HomeMy WebLinkAboutRegular Commission Meeting September 18, 2018
REGULAR MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER
SEPTEMBER 18, 2018
Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 2:00 p.m. September 18, 2018, the
Hon. Hardie Davis, Jr., Mayor, presiding.
PRESENT: Hons. Jefferson, Guilfoyle, Sias, Frantom, M. Williams, Davis, Fennoy, D.
Williams, Hasan and Smith, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission.
Mr. Mayor: Good afternoon, everyone. We’re going to call this meeting to order, the
Chair recognizes Madam Clerk.
The Clerk: Thank you, sir. I call your attention to the Invocation portion of our agenda
which will be delivered by Pastor J. Toro, Lead Pastor of the Calvary Temple Assembly of God
after which we will ask School Trustee Helen Minchew if she would please lead us in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
Mr. Mayor: Please stand.
The invocation was given by Pastor J. Toro, Lead Pastor Calvary Temple Assembly of
God.
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America was recited.
The Clerk: Office of Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. by these present be it known that Pastor J.
Toro, Lead Pastor Calvary Temple Assembly of God is Chaplain of the Day. His spiritual guidance
and civic leadership, serves as an example for all citizens of Augusta. Given under my hand this
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18 Day of September 2018, Hardie Davis Jr., Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Would you join me in thanking Pastor Toro for his service? (APPLAUSE) I
do want to take an opportunity today we’re going to have in just a moment Dr. Pringle’s going to
come up but I want to acknowledge our School Board members who are in the audience. I believe
we’ve got Trustee Atkins, I will not be saying Go Dogs, Trustee Minchew, Padgett, Scott and
Walker. Very well so we thank you for your service and what you’re doing in this community to
help make Augusta-Richmond County schools the best not only in the state but in the nation with
an 80% graduation rate and some of the finest schools this side of the Mississippi. We’re very
proud of what’s going on and we’re certainly equally proud of the work that our Superintendent is
doing in her leadership. Madam Clerk?
The Clerk: Yes, sir. I call your attention to the Delegation portion of our agenda.
DELEGATIONS
C. Superintendent Angela Pringle, Richmond County Board of Education regarding the
Richmond County Board of Education obtaining 2018 Georgia School Boards Association’s
(GSBA) Distinguished Board Status. (Requested by Commissioner Dennis Williams)
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Dr. Pringle: Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor Davis and Commissioners. Thank
you so much for partnering with us on our journey to quality education for all students. And as
you mentioned we have with us (unintelligible) Board of Education representative Mr. Barnes.
Unfortunately our President could not be here this evening and we have Mr. Jim Atkins our Vice-
President as mentioned Ms. Minchew, Mr. Padgett, Mr. Scott and Mr. Walker. And I wanted to
bring to you this evening and thank you so much for allowing me to recognize the Board of
Education for receiving the 2018 GSBA the Georgia School Boards Association Distinguished
Board Status for three consecutive terms and opportunities to apply. There was a one-year gap
that did not have the recognition but for all three years that they have applied they have been
awarded that recognition. And the reason for that some of the things that go into being recognized
as a Distinguished Board is one, in adherence to a strategic plan, a systems strategic plan, a strategy
for improving our schools must also as a whole board vote on a vision statement that really
integrates itself and supports the vision for the state. They must also have a self-assessment and a
community assessment so community members come out and meet and give us an assessment of
their work as a board. They must also evaluate me annually and that does happen and get good
feedback. Training, there are training opportunities and requirements that go along and
accreditation. We must maintain a good status with the accreditation. We scored 346 out of 400
this past February which was amazing for us and was a great way of demonstrating the work that’s
going on in the school system, one of the highest scores or among the highest in the nation so we
know the framework is there for our support. They must also adhere and adopt a code of ethics
and also adopt a valid budget. So I’m happy to say that they met under the leadership of Mr.
Barnes this past year, Mr. Atkins and all of them working collectively together. It’s important they
work together as a board to support the direction of the school district and the plaque reads to
honor achievement and the pursuit of higher standards in the local governance of public schools
presented to the Richmond County School Board. This is the third opportunity to receive this and
they’ve been awarded and I’m proud to work with such an honorable and focused group on
individuals, so thank you so much. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: Dr. Pringle, if you and your school board partners could come with your
plaque and we’re going to get a photo here. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from
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the 2 who’s our liaison I believe.
Mr. D. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate
Dr. Pringle and the Board for the outstanding work that they’re doing in our community and in our
school system. And also taking the time to come out this afternoon to be recognized for the
outstanding work that they’re doing with our young people in our community. And this is
something that our community needs to be aware of how wonderful and all the great things that’s
going on in our school system so they won’t be cloudy, their mind won’t be clouded so they’ll
know what’s going on actually for themselves. And they’re doing a very good job in improving
the level of our education and they’re also working with business members of the community in
order to develop a good workforce for our community. So once again thank you for coming out
this afternoon. (APPLAUSE)
The Clerk: I call your attention to the Recognition portion of our agenda. At this time we
would like to offer our congratulations to Ms. Sarah N. Malik, her father Dr. Hameed Malik will
accept on her behalf.
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The Clerk:
RECOGNITION(S)
Sarah N. Malik
A. Congratulations! Sarah N. Malik on being selected as a Summer 2018 Intern at the State
Department for Policy, Conflict Resolution and Counter Terrorism Central Asia and South
Asia. (Requested by Bill Fennoy)
The Clerk: Office of the Mayor Certificate of Recognition given to Sarah N. Malik. On
the occasion of your outstanding achievement on being selected as the 2018 Summer Intern at the
State Department for Policy, Conflict Resolution and Counter Terrorism Central and South Asia.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend to you our warmest greetings and best wishes in
recognition of this great academic achievement. Congratulations on being accepted to Princeton
University as you pursue studies and public policy and international affairs and premedical
curriculum. The City of Augusta recognizes and applauds your commitment, hard work and
enthusiasm you have shown throughout your scholastic voyage. We recommend you for the
important contributions and essential roles you have played in enhancing the quality of life in our
community through your achievements, commitments and dedication for academic and athletic
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excellence which serves as an example and inspiration for all of us. Given under my hand this 18
Day of September 2018, Hardie Davis Jr., Mayor. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Fennoy brought this to the body and we’re excited about it.
We’re going to give opportunity to have the Commissioner say a few words who works very
closely with our Engineering Director as he is the Engineering Services Chairman.
Mr. Fennoy: A couple of weeks ago we had an item on Engineering Services and Dr. Malik
was not able to be here. And he sent a text that he was taking his daughter over to Oxford
University in England and I tried to tell him that that was no reason not to be here but he wouldn’t
listen to me. But you know whenever kids in our community make great strides and do outstanding
things I think that it’s our responsibility as a community as a city to acknowledge that. But when
I first heard that she was going to Oxford that she was at Princeton the first thing that came to my
mind is that the tree does not fall far from the apple.
Mr. Mayor: You know what he meant. Dr. Malik, would you like to say a few words?
Dr. Malik: Yes, I would like to say thank you to the Commission and Commissioner
Fennoy on behalf of my daughter, my wife, her mother, she was not able to make it because she
had a procedure today and she couldn’t move (unintelligible) around. Such encouragement is great
because it gives motivation to young students so I really appreciate it.
Mr. Mayor: Congratulations. (APPLAUSE)
The Clerk:
RECOGNITIONS(S)
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Miss Zion Bullard
B. Congratulations! Zion Bullard, 2018 AAU Junior Olympics. Champion (Requested by
Commission Bill Fennoy)
The Clerk: At this time we would like to recognize Zion Bullard and her family. Would
you please come forward? Office of the Mayor Certificate of Recognition given to Zion Bullard
Long Jump Champion 2018 AAU Junior Olympic Des Moines, IA for your outstanding
achievement and excellent sportsmanlike conduct displayed during the 2018 Junior Olympics held
in Des Moines, IA. The City of Augusta recognizes your commitment to athletic and academic
excellence and congratulates you for participating and winning first place in the long jump
competition placing third in the 100-meter and 200-meter races during the 2018 AAU Junior
Olympics as well as being a third-grade honor student at the C.T. Walker Elementary School.
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Given this 18 Day of September 2018, Hardie Davis Jr., Mayor. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Mayor: Congratulations, Ms. Bullard. You make us proud in the City of Augusta for
not only your athletics but also your academics and your city supports you 100%. Commissioner
Fennoy.
Mr. Fennoy: Again, congratulations, keep up the good work and maybe sixteen years from
now we’ll be seeing you in the Olympics.
Mr. Mayor: Twelve years, fantastic. Would you like to say something?
Mr. Bullard: I’d like to thank the Commissioners and the Mayor for having us here but
Zion also won an indoor. She won the 200 National she came in second in (unintelligible) in the
National so she’s indoor and outdoor track work. (APPLAUSE)
Mr. Speaker: Folks, I try just want to thank the city, I want to thank the School Board for
allowing us to and this is something to go back for allowing us to have the AAU Region
Championship here in Richmond County. So an of course coaching Zion is easy; she makes it
seem simple so you know she just keeps doing what she’s doing.
Mr. Mayor: Again another proud example of what’s going on in the Richmond County
schools, public schools. (APPLAUSE) Congratulations. Madam Clerk, I think that covers our
recognitions and the delegation ---
The Clerk: Yes, sir.
Mr. Mayor: --- I think this is an opportunity for us to share just a few things that are going
on in our community. To the members of the Commission I’ve asked our Director of the Board
of Elections, Ms. Lynn Bailey, to come and give an update. There’s been an issue that’s taken on
federal status that has gone on in the State of Georgia with regards to elections. We know we’ve
got a very important election coming up in November and I asked Ms. Bailey to come and give us
an update of what’s been happening particularly with regards to the voting process. Ms. Bailey?
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Ms. Bailey: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for the invitation. I appreciate that. Good afternoon,
everyone. Yes, it’s been a busy time in elections. Most of you are probably aware by now that
yesterday federal court out of the Northern District of Georgia came forward with their ruling
allowing Georgia to proceed with using its current voting system through the November elections.
So the issue at hand was a lawsuit brought against the State of Georgia which if it had been the
judge had ruled in their favor it would’ve forced us to go to paper balloting for this November’s
election so that is not the case and we’re very grateful for it. Not that anyone has a problem with
paper balloting but the chaos that would come along in implementing a complete change in
overhauling our voting system this close to a major election was not a situation we looked forward
to. Moving forward the Secretary of State has appointed a commission, he calls it his Safe
Commission, secure and accurate and fair elections or something like that. The commission is
made up of computer scientists, representatives from political parties, members of the General
Assembly and local election officials such as myself. We are in the process now of meeting and
our job will be to come forward with a recommendation to the General Assembly for consideration
in its 2019 session coming up here this January for a recommendation on the type of voting system
that Georgia will move towards. The goal is that the next Secretary of State who will take office
in 2020 would actually procure, excuse me, in 2019 would actually procure the equipment so this
group is just a recommending body. The General Assembly would have to find the funding for it
and where that road takes us we are not sure other than the goal is to have a new system
implemented and ready to go for the Presidential Preference Primary in 2020, that’s the goal
overall. So we’ll see where it leads us. We may find ourselves with a paper ballot system in
Georgia similar to what one sees now when they put it through the mail where you color in a
bubble and it will go through some type of a scanning device or we may see ourselves with a
hybrid system where the voter uses a touchscreen unit to actually mark their ballot and the device
itself prints a paper ballot that then is verifiable by the voter and used to actually tabulate the vote.
Price is always a factor so I’m sure those are things that will be looked at but at the end of the day
we’re mandated now by federal law any new voting system has to have a voter verifiable paper
ballot and our current system does not so certainly moving forward we’ll do that. In the meantime
we’re proceeding head on, full steam ahead with our election preparation for November being ever
mindful of course of our physical and cyber security as we conduct elections and we’ll continue
to you know protect our portion of it to the best of our ability. With that I’m glad to answer any
questions that anyone might have.
Mr. Mayor: Have the North Augustans hacked our system?
Ms. Bailey: No, not that I’m aware of. No one has I’m glad to say. There’s you know
there’s certainly no evidence that our voting system has been interfered with in any way. Anyone
who votes in the State of Georgia if you don’t know this already you might make a note of making
it your business to look when you go vote next time that you’re voting machine is simply plugged
into the wall like a lamp or a radio. It’s not connected to the internet in any way and we protect
the security of that system as well as we possibly can.
Mr. Mayor: Any questions from this body? I do see another member of the study
committee our friend Representative Barry Fleming who’s here in the audience as well.
Representative Fleming, thank you for being here today. All right fantastic ---
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Ms. Bailey: Thank you.
Mr. Mayor: --- thank you so much. It’s always important for us to know what’s going on
and how it might impact our local community. Our Director does an outstanding job of leading
our Board of Elections Office here. I want to take an opportunity to thank our EMA Team for
their preparedness during the threat of Hurricane Florence. We were fortunate in Augusta that we
only go a smidgen of rain and a few wind gusts here and there. But I think it’s important for us to
not only thank our folks for being prepared but also our community partners who were prepared
and ready to respond if need be in the City of Augusta. And once again we were very fortunate
that we did not have to respond to that. This past weekend we celebrated with the Augusta the
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Greater Augusta Arts Council on their 38 Arts in the Heart Festival and International Festival I
might add where we had many of our individuals who came and evacuated to Augusta to attend as
well. In spite of the showers of rain on and off on Saturday and Sunday the crowd was huge and
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it was a tremendous response. I was told that the Commissioner from the 7 may have done a
dance or two and I don’t know if it’s on video but I was told, that’s right. I also want to share to
all of our partners here in local government that the 2018 United Way Campaign is underway. We
have several departments that are hosting a myriad of events and activities to help us reach our
overall goal. I think that one Ms. Janice Allen Jackson has agreed to be in the dunking booth this
year. I think, notice I said I think, we’ll confirm that in a few minutes. There’s a fish fry hosted
by Parks and Recreation and the second annual Halloween Contest Costume Party coming to name
a few things so together we can meet our goal as we’ve done in the past to the fact, Ms. Allen, I
believe we exceeded our goal. That’s right, the largest in the history of the city I might add. So if
there are any Commissioners who’d like to join Madam Administrator in the dunking booth I’ll be
happy to take names. Commissioner Sias.
Mr. Sias: I thought you always proclaimed to be a part of the Commission right, I nominate
you.
Mr. Mayor: I did it last year so I lead by example.
Mr. Sias: Keep on leading.
Mr. Mayor: Oh goodness, all right and I also want to make mention that our power lunch
is gearing back up and we’ll be having a reading mentor recruitment event on next Monday the
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24 at the main library on Telfair Street from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. I’m encouraging those of you
in the audience, those who believe in paying it forward that our children are our most important
investment, that there’s an opportunity to partner with us and read to students because that is a
critical pathway to success. Great readers become great leaders and so on next Monday at the
main library from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. if you want to help our schools and our students, stop by and
sign up to help make sure our children are reading at grade level by third grade. You can call the
Mayor’s office and we’ll be happy to plug you in as well as if you call our School Board they are
again partners with us in that process. A lot going on, a lot continuing to happen that makes
Augusta the best place in which to live to learn to work and to raise our families, George Eskola.
Madam Clerk.
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The Clerk: Yes, sir. I call your attention to our Consent Agenda which consists of Items
1-37. For the benefit of any objectors to our Planning Petitions would you please signify your
objection once the petition is read. I call your attention to:
Item 1: Is a request for a Special Exception to establish a Day Car on property known as
2138 Lumpkin Road.
Item 2: Is a request for a change of zoning from a Zone R-1A (One-family Residential) to
a Zone B-1 (Neighborhood Business) affecting property known as 2010 Olive Road.
