe there actually is definition of
immediate family already in the existing code.
Mr. Lockett: Okay.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: If I’m not mistaken, Mr. Chairman, I think there was on that we
recognized and Commissioner Mason you’re on the committee as well that an immediate family
did specify that it was mother, father, daughter, son, sister-in- law, brother-in-law, grandparents
of course. I think that was considered the immediate family which I think is very similar to
what, well actually it’s exactly what we have in the Personnel Policy and Procedure Manual.
Mr. Lockett: Okay. And under Exhibit D Section 1-1-23 under A1 it says that and
employee or public official and any other person on his or her behalf is prohibited from
knowingly accepting. Now is this one of those get out of jail words there?
Mr. D. Smith: Where’s that, Mr. Lockett?
Mr. Lockett: It’s under 1-1-23 A-1 the second sentence. An employee or public official
and any other person on his or her behalf is prohibited from knowingly accepting and retaining.
So in other words if you didn’t know it and you accepted it and retained it it’s okay. I mean
that’s the way I’m interpreting it. I guess I’m looking at it from a federal investigator’s
perspective. I’m not criticizing you but I’m just saying I think this is something that we ought to
make sure that’s what we want.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I think that would be, Andrew, do you have clarity of that?
Mr. MacKenzie: That is what the current draft says. Let me double check that and the
non-redline version and see if it’s still there.
Mr. Lockett: Okay, Andrew, over where it says conflict of interest prohibited this is I
think Exhibit D under five with the copy I have. It says an employee or public official shall not
cause the employee, appointment, promotion, transfer or advancement of a relative to an
employment position which the employee or public official directly supervises or managing. So
are you saying that I can use my limited amount of clout that I have as a Commissioner to get
somebody a job as long as they’re not under my direct supervision or management?
Mr. MacKenzie: What section are you referring to exactly?
Mr. Lockett: I’m under Exhibit D according to the page I have. It’s the second page it’s
down item number five with the copy I’m looking at.
Mr. MacKenzie: Are you looking at the redline version?
Mr. Lockett: Yep.
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Mr. MacKenzie: Okay.
Mr. Lockett: And basically what my interpretation is it appears that we can use his
position or her position to insure employment of a relative as long as you don’t supervise any
such person. I don’t think that’s the intent or am I misreading it.
Mr. MacKenzie: Sure, the very last part of Section 5 says nothing herein shall be
construed to affect August Georgia’s nepotism policy to define the Personal Policies and
Procedures. So that and I do recall that issue as addressed there and it’s also addressed under
some of the other ethical provisions under state law which is undue influence of a public official.
Mr. Lockett: Well, I would think, Mr. MacKenzie, that might want to be tweaked just a
little bit because it can be confusing. And I got one other thing and I mentioned it before but I
had a question about it before we got on this other thing. Under Procedures for Alleged Ethical
Violations by Public Officials. It says complaint initiation. If the Mayor or any Commissioner
of the Augusta Georgia Commission has reason to believe that a public official has violated the
ethical requirements of this code he or she may request that the Commission authorize a formal
investigation of such person by placing such request on the full Commission agenda. Now a
Commissioner, allegations have been made and once it’s out there it’s out there. So it seems to
me a few minutes ago we said one thing but here you read this it’s saying something else.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Donnie Smith.
Mr. D. Smith: I’m searching for an answer because I don’t know if you can point out to
me where the conflict is because certainly we tried to make it as transparent as we could if
somebody had a complaint they’d bring it to us and the Commission by a vote of six would say
yeah we need to have an investigation. So I’m not, can you lead me somewhere where ---
Mr. Lockett: I’ll be real brief.
Mr. D. Smith: All right.
Mr. Lockett: Let me give you a hypothetical.
Mr. D. Smith: Okay.
Mr. Lockett: I went out there and somebody believes I did something wrong. Okay? So
they get the little information they got where they think it’s a wrong doing and they bring it to
the Commission it’s on the agenda okay? You look at it and if you, six of you say here you
probably did then you’ve got an investigation. Then somebody comes in and investigates Bill
Lockett and finds out Bill Lockett didn’t do anything wrong at all but this is out there and a good
percentage of the population aren’t ever going to forget that. That was that guy who was
investigated not just like Procurement Ms. Geri Sams they’re always throwing rocks at here
because they think she’s doing something wrong. And every time there’s an investigation her
name is cleared but there are still people think that she’s doing something that’s wrong. And I
think we are getting in dangerous territory by doing that.
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Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Smith.
