How is the mayor spending your tax dollars?

Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis sounds good when he talks, even though he talks out of both sides of his mouth.

At a committee meeting Tuesday, he said the Augusta Commission should start thinking about budget priorities to have “a government that is efficient, a government that is effective.”

Translated, that means, “A government that lets me spend all the money I want without having to show what I spent it for."

I made a Freedom of Information Act request asking to review Davis’ SunTrust credit card expenses, and I was allowed to look at the itemized statement. That’s all. There might be some receipts somewhere, but I didn’t get them. And that’s a big problem when you’re doing a story on what the mayor is spending your money on.

For example, there’s an expense of $800 on the January bill for a former staff member who’s been gone at least two years. I could mention the name, but I don’t want to be clarifying somebody else’s mistake. I make enough of my own.

I also asked for a copy of the mayor’s official calendar for this year, and his chief of staff, Marcus Campbell, sent one to the city lawyer’s office for me to pick up. Davis’ calendar indicated he was in Miami on Feb. 5-7 for Black Tech Week and flew on Delta, but there don’t seem to be any bills for it.

His calendar also indicates he was at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia for a diversity and inclusion conference March 24-26, but there don’t seem to be any bills for that either. So maybe those were expense-paid trips or were charged to an account other than his SunTrust card.

At Tuesday’s meetings, the mayor also suggested putting money into commission priorities, such as creating a safe city, “a city of opportunity that works for everyone.”

Translated, that means, “A city where the mayor has an unlimited travel budget, and he can hire his whole church to work on his staff.”

The mayor is always talking about transparency, but apparently that doesn’t count when it comes to spending your tax dollars. And he wants a safe city, but he also wants a security detail because he’s afraid.

Yes, Davis knows how to talk the talk, but his actions don’t show he knows how to walk the walk except between deplaning and boarding gates at airports.

He’s Been Everywhere, Man: Between Dec. 21, 2018, and Jan. 21 this year, he charged $4,505.47 in travel expenses on his SunTrust card.

On Jan. 15-16, Davis met with the Georgia Department of Transportation in Atlanta concerning the Willis Foreman Road widening and attended the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual Eggs & Issues Breakfast the next morning.

From Jan. 22-25, he attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors' winter meeting in Washington, and from there flew to Atlanta for the Georgia Municipal Association meeting from Jan. 26-28.

Other earlier charges in December were $209.43 for Hilton Americas in Houston and $272 for car rental.

Davis’ travel bill for February totaled $5,516.65, which included some additional bills from the U.S. Conference of Mayors' meeting in Washington, such as $1,146.40 for lodging at the Capital Hilton. He’d also attended the Georgia Municipal Association Mayor’s Day Conference and stayed at the Hilton in Atlanta.

From Feb. 21-24, Davis and assistant Latisha McMillan flew to Miami Beach, Fla., for the U.S. Conference of Mayors' winter leadership meeting at the Fontainebleau Hotel. Lodging totaled $946.10. Airfare for both totaled $2,669.62, not counting travel insurance.

Total travel expenses shown on the credit card for March were $774.96, which included a few expenses from the Miami trip and a $318 charge for lodging at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa on March 1-2 while attending a Georgia Conservancy Board meeting and oyster roast.

April travel charges totaled $1,349.20, including a $1,268 charge by Delta on April 16-18 in airfare for Davis and McMillan to fly roundtrip from Augusta to Houston. Travel insurance was $82.42. Those charges were probably associated with the African American Mayors Association meeting that was held in Houston from April 23-26. Other bills from that conference aren’t yet available.

What’s in a Detail?: You might think Davis already spends a lot of money traveling around the country, but if he gets his wish for an armed guard when he conducts “official business” you can expect his travel bills to skyrocket.

Since he often takes a staff member along when he travels, it wouldn’t be surprising if he took his security detail along, too. After all, attending conferences glad-handing, laying out beside the pool, and eating and drinking all day could be classified as official business, although I’ve never seen one concrete thing that’s come from such business. Yes, they do have those meetings, so they can praise and stroke each other and puff up their overinflated egos even more. And sometimes when they get back home, they talk about bringing back a great idea, something that worked in Fayetteville, N.C.; Boise, Idaho; or Chillicothe, Mo., but nothing ever comes of it as far as I can tell. Correct me if I’m wrong.

There are a lot of questions to be answered before Davis gets his own armed guard. For example, who would drive them to the airport? Would they both get to fly first class? Would the guard expect overtime pay after eight hours on the job at conferences? Would he charge for the hours he’s asleep at a luxury hotel while ostensibly guarding Davis? Would he agree to deduct the cost of eating at the lavish conference buffets from his overtime pay?

With all these questions about security, I called an expert, and all he did was raise more questions, the first of which was, “Is the security guard going to be expected to drive the vehicle? We all know the mayor is going to be let off at the front door. So who’s going to provide security while the security guard parks the vehicle?”

The expert also mentioned that while driving it would be very hard to provide sufficient security, i.e. looking for threats or places to eat.

Maybe the plan is to have the mayor drive the security guard. Or maybe there will be two security guards. That might be why in Davis' statement about a security meeting, he stated, “This discussion included specific questions about providing a security detail.”

By the way, no other mayor in Georgia has a security detail except the mayor of Atlanta.

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