Item 3: Is a request for a change of zoning from a Zone R-1A (One-family Residential)
and Zone P-1 (Professional) to a Zone R-3B (Multiple-family Residential) affecting property
known as 3379 Wedgewood Drive.
Item 4: Is a request for a change of Zoning from a Zone A (Agriculture), Zone R-MH
(Manufactured Home Residential) And Zone B-2 (General Business) to Zone R-1E (One-family
Residential) affecting property known as 3695 Peach Orchard Road.
Item 5: Is a request for a change of zoning from a Zone A (Agriculture) to a Zone LI (Light
Industry) affecting property known as 2524 Mike Padgett Highway.
The Clerk: Are there any objectors to any of those Planning Petitions? I call your attention
to the Public Services portion of our agenda if there are any objectors to any of our Alcohol
Petitions would you please signify your objection once the petition is read. I call your attention
to:
Item 8: Is a request for an on-premise consumption Liquor, Beer & Wine License to be
used in connection with the location at 127 Laney Walker Blvd, Ext.
Item 9: Is for a retail package Beer & Wine License to be used in connection with
Quickstop Food Mart located at 2852 Deans Bridge Road.
Item 10: Is for an on-premise consumption Beer & Wine License to be used in connection
with Jamaican Mi Happi located at 3213 Wrightsboro road.
The Clerk: Are there any objectors to any of those Alcohol Petitions. Mr. Mayor, members
of the Commission, our Consent Agenda consists of Items 1-37 with no objectors to our Alcohol
or Planning Petitions.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you, Madam Clerk. The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the
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4.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. I want to pull Item number 22, sir, and Item number 25.
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 8.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. Mayor, thank you. I’d like to see if we could consent agenda Item
number 41.
Mr. Hasan: I object, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: There is objection.
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Mr. Guilfoyle: No problem.
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6.
Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, I’d like to pull Item number 18.
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I’d like to pull Item number 7 and also Item
number 11.
Mr. Sias: Motion to approve.
Mr. Fennoy: Second.
Mr. Mayor: I want to pull Item number 14. All right, so we’re pulling 7, 11, 14, 18, 22
and 25. Okay again we have a motion and a proper second, voting.
CONSENT AGENDA
PLANNING
1. Z-18-38 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to
approve with the conditions stated below a petition by Baby Cakes Learning Academy, on
behalf of Child Care Network, Inc., requesting a Special Exception to re-establish a Day Care
Center per Section 26-2® of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for Augusta, Georgia
affecting property containing 1.21 acres and known as 2138 Lumpkin Road. Tax Map 110-
1-026-01-0 DISTRICT 6 1. Ensure that driveway aisles have a minimum width of 20 feet. 2.
Any proposed signage must comply with the standards of the P-1 (Professional) zone. 3.
Ensure proper site distance for trees planted in the street yard. 4. The business must acquire
a business license and comply with all applicable state licensing requirements.
2. Z-18-40 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to
approve with the conditions stated below a petition by Sabrina LaBord requesting a change
of zoning from Zone R-1A (One-family Residential) to Zone B-1 (Neighborhood Business)
affecting property containing 0.38 acres and known as 2010 Olive Road. Tax Map 072-3-163-
00-0 DISTRICT 2 1. A massage Therapy establishment shall be the only permissible B-1 use
on the property. 2. The applicant shall petition the Augusta Tree Commission to determine
appropriate amendments to the requirements of the Tree Ordinance. 3. Issuance of
development permits shall be contingent upon submission and approval of plans meeting all
applicable development regulations. 4. The applicant shall acquire and maintain a valid local
massage operator’s license from the Augusta Commission. 5. The applicant shall provide
parking and building access accommodations in accordance with 2010 ADA standards.
3. Z-18-41 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to
approve with the conditions stated below a petition by NWSE Homes & Properties LLC, on
behalf of Dana Koss, requesting a change of zoning from Zone R-1A (One-family
Residential) and Zone P-1 (Professional) to Zone R-3B (Multiple-family Residential)
affecting property containing 3.38 acres and known as 3379 Wedgewood Drive. Tax Map
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041-0-009-01-0 DISTRICT 5 1. The lot coverage of the proposed development shall not
exceed 40 percent. 2. The total height of the two rear apartment buildings shall not exceed 2
stores or 36 feet and limit the development to no more than 44 household units. 3. Install a
minimum 6-foot security gate that provides access to Wedgewood Drive, for emergency use
only. 4 Provide 20’ buffer as required by Augusta Tree Ordinance on rear of property
adjacent to residential. The buffer must consist of a 6’ high solid board fence, trees planted
40’ OC and shrubs that must attain a height of 8 feet in three years. If a berm is t be used,
plantings must be on top of the berm and the top width of the berm must be sufficient to
sustain the trees and shrubs. No trees or shrubs are to be planted on the slope of the berm.
5. Provide 10’ buffer as required by Augusta Tree Ordinance of side of property adjacent to
residential. The buffer must consist of a 6’ high solid board fence, trees planted 40’ OC and
shrubs that must attain a height of 8 feet in three years. If a berm is to be used, plantings
must be on top of the berm and the top width of the berm must be sufficient to sustain the
trees and shrubs. No trees or shrubs are to be planted on the slope of the berm. 6. Resolve
existing stormwater issues affecting the property due to runoffs from adjacent properties
and meet all related stormwater requirements of Augusta Engineering Department.
4. Z-18-41 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to
approve with the conditions stated below a petition by Oscar Jessie requesting a change of
zoning from Zone A (Agriculture), Zone R-MH (Manufactured Home Residential) and Zone
B-2 (General Business) to Zone R-1E (One-family Residential) affecting property containing
7.87 acres and known as part of 3695 Peach Orchard Road. Part of Tax Map 155-0-051-00-
0 DISTRICT 6. 1. Development plans meeting all applicable state and local codes and
ordinances must be submitted and approved prior to permit issuance. 2. The development
plan shall conform substantially to that reviewed and approved by Staff and the Planning
Commission during the zoning action. 3. The developer shall align the proposed entrance to
the development with the entry to the convenience store situated directly across Peach
Orchard Road. 4. The applicant shall establish a neighborhood association to manage all
private roads and common areas.
5. Z-18-43 – A request for concurrence with the Augusta Georgia Planning Commission to
approve with the conditions stated below a petition by Highway 56 Investors LLC requesting
a change of zoning from Zone A (Agriculture) to Zone LI (Light Industry) affecting property
containing 1.9 acres and known as 2524 Mike Padgett Highway. Tax Map 099-3-011-00-0
DISTRICT 2 1. The applicant shall maintain a 50 foot vegetative buffer along the north
property line. 2. Any derelict structures remaining on the property must be demolished and
any/all debris removed.
PUBLIC SERVICES
6. Motion to approve the Access Control System Replacement for the Augusta Regional
Airport by Johnson Controls; recommendation of bid award Bid Item 18-243. (Approved by
Public Services Committee September 11, 2018)
8. Motion to approve New Ownership: A.N. 18-30: request by Raiford Dunbar, Jr. for an
on-premise consumption Liquor, Beer & Wine License to be used in connection with Viral
Bar & Grill located at 127 Laney Walker Blvd, Ext. There will be Dance. District 1. Super
District 9. (Approved by Public Services Committee September 11, 2018)
9. Motion to approve New Ownership: A.N. 18-31: A request by Jongyuk An for a retail
package Beer & Wine License to be used in connection with Quickstop Food Mart located at
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2852 Deans Bridge Road. District 2. Super District 9. (Approved by Public Services
Committee September 11, 2018)
10. Motion to approve New Location: A.N. 18-32: request by Morris Porter for an on-
premise consumption Beer & Wine License to be used in connection with Jamaican Mi Happi
located at 3213 Wrightsboro Road. District 3. Super District 10. (Approved by Public
Services Committee September 11, 2018)
12. Motion to approve Hephzibah Cemetery Wall Restoration Project #18-232 Midwest
Maintenance. (Approved by Public Services Committee September 11, 2018)
13. Motion to approve Aviation Commissions acceptance of the recommendation of the
contract award for the Airport Rehabilitation of Air Carrier and General Aviation Apron –
Phase II Project with McCarthy Improvement Company in the amount of $12,942,155.50 for
Bid Item 18-211. (Approved by Public Services Committee September 11, 2108)
15. Motion to approve the Transit Asset Management Plan (TAM) prepared by the Georgia
Department of Transportation (GDOT) for Augusta Public Transit and 91 other
participants in the group plan. (Approved by Public Services Committee September 11,
2018)
16. Motion to approve grant agreement which will obligate $800,000.00 in federal grant
funds for minimum revenue guarantees for certain new or expanded air service. (Approved
by Public Services Committee September 11, 2018)
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
17. Motion to authorize the submission of the 2018 Consolidated Application, Exhibit 2
Applications (both New and Renewal) and all supporting documentation for the Continuum
of Care Application to The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
(Approved by Administrative Services Committee September 11, 2018)
19. Motion to approve publication of the proposed budget allocations for the required 30-
Day Public Comment Period and subsequent submission by Augusta Housing and
Community Development of the FY2019 Annual Action Plan for the following programs
funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): Community
Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, Home Investment Partnerships (HOME)
Program, Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program, and the Housing Opportunities for
Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) Program. (Approved by Administrative Services Committee
September 11, 2018)
20. Motion to approve tasking the Administrator and the Human Resources Department to
meet with Juvenile Court and other similarly situated departments to determine if the money
they currently have in their budgets can be used to make appropriate salary adjustments for
their employees who were no included in the recent compensation study. (Requested by
Commissioner Marion Williams)
PUBLIC SAFETY
21. Motion to approve the Recipient-Subrecipient Agreement, and the
Application/Agreement for reimbursement of the expenditures of Hurricane Irma and
authorize the Mayor to execute all necessary documents. (Approved by Public Safety
committee September 11, 2018)
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23. Motion to approve a three (3) year continuation for AT&T service contracts to provide
upgraded flexibility, increased speed and reduce operating costs. (Approved by Public Safety
Committee September 11, 2018)
24. Motion to approve SAMHSA grant award for the Richmond County Accountability
Court Programs. (Approved by Public Safety Committee September 11, 2018)
FINANCE
26. Motion to approve under TEFRA approval of AU Health Services 2018 Series Bonds in
a sum not to exceed $230,000,000. (Approved by Finance Committee September 11, 2018)
27. Motion to approve the Augusta Mini Theatre request for an extension until May 2021 to
complete the fund raising and construction of the 250-seat theater to be partially funded with
SPLOST VI. (Approved by Finance Committee September 11, 2018)
28. Motion to authorize the Mayor to sign a Grant Agreement with Department of Natural
Resources in the amount of $15,000 to prepare a historic structure report for the Trinity
CME Church. (Approved by Finance Committee September 11, 2018)
ENGINEERING SERVICES
29. Motion to authorize condemnation to acquire title of a portion of property for permanent
easement and temporary easement (Parcel 166-0-004-00-0) 2427 Boykin road. (Approved by
Engineering Services Committee September 11, 2018)
30. Motion to approve supplemental (SA2) funding of current Sediment Dredging and
Disposal Construction Services Two-Phase /Contract (Phase I (Hiers Pond) and Phase 2
(Lake Aumond) in the amount of $343,000 for removal and capping of additional sediments.
Requested by AED. RFP 17-301 (Approved by Engineering Services Committee September
11, 2018)
31. Motion to approve the deed of dedications, maintenance agreements, and road
resolutions submitted by the Engineering Department and the Augusta Utilities Department
for Haynes Station Phase VIII. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee September
11, 2018)
32. Motion to approve the deed of dedications, maintenance agreements, and road
resolutions submitted by the Engineering Department and the Augusta Utilities Department
for Haynes Station Phase VII. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee September 11,
2018)
33. Motion to approve the Deed of Dedication and Maintenance Agreement, for Highborne
Townhomes, Phase II. (Approved by Engineering Services Committee September 11, 2018)
PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS
34. Motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of the Augusta Commission held
September 2, 2018 and Special Called Meeting held September 11, 2018)
APPOINTMENTS
35. Motion to approve the appointment of Ms. Dorothy Williams to the Animal Services
Board due to the resignation of Ms. Janmarie Hall. (Requested by Mayor Pro Tem Mary
Davis)
36. Motion to approve the appointment of Mr. John G. McBrayer to the Augusta Historic
Preservation Commission representing District 1. (Requested by Commissioner Bill Fennoy)
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37. Motion to approve the appointment of Ms. Mary G. Jones to replace Mr. Joseph
Wideman on the Augusta Animal Control Citizens Advisory Board representing District 5.
Motion Passes 10-0. \[Items 1-6, 8-10, 12-13, 15-17, 19-21, 23, 24, 26-37\]
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4.
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
39. Motion to consider establishing a Greater Augusta Joint Development Authority between
Augusta Richmond County, Burke County, and Columbia County. (No recommendation
from Administrative Services Committee August 28, 2018 & Deferred from the September
4, 2018 Commission Meeting)
Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. Item 39, did we call that one, sir? Okay Item 39, Mr. Mayor, I
would like to reschedule this item and accept responsibility for rescheduling it. There’s some
additional dialogue that needs to be discussed on this particular agenda item and want to schedule
information briefing starting next week on this. So just want to reschedule this back for a time to
be determined and I will bring it back up.
Mr. M. Williams: There’s an objection, Mr. Mayor. I mean it’s on the agenda; we need to
vote it up or down I think today in my opinion.
Mr. Mayor: Yeah, yeah and I think that might have been the original posture to the
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Commissioner from the 9 and I think that’s where we were. If I might just ask you to yield on
this one to have some more discussion, I think it’ll put us all in a better place if you don’t mind.
Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, we had ample time to have all of the discussion. In fact we
had some discussion, I don’t want to get into all that now. I think since it’s on the agenda and you
need unanimous consent to do that. You don’t have it today to do that so.
Mr. Mayor: Well, I don’t need unanimous consent, you don’t need unanimous consent to
do that.
Mr. M. Williams: It doesn’t belong to this body now, Mr. Parliamentarian?
Mr. Mayor: It’s on the agenda but it wouldn’t require anything on this agenda at this time
would require six votes if we wanted to do that but I think in the spirit of a gentleman’s agreement
around how we can get to a better place without, you know, having a very spirited debate on the
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floor. I think what the Commissioner from the 4 is asking for is a good place for us to be at, I
really do.
Mr. M. Williams: And I really appreciate what you’re saying, Mr. Mayor, but I mean it
may not take unanimous but it’s got to have six votes, it’s on the agenda it belongs to this body
now is what I was saying. My Parliamentarian is here and our Clerk. Six votes can say whatever
you want to do. If six votes throw it out or six votes vote it in, but I mean it shouldn’t make this
much difficulty than it already is, Mr. Mayor.
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Mr. Mayor: Well, I couldn’t agree I think we’ll vote on it I think the motion, we’ve got a
motion move it to committee.
Mr. D. Williams: Second.
The Clerk: No, for a time to be determined.
Mr. Mayor: Yes, all right voting.
Mr. Frantom and Mr. M. Williams vote No.
Motion Passes 8-2.
Mr. M. Williams: So, Mr. Mayor, on the follow up that time to be determined can be
when? I mean if we’re going to be a time to be determined shouldn’t there be a date set with that
or is that just from now on?
