NEWS

Personal security detail for mayor discussed

Sylvia Cooper
t.sylvia.cooper@augustachronicle.com

First, Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis wanted a SUV. Now he wants an armed guard to drive it for him.

When I heard that Richmond County Marshal Ramone Lamkin told several Augusta commissioners last week that Davis wants a security detail, I called Lamkin and left a message. Then I called the mayor, and after exchanging “pleasantries,” as he calls them, I told him what I’d heard and asked whether it was true. He asked whether Lamkin had told me that, and I said no, but that I had a call into him.

Davis said, “If Ramone didn’t tell you, I wouldn't believe it from a commissioner.”

“That’s why I’m calling you for a yes or no answer,” I said. Not that I didn’t believe the commissioners, but you know how things can get mixed up.

Along about then Davis said we could go on the record. I told him we’d been on the record the whole time we’d been talking because nobody had said anything about being off the record.

“We both have to agree a conversation is off the record before it’s off the record, and I haven’t agreed,” I said.

That’s when he said we’d just been exchanging “pleasantries,” which was more or less the truth because he still hadn’t answered the question. Then he said he’d make a statement then or e-mail it.

Shortly thereafter, Lamkin called and said they’d met about security and that the mayor brought some concerns he had about his safety to his attention.

“We’re all looking at addressing the mayor’s security issues,” he said.

As promised, Davis e-mailed this statement:

“On Monday June 3rd, I met with the Sheriff, Marshal and interim Administrator to discuss security. The conversation was focused on concerns about personal safety of employees and citizens while on city property and having secured government buildings. This discussion included specific questions about providing a security detail when I conduct official business due to the specific and legitimate security concerns that were raised.”

Not to make light of security issues in today’s wicked world, but how many people can you make mad cutting ribbons? I’d be more worried being the tax collector.

The Consensus is They Talk Too Much: Tuesday’s Augusta Commission meeting was so ridiculous I don’t have words to describe it. That’s never happened before. They spent about an hour arguing over appointments to boards and authorities and whether they should be approved by consent or discussed first.

Commissioner Bill Fennoy wanted to send “all consensus appointments” back to a committee to make them consensus after discussing them.

Others kept referring to “consensus appointments,” but as it turned out nobody but City Clerk Lena Bonner, and possibly General Counsel Wayne Brown, seemed to know what a consensus appointment was. While the mayor or any commissioner has the right to add an item to a meeting agenda recommending someone to a board or authority, once it’s added, it belongs to “the body” and takes a majority vote of the board to make the appointment, Bonner explained.

So it seems they’re all consensus appointments. Sometime they discuss them before voting. Other times, they don’t.

Commissioners picked up on the term “the body,” which they kept saying, which made me wonder what kind of body the commission was. And suddenly, the word “wrangler” came to mind.

For example, they wrangled over the mayor’s proposal to appoint Compliance Department Director Treza Edwards as the city’s AARP Age-friendly liaison post, which included $10,000, before voting it down.

Commissioner Ben Hasan said Edwards had been on the job less than two months and already had too many responsibilities to take on the Age-friendly initiative, which former Commissioner Bill Lockett spearheaded before retiring. Hasan proposed giving the job to interim Administrator Jarvis Sims.

It was surprising to hear they’re spending $10,000 for the Age-friendly program because when Lockett initially asked commissioners to approve seeking the designation, he said it wouldn’t cost the city a dime. He was right. It didn’t cost a dime. It cost $10,000. And nobody on the dais asked what for.

Parking the Parking Lot Wrangling: Six commissioners finally gave developer Michael Thurman the go-ahead Tuesday to finish the parking lot on Augusta Avenue across from Augusta University’s Health Sciences Campus despite objections from Fennoy and Commissioner Marion Williams.

In 2017, commissioners approved two other parcels of the horseshoe-shaped lot, but a majority of the current board balked at approving the final parcel twice in recent months, citing complaints by neighbors about flooding, traffic and lights. Never mind that the neighbors have complained about AU students parking along the street and blocking their driveways, a problem another parking lot would help solve. So commissioners made Thurman jump through as many hoops as they could come up with. He paid to hook onto a city storm sewer to eliminate flooding that, come to find out, the city was causing, not him.

Before the vote, Fennoy said his opposition to the parking lot had nothing to do with Thurman running against him for the District 1 commission seat in 2016. And he said it with a straight face.

Never Try To Catch a Thief Barefoot: Saturday a week ago at around 7 a.m., Thurman heard a noise at his office next door to his house on Wrightsboro Road and Baker Avenue, looked out the window and saw three men loading bags of mulch into a black SUV. So he grabbed his phone, ran out taking pictures and told them he was calling the police. Two of the men took off, but one of them, an older man about 60, jumped him and tried to take his phone away. But Thurman held onto it.

“Those things are expensive,” he said.

Thurman and the thief tussled, and Thurman had him around the throat choking him until the thief said he couldn’t breathe. So Thurman loosened his grip, and the man ran away.

“I didn’t want to kill anybody over mulch,” he said.

Thurman ran after him, barefoot. He said he knew it was dangerous, “but when you get going, you don’t stop.”

The police arrived about 20 minutes later, and when Thurman suggested taking fingerprints, the officer said if he’d empty the bag, he’d take it in and have it dusted. So they emptied the bag, contaminating the evidence as they did so.

Thurman has a broken toe, scratches on his arm and a scraped knee but feels lucky that was all.

“I didn’t get stabbed,” he said.

Coming Attractions: While last week was less than stellar for commission news, this week’s committee meetings look to be more fruitful.

For example, an agenda item “to approve the 1st Amendment Employment Agreement with Herbert Judon, Airport Director” is basically to raise his pay 10 percent to $190,386.66 and authorize the Aviation Commission to increase his base salary and/or benefits however much they desire based on a salary review on or before Dec. 31 this year, and on or before Dec. 31 of each year thereafter.

Fennoy wants to discuss/approve placing a monument in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Commissioner John Clarke wants to replace inoperable water fountains on the riverwalk with new ones to include a base drinking bowl for pets. He’s also calling for water mist stations there.

Renaissance Man: Author, actor, Vietnam veteran and former Augusta Mayor Bob Young says he is “coming off a tremendous May: digging for Civil War treasure on History Channel, playing poker with Jackie Weaver in Diane Keaton’s kitchen in the movie 'POMS,' featured in an article in Vietnam Magazine on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moonwalk and published my fourth book 'NISH.' God is good. And the support of my awesome wife, Gwen, completes the picture.”