Deal suspected in resignations

The resignations Tuesday of two top Augusta staffers – Administrator Janice Allen Jackson and General Counsel Andrew MacKenzie – were likely a deal struck between Augusta commissioners who wanted one or the other out, some current and former city officials said.

The commission spent more than two hours behind closed doors Tuesday, most of it without Jackson or MacKenzie, emerging to accept the resignation of both, in exchange for a year’s salary and benefits.

For Jackson, that means more than $191,000 – her $176,000 salary as the Augusta government’s highest-paid employee, deferred compensation and a car allowance, in addition to health insurance and other benefits. MacKenzie will get his more than $142,000 salary, over $10,000 in deferred compensation and car allowance payments as well as the other benefits.

“We’re talking about half a million dollars that could have gone to Meals on Wheels, or whatever,” observed former Commissioner Bill Lockett.

Mayor Hardie Davis was absent Tuesday and said he needed time to “understand what took place in my absence.” Commission members offered little explanation for Tuesday’s resignations other than it was “time for a change,” while typical city severance agreements forbid discussing the cause.

MacKenzie worked in the city law department for 12 years and served as general counsel for nine, while Jackson was administrator for four. Each was eligible for a month’s salary for each year of employment up to six under the usual city personnel policy.

From his two terms on the commission, Lockett was confident a deal had been struck.

“Usually everything is in a package,” Lockett said. “They have to get support from both sides.”

Current Commissioner Dennis Williams said he was one of the members who entered Tuesday’s legal session unaware a deal had been made, but soon found out.

“I was one of the ones that didn’t know,” Williams said. “It was a coup. They teamed up.”

Two weeks ago, Commissioner Ben Hasan made a motion to terminate MacKenzie, but Mayor Hardie Davis refused to entertain it and adjourned the meeting. Tuesday, Commissioner Marion Williams had placed firing MacKenzie on the agenda and when the item came up, the commission went behind closed doors, presumably to discuss it.

Learning the plan also involved Jackson, Williams said he and three other commissioners did not support it, although it already had the six votes needed to pass. The public vote to approve the resignations was a unanimous 9-0 with Commissioner Bill Fennoy by then absent.

Former two-term Commissioner Corey Johnson said he too believes a deal was made.

“There were times when you had some who wanted one individual gone, and a few who wanted someone else gone, and in order to get support for one, you get the other,” he said.

Johnson said he was among those who voted to hire Jackson, because she was an Augusta native who he thought would bring the flavor of booming Charlotte, N.C., her last place of employment, to Augusta.

On the job, however, Johnson said he observed Jackson sometimes left city department heads “on an island” to fend for themselves on tasks and questions during heated commission meetings.

“I believe yesterday was a package deal. I don’t think there was a majority of votes for either to go,” said Jerry Brigham, whose commission service ended in 2012.

“I’ve been there when we ran off an administrator and when we ran off a lawyer, but I’ve never been there when we ran both off at the same time,” Brigham said.

Former Commissioner Moses Todd said the trade happened when Hasan’s support for Jackson waned, opening the door for a deal with other commissioners who already wanted her out. Hasan has not commented.

“There was a deal cut and at some point the discussion that was had in legal session should be public,” Todd said.

Former commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle said the commission was foolish to get rid of both at once as other key positions remain vacant including three department heads. The city has lost and sometimes replaced at least a dozen department heads over the past four years.

“I just only hope the colleagues know what they’re doing,” Guilfoyle said.

Ironically, Hasan helped coordinate support to hire Jackson in 2014 in a move that caught Guilfoyle and other commissioners off guard, Guilfoyle said.

“He had pushed to get her hired and he pushed to get her fired,” he said.

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