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Mr. Mayor: Well, I think again just as the Commissioner from the 4 has articulated and
this body has now voted on after those discussions happen then it’ll be brought back at a time to
be determined. I mean obviously it’s clear we don’t have a date at this point but it will come back.
I think that’s what we’re hearing; it will come back. All right, we’re going to go from top to
bottom, Madam Clerk.
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SERVICES
7. Motion to approve an Ordinance adopting by reference the International Property
Maintenance Code 2012 Edition and Georgia Amendments, with the exclusion of (IPMC)
Chapter I Administration and Enforcement; and request approval to adopt International
Property Maintenance Code Administration and Enforcement, Sections 7-1-140.1 through
7-1-153.2. (Approved by Public Services Committee July 10, 2018 and Commission July 17,
2018-waive second reading)
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I asked for this to be pulled to get some
understanding of exactly what it is this code is going to be doing. I’ve got a letter from Dr. William
Johnson, a medical doctor who owns some property here on Ellis and several other streets. I get a
bunch of calls and complaints about the overgrown properties and how all of the years I’ve been
here we have not gotten very much better with putting something in place to really change or deter
people from doing the same thing. Something’s not working, something we’re either not doing
right or there’s a loophole they’re slipping through but something needs to be done. And I wanted
to get an understanding. I’m not opposed to this. I just want to know what’s going to happen
because in my three terms now, Mr. Mayor, going on a fourth one I can’t honestly say we’ve gotten
much better with property maintenance and making sure the people do what they’re supposed to
be doing and it’s only in certain areas. I mean let me be clear about that. It’s not all over the city;
13
it’s just in certain areas having this problem and people are really getting sick and tired of being
sick and tired. So my question is what’s going to be different, what’s going to make this be
effective, what’s going to make this actually sink in and do what we need to be done with it.
Mr. Mayor: Well, I hate to say it and I’m going to let each and every one to determine for
themselves but, we’ll hear from Code Enforcement Supervisor Terrence Wynder, Mr. Wynder?
Mr. Wynder: Good afternoon, Commissioner Williams. This is on the update to the code.
Code Enforcement we used to enforce the 2003 International Property Maintenance Code. All the
other counties in Georgia are enforcing the 2012 so we are just getting current with the code. It
gives us more tools to use pretty much in our toolbox.
Mr. M. Williams: I get that, Terrence. Now explain to me what those tools are going to
do because I understand tools is something to work with and we have some already I’m sure. I
understand this is the second reading and we’re trying to clear those things up but my question is
how is these new tools going to help us to get to the point we need to get. I had a call the 1500
Block of Hauser Street and I rode down and I was embarrassed even to pull up in front of the house
where the property’s overgrown, where the windows is tore out and the people are living next door
have to suffer with that. Now everybody don’t do that but this just made me understand that we
need to have not necessarily just the tools but tools in the hand. If we need more staff, if that’s
what we need, if we need accountability, if that’s what we need, something’s got to happen to
change the process from what it has been in the last 15 years, Terrence, I really don’t see the
difference. So there’s been some and I don’t want to sound like you know we hadn’t done anything
but there’s just too many and other cities have found a way to do it. If you’re talking about the
2012 Code is going, the second reading is going to get us to the point we’re going to put some
teeth into this and I guess that’s what I’m all I’m saying where are the teeth going to come from?
Where’s the accountability going to come from when folks can do anything they want to on certain
sides of town, not all over town, but on certain areas they’re allowed to do almost anything they
want to.
Mr. Wynder: Well, certain, the certain issues that you’re concerned about are already
covered in our code.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay, thank you, sir. I needed that. That helps me out, the concerns,
but they’re still there. So then this 2012 ain’t going to do it, the new tools ain’t going to do it is
what I’m hearing because the things I’ve been addressing is there and they’re still like that. I don’t
want to get specific, Mr. Mayor, but I mean ---
Mr. Mayor: Yeah well, so you’ve got two things. One let’s handle the matter in front of
us and that is what is being requested is one to approve updating the ordinance as you understand
it. That simply refers to the latest code and the latest code is the 2012 IPMC as opposed to the
2003 IPMC. What we do know in your three terms you’ve recognized this as well is that the ability
to enforce the laws of Augusta-Richmond County require the appropriate resources to do that.
That means having the appropriate code enforcement personnel to get out there in the streets and
then to apply the laws as we have adopted them and put them on the books. That’s a challenge
that in a couple of weeks we’re going to start engaging in during the budget process. We need to
14
make sure that we are fully staffed in that area. I will submit to you just in a little bit that I know
they could use a couple more people in order to be able to get after these problems that are systemic
in nature and quite frankly are longstanding in many of the underserved areas that you are referring
to but, you know, you can just call it what it is. At the end of the day we’ve got to go into some
of these communities and do something but you’ve got to have people get out there and go after
it. But for the matter that’s in front of us and you actually have a companion issue Item number
38 which you have on your books on the agenda today where you want to have a conversation
about holding people accountable for lack of enforcement of city ordinances, policies, etc. This
holds true to that but you’ve got to have the people to get after it so what I would ask is that we
move forward with the adoption of this and the waiving of the second reading because all we’re
doing in legislative speak this is just cleanup, we’re just cleaning up the code.
Mr. M. Williams: And, Mr. Mayor, I agree with you on that. I was looking around for
Donna Williams and I don’t see her ---
Mr. Mayor: She’s back there.
Mr. M. Williams: --- okay, Donna, if she’s behind the young man there I didn’t, but I’m
not going to ask Donna how many budgets that I’ve been in myself in the 16 years and all of the
other ones. And I understand about the resources and personnel but I’ve got people that I serve in
my district and I’ve got four of those districts that’s really underserved and if we had not put in
those 16 years of budgeting, what makes me think we’re going to do it now in the next budget that
we’re about to come up with. So my point is to hopefully bring some awareness to this body to
know that there’s some people that’s been underserved. There’s some people who are forced to
live with some stuff and there’s some people who really don’t care. But the majority of the people
that really care they’ve been huddled in the wilderness. Their voices are falling on deaf ears they
think. So I agree with you. I understand about the upgrade with this new code. I understand about
the personnel and the tools but this body needs to understand something. We don’t let it happen
all over the city; why do we let it happen in certain parts of the city? So I mean and that’s why I
brought it up, Mr. Mayor. I realize it’s a cleanup. I understand the legislative point because the
man knows of what he speaks, Ms. Bonner, I guarantee you. I just I saw ---
The Clerk: (Inaudible).
Mr. M. Williams: --- I saw an opportunity to bring this issue up to let the people know that
people are suffering out there and that’s a major problem we’ve got and it looks like we’ll be trying
to address the major problem versus ---
Mr. Mayor: Yeah, I agree with you. I absolutely agree with you and here’s what I can tell
you I don’t know about the previous 16 years but I know about the four that I’ve been here with
you this body does things a little different than they’ve been done in the past and if we say this is
what we’re going to get done we’re going to get it done.
Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve and to waive the second reading.
Mr. D. Williams: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: We’ve got a motion and a second, voting. The Chair recognizes the
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Commissioner from the 4.
Mr. Sias: He said what I was going to say.
Mr. Mayor: All right very well, thank you.
Motion Passes 10-0.
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SERVICES
11. Motion to approve the award of Bid Item 18-150, Automated Basketball Goal Systems,
to Haldeman Homme, Inc. in the amount of $27,180. (Approved by Public Services
Committee September 11, 2018)
Mr. Mayor: I believe Mr. Parker’s going to come and speak to these. All right, the Chair
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recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir.
Mr. M. Williams: Glenn, I pulled this item and I support this in committee and I still
support it. I had a couple of questions for you though and I guess my first question would be did
we do an upgrade at Bernie Ward with new equipment already? I know we did an inspection out
there. We talked about the original swing set was there when Bernie Ward was built. Has all that
been changed? I guess what has been done there versus one of the basketball goals being installed
there?
Mr. Parker: Okay, I’ll have to go off the top of my head here, I didn’t bring a list with me.
I can tell you the new playground was finished late last week. It’s there, you can ride by and see it
now it’s just been put in. Some of the interior renovations have been done to Bernie Ward, some
of the cleanup, those kinds of things all the floors have been redone. This basketball goal is part
of their renovation and there were also continuing. We’re developing the specs and those kinds of
things for the SPLOST project that will go out that will do more of a renovation to Bernie Ward
and to the Fleming Athletic Complex. We lumped all those into one project.
Mr. M. Williams: If I can respond, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Absolutely.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, so Glenn, I’m glad we done something last week but I’m
really disappointed that no one came back and reported. We had a comparison with Warren Road
and Bernie Ward. We took a trip to both locations. We looked at those. We saw the detriment in
16
Bernie Ward compared to the newness of Warren Road. And it was in such a disarray even the
shrubbery and the vegetation and that’s when we discovered that the playground or the swing that
the children were playing on was the original swing was there when the building was built so that
tells me it hadn’t been done in a long, long, long time. But I would think that somebody would’ve
brought it back to this body whether it be the Commission or to Administrative Services
Committee to let us know that something had been done. I wouldn’t have had to pull this to even
bring that question out. But no one even brought it back to even share with this body well maybe
you did I mean but as Administrative Services Chairman I didn’t know anything about it I won’t
say nobody didn’t know, somebody may have known. But we had a comparison. We went out
and took a tour of the building. We took a bus and went to both of them we talked about the
detriment at Bernie Ward and what all it needed and I would think there would be lists checked
off of the things we have done but I guess we just figured those things out when we ride by and
then we see the new stuff there.
Mr. Parker: We can, I’ll be glad to bring you a list. We have been in the Administrator’s
update that goes out on Friday we’ve been giving you a list of things that have been done. We’ve
also been giving you the schedule of the floors and when they’re to be completed at each of the
Rec Centers.
Mr. M. Williams: Motion to approve, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Frantom: Second.
Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second, voting.
Ms. Davis out.
Motion Passes 10-0.
Mr. Mayor: Okay.
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SERVICES
14. Motion to approve the award of Bid Item 18-235, The Boathouse Community Center
Exterior Painting Project to EBS-4U, Inc. in the amount of $56,614.00. (Approved by Public
Services Committee September 11, 2018)
Mr. Mayor: All right, I have a question about this one. I support it but my question is this.
Why not renovate the entire place and make this a signature location for the City of Augusta as
opposed to just painting the exterior? When you think about many of the conversations that are
going on in our city about creating destinations for Augusta absent the city having team meetings
and campaign related meetings by people outside of the city at this location why not take an
opportunity to again in our overall Parks Masterplan decide we’re going to do something
significant here. And you may not be able to answer that but as I was going through this I thought
well gee whiz, why are we just painting it? Why are we not you know putting new carpet in or
tile or something you know to make it a destination, if you want to take a stab at it.
17
Mr. Parker: Off the cuff my initial answer would be when we looked at the SPLOST VIII
projects and we brought back to the Commission the Capital Improvement Project List, we looked
at that as a need of priority to fix things like electrical, plumbing, ADA, those kinds of things
within our recreation centers that are 20 years out of date. And that’s like, I’m like you, I don’t
disagree with your sentiment on making the Boathouse a much better facility than it is. This is
one step.
Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor.
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6.
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I couldn’t agree with you more about
trying to do something comprehensive because the way it sits on the riverfront there is a diamond
in the rough and we ought to consider that with some capital money or redefine some of the
previous SPLOST money or current SPLOST money. But also and, Mr. Mayor, I’m going to
digress if you don’t mind. When we talk about Bernie Ward I think Mr. Parker and I have had this
conversation so maybe when you say some of the interior things also is included in some of the
things you’re doing out there based on our last conversation I was concerned about some of the
bathrooms in the Bernie Ward Center there. So since that time has that been added to it because
you’re spending about if my memory serves me correctly by $1.4 million dollars out there?
Mr. Parker: We’re looking at how to add that. Something’s got to be cut if we’re to make
that happen, the restrooms that you’re asking about, yes, sir.
Mr. Hasan: Yeah, because I think that’s a priority there because you go in the baseboards
you know hot and cold water those kinds of things and I would you know just ask us to seriously
consider that if we’re improving on the grounds we ought to be putting money inside that facility
where people use those common areas like that. So I agree with you, Mr. Mayor, that’s probably
a conversation with the Administrator some of us need to have before we move further with
spending $1.4 million dollars if the restrooms are not in great shape out there. Thank you, Mr.
Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Well, I couldn’t agree with you more yeah so that was the question again I
support and so I’m going to take a motion with regards to that but if we can ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: So moved.
Mr. Fennoy: Second.
Mr. Mayor: --- Madam Administrator, we really need to pump the brakes on a couple of
these things and maybe look at how we can comprehensively make them better.
Ms. Jackson: We can do anything if we have enough money.
18
Mr. Mayor: Yeah well, you know we’ve got a couple of folks who have been sitting at our
table saying hey call on us and they want the city to be better and I think they have deep pockets,
let’s get them to do something.
Mr. M. Williams: (inaudible).
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Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir, we’ve got a motion and a second Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: To respond to what Ms. Jackson just said and I agree you know it just
only takes money but you’ve got to spend some money in order to make some money. We’ve got
to invest in something in order to be able to get the quality stuff we want to get. Now we find
ways and things to do things we want to do, the necessary things. It looks like we don’t have that
so I agree it only takes money but if we have to spend money in. When you’re talking about the
Boathouse and we talk about any of those facilities, I was thinking how we have staff maintaining
buildings, babysitting buildings I call them, you know the building’s sitting there and you’ve got
staff in there doing stuff inside the building. We’ve got other places that have nobody but we pick
and choose.
Mr. Mayor: Yeah, all right, I’ve got a motion and a second, voting. Oh I’m sorry I didn’t
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everybody pause, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 4.
Mr. Sias: I just want to get a little clarity on exactly what that motion was. You were
discussing and somebody said so moved so just want to know exactly what the motion is.
Mr. Mayor: The underlined motion on 14 to approve the award of the bid item 18-235
community exterior painting project.
Mr. Sias: Okay, are we going with the original?
Mr. Mayor: Oh yeah.
Mr. Sias: Okay, just wanted to make sure.
Motion Passes 10-0.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
18. Motion to approve bid-award the contract for renovation and conversion of 1815 Marvin
Griffin Road into additional space for Records Archives and office space for Mosquito
Control to R.W. Allen and Associates in the amount of $1,142,700.00. Bid Item 18-198.
(Approved by Administrative Services Committee September 11, 2018)
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Mr. Mayor: The Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 6.
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Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Actually I was kind of surprised when I looked at Item
number 18 being on the consent agenda. I actually thought it was going to be along with my Item
number 41. When I get through I think we can both go ahead and approve 41 too to my colleague’s
position if the body sees fit. My real concern was and I think Ms. Irving did send me some
information. My concern around this issue was that one of them was a 15% local small business
participation request and it ended up being about 1.7, a 13.3% falloff. The other one was a request
for about 10% and ended up being 2.7%. And my question was just really asking Ms. Irving
exactly what model was she using to be successful at the end and she sent me some information
so I’m pretty much satisfied with that, Ms. Irving, I’m pretty much satisfied with it but I do have
a question so you can’t come it won’t be generic to what I just, and I apologize, Mr. Mayor. But
the thing that does concern me is that I would’ve appreciated it if yourself and the Administrator
or someone would’ve let it be known, and I could be wrong on this I’m going to apologize in
advance because I do get things wrong more often than not. And that was Item number 18 was an
item that was a protest bid was protested right, by R.W. Allen and you all was able to work this
out yourself, the Administrator, Procurement.
Ms. Irving: Yes, sir.
