Mayor's SUV must have decal for now

Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis’ new vehicle will have to carry a city decal pending the outcome of a public hearing later this month, the Augusta Commission decided Tuesday. Commissioners also want to look at changing an athletic complex into just a regular park or walking track after a 12-year-old boy was electrocuted there last year.

The commission voted 7-1 to apply the decal to Davis’ new Chevrolet Tahoe until a public hearing can be held on whether it can be taken off, as Davis asked earlier. Commissioner Bobby Williams voted against the motion, Commissioner Sammie Sias refused to vote, and Commissioner Brandon Garrett was briefly out of the room when the vote was taken.

Davis, who was not at the meeting, has said it is a personal safety issue and that in the past people have come into the Municipal Building and threatened his life and those of his staff.

The issue has stuck in the craw of Commissioner Marion Williams, who has insisted that state law requires the vehicle to carry the decal except for a couple of exceptions. General Counsel Andrew MacKenzie said one is for vehicles used for law enforcement or prosecution purposes and another allows it after a public hearing that has been advertised at least seven days before. The Tahoe, which Mayor Pro Tem Sean Frantom said has already been delivered, does not currently have a decal on it, which rankled Williams.

“Whatever the state law says is what I am trying to go by,” he said. “The decal is not on it.”

Commissioners are also hearing about Fleming Athletic Complex, where 12-year-old Melquan Robinson died in October. Recreation and Parks Director Glenn Parker said games that had been normally held there have been moved to Diamond Lakes fields. Commissioner Ben Hasan said he has heard from coaches and concerned residents in the area that after the death they do not want to see the center reopened as an athletic complex and would rather see it turned into a regular park. Garrett said he is getting some of those same calls.

“Everybody keeps saying, ‘Let’s just make it a monument to Melquan,’” he said, rather than reopen those fields. Bobby Williams said before that happens, it might be better to hold a town hall in the area on the issue.

“I do think it is a good idea, but I think we need to do more surveying before we jump the gun on that,” he said.

Parker said he was going to address Fleming with the commission by the end of the month anyway and can look at that potential idea.