Mr. D. Smith: I guess that I don’t know how you go about investigating something in a
transparent manner without bringing it to the public. I mean or it being available the public so
I’m not sure what step. Maybe you can tell me some way we could’ve done that we could do it
where because even in the criminal system people are put on trial and they’re found not guilty
but I don’t know any, we don’t have somebody please help me with how we would get there.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I think what you’re looking for is do we have a buffer if you will to
get around that aspect of it before it gets to the full Commission. And honestly it’s really no
clear way of doing it outside of making sure that you have enough evidence before you put it on
the Commission agenda before it even comes to the full body for a vote. So I don’t think it’s just
something somebody says well I think Commissioner Donnie Smith is doing x, y, z put it on the
agenda and let’s investigate it. I think it needs to be enough evidence before it’s brought to this
body before we can even consider making a vote on it because that will be an allegation that you
will have to defend and that can create some controversial unneeded notice to anybody that
really don’t deserve that scrutiny. So I think that’s what you’re trying to say and I think
Commissioner Lockett that’s what you’re trying to create making sure that anybody just can’t
come up with an accusation without enough evidence to bring it to this full body for us to have to
even take a vote. Commissioner Mason.
Mr. Mason: Thank you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. I think to offer some clarity to what Mr.
Lockett is saying and correct me if I’m wrong. Commissioner Smith, what we just saw here and
what several Commissioners complained about was the fact that we had some discussion on Mr.
our General Counsel here in the public. And there’s several Commissioners were in
disagreement with that that shouldn’t happen. However in this particular ordinance you now
have a Commission coming before the public to talk on some very similar issues and there seems
to be no problem with that. So what we’re looking for then I would say would be consistency.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. We can speak to Mr. MacKenzie as an
example out here on the floor. You say it’s a personnel issue and we ought to be in the back
room or whatever then what makes that different as a Commission or public official or whatever
the case may be. So I think that’s what he was looking for from that aspect is that you know is
that the same. Am I wrong in that manner?
Mr. Lockett: I think you (inaudible).
Mr. Mason: Okay.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Commissioner Mason, are you done?
Mr. Mason: Yes.
Mr. MacKenzie: Just a brief clarity on that. The definition of public official does not
include employees that work for the government such as myself and the Administrator. Those
are like elected officials such as the Mayor and the Commission. So that’s kind of the distinction
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between the public official definition does not include employees like the Administrator and the
General Counsel.
Mr. Mason: I’m clear about that.
Mr. MacKenzie: And I did have one other point of clarification if I may as well with
respect to Commissioner Lockett’s question about the Section 1-1-23 having the word
‘knowingly’. There was some discussion about that in the subcommittee and that was amended
with respect to knowingly participating directly or indirectly with regard to business with the
government. That’s on subsection five of the, the section that you referenced was actually in the
part that was not amended. That relates only to the gifts. So that’s the explanation on that. So
that exception of knowingly was taken out of the part that was amended but was left in with the
respect to gifts because there’s a more likelihood that there would be an error with respect to
receiving a gift not knowing it was in violation rather than the other sections. I just wanted to
clarify that.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Commissioner Fennoy, you had a question?
Mr. Fennoy: Andrew, for clarity does immediate family I mean we have said what we
think immediate family is but in this ordinance do we need to identify immediate family?
Mr. MacKenzie: I believe the immediate family is already defined in the ordinance.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay.
Mr. MacKenzie: It’s just not one of the things that was amended by this code section.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right. We have a motion and a second of the floor.
Mr. D. Smith: I made the motion ---
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Right.
Mr. D. Smith: --- and I think Mr. Williams seconded it.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Johnson, Mr. Mason, Mr. Lockett, Mr. D. Smith and Mr. Williams vote Yes.
Mr. Fennoy votes No.
Ms. Davis, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Guilfoyle out.
Motion Fails 5-1-1.
Mr. D. Smith: Ms. Clerk, would you put that back on the next Commission meeting
agenda please.
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Mr. Lockett: Mr. Chairman, may I have a point of personal privilege, please?
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Lockett.
Mr. Lockett: I’d just like to commend that you all did an outstanding job. I’m so
appreciative of what you all did and this will move into the past so don’t be so discouraged.
Okay? Thank you Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: I agree. Okay, let’s move on to item, I’m trying to think that would
be item 45.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATOR
45. Motion to approve the formal plan between the First Tee of Augusta and the Augusta
Municipal Golf Course.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Mr. Administrator.
Mr. Russell: Well, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, as a Commission we’ve talked about this on
more than one occasion. Mr. Simon is here if anybody has any questions. The issue on the table
is whether we want to go forward with the plan with the First Tee or take some other action.
Mr. Mason: Move to approve.
Mr. Williams: Second.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right we have a motion and a second on the floor. Any further
discussion? Hearing none vote by the usual sign of voting.
Mr. Johnson, Mr. Mason, Mr. Lockett and Mr. Williams vote Yes.
Mr. Fennoy, Mr. D. Smith and Mr. G. Smith vote No.
Ms. Davis, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Guilfoyle out.
Motion Fails 4-3.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, Madam Clerk, that’s it?
Mr. Williams: Madam Clerk, would you add that back to the next Commission agenda
again?
The Clerk: Yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor Pro Tem: All right with no further business we stand adjourned.
[MEETING ADJOURNED]
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Nancy Morawski
Deputy Clerk of Commission
CERTIFICATION:
I, Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of
the minutes of the Regular Meeting of The Augusta Richmond County Commission held on
August 6, 2013.
___________________________
Clerk of Commission
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