Mr. Hasan: Okay if you all would’ve said that last week we could’ve you know I wouldn’t
have been pushing so hard and say well Commissioner this was protested. We found a way to get
with the vendor and we worked that out and as a result of this here’s where we are with the 1.7 out
of 2.7 whichever it is and I didn’t know that until I looked at the documentation that was there.
But I do have a question around that. About a year and a half ago when we was having a meeting
I think the Mayor was the facilitator of this meeting there was a protest process that was a concern.
I know Procurement has a natural protest process and it was spoken about your office or your
department or your given having a protest process. In this instance the protest was to your request,
it was not to Procurement directly. So if we were to follow through with the process of the protest
where what process we would’ve used, do we have a process in place now?
Ms. Irving: The process that R.W. Allen utilized regarding contract number 18-198 was
the bidder was protesting. The occasion you’re speaking of was actually a matter that was conflict
of perspective between the Compliance Department and the Procurement Department so that was
an internal conflict in perspective not the bidder versus the agency.
Mr. Hasan: Okay, you’re talking about what I’m talking about a year and a half ago? Okay
but I still think we walked away knowing that if someone protested the natural Procurement which
would be Ms. Sams department there’s a natural process we have an outline that will fall in place
and probably be under Administrative Services and we move forward it comes before us. But we
also talked about a process that would be used in the event that the local small business would be
independent of that and so we’ll say for yourself I think and the Law Department to get together
and create a process in the event that your office is protested so that’s what I’m asking about. Do
we have that in place today?
Ms. Irving: Correct. General Counsel and the Compliance Department met and we
proposed a strategy to have methods, however we have found and meeting with the Procurement
Department to come to a triangle agreement.
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Mr. Hasan: Okay, so what do we need to do as a body to make sure you all have this
triangle agreement because that is important that this done in the event that you know you may be
fighting for the local small business which is on behalf of the government and you need to have a
process or a tool in your toolbox that you can bring before this Commission. So what do we need
to do to make sure that the three of you all get the three from the Procurement Department, the
Attorney, and yourself get together so we can get that done?
Mr. Irving: Just continue conversation (unintelligible) a matter of us continuing the
conversation.
Mr. Hasan: So ---
Ms. Irving: I believe there’s been a conflict in our schedules up to this point and any type
of protest that came after that particular meeting up to this meeting we were able to utilize the
current policy in place whereas the Director of Procurement along with the Administrator we will
be able to meet to try to resolve the matter before it elevated to come to Commission.
Mr. Hasan: --- so is it possible to say we can have that policy in place or something before
us within 90 days?
Mr. Irving: Absolutely, sir, I think that’s reasonable.
Mr. Hasan: Okay my next, I have one more question, Mr. Mayor, and I’ll be through. The
next question in terms of the DBE, Ms. Irving, you know that’s a concern of the government this
is something that’s been in place 2003/2004. And to your credit this morning I had a couple of
people speaking to me about the quality of work that you’re doing in terms of local small business
participation that we’re excited about it. But at the same time need to know what can the body do
in terms of helping you have all the tools that you need so that you can get more participation with
local small businesses and the DBE off the ground in terms of whether it’s a Disparity Study or
what have you. Is there anything we need to do or all of this on you at this particular time?
Ms. Irving: At this time thank you very much for that question. I would like to be able to
return to this audience and to the Commission to give you a full comprehensive review of items
that would assist the small business program and our small businesses that are vying for our
contracting opportunities. That’s either prime contractors and/or as subcontractors.
Ms. Hasan: Thank you, ma’am. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: Thank you the Chair recognizes ---
Mr. Hasan: Mr. Mayor, so I could, 41 can go as well too if the body sees fit.
Mr. Mayor: --- okay we’ll deal with 18 first.
Mr. Hasan: Okay.
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Mr. Mayor: All right, the Chair ---
Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve.
Mr. Mayor: --- okay ---
Ms. Davis: Second.
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Mr. Mayor: --- all right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner from the 9.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ms. Irving, while you’re there this is something
else has been lingering in this city for a long time. We did a Disparity Study that came back and
said Augusta was discriminating against women and minorities. That finding came back quite a
few years ago now and I think your position, Ms. Irving, derived from maybe not directly from
that because there was a part in our Charter to have that. But getting someone in, I’m very
disappointed when there’s 15% and you and me coming up with a 1.7 I don’t think that’s
acceptable, to me. Now I don’t know what we can do to change that but as long as it’s been a
problem for us and we’re still now almost 2020 and we still accepting 1.7 when we’re supposed
to have 15 which 15 was small, that’s my opinion. But when you agree to 15 and then we end up
accepting 1.7 it tells me we’ve got a lot of work to do. For all of these years and you know we
talked about a new Disparity Study and we frowned when it came to that if that’s what it needs we
need to do whatever is necessary. But we and I was in not this Chamber but the old Chamber
when the Disparity Study came back, Mr. Mayor, and we was told point blank that Augusta was
discriminating against women and minorities and we still hasn’t put anything in place. We’re still
throwing stuff in there and catching whatever falls in our pocket if it falls in our pocket. So I’ve
got some issues. I don’t know what can be done; I’m glad to know that Procurement and the Legal
Department ya’ll are talking. But my problem, how do other cities do it in Georgia? Don’t go to
South Carolina. How do other cities do it in Georgia they’re doing it but we hadn’t figured that out
yet. There’s no sense in spinning the wheels, Mr. Mayor, when we can get the wheel from
somebody else and roll in our yard, the same wheel it’ll roll.
Mr. Mayor: Yeah ---
Mr. M. Williams: We’ve got some here but we’ve got some flat land too but something’s
wrong. Something is not working, something we are not doing and we need to address that and
get serious about addressing that.
Mr. Mayor: --- you’re absolutely right. All right, the Chair recognizes the Commissioner
thth
from the 9 the 8.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You know I’m hearing my colleagues speak about
Procurement the LSBOP Program that we have. About, Mr. Mayor, a year or so ago when Ms.
Irving came on board we were going to revisit it and revamp the complete procedure process that
th
we have. It has caused some issues along the way. But to answer my colleague from the 9 is
th
how come we ain’t got more participation and that’s including my colleague from the 6. You
22
know the former person that we had in place had something like 32 participants, vendors and I
think over half of them was janitorial. You know this is part of the problem where my colleague
was speaking about the agenda item about not having the participation well I’ve seen it in the past
where like the local moving companies or furniture setup. You just can’t, you know the people
already have their employees it’s kind of hard when you already have the employees and have
your strength set up to install a product and then you have to use somebody that’s not even
compatible or you’ve got one person that’s using two bidders to use it to his advantage. But my
challenge, Ms. Irving, you had a young lady call you to try to get into this LSBOP Program her
name was Lauren and I received a text from them may I read what the text showed, Mr. Mayor --
-
Mr. Mayor: Well –
Mr. Guilfoyle: --- because there’s a lot of concerns that comes to our program that we’re
turning our backs on the citizens trying to get in, there’s a problem there that needs to be addressed.
And when our Ms. Irving tells them she will not call back, do not bother calling her that it’s a scam
or whatever that’s not the way to treat our citizens whether it’s a woman ---
Mr. Mayor: --- okay suspend ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: --- minority whatever.
Mr. Mayor: --- suspend, suspend. Okay all right, so here’s what we’re going to do. I think
I’ve got a motion and a second for Item number 18. We’re going to vote on this. What we’re not
going to do is having an indictment on Ms. Irving. That’s what we’re not going to do. Okay we’re
going to vote on the underlined matter and the matter is simply to approve a bid award and that’s
what we’re going to vote on. What we’re not going to do is indict Ms. Irving for something we
don’t have a common set of facts on, voting.
Mr. M. Williams votes No.
Motion Passes 9-1.
Mr. Mayor: All right, Madam Clerk, can we take Item 41?
The Clerk:
ENGINEERING SERVICES
41. Motion to approve award of contract to Beams Contracting, Inc. in the amount of
4839,634.00 to construct the Fort Gordon Block 10 Irrigation Replacement and
Beautification Project, Bid Item #18-245, Task Order Program RFQ #16-178. (No
recommendation from Engineering Services Committee September 11, 2018)
Mr. Hasan: Motion to approve.
Ms. Davis: Second.
23
Mr. Mayor: All right, I’ve got a ---
Mr. M. Williams: Question, Mr. Mayor.
Mr. Mayor: --- okay, I’ve got a motion and a proper second. All right, state your inquiry.
Mr. M. Williams: My inquiry is does Fort Gordon have any input on participation along
with the city’s being a federal agency? Do they require any input from their side of the fence or
do we just --
Mr. Mayor: All right, let’s talk about how we’re going to do this right here.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay.
Mr. Mayor: I’ve got a motion to approve and Ms. Irving, let’s yield to these gentlemen
over here and see what they’re going to tell us. All right ---
Mr. Wiedmeier: This is Horace Luke, Assistant Director of Fort Gordon and he’s the most
familiar with our contract requirements for that.
Mr. Luke: As part of our contract requirements, we do have to follow those out at Fort
Gordon. Fort Gordon goals is not as stringent as ours, they’re wider than ours. One thing was the
beautification project is we have one year to design, procure and construct and these are
reimbursable funds from Fort Gordon so December 31, 2018 we need to be completed with the
project.
Mr. Mayor: All right, so I’m going to interject and ask a question from the Commission
th,
from the 9 are we using federal funds to pay these or is this a pass through to the city?
Mr. Luke: Reimbursable funds.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, okay so the contracting requirements for Fort Gordon to be followed
are local procurement rules.
Mr. Luke: Our local procurement rules.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, there is a distinction, a big difference in terms of the flexibility that’s
available to you. All right, the Chair recognizes Ms. Irving.
Ms. Irving: I’d like to add on Fort Gordon they are an exception though because any
contractor that comes to the Fort must be able to pass background in order to be allowed access to
the Fort. Many of our LSBOP’s if they are in fact employing ex-felons they would not be able to
ramp up their labor in order to respond to that contract. So based off of this contract that could
potentially have been one of the reasons why they didn’t respond to the bidder Beams Construction
because knowing that their labor force would not have been able to pass the background
investigation. So I just want to add that although this procurement did fall under our local
24
procurement policies and we did evaluate it for a goal, the LSBOP Program, many other firms
have elected to extend reentering of a certain workforce. And if in fact they were communicated
that during the pre-bid meeting which I think that is communicated, it was communicated during
the pre-bid they may have automatically not disqualified themselves but elected not to respond.
Mr. M. Williams: Can I respond, Mr. Mayor?
Mr. Mayor: Sure.
Mr. M. Williams: That goes back to checking the box again I mean darn if you do and
darn if you don’t, Ms. Bonner. I mean I don’t understand it we find a way, not you Ms. Irving not
this body, but when you look at the situation I mean you can’t get ahead. I mean there’s I’m talking
about opportunities for people who are trying to come up, trying to change their situation I mean
they’re even cut of the front or the back they’re still cut off however you look at it so.
Mr. Mayor: Yeah all right, I agree. We’ve got a motion and a second, voting.
Mr. M. Williams votes No.
Motion Passes 9-1.
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SAFETY
22. Motion to approve the purchase of a LMRS, customer support contract with Augusta
Communications Inc., ongoing operating expenses, revenue collection, and support
personnel. RFP 18-120 (Approved by Public Safety Committee September 11, 2018
th
Mr. Mayor: All right, the Commissioner from the 4 pulled this so he’s going to get the
first crack at it. Let’s have our representatives who are going to speak to this matter step forward,
okay, whoever is going to be the spokesperson will be fine. All right, the Chair recognizes the
th
Commissioner from the 4.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, sir. You know this item, this radio system has been an item that’s
very critical to the public safety and the operation of Augusta our surrounding areas. And it’s been
for lack of a better term years in the making part of our SPLOST program and we need to have it
right. I support our staff on what’s been done but there are some questions and things that were
surrounding this bid and I think and hopefully those can be cleared up today so that we can move
forward because this is a critical piece of our public safety. So with that, Mr. Mayor, I’m going to
relinquish back to let’s get that information, Madam Pro Tem, get this information reference this
bid and move this thing along if there’s no issue that says we have to stop. And I don’t believe it
is but let’s see.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Do you want to hear from them on anything?
Mr. Sias: I want to hear from ---
25
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Ms. Allen.
Mr. Sias: --- Ms. Allen and Procurement.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Do you have any specific questions, Commissioner Sias?
Mr. Sias: Specifically there was some questions about whether somebody had, and I guess
it’ll be more for Procurement is just there was some considerations. I don’t think there’s anything
officially done but Ms. Sams, would you clear up any issues for us some of these lingering
questions out there concerning Procurement on this item? If not then that’s fine.
Ms. Sams: Thank you, Mr. Commissioner, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. Mr.
Commissioner, I truly believe that you’ll have to be more specific. There are, there is a process in
place and of course not just a vendor but any person has the right to make any type of statement.
So if you’re asking me about the statements are true ---
Mr. Sias: Hold that right there. Ms. Sams, did you get any official protests of this bid?
Ms. Sams: --- no, sir, I did not.
Mr. Sias: Okay, move to approve.
Mr. D. Williams: Second.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay Commissioner Hasan had a statement or a question.
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, ma’am. With that being said to Ms. Sams no official protest one
of the concerns around that is last week the Administrator and Andrew the Attorney they were
under the impression which was able to influence us to believe that there was a protest around this
bid. And Ms. Jackson was granted the stay and things of that nature so did you all believe there
was a protest? And Ms. Jackson if you don’t mind, Madam, because you was exercising your
authority to override the protest with a sense of urgency of the government to do business so did
you all believe that is was a protest in place, and based on what?
Ms. Jackson: I had been notified a couple of minutes maybe 30 to 45-minutes before Mr.
McKenzie announced that decision. What I understood was that someone had come forward
during the time we were sitting there during the meeting and said that they wanted to protest it.
And the advice I received from the General Counsel I asked him to expound on that was basically
that you know that would be the most for me to offer that response would be the most expeditious
way to deal with it at that time which is to say I did not have a chance at all because it came within
the course of the meeting to do a detailed review of the situation. I just knew it was in the best
interest of the government to move forward with the bid that we had given the time that our staff
had put into it.
Mr. Hasan: And I don’t disagree with that. My concern really because I went back you
know and looked over the whole tape and everything from the meeting last week and we went
26
through which I think was appropriate in terms of you all’s based on if there was a protest
(unintelligible) if there was not a protest and I’m trying to figure out how did we get to a point to
believe that there was a protest and there was none. Even if you were notified at the meeting if
the Procurement Department didn’t have it well in advance to let us know that there was a protest
we went through a lot of drama that was unnecessary at the end of the day and that did concern
me. So I’m fine with that. I’m fine with the answer but the answers I don’t see how we got to that
point about assuming there was a protest. My next question would be around to Ms. Sams here in
this instance based on the allegations that we hear I have a couple of questions because I know
there was no protest, I get that. But also with the allegations that are being said that in terms of
choosing someone to provide us this service, this radio service, that the other competitor was not
notified at all and had no idea if it had not this happened and to look at our agenda they had not
been informed. It went so far back as to say that we had made a decision when I say we you all
we’re all one in the same and made a decision as early as May which may very well be appropriate
around who was going to be the receiver of this particular bid. So my question is were they
properly notified through the normal process of knowing about who what vendor had been chosen
and do we have to do that at all.
