Will politicians fight for Savannah River?

Elected officials have been talking for years about building a pedestrian bridge between Augusta and North Augusta, but nobody ever thought it could turn out to be a mud bridge.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ drawdown of the Savannah River last week was a big comedown for Augusta and North Augusta, with fallen boat docks, ugly barren banks, hideous exposed bridge pilings, mud flats, sand bars and menacing rocks lurking just beneath the surface.

So if the federal, state and local elected officials in Georgia and South Carolina can’t manage to get another 3 to 5 feet of water in the pool and save folks in Augusta and North Augusta from having to gaze out across dried-up mudflats, what good are they?

That was a rhetorical question.

Yes, past officials knew the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam was going to be deauthorized, torn down and a way made for sturgeon to get upstream to spawn, which they’ve had a hard time doing since the lock and dam was built in 1938. They knew it. The officials, that is, knew it, not the sturgeon. The sturgeon just knew they were frustrated.

The politicians talked about it but did nothing because that’s what politicians do. Talk, talk, talk. Until something bad happens or is about to happen, and reality smacks them in the face – like a cold dead sturgeon. Then they blame their predecessors for being short-sighted.

And now the reality of the river lowered in downtown Augusta and North Augusta and everywhere else as far as the eye can see is shocking. I don’t care what the Riverkeeper says.

Residents have 30 days to comment on the Corps’ proposed plan that would destroy the Lock and Dam Park and turn it into a big, ugly ditch to handle future floodwaters.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Rick Allen was in town Friday and vowed to fight to get the lock and dam restored and keep a higher pool of water upstream.

That’s what it’s going to take, but are other congressmen, senators, mayors, commissioners and council members willing to get down in the mud and fight for the beautiful Savannah River and the area’s future?

Allen said he might even appeal to President Donald Trump. And Trump, as part of his declaration of a national emergency to get money for his border wall, could borrow (Dems would say “steal”) some of the $600 million of the Savannah Port deepening project to repair the lock and dam and build a fish passage for the sturgeon. It would delay the port deepening but take the politicians off the hook and make the sturgeon happy.

Don’t Play Poker with the Judge: Richmond County Superior Court Chief Judge Carl Brown was at the Augusta Commission committee meetings Tuesday but didn’t speak, possibly because two committees didn’t meet. Whatever he was there for, he’ll probably get, though.

He outfoxed commissioners a few weeks ago when he asked for $120,000 worth of raises for seven Juvenile Court employees, one of them being his daughter. Commissioners approved the raises, but rescinded them the next week, then quickly approved $41,000 for those employees, no questions asked. He made $41,000 worth of raises seem reasonable by asking for $120,000 worth first.

Would They Work Triply Hard for Triple Pay, or Just Party Triply?: Georgia state Sen. Valencia Seay, D-Riverdale, made news when she introduced a bill that would give legislators a 300 percent raise, increasing their annual pay from $17,342 to about $51,000. And that doesn’t count the $173-a-day per diem they receive the 40 days they’re in session.

A 300 percent raise is not going to happen, according to some Augusta-area lawmakers.

“I would not be in favor of tripling the salary,” said state Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta. “It is an honor to serve.”

“I think 300 percent is something to start with,” said state Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta. “I don’t think $51,000 is realistic. In any negotiations you’re always going down. A lot of folks are getting worked up about it. That’s not going anywhere.”

The more realistic salary figures he’s heard mentioned were $23,000 and $26,000, he said.

Political consultant Jim Cox, the president of Southeastern Marketing, said the bill is just a smokescreen to create some bad PR for the Republicans who control majorities in the House and Senate.

“The oldest trick in the book is to create an issue and make somebody else defend it,” he said.

Still, it’s not an election year, my dear, and …

Anything can happen under the gold dome/

Before they go home/

Dreaming about their paychecks growing so much fatter/

While you’re having nightmares of your wallet going flatter ... and flatter.

The BOE is Overdue: Meanwhile, Augusta commissioners and Richmond County Board of Education members have petitioned the local legislative delegation to increase their pay, and lawmakers seem more inclined to grant the board’s request than the commissioners’.

State Sen. Jesse Stone, R-Waynesboro, said the delegation had one meeting but no quorum, so no action was taken.

“There was some sentiment in favor of the board of education,” he said. “They had passed a resolution in December that was almost unanimous. So we were more open to their request. They had not gotten a raise in years.”

The last school board raise went into effect Jan. 1, 2000, member Helen Minchew said.

Regular members currently make $6,800 a year, the vice president $7,400, and the president $8,000. They have asked for board members' annual pay to increase to $10,000, the vice president’s to $11,000 and the president’s to $12,000.

They receive no mileage except to out-of-town training sessions and are not furnished with gasoline cards or cellphones, as are Augusta commissioners, who are paid twice as much.

In comparison, Bibb County board members make $7,200; Columbus-Muscogee County, $12,000; Chatham County, $12,000; and Douglas County, $17,500. Some counties also pay members extra for attending unscheduled meetings, retreats and tribunal hearings.

As for commission raises, they’ve gone under the radar.

Jones said the last time they were discussed, commissioners said they were going to try to do it on their own.

“If they send a resolution to us, we’ll deal with it,” he said.

A Lying Philosophy: Augusta commissioners recently set fees for treating and transporting patients in fire department ambulances and approved a billing system.

Before the vote, City Administrator Janice Allen Jackson said the underlying philosophy for billing patients was that the fire department has transported patients but not billed them.

That sounded like the truth, and it was, but it was deceiving.

When commissioners questioned Chief Chris James last year about how many calls fire department ambulances had made in emergencies, he said 46 in three years, which is not what Jackson’s comment implied. You would have thought they’d been steady answering calls and transporting patients.

Jackson also said they’d decided not to try to collect unpaid bills.

“We will not treat our citizens with that aggressiveness … and they will end up with a negative on their credit,” she said.

Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous in your life? They set up a fee structure and hire a billing company although they’ve already told everybody, “If you don’t want to pay, you don’t have to. And we’re not going to try to collect that bill we send you.”

Maybe they should just put tip jars in the ambulances.

Some commissioners even argued for just accepting what the patients' insurance paid and not bill for charges above that – non-balanced billing.

Commissioner Brandon Garrett’s substitute motion for balanced billing passed.