Ms. Sams: Mr. Commissioner, this is an RFP and vendors will protest anything and have
the right to do so. However, the vendor did not receive notification and they did not receive
notification in accordance to the process and procedure that the City of Augusta has and they state
open record at. In order for us to for instance if we’re going to award a bid up under the RFP
process let’s say for all sake and purposes that we want to negotiate with the company that was
ranked the highest, well that is the first company that you start negotiating with. And if something
falls through us something gets discovered then you go to the next seat and in this case it would
have been the company that we are referencing at this point. If I had sent a notification to that
company, it would be one that says that we are entering into a negotiation with Company A and I
would have released them from the process. Well you don’t want to release them from the process
because until you decide and agree to approve a vendor in an RFP process that process is still open.
So I would have notified them after today if you are going to award it to the company that’s, we’re
recommending. I left it open so that we can go back to them in the event that you don’t award it
to the current company.
Mr. Hasan: So in other words that’s standard protocol in terms of the process which you
use here.
Ms. Sams: There are laws that says you should, we must notify the company but there are
no laws that says at what point. Your law says ---
Mr. Hasan: How have you been doing historically?
Ms. Sams: --- historically we’ve been doing it exactly the way we’re doing it currently.
Mr. Hasan: Okay all right, thank you, ma’am.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams, Dennis Williams.
27
Mr. D. Williams: At last week’s meeting coming out of the Legal session I received a
packet from a vendor regarding this item wishing to be placed upon the agenda ---
Ms. Sams: Yes, sir ---
Mr. D. Williams: --- from last Tuesday ---
Ms. Sams: --- yes, sir.
Mr. D. Williams: --- so I told them that they couldn’t be placed on the agenda. I received
the package and the information and I commenced to checking with everybody ---
Ms. Sams: Yes, sir.
Mr. D. Williams: --- about the ability to put the people on the agenda or not. I told the
vendor that they were not able to be placed upon the agenda and I told them in order to get on the
agenda for the next meeting they had to file with the Clerk by whatever day it was, Wednesday.
And therefore I let Legal see it and I informed them that they couldn’t say anything regarding the
agenda item at that time and then I turned the information I had over to your office after that. So
that’s how we was informed about the other agenda because they had just received that information
allegedly that afternoon so that’s where that came from.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Mayor Pro Tem?
Ms. Sams: Thank you, Mr. Commissioner and you handled that appropriately in that you
should not have been given anything on the Commission floor by any vendor in that process.
Mr. M. Williams: That’s right.
Ms. Sams: So therefore the way this whole body has handled this particular instance which
was not a protest thank you, gentlemen for following your rules and regulations. And I hope we
continue to do that and not make an exception in this case and award this bid to the vendor who
has been recommended by the Procurement office and other departments that or has evaluated this
process.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Call for the question.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you, Ms. Sams. Commissioner Guilfoyle, he doesn’t want to
comment. Commissioner Williams, are you good now so we can go ahead and vote on this ---
Mr. M. Williams: (Unintelligible).
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- okay.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Call for the question (inaudible).
28
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: We have a motion and a second please vote. Thank you, Ms. Sams
and staff.
Motion Passes 10-0.
Ms. Sams: We thank each of you, thank you very much.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Madam Clerk, is 25 next?
The Clerk: Yes, ma’am.
The Clerk:
PUBLIC SAFETY
25. Motion to accept update of RFP 19-350 Emergency (911) Ambulance Services and
approve Emergency Ambulance Service Fees. (Approved by Public Safety Committee
September 11, 2018)
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: I have Commissioner Sias and then Commissioner Guilfoyle.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, Madam Pro Tem. Okay, I’m going to move that we send this item
back to Public Safety to get some additional discussion on it. Some folks have some things they
want to bring forward so my motion is to send it back to Public Safety, Public Safety
Committee.
Mr. D. Williams: I’ll second that.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Commissioner Guilfoyle and
then Commissioner Hasan.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Can I speak with Chief James, Madam?
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Yes, Chief James.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Mr. James, about a month ago I had asked the simple question have you
corresponded with any of the vendors and you said you could not lie, yes, you said that on the
floor. So I know that South Star that ya’ll have on ya’ll pay to train our firemen on the EMS side
but you did say that you did speak with some, who is the ambulance providers that you did speak
to about this regarding this RFP or this plan?
Chief James: We have not spoken to anyone about the RFP and as far as what is the best
way to do, when we did our due diligence we spoke with several governments, several departments
and to ensure what were the best options for us to do as a plan. And several companies in that
have reached out and tried to reach out to us as a government specifically ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: Chief James ---
29
Chief James: --- specifically ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: --- Chief James ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Hold on, Commissioner, let him finish real quick his statement.
Chief James: --- specifically the companies that reached out to the team as a whole. Gold
Cross reached out and wanted to meet they met with the Administrator and the Legal Department
and presented to them. They asked me to come. I did not attend that meeting. They came and
met. We have talked to as far as how they operate. All of this was months before an RFP was
ever put together or decided on. This is the way we were going to put it out. We talked with
Priority Care, we’ve talked with South Star, we’ve talked with AMR, Central Ambulance Service,
we talked to Grady, we talked to Burke County, we talked to McDuffie County, we talked to
Columbus Muskogee, we’ve even talked with McKenzie, Texas. And that was us doing our due
diligence to see what is out there, how do we put a system together and what we thought was best
for us before we even started the process. And none of it was based on what the RFP was going
to be, none of them have seen what the, other than after the RFP went out and I can assure you
after the RFP was constructed and put out no one has talked to anyone.
Mr. Guilfoyle: All right, can I continue?
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Guilfoyle.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Chief James, you know a lot of us read this media as well as you’ve got
your PIO that responds on the media which I don’t understand that. But so as far as Grady during
the month of August they did not come to your office and discuss this plan?
Chief James: They did not come and discuss this plan per se as in the Council voted on
nd. rd
August the 2 On August the 3 they came to introduce their new person that’s going to be
rd
handling this region and that was on August the 3.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay, Chief James, some of my concerns is the two-week turnaround time
on this RFP is so condensed that normal vendors would actually have to take a longer time to
respond to it to give accurate especially accurate numbers. But we’ve got a two-week turnaround.
Is that, how is that justified?
Chief James: The two-week turnaround is developed so that as Commission voted to allow
to apply for the zone then when your application is submitted you want to put that plan together
and submit it to the EMS Council as they make their recommendations. So with the Council
thnd
starting to take applications on the 12 of October and ending it on the 22 of October we need it
to, as we submit our application we needed to have those plans set and who we were going to
partner with needed to be part of that plan we were going to present to the Region EMS Council
for them to make their recommendation.
30
Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay but I know last week it was discussed on the floor as far as billing
and paying who we’re going to charge, who we’re not going got charge, I know it’s going to be
determined upon some unknown variable in this whole picture but my concern is if we let’s say
most of us in here has a $5,000 dollar deductible on our insurance. Some don’t. But if you bill
the patient and their insurance company does not pay because you’ve got your $5,000 dollar
deductible that it requires the end user the patient to pay for it and they decide not to pay who’s
going to pay the ambulance at that point?
Chief James: The collection procedure and process will be approved by Commission.
Mr. Guilfoyle: No, I mean I’m talking about if we bill because we are getting into the
billing business apparently and we send a resident an invoice, let’s say for $1,100 dollars with no
extra miles, $1,100 dollars, they don’t pay but that ambulance provider picked them up, gave them
medical treatment, took them to the hospital and if they don’t pay, you send it to the collection but
what about the ambulance provider, they’re not going to work for free. How are we going to
justify that if we don’t get paid, the ambulance provider don’t get paid, is that correct?
Chief James: We we’re not billing for each specific ambulance provider we’re only billing
if our ambulance does the work so the partner one of our partners ambulances ride on the call then
that company bills themselves ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: Okay ---
Chief James: --- we don’t bill for it, we don’t bill for the company.
Mr. Guilfoyle: --- okay. Third, final accommodations. We’re going to put these
ambulances into our houses or fire stations. Years ago it became a problem and we had asked the
current ambulance provider to leave due to the fact that you’ve got a staff of six in a fire station,
you’re going to bring two more in but there’s only six beds. If you put them in office it doesn’t
follow the state guidelines. But here’s the challenges, you know, even though we don’t pay a
subsidy but we’re going to provide every other part of the house and every other part of the
maintenance but here’s the trickery part. When it becomes our employees that’s the firemen and
they have to need sleep to be on call at any given moment and they get interrupted by the
ambulance people and they’re out their washing their van with blood on the grounds that’s
contamination and their waste products as far as needles, IV’s etc. It cannot go into our trash can.
What provisions have you made to accommodate at the fire stations the influx of people?
Chief James: The list that we proposed in the RFP said a possible list. We do not know
specifically which company it is that we will be partner with until the RFP process is complete.
Some of the local companies have locations around town already. We just listed that as a possible
so that when we come in and do negotiations with whoever ends up being the chosen company on
that RFP process then we can make those offers. Some of the things that you mentioned are things
that the fire service even deals with now. We respond to first responder calls now. Some of the
blood and other things can get on the equipment and stuff that they use now ---
Mr. Guilfoyle: Right.
31
Chief James: --- and so we pay now, we pay now for biohazard waste to be removed from
stations now. And so those companies will be responsible for their own biohazard waste pickup
for the items that they use.
Mr. Guilfoyle: But as far as provisions for the bed and the lockers the privacy of our
employees because 24 on, 48 off I believe it is.
Chief James: Right and so as we list it possible some, on some occasions some of the
companies will stage up at a station so they may not staying there the night. Often you can go
around now and as the ambulance companies uses their system status management you may see
an ambulance that’s sitting in Daniel Field I mean Daniel Village parking lot or you will, what
we’re saying is we’re not, we will make it available for you to stage up at different fire stations.
In some cases where we have fire stations that were built when we had when every firefighter on
each shift had their own bed, every bed in the bedroom is not filled every night. And in some
cases where provisions can be made then those provisions they could be made. Where you have
three people in the station and you have room for nine beds because that’s how it was originally
built and set up for. And so we can make provisions to allow those folks to if they needed to lay
down and stay the night then they could stay there if they were working a 24-hour shift. Different
than, in some cases in the EMS world sometimes they worked 24-hour shifts, sometimes they only
work 12-hour shifts. In all cases they don’t stay for the 24-hours because FMLA they don’t fall
under the same FMLA rules as the firefighters do. It’s two completely different systems.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Right and but the whole reason a couple of years ago when we asked the
ambulance people to remove out of our, to leave to vacate our properties ---
Chief James: Excuse me, sir, but we did not ask them the service to leave out of our
stations.
Mr. Guilfoyle: --- they just left on their own?
Chief James: They just, they were the firefighters were kind of tracking what they were
doing. They let us, when they left Station 18 and they left Station 16 we were just told hey, they’re
moving out. There was no, we wrote a letter saying that you don’t need to be there, we picked up
the phone and said we don’t want you there, there was none of those incidents like that at all.
Mr. Guilfoyle: They just left.
Chief James: They decided that they did not want to be there anymore. They went and
rented the Warden’s house out and they moved to Warden’s house. It was not because we said
you had to leave our location.
Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Chief James, thank you for the answers.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: We have a few more Commissioner Hasan and then Commissioner
Marion Williams.
32
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, ma’am ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- then Fennoy then Frantom.
Mr. Hasan: --- thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Chief James, last week if I’m not
mistaken you made mention in terms of the fee schedule ---
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Hasan: --- that the fee schedule would be sufficient to not only to us but to other
potential vendors that you bring on board. What if the zone is not awarded to us? How relevant
is the fee structure at that point?
Chief James: The relevance at that point then we still have a fee structure that our particular
ambulance when they run on calls backing up whoever the zone provider is at that time. If we’re
not given it, then it gives us it gives us a means to bill.
Mr. Hasan: So another words it has no bearing on them. It just has a bearing on what we,
the service we provide.
Chief James: Correct, in other words if we’re not given the zone you’re correct, then we
won’t have, we won’t need to have the contractual deals with this other, with these other services
because we won’t have that responsibility. We’ll only be paying for our areas.
Mr. Hasan: So in hypothetical if we’re not awarded the zone, how much service can we
actually provide? When asking that I know of many instances and we see accidents out there we
see our fire truck arrives there sometimes many times before the ambulance provider. So is that
what we are limited to in the event we don’t get the zone?
Chief James: And then when they call us and so we have collected the data even since we
th
purchased our new ambulances and put them out on August the 16 since from that time to today
we have ridden, we have responded 337 times but we have transported 36 times so those 36
opportunities that we could’ve billed for.
Mr. Hasan: And how far did you, you took them all the way to the hospital?
Chief James: Yes, when we transported we took them all the way to the hospital and so
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and that’s just in a month. That’s just from August the 16 to this morning when they pulled those
numbers for me they actually transported meaning from wherever they are in the community where
they picked the patient up all the way to the hospital.
Mr. Hasan: So did you just for records sake, did your staff do any type of an assessment
from a financial respect just to say even though you officially couldn’t bill them just to know what
percentage of that 36 had insurance versus did not have insurance?
33
Chief James: No, sir. They did not do that assessment. The only assessment that we
would’ve been able to do is say that based on the billing rate that we would could be passed that
we would’ve been able to charge that 36 times that we transported and that’s without us having
the zone at all to help offset some of those expenses.
Mr. Hasan: Okay, well let me say this, Chief, in closing, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. Chief
James, you know I’ve been very supportive of this from day one. As a matter of fact before I
became a Commissioner because I was up at the Board of Health when these conversations was
going on when ya’ll was fighting back to maintain as well as to get the zone back. But just last
week it really disturbed me greatly that we had on the motion we had the motion which we’re
about to vote on today about to approve the fees. And then knowing that that’s the agenda,
knowing that the Administrator, Ms. Jackson, you chimed in to let us know there was a motion
already here that we could adopt in terms of their fee structure that the fee structure was not in the
book. I mean to know exactly that, I mean and I think as it comes through the Administrator’s
office be approved by the Administrator and that is the agenda item and there was no fee structure.
I mean you had to come up with it out of your hip pocket. What disturbed me about it, beyond it,
because mistakes do happen. When you come into the Chamber like you are today there’s your
PIO with you, there’s the Attorney of record with you and there’s yourself. Historically when
people come in and if they don’t we don’t have already that information, they pass it out to us on
the dais so with it not being in the book you all still did not take the time to pass us out anything
about the fee structure. And so that’s disheartening to know that we support you but there’s no
fee structure in the book and nor did you all pass one out. You eventually put it there when you
was asked to place those numbers up under the, but we had nothing to vote on and we was about
to vote with no numbers and that’s disheartening. I’m through, Madam Mayor Pro Tem.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you, Commissioner Hasan. Commissioner Marion Williams
and then Fennoy.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Several things I’m going to, first of all I
want to go back to when my colleague talked about being asked to leave, being told to leave out
of the fire station. There’s a lot of ways of saying I don’t want to without it coming out of your
mouth saying I don’t want you now. That’s done happened many, many times. Now I don’t know
what the situation was at the fire station with the EMT’s and the firemen but the attitude can speak
louder than any words. I mean there’s a lot of folks do that same stuff around here with their
attitudes and I don’t like it either and they know I don’t want them around here, but there’s nothing
I can do about it just let the attitude do what it do. But I want to go back to we’re talking about
human life now. We’re talking about an ambulance service, we’re talking about one of the most
important things that you could provide somebody when they’re injured or when they’re in a time
of need whether it be transporting to dialysis or anything medical. We act like we’re just talking
about moving some birds from one side of the yard to the another Ms. Bonner we talking about
moving some birds from one side of the yard to another, Ms. Bonner. We’re talking about the
billing process. My question to the Chief is though since you didn’t come with the numbers last
week and you walk in with your attorney and you walk in with your PR person, I think you’re the
only department head doing that. That bothers me too now. I’m going to get that out of the way,
Donna. I’ve been thinking about it. I might as well say it. I can’t, that really bothers me for to
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walk in here like we’re going to grab you and you’ve got your armed guards to keep us from
grabbing you. Grady ain’t going to move down there ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: (Unintelligible).
Mr. M. Williams: --- okay you’re right, Mayor Pro Tem, let me go back. But if you’re
going if we hire if we have a billing process and the fire department picks up and says don’t bill
because they’re not, they can’t afford it but if another entity picked up the same person another
time, are they going to bill?
Chief James: The fire department is not going to say not bill.
Mr. M. Williams: Okay wait now. You just told and maybe you need to explain it me.
Sorry, Mayor Pro Tem, we’re going to take some time with this one because I’m confused like I
always am. If we’re going to not bill people because they can’t afford it through the agency or
anybody else, somebody’s got to tell these people they’re not able or capable of billing. But
another unit picks them up and got a different billing process because we voted to give you a billing
process but you go to another process through another agency and they decide to bill. Pick that
same person up from the same location from the same, taking them to the same hospital but they
decide to bill. Are they going to bill?
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Yes.
Chief James: Yes, sir and we’re going to bill. When we go when the ambulance folks go
on a call, they don’t discuss with the patient the bill.
Mr. M. Williams: I didn’t say that, Chief. Don’t confuse the issue. I did not say you’re
going to talk with any ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Let him finish because (inaudible).
Mr. M. Williams: --- no, he can’t do that, Mary, because I asked the question whether
we’re going to bill ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: We are ---
Mr. M. Williams: --- not through ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- they are.
Mr. M. Williams: --- not talk to the patient about billing. That is not the time for that. I
got that much ambulance sense.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Let him finish because we want to know too the whole billing, so
the company will bill.
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Chief James: For the Augusta Fire Department or any other service when the service is
provided, you fill out your Patient Care Report. That information from the Patient Care Report
goes to your billing company and then your billing company bills so each service they all will bill.
All of them will get billed.
Mr. M. Williams: I thought Mayor Pro Tem because you can get more out of him than I
can so tell me how can we get the people who can’t afford to pay, that’s what I heard, that wasn’t
going to be able to pay we’re not going to bill them.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: So explain that again so the people that are not able to pay.
Chief James: So the process in which they will do it in other counties as well is the billing
company will bill but what we were discussing is we will not send them to collections. If we don’t
have people, so the billing company bills you, you don’t pay, they may bill you three times. If you
don’t pay, other companies at that point will send you to collections.
Mr. M. Williams: Mayor Pro Tem ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Our department would not ---
Chief James: Correct ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- it’s just like in a hospital.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- yes, ma’am.
Mr. M. Williams: --- Mayor Pro Tem, if the other company who will bill me and the Fire
Department picked me up and they billed me but I didn’t pay. The other company who’s a different
company now, are you telling me that they’re not going to bill me? You’re not going to send to
collections either, they’re going to do the same thing the fire department.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: They can’t tell you that because that’s up to their policy, correct?
Chief James: That’s what we will do in the negotiations. So through your RFP process
you will tell the vendors what type of system that you want to operate and you have some vendors
out there that they don’t do that anyway.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: So let’s say we get the zone, we have this Company X through the
RFP process and the negotiation process our policy is you cannot send these people that can’t pay
to collections?
Chief James: Yes.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: That makes sense?
Mr. M. Williams: No, ma’am, it don’t ---
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Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: I can’t explain it any ---
Mr. M. Williams: --- well, that don’t make no sense because when you’re talking about on
the backs of poor people the people you’re talking about the people who don’t most time don’t
have insurance. Most times don’t understand the billing process anyway. Most times they pay
their bills a nickel at a time so when you’ve got people that you’re going to be picking up, the
majority of people you’re going to pick up are going to be people in that situation. We’re putting
an extra burden on them. I mean ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams, can the Mayor have a follow up question
to that what we were talking about the billing just so we can get everything on the table we’re all
on the same page/
Mr. Mayor: Yeah so, Chief, I want you to back up for a moment and again there are a
series of questions that still have yet to be asked. The billing conversation is not what’s in front
of you but clearly there’s still not resolution on that. I want you to clarify whether this local
government can unilaterally direct a private provider that they will not send a collections agency
to recoup costs to someone that they transport and provide services, all right? You need to talk
about how that’s going to happen and how we can unilaterally do that because that’s the question
that’s being asked of you right now. How can we direct a private provider to do that?
Chief James: If Augusta’s chosen as the zone provider and then we will go and then
through the RFP process then you would, a company or companies would be selected and then
you would go into a contractual agreement with those companies to work with your, with our
system and that would be part of their contractual agreement.
Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, good answer. My question is who’s going to reimburse the
company because they can’t bill us now. They’re working for this government, who’s going to
reimburse them or is this government going to have to reimburse them? They’re going to be paid
somewhere. They ain’t riding right here just to give you a free ride.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Well ultimately collections are never 100% because everyone can’t
so they have those write offs, is that correct? I mean is that the best way to describe that, Chief?
Chief James: Yes, ma’am, so through our research and due diligence in talking to several
companies there are companies that say we don’t go through that process because when you go to
collections they even take a larger portion of the money. And even after it goes from collections
if that citizen does not have the money then the amount of recovery that they get is very small as
well so some other companies have said we don’t, we didn’t even think that that was worth it and
on their business model they write those off as losses and take them as losses on their taxes.
Mr. M. Williams: So, Mr. Mayor, $.25 cents is not as good as a dollar but it’s something
so they rather not have nothing at all. They’d rather just wipe it off the whole thing because of the
process it is. We’re buying city, we’re buying fire equipment whether it be an ambulance, fire
truck with city’s, with taxpayers’ dollars, picking up taxpayers who live in this city. Now we’re
37
fixing to start charging those who can pay, they’re still paying taxes but now because they’re
paying taxes and they’re still able to pay other they’re going to pay again. That don’t make good
sense.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Fennoy and then Commissioner Frantom and then
Sias.
Mr. Fennoy: Chief ---
Chief James: Yes, sir ---
Mr. Fennoy: --- how’re you doing? Chief, is the City of Augusta in the ambulance
business?
Chief James: --- yes.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay and why are we in the ambulance business, Chief? Is it to make money
or to provide services for the citizens of Richmond County?
Chief James: It’s to provide the service to the citizens to Richmond County to assure that
we can adequately provide them with the life-saving service that they need.
Mr. Fennoy: Chief, you had mentioned earlier that we had how many between August and
now we’ve had, responded to how many calls?
Chief James: But we responded to 300 plus calls and we’ve actually transported 36 patients
to the hospital.
Mr. Fennoy: Of those 300 calls when you all, was the fire department the first responders?
Chief James: Yes.
Mr. Fennoy: And of those 36 transports these were people that had to be transported for
additional medical care?
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Fennoy: Chief, people that are 65 or 66 older they get Medicare/Medicaid?
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. Fennoy: And does Medicare/Medicaid pay for ambulance services?
Chief James: Yes, sir.
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Mr. Fennoy: So and I’m not sure what percentage they pay but I do know that they pay.
And my point is is that if we transport someone that have private insurance or someone that have
Medicaid/Medicare, why not bill? That is a billable service that the city is providing. If another
provider gets there before you all do and transport, they don’t bill them so why not let Richmond
County Fire Department bill them?
Chief James: They do it in other municipalities as well.
Mr. Fennoy: Okay that’s about all I have, Chief. I just want to let the people that live in
and around Richmond County know that you all provide a valuable service to our community, that
I think your folks do a great job in making sure that people get the needed services that they
provide. And this is not any knock on any, on Gold Cross or anybody else but I have witnessed
three or four times where there was an accident or somebody fell out and the first person or the
first responder to get there was our fire department. So I think you all are doing a great job and
keep up the good work.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you, Commissioner Fennoy. Can I ask a question real quick
of the Chief then you want it back, okay. Can you clarify how is it determined who, what does an
individual have to do to show that they are not able to pay as far as to make that determination for
the company Gold Cross?
Chief James: I don’t think it’s going to be a situation where, I think that they’re going to
bill the rate that we instruct them to bill.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: All right.
Chief James: They will bill once. If they get no response, they’ll bill a second time. If
they bill, don’t get a response on the second time, they’ll bill a third time and if it’s if our directions
to that company is at that point we write that off as a loss and move forward then that’s what we
do.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Can anybody do that and just ignore those invoices?
Chief James: There are companies that do that, there are companies that do that.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Even like someone who’s able to pay and just ignores those three
billings, those three bills, how is it determined that I’m really not able to pay and so then it’s
written off?
Chief James: Right they have, I don’t think that they have a way unless they turn you over
to collections and whether you get turned over to collections or not would have to be a decision
made by Commission as to whether we turn them over to collections or not.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Frantom and then Mr. Mayor’s going to take it back.
Mr. Frantom: Chief James, right now we have three ambulances, is that correct?
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Chief James: We have four ambulances, three in service and one is reserve.
Mr. Frantom: Okay, are we required to have all those ambulances staffed at all times per
license or anything?
Chief James: Per license we’re only required to have one staffed.
Mr. Frantom: Are we currently staffing all three?
Chief James: Yes, we are currently staffing all three.
Mr. Frantom: And you recently implemented a mandatory overtime policy. How is the
policy being recepted in the fire department with having the three ambulances with the mandatory
overtime?
Chief James: I think it depends on who you talk to.
Mr. Frantom: And why is it mandatory versus volunteer, O.T., that would be my question
to you. Why are we not, I mean you’ve got a list of people on Volunteer or O.T who look at it as
supplemental income but we’re requiring people under mandatory. What’s the fault?
Chief James: A couple of reasons. First of all we have to operate the department so on
some given days it makes it difficult to manage if two people put their names on the list because
they volunteer and additional people don’t volunteer. And so then you end up in a situation where
we ask for volunteers and only a couple of people volunteer because it’s Saturday and Georgia’s
playing football that next day, you just got paid, you might not get a lot of people that volunteer
to, on that day. Our position is we still have to run emergency service and we’re fire fighters and
EMT’s. That’s what we signed up to be. If the citizens have the funds are available we have the
budgeted funds to pay then we have to assign people to work to make sure that the citizens are
covered. That’s number one. And so that’s why we moved to saying it’s a mandatory and then
we rotate that through. It’s no different than working at some plants that say the operation has to
move and if some folks call in sick, they come to you at the plant and go you’ve got to stay to
work today because we have to work.
Mr. Frantom: Have we, because you want to staff all three ambulances, have we had to
shut down engines because we’re staffing ambulances over the last month?
Chief James: We have, there have been some days where an engine company has went out
of service. They would not necessarily be specifically because the ambulance is in service. It may
have been closed for a part of a day because we had training going on. It may have been because
we had we sent people off to training so they weren’t on shift that day and as we look at our model
and so we know that over 60% of our calls are EMS calls. And as we have discussed with different
Commissioners before, that if the majority of your calls is medical calls and I have a smaller
vehicle instead of sending a big fire truck then in the long run we will save more and it’s less wear
and tear on the big fire truck if we send a smaller ambulance and we know that the majority of all
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of our calls are EMS calls so it’s just trying to make a best business decision to provide the service
as well as not, you know, exploit the budget.
Mr. Frantom: Okay, two comments left. I mean if we think we’re going to get rich in the
transport business we don’t understand the transport business. It’s a known fact that insurance
companies don’t pay on every transport regardless of the case so I think that’s a little misnomer
there. Is there a way next Tuesday since we’re going to be sending this back to committee that we
could get Gold Cross, South Star, Grady’s rates? Grady is a non-profit and that makes a huge
difference because they have other funding that they can get from federal government and I think
nobody’s really talked about that but can we get their rates and processes how they pay for next
Tuesday?
Mr. Mayor: I believe we can.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: No, I do think ---
Mr. Hasan: What’s the purpose of that?
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- you’re talking about just because right now we don’t understand
the (inaudible) whole process.
Mr. Frantom: We need to compare, let’s see what other companies are doing.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Hold on Commissioners Commissioner Frantom has the floor.
Mr. Frantom: Yeah, let’s look at other companies and see what they’re doing before we
go out here and say we’re just going to do this because you know the company discussion or what
other companies are doing.
Mr. Hasan: Excuse me ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Hold on ---
Mr. Frantom: Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- Commissioner Sias is next anyway but, Chief, what, any thoughts
about that request? I think there’s just a lot of concern about what we’re hearing about what is the
billing process and who’s going to pay and who’s not.
Chief James: Part of that is we can try what means that we have based on what information
we have but if we call up the private companies and say can we get your rates, it’s up to them to
whether they, it’s not, it’s the private company. I can’t, it’s not like doing an open records request
and saying give me ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: I understand.
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Chief James: --- all of your business.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Sias.
Mr. Sias: Thank you, Madam Pro Tem. I’m going to violate Commissioner protocol and
that’s a fact, Mr. Mayor, protocol, okay?
Mr. Mayor: Well, let’s not before you do it though.
Mr. Sias: I’m going to call a name from somebody in the audience, technically we’re
supposed to do that that’s what I meant by that. But, Mr. Wiedmeier, I guess we’re going to have
to cut your money off. You’ve got taxpaying citizens paying for their water and you know that
don’t make sense. They should get it all free but that’s what we’re saying here that in the
ambulance business if they’re taxpaying citizens and the government sends that ambulance, I guess
they shouldn’t pay. I guess they won’t be claiming you’ve got all kinds of money again then, Mr.
Wiedmeier, because I guess Utilities will go stone broke. So, when we talk about providing this
service to our citizens then one thing is obviously clear to me that it’s almost pandering to a private
company. We’re trying to find the best means to support our citizens of Augusta-Richmond
County. I don’t see that happening here. I see the destruction of any attempt by our fire department,
our ISO one rated fire department, can’t get any higher than that for being a, to provide the service
and protection and stuff for our citizens, but we’re going on and on and on and on. There was a
motion and a second to send this back to committee so we could just have this discussion. Well, I
guess we’ll have two discussions, one today and one at committee and eventually I guess we’ll get
it figured out but it’s not that hard. Nobody said anything about if you pick up a citizen are you
going to know whether they can pay that bill or not at that point when you pick them up. That was
never said and the majority of these calls, they’re called emergencies. We have a lot of vehicle
accidents, we’ve got at least nearly 400,000 people coming through here that we deal with that
may have an emergency, vehicle accident or industrial accident. There’s a lot of insurance out
there, we’ve got Medicare/Medicaid, they’ve got all these military folks around here, they all got
insurance. Every employee in the City of Augusta’s got insurance. There’s about 3,000 of them.
We’ve got all these state and federal folks. Now they can decline if they want to but that’s their
problem. So there’s enough to pay the bill because I can guarantee you one thing, if you’re in
private business to make money you don’t want to hang around an area where the poverty rate is
30% so if we’re so poor down here, why are some folks fighting so hard to stay here, tooth and
nail in court and everywhere else? If we were that broke and Willie Nillie can’t pay nothing, I
would leave if that was my business. So let’s, and some of my colleagues said let’s not play games
here. Let’s just tell it the way it is.
Mr. Mayor: Commissioner ---
Mr. Sias: Chief James, and I’ve got one more sentence here, Mr. Mayor, and I’ll be done.
Mr. Mayor: --- okay.
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Mr. Sias: I appreciate the work that ya’ll have done on this. I appreciate the effort that’s
been put into it and one thing I’m going to leave this with. We know doggone well that the service
is not that good in Augusta when you need an ambulance. Thank you.
Mr. Mayor: All right, here’s our posture. I think there’s a motion and a second to send this
back to committee. Clearly there is a great deal of consternation about this issue and we’re only
going to get one opportunity to get it right. And to the degree that it is a discussion going on let’s
do a couple of things one, there’s a request for additional information. I think the questions that
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were raised by the Commissioner from the 7 that they are in fact germane, the questions that we
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raised from the Commissioner from the 9 and the request for additional information. If we draw
everyone’s attention to Tab 25 in your notebooks again this, the goal today was accept an update
of the RFP and where we stood with regards to that but in that background paragraph there are
some things that are extremely important. In the last sentence it states that as part of the RFP all
participants in the EMS System will be required to follow Augusta’s billing guidelines. The
suggestion there is that we have guidelines that have one been drafted. That’s what it suggests.
That would mean that perhaps in those guidelines many of the questions that these individuals are
asking they should be in that document. So what I want to see happen at the next meeting whether
it’s a committee meeting or what might be more meaningful is a work session to address this issue
at hand and go ahead and exhaust it as opposed to having as limited conversation in the committee
meeting. Maybe we should have Ms. Jackson and I’m not really asking should we do it I’m
suggesting that is what we do next as opposed to doing a committee process where we’ll talk about
it and we’ll have this conversation on the floor and we’ll not get to a better place. So what I’m
calling for is a work session to address this issue and to fully answer the questions that the
Commission has to include bringing forward this idea because it’s in writing where it says there’s
a billing guideline. That means somebody’s worked on this, somebody has a document somewhere
and I want to see it, the members of this body we want to see that. Including service fees there’s
been a request for a fee, a transport fee for what we will refer to as bill as basic life support. That’s
the rate that you quoted I think in the last meeting and so if there are any other fees that you are
suggesting be included in that conversation all of that needs to be in that work session so that we
have the discussion. What we want to do in this current narrative in local government is as they
say, Ms. Bonner, you need to be able to eat the fish and spit out the bones. We’ve got too many
bones right now, too many bones of where you give me a piece of fish and you told me it was
fileted but then it had the nerve to have bones in it. Let’s take the bones out and give the filet that’s
already been deboned and everything and that’s simply just being like you did three weeks ago,
four weeks ago now when you just had an honest conversation and said since 1971 we had an
ambulance license, okay? We might not have been billing folks for transporting them but you had
an ambulance license. You’ve had ambulance trucks, you done bought some more. Okay that’s
fine. Just have an honest conversation and say this is where we are. We’re not competing against
Gold Cross. Let’s take that off the table. We have a responsibility to provide for the health, the
welfare and the safety of 202,000 residents of the city proper, and when people come to this
community to work it goes to some 400,000 people. We’re going to do it and we’re going to do it
well and we’re going to make sure we’ve got the resources to do that in concert where current
rules and regulations as provided by the EMS Council and State Department of Health. So that’s
what I’m suggesting we do going forward. Let’s set a date, Ms. Jackson, for a work session to
have those information pieces together and then if you’ll communicate that via Ms. Bonner so she
can send that information out to all of the members of this body. And we’re going to get to a better
43
place and we’re going to stop the public conversation where it looks like we’re fighting each other.
We are not going to do that. We’re going to solve this and we’re going to do it the right way.
Madam Administrator.
Ms. Jackson: Yes, sir, I certainly will work on a date and will get that out to you tomorrow
---
Mr. Mayor: That would be a date (inaudible) ---
Ms. Jackson: --- a date to you tomorrow.
Mr. Mayor: --- all right, wonderful.
Chief James: Mr. Mayor, just one quick question on the information that they asked us to
gather for ---
Mr. Mayor: I would caution you before you say the next statement. I don’t want you to
tell me well, you know, contractually where in a competitive situation. You’ve already said this
is what we’re going to charge to transport. That’s what you said so let’s caution all of our future
comments with I want to be able to withhold some information but tell you others. We’re going
to have a complete conversation, Chief, a complete conversation.
Chief James: --- Mr. Mayor, my comment was only to the fact that we are presently in an
RFP process.
Mr. Mayor: I understand.
Chief James: And as we follow those rules my understanding is we cannot talk to anyone.
How can I ask the question that Commissioner Frantom asked to get the information, that’s the
only thing I’m saying.
Mr. Mayor: Okay, I fully understand that you can’t talk to any potential vendors based on
our procurement rules. I fully understand that. But for months we’ve been going back and forth
are we going to run an ambulance service. We’re already in the ambulance business. We have a
license and we’ve had it since this time. Then the conversation becomes how are we going to pay
for it okay? Today you’re hearing the exact same questions. Well, if John Doe can’t afford to pay
but he has a tragic accident or somebody in the vehicle with him needs to be extricated but die but
you transport John Doe to the hospital but he can’t pay. But somebody gets him to the hospital.
Let’s take all of that out of it and have the right conversation once and for all as opposed to going
back and forth back and forth back and forth because I will tell you if you vote for it today or if
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you say after the Commissioner from the 4 has requested, let’s go back and have the conversation,
get it over with and be done with it then when we have our next full Commission meeting we’re
going to start this over and I’m not going to be happy. I can tell you that and I’m going to say
some stuff. So let’s, Ms. Jackson’s going to get that information and we’re going to have it in the
right format to do it the right way, okay?
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Mr. M. Williams: Mr. Mayor, I want to have my Clerk ---
Mr. Mayor: I’m going to go done to my Commissioner first who’s had his hand he’s been
nd
waiting the Commissioner from the 2.
Mr. D. Williams: Thank you, Mr. Mayor ---
Mr. Mayor: Yes, sir ---
Mr. D. Williams: --- may I ask the Chief a question?
Mr. Mayor: --- you may.
Mr. D. Williams: Chief ---
Chief James: Yes, sir ---
Mr. D. Williams: --- you said you had 36 runs to the hospital from an accident ---
Chief James: --- yes, sir.
Mr. D. Williams: --- or whatever to an accident. Did you get paid for those 36 runs by
anybody?
Chief James: No, sir.
Mr. D. Williams: Okay now if we had this fee structure already established and set up
whoever the zone provider may happen to be at that time that’s who you would bill for services,
correct?
Mr. Mayor: It would be the zone provider. We’re petitioning the EMS Council to be the
zone provider the application ---
Mr. D. Williams: Let me explain it a little more.
Mr. Mayor: --- okay.
Mr. D. Williams: If we’re managing the zone as the zone provider and we have contracts
with ambulance services to do the runs ---
Chief James: Yes, sir.
Mr. D. Williams: --- if the fire department would make a run on behalf of the ambulances
like we do now then if we had that fee structure, we could’ve charged for the runs, correct?
Chief James: Yes, sir, we will charge for our (inaudible).
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Mr. D. Williams: Thank you, thank you, Chief.
Mr. Mayor: Okay all right the all right, so here’s our posture once again. Madam
Administrator’s going to provide that information with a date and time to Ms. Bonner and get that
communicated. Included in that there’s a request for that information we’ve already discussed,
Ms. Bonner, and also if you’ll include the meeting minutes from the last two weeks.
Mr. M. Williams: (Inaudible) the Clerk to get information for us (unintelligible).
The Clerk: The minutes from the last Public Safety meetings?
Mr. Mayor: Yes.
Mr. M. Williams: And the fee schedules, right, from the other provider?
Mr. Mayor: No, no, the fee schedule from what was submitted from this body ---
Ms. Jackson: The recommended fee schedule.
Mr. Mayor: --- that’s correct, that’s correct ---
The Clerk: It’s in your book now.
Mr. Mayor: --- it’s in your book now.
Mr. M. Williams: Commissioner Frantom asked about the fee schedule for the other
potential providers and where we are so we can look at apples to apples. Now I’m asking my
Clerk for that information since the Chief can’t talk to them, you ought to be able to talk to them.
If you can’t, call me. I’ll call them, one call, that’s all.
Mr. Mayor: Okay all right, all right, it’s 4:34 and the time is winding. All right,
th
Commissioner, I’m going to recognize the Commissioner from the 6 and he will be the last
speaker from this dais.
Mr. Hasan: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I appreciate that. Mr. Mayor, I commend you for
encouraging us to have the workshop. I think that’s what we need to do but a lot of additional
information is being requested I would encourage us not to do that and try to stay within our
procurement rules. I think that’s got us here where we are. Historically after committees and
Procurement and everybody’s done their due diligence going back as far as 2005, Commissioners
overreached, you know, in many instances and where we are today, these are for the information.
We can make an informed decision about what our fire department puts before us and vote that up
and down eventually based on what the Procurement Department can bring with the lists. Let’s
stick with that, Mr. Mayor. I’m just like some of us had some heartburn as I said much earlier
today about the fee structure not being in there last week. I’ve expressed that. But for the most
part let’s not violate it and do act like we’re trying to protect somebody else’s interests. We need
46
to be protecting the government’s interests. And so I think that’s what we need to do is stick with
that and make sure we don’t violate our own procurement policy in trying to get there. Thank you,
sir.
Mr. Mayor: Well I appreciate that and I’m confident that the information that the
Administrator and Madam Clerk will be providing will be well within the law. I’ll just say that
well within the law, okay? It’ll be well within the law and we’re going to get all the questions
answered that can be. All right, I’ve got a motion and a second to refer this back well ---
Mr. Sias: (Inaudible).
Mr. Mayor: --- I know you did, I’m ready to move on, it’s not necessary. And again with
th
all due respect to the Commissioner from the 4 you did they’re going to get that information. It’s
not going to change anything with our posture. We’re going to have the work session and we’re
going to move forward. Okay all right, voting.
Mr. M. Williams votes No.
Motion Passes 9-1.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Madam Clerk.
The Clerk: Yes, ma’am.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
38. Discuss having Administration and employees held accountable for lack of enforcement
of city ordinances, policies, etc. (Requested by Commissioner Marion Williams)
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Ms. Pro Tem. I had this item put on the agenda to hopefully
get the Administrator or someone in that position. We’ve got three Administrators now; I think
we’ve got two assistants and Ms. Jackson. But it seems as if the employees of this government
are not following through with the process that this government put in place to get things done.
We talked about housing a while ago and I think Mr. Wynder came in and explained some things
but it’s not getting any better, it’s not getting any better. Last week we had someone here about
the garbage and what they were doing on the street. We’ve got people supposed to be inspecting
and folks who are doing the work but that’s not taking place. So my question is what teeth do we
have to put into making sure that people will follow through. Mr. Parker came in a little while ago
and talked about the things he already done at Bernie Ward. Nobody brought back a report to us
to say this is where we are, this is what we’re doing. I remember when we talked about the stuff
at Riverwalk and stuff we’re supposed to have acquired and done there. I guess the old cliché is
who’s on first and what’s on second. I really don’t know.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Do you want the Administrator ---
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Mr. M. Williams: Yeah, I’d like for the Administrator.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- to respond? Can you help, Ms. Jackson?
Ms. Jackson: I think the best I can do is respond to the three examples that I believe I
heard. In terms of the Recreation items Mr. Parker reported to you that through our administrator’s
advisory that the Recreation Department has given several updates on that while we were sitting
here. Actually I emailed staff, asked them to pull those updates so that we can provide hard copies
of that to you. We certainly didn’t know with the length of our meeting it’s not always advisable
to place an item on the agenda that’s why we use written communication as a way to update you
on the progress of various initiatives. And the Recreation Department was asked by me to do that
and they followed through with providing that information in writing that we forwarded to the
Commission. In regard to the garbage collection situation I think Ms. Videtto was very clear in
terms of the fact that she had had numerous follow up conversations with those providers and had
in fact gotten their attention regarding that. We sent a written communication to the Commission
a few weeks ago on that. I don’t have the exact date certainly advising the Commission that we
knew that there had been problems and what steps those prospective companies were taking to
address those problems. So that is to say that there’s an awful lot of things that happened. We try
to reserve the Commission meetings for items that you have to make decisions on and when a
written communication will suffice, to advise you to try to do it that way. In regard to the Planning
and Development issues as you indicated that’s been an ongoing issue. Unfortunately Augusta did
not have the degree of blight, did not get the point where we have the degree of blight that we
have. Now it didn’t happen overnight; unfortunately it’s not going to be fixed overnight. We have
a number of landlords that frankly just landlords and property owners that have abandoned those
properties and it’s going to take an awful lot of resources in order to be able to do that, resources
and law changes quite frankly in order to do something. I think we provided the Commission with
periodic updates on where we are with our efforts to improve Code Enforcement but I’ll agree
with you it’s not a perfect solution and we continue to address, I continue to challenge staff to
address those issues.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Williams.
Mr. M. Williams: Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Now I don’t know where to start at but
I’m going to start. Let me say I do agree with Ms. Jackson about it didn’t get this way overnight
and it won’t be solved overnight but we’ve got to get started at some point. Previously we’re still
letting one side of this town and I just thought about this this is one of the examples of we’re
talking about trash in our neighborhoods and what’s going on that we with workers, with
transportation that we furnish transportation and we furnish gasoline to drive up and down the
highways and we let stuff like this sit there and we don’t enforce it. Ms. Videtto, if you I if can
I’d like for Lori to come forward because we need to talk about the issue that I have to address and
she did get someone to step in and change it but we’re not expecting what we inspect. Now I’m
going back now, I’m leaving the blighted stuff we see on the streets abandoned houses and cars
and overgrown lots that human beings have to live with. My dogs, Ms. Bonner, have a nice
doghouse in the back yard but the grass ain’t over their heads. They don’t have to walk out and
see none of that kind of stuff. I do keep that for them. People, human beings still have to deal with
48
that kind of stuff. Living next door having that company come in and we as a government sit here
and we pass right by it. Ms. Videtto, if you’ll help me out because I called you and I met you over
on Kratha Drive to look at a lot that we paid a contractor to go in and clean and what they done,
Ms. Bonner, they went in and Ms. Videtto saw it for herself they went back and made it 100%
better. I don’t think it’s right but they made it 100% better. They cut around the little bushes there.
It’s not shrubbery but little young trees and that’s a two or three years to begin to be a big tree.
Then the debris of the vegetation grows down so they can cut around it, leave everything all over
there. It was an absolute mess and I was wondering who inspected. Lori, you said they cleaned
about 25 of them that month or whatever. If they’re doing like they did this one in certain
neighborhoods. We’re leaving stuff for people to suffer with. And we’ve got people who make
good money driving a new truck with air conditioning tinted windows and everything else going
down the road and we don’t even stop to check to see if somebody else did the work.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: So, Commissioner Williams, is your question to Ms. Videtto about
who’s supervising these?
Mr. M. Williams: Well, I want her to comment on the issue we talked about over on Kratha
that she came and agreed with me I believe that day about the mess that was left and they done
turned it as if they done cleaned it.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Ms. Videtto, do you want to respond please?
Ms. Videtto: So that particular address over on Kratha we did find that the contractor did
not cut the property as per expectation or per requirement so we did have them return to fix that
and recut that and a number of other ones so we did all of that. But then we also sat with that
contractor and reset the expectations. This is a contractor who’s been working with us for some
time so we made it clear to him what the expectation is because we felt that we had a little bit of
grief, that they got a little bit lazy and perhaps we did as well but we needed to reset that expectation
and make it clear to everybody from the inspector to the person that was doing the work of what
needed to be done.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Is there a way to do that across the board with any contractors?
Ms. Videtto: That’s what we did ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: With all contractors not just this one.
Ms. Videtto: --- (unintelligible) so I can’t speak for anybody else but at least from mine
we absolutely did that but it’s going to take time, it’s going to take time to get it right.
Mr. M. Williams: Ms. Mayor Pro Tem, I guess my initial problem when you clean a lot
you don’t just cut the little grass and let the little trees come up you clean the lot off. How would
a perspective buyer who wanted these lots even know the depth or the size of it when you ride by
it and it’s all the vegetation is all grown up and we done hit the front of it with a lawnmower but
the rest of it just done grown up. I mean we went into the inner city and did our cleanup and did
the same thing. There used to be a fence on some of these old properties where the fence is really
49
gone but because birds have defecated and seeds grow up into the fence we leave the trees and
bushes there and say well that’s a fence line. That’s not a fence line. When you’ve got stuff all
over the yard the forest didn’t get there overnight. The forest grew too from seed but when the
trees grow we let that kind of stuff stay there then it’s a hiding place for criminal activity and bad
---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: It looks like Ms. Videtto has addressed these concerns which is good
so we need to each department manager to do that.
Ms. Mr. Williams: --- in her department, she said, in her department. I’m talking about the
City of Augusta not just her department. Now I want her to come up because she did address it,
she did get somebody to come out and I went back by and they did a 100% improvement on it.
But then we’ve got so many other people who just ride up and down the street and do what they
want to do when they want to do it.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Madam Administrator, is there a way to address that throughout each
department and just kind of how Ms. Videtto has had to do just to be proactive and really going
through the expectations? I think reminders are always good and being very clear that there’s
some issues.
Ms. Jackson: Certainly, we’ll add it to our next department head agenda.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Thanks, Ms. Videtto. So we’ll have to keep reminding ---
Mr. M. Williams: So Madam Pro Tem, I’ve ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- that our expectations (inaudible).
Mr. M. Williams: --- got one quick question I need answered. When we have people to
dump into our ditches and that’s happening all day long when they don’t have enough right of way
to even set their trash out, it goes up into the ditch and it stays there. Who’s supposed to do that?
If we need employees, who’s supposed to check that somebody’s out of compliance? Who’s
supposed to make sure that they’re in compliance? Are we supposed is it supposed to work to the
taxpayers to call and get 311 and then they say we don’t know when we’re going to get to it? How
do we get some teeth into the city to make sure those people have what they need to have and get
the services they need to get? That’s all I’m trying to get.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Madam Administrator, I know we don’t have eyes in every corner
so (unintelligible) the city.
Ms. Jackson: Yeah and that’s what I was about to say. I mean we can’t be everywhere all
the time so we depend on citizens to assist us by calling 311 and notify us of where problems are.
I mean we’ve got 300 plus square miles in Richmond County and it’s hard for everybody, for
somebody to see all of it so yes that’s why we do depend on citizens to help notify us.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, what’s our motion here?
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Mr. Hasan: To receive as information.
Mr. D. Williams: Second.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: All right, we have a motion and a second please vote. Madam Clerk,
we’ve lost 1, 7, 8 and I think Commissioner Williams probably isn’t voting.
The Clerk: Are you voting, sir?
Mr. M. Williams: No, ma’am.
The Clerk: Okay, we’ll just publish the vote as is.
Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Frantom and Mr. Guilfoyle out.
Mr. M. Williams not voting.
Motion Passes 6-0.
The Clerk:
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
40. Discuss the policy and guidelines for dedication plaques for city facilities. (Requested by
Commissioner Andrew Jefferson)
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Jefferson.
Mr. Jefferson: Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. It was brought to my attention we had
a dedication of the walking track at the Henry Brigham Center as well as the dedication of Willie
Mays Center, the old library. And looking at this policy it’s supposed to state the name of the
Mayor, Commission, Administrator, have the time of the funding and after which whatever the
dedication is the way I interpreted it the name of the sitting Mayor, Commissioners and
Administrator at the time of the dedication. I looked at the extended renovations of existing
facilities, the facility acquisition, new facility construction and I’m wondering when you do that,
who’s supposed to authorize the go ahead for the particular engraving or the final plaque to be set
up to make sure this policy is followed? I know it should be the Administrator sets eyes on it plus
it must meet the muster of this body, am I correct?
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: You’re correct. I know we set a policy I believe last year or two
years ago, Madam Administrator?
Ms. Jackson: Yes, there was a policy set in 2016. I believe it’s included in the booklet if
you look at the second page of the policy. And this policy was designed to govern new facilities
or facilities extensive renovations of existing facilities. But the procedure is laid out on the second
page of the policy. It says, the final format and wording will be submitted to Central Services
Director before approval by the Administrator and will normally include the following and that’s
where that list I think that Commissioner Jefferson read.
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Mr. Jefferson: Right and then I’m looking at the fact that the first one, it didn’t really,
didn’t bother me that much because I was just getting on the Commission at the time. But the
Willie Mays Building if you read that plaque it’s got the existing Commission at the time of the
funding but at the dedication and the dedication was done in 2017, it was supposed to have the
name of the existing Commission at the time of funding as well as the Commission at the time of
dedication. Do you see that on the extended renovation and existing facility? The name of the
Mayor and Commission members seated at the date of the action of the funding, renovation project
and naming the Mayor and Commissioners in office at the time of the dedication along with the
name of the Administrator, Department Director, Construction Manager, the Architect, the General
Contractor are included on the plaque. Are we together on that or do I need to give you a chance
to?
Ms. Jackson: No, I see it, I see it. Now I do have a copy of the Mays Building plaque and
it says renovated 2016, I’m sorry, I don’t remember the date of the (inaudible).
Mr. Jefferson: The dedication was February of ’17.
Ms. Jackson: It was, okay.
Mr. Jefferson: And if I’m not mistaken I was sworn in January of ’17 but that’s neither
here nor there.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Jefferson, can we hear from Ms. Douse?
Mr. Jefferson: Yeah, go ahead.
Ms. Douse: Yeah, I wanted to speak to that. The dedication was originally planned to
occur in December of 2016, however because of some scheduling issues we had to hold the
dedication over until early January of 2017. So the plaque was already printed and installed in
2016 even though the dedication just because of scheduling reasons did not occur until early 2017.
Mr. Jefferson: What, you know that really didn’t bother me as much I accidently stumbled
upon that ---
Ms. Douse: Okay.
Mr. Jefferson: --- that tidbit you know. I didn’t expect to have my name on that one
anyway. But what didn’t set well with me at the dedication of the walking track at Henry Brigham,
I looked at the plaque and they had the name of the Mayor, the Administrator, the Director of the
Department not only didn’t have the name of the Commissioners but it didn’t have the word
Commissioners or make any reference to this body and I’m wondering how did that sneak through
the crack without being approved or having that caught someone’s attention. But I was told it was
called to the attention of directors and managers but it was ignored and I feel that personally when
something like that happens with protocol not being followed, that the replacement plaque
52
shouldn’t be the responsibility of the county. It should be the responsibility of the person that was
negligent in doing what was supposed to be done in that policy.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Madam Administrator, are you aware of that I guess or Ms. Douse?
Ms. Jackson: I am aware of the issue and a replacement plaque is on order. It should be
here in a couple of weeks, a few weeks. I have not been involved in any discussion about who
would be financially responsible for the replacement.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Was it just an oversight?
Ms. Jackson: Yes, that’s the case.
Mr. Jefferson: Well, as many plaques has been done throughout the years it’s kind of hard
to say it’s an oversight when the top of the totem pole is the Augusta Richmond County
Commission and the Administrator works directly for the Augusta Richmond County
Commission. And when proofing something it should cut the mustard of what is expected by this
body and whether we physically set eyes on it or not it should say well would the Commission
appreciate having this plaque put up in this manner. And like I said before it was brought to the
attention but and I brought it to the Administrator’s attention also the Director of Recreation back
at the time of dedication which I believe was sometime in April of May of this year which was
several months ago.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Is there a way we could get the Clerk to send out whenever there’s
a big plaque or a big dedication just for her to send it to us to look at before the dedication or before
whatever we’re doing (inaudible).
Ms. Jackson: No, in this particular instance just to expound on that, in this particular
instance, I think the interpretation amongst staff was that it did not fall under this particular policy.
And you know for what it’s worth if I had been involved in that discussion I might have made a
different decision but unfortunately I was not involved in that discussion. The department director
that was involved in that has been definitely counseled about the need to consult with the Central
Services Director any time this type of thing happens because that person really is the person that’s
supposed to ensure that it follows the guidelines in this policy.
Mr. Jefferson: Okay well now what you said I heard what you said but it didn’t make
sense. How in the world if they work for Augusta Richmond County it don’t fall under the
guidelines of our jurisdiction making sure that, I mean it’s saying to me and I’m just going to lay
it out like it is. People in this government forget they work for the government. There’s too much
freelancing going on and I get hot under the collar. It’s not that often that I get hot under the collar
but that makes me upset.
Ms. Jackson: I’m sorry, sir but just and I understand why you are because we’ve had
discussions about this. But as this policy was interpreted by staff at that point except for extensive
renovations of the existing facility or new facility construction and they didn’t interpret that that
was a new facility construction (inaudible).
53
Mr. Jefferson: Well, no, it says existing facility plain as day the very last word.
Ms. Jackson: Yeah and they didn’t because it was not a building, it was not interpreted as
a facility ---
Mr. Jefferson: Okay well ---
Ms. Jackson: --- and I understand why you would be upset about that and like I said if I
had seen it myself I may have made a different decision. But unfortunately it was done prior to
my having any knowledge. I saw it at the same time you did.
Mr. Jefferson: --- okay. Well, like I said, the reason I’m upset about it, Madam Mayor Pro
Tem and colleagues, people in the gallery, like I said at times people forget they are employed.
Personally no one works for Andrew Jefferson other than the people in my electric company but
no one in Augusta Richmond County works for Andrew Jefferson. They work for the body and
the ten of us make up this body. And it seems that the more we let slide and we have to remind
people from time to time this is not a freelance. This plaque was just the tip of the iceberg. This
was something I could put my hands on and have something to quantify exactly what I’m talking
about. But I see it from time to time. People stand right before us and in their conversation they
use words like I wouldn’t allow that to happen. Well, it didn’t meet my satisfaction. I made the
decision, I took it upon myself. They use those types of adjectives and it seemed to me that at some
times the pecking order is forgotten about. And ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Jefferson, we’ve got a few more hands up too.
Mr. Jefferson: --- I appreciate that and I’m going to ask for a Point of Personal Privilege
just to get this off my chest because it’s not often that I say very much but when I do say what I
have to say, I mean what I say.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: All right, I’ll come back to you, Commissioner Hasan?
Mr. Jefferson: All right.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Thank you, Madam Pro Tem. Ms. Jackson, I’ll be honest with you
your explanation of this is unacceptable to me because the new policy that was adopted, the policy
centered around what names I think Commissioner Williams is the one that put this on the agenda
if my memory serves my correct. He might have been concerned about Commissioners like myself
and I’m not saying any particular ones. I’m just using myself as an example of something started
by my predecessor Commissioner Joe Jackson and got completed (unintelligible) and both of our
names were on it so he wanted to know okay how are we going to do that moving forward. Now
here’s where my heartburn comes from what you said. In the new policy it says here the
responsibility it says the Central Services Department which would be Ms. Douse is responsible
for oversight of this policy to ensure it is consistently applied and everywhere throughout that
policy it mentions the Commissioners. Now you may want to say it still is a dedication. It still is
a track that is dedicated so Commissioners names should be on it. Your name was on it, the
54
Mayor’s name was on it, the department head’s name was on it. But also from a procedure
perspective it says the final format and wording I’m sorry, it says the final format and wording
will be submitted to the Central Services Department before approval by the Administrator and
will normally include the following so you’re supposed to be in the process, you’re supposed to
be in the process, Ms. Jackson.
Ms. Jackson: Yeah and I’m not disagreeing with you, sir. What I’m saying is the staff
who was involved in this made the decision that because it was not a building that particular event
didn’t fall under this policy. I also said if I had been involved in that I would’ve made a different
interpretation. I understood that this interpretation should have been for any, anything that we do
---
Mr. Hasan: But everything still comes before the Commission ---
Ms. Jackson: --- anything that involves you all but unfortunately staff that was the call that
they made and I’ve directed them to fix it.
Mr. Hasan: --- okay but let me read you something else. On this agenda item that day it
says this proposed policy establishes consistent guidelines for installation of dedication, dedicating
plaques and future projects. The Augusta Commission will have the final approval of the content
prior to fabrication of the plaque so you couldn’t get around the Commission looking at it. I
understand saying it’s not building, it’s not a renovation but it’s a dedication that’s on our property
and number one it was an oversight at one time and now it’s just a misinterpretation. And so I
mean that’s a little, that falls under what Commissioner Williams was saying much earlier you
know you can’t hold people to the policy if you violate the policy yourself. I mean it’s clearly
here ---
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Let’s just make sure ---
Mr. Hasan: --- for something that nobody can come to that interpretation of that and I think
I’d be safe to say, I don’t know what any department heads it was but I don’t see how you can
come to that conclusion whether it was Mr. Parker or whether it was Ms. Douse to see that the
Commission needs to be on it and they could put their names on it. And I’m not arguing about my
name being on the plaque. I’m just saying what I hearing doesn’t make good sense.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- can we make sure that this policy is ---
Ms. Jackson: That it should not happen again.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- Commissioner Sias.
Mr. Sias: Yes, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I just want to say too all of our staff and folks,
we’re going to screw up every once in a while and one of the best things to do is just take ownership
of it, fix it and let’s move on. It doesn’t have to be a lot of this happened and that happened. Just
own up to it and get it done and we’ll move on. So I just want to say the issue’s been raised,
55
apparently been raised in the past so it just needs to be taken care of it needs to be fixed and then
let’s move on, thank you.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: --- good point. Commissioner Williams and then Commissioner
Jefferson’s going to finish it.
Mr. Grady Smith: Amen.
Mr. M. Williams: I’m going to say that there’s nothing been said, Commissioner Jefferson,
I want you to know that I understand what you’re saying. One thought is that if nobody’s name
hadn’t been on it then we put a dedication walk or whatever down is one thing but when anybody’s
name is on it they should’ve known that the Commissioner should’ve been in on it I don’t care
who they were so that’s all I got to say.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay Commissioner Williams, Commissioner Jefferson.
Mr. Jefferson: I’m done, thank you, ma’am.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, what’s our motion, Commissioner Jefferson?
Mr. Jefferson: Oh, it was just for discussion (inaudible).
The Clerk: Receive it as information, sir?
Mr. Jefferson: Yes, ma’am.
The Clerk: Okay.
Mr. Sias: And to get a notification when the plaque has been corrected at the walking track.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, so we’ll receive as information but we do want notification
when the plaque is corrected (inaudible).
The Clerk: Who seconded that?
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Commissioner Smith.
The Clerk: Okay.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: We’ve got a motion and a second, please vote.
Mr. Fennoy, Mr. Frantom and Mr. Guilfoyle out.
Motion Passes 7-0.
Ms. Mayor Pro Tem: Please tell me we’re finished, Madam Clerk.
56
The Clerk: Yes, ma’am, we are.
Ms. Mayor: Thank you, thank you, Commissioners.
\[MEETING ADJOURNED\]
Lena Bonner
Clerk of Commission
CERTIFICATION:
I, Lena J. 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
September 18, 2018.
______________________________
Clerk of Commission
57