Six Reasons Why CADI Should NOT Be Brought Back

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

"It's a deja vu all over again." Or in this case, It's CADI all over again. It's the issue that just won't seem to go away, despite the efforts of many determined downtown business owners and commissioners, who rejected its renewal last December.

But that won't stop proponents of a special tax district for downtown Augusta that nets between $350,000 and $400,000 in additional taxes. They've gotten out the lipstick and have applied it generously to the pig called CADI, that has already gobbled up nearly $2 million over the past 5 years, in hopes that Augusta commissioners will reconsider and give them more. Critics charge that CADI amounts to nothing more than a $2 million slush fund confiscated through deceit and controlled by an unelected politburo of downtown cronies.

Both sides will supposedly be able to make their case at this afternoon's commission meeting as to why or why not CADI should get a second life, but in this article we give SIX reasons why commissioners should vote against CADI once again.

#1: A Majority of Downtown Business and Property Owners Do NOT Support Renewal of CADI

A myth that has been perpetuated by the pro CADI crowd and  parroted by some members of the local media, is that a majority of downtown property owners are in favor of extending the program. They gleefully point to a petition that was circulated in the waning days of last December with supposedly 116 signatures in favor of renewing the special downtown tax district that funds CADI, and that this represents slightly more than 50% of all property owners within the district. But this "will of the majority" is all an illusion and based upon a rigged petition process.

There are 373 parcels of property in the BID area.  We found 14 that do not pay taxes (County property, Church, and other non profits) leaving 359 parcels that  pay the BID tax. CADI turned in 116 petitions  with 116 signatures covering 165 properties. That leaves 194 parcels that did NOT sign for CADI.

Of the pro CADI petitions, there were only 78 total signatures, meaning some people signed more than once.  GA Law OCGA 36-43-3 states Taxpayer means any entity or person paying ad valor em taxes on real or personal property, whether on one or more businesses or one or more parcels within a district. So, basically you are supposed to get only one vote no mater how many pieces of property you own.  To get around this they have several  different entities owning property.  They change the names of the entities by adding an initial or changing the spelling.

For example, Natalie B McLeod, who is the president of the CADI Board of Directors, signed two petitions listing the parcel property owner on one as 1106 Broad St. LLC and on the other listing the parcel owner as 1106 Broad Street  LLC. So by spelling street on one petition and by using an abbreviation  on another  she gets TWO votes.

Then we have Lynwood Smith listed as the parcel owner on one petition  and Lynwood C. Smith listed as the parcel owner on the second petition thus he gets two votes.  We have Fred Daitch signing two petitions with L. Daitch Properties LLC as the owner on one and F. Daitch Properties LLC on the other. Alonzo  P Boardman , Jr.  signed 5 petitions with the parcel owners as follows: Elizabeth F. Boardman Trust, Elizabeth Boardman Trust,  Elizabeth F. Boardman, Elizabeth F. Boardman ETA and finally Elizabeth Browning.  Bryan Halterman signed 12 petitions using different entities or businesses that he controls as the owner.  They are 1151 Broad St. LLC, 1126-30 Broad Street, Bentley Warehouse LLC, Bentley Building LLC,  Halterman Partners Inc, Castle Hall LLC, 1006-1008 Broad Street LLC,  Claussen Building LLC,  Rexall Drugstore LLC, Elliott Building LLC,  The Sylvester Building LLC, and finally Bryan M. Haltermann .  Georgia Bank and Trust CO and Georgia Railroad Bank and Trust Company had two petitions signed by R. Daniel Blanton, President.  Georgia Bank and Trust also services the CADI loan debt.

But even with this rigged process, all of these signatures that supposedly represent a majority of downtown property owners only account  for about $100,000 out of approximately $350,000 collected from the tax district. That comes to only about 30% who signed the petition in favor of extending CADI. That means that downtown property owners who pay 70% of the CADI taxes did not sign the petition in favor of renewing the program.

#2 There Is No Compelling Need for CADI

To listen to the pro CADI crowd, you would think that downtown was buried under a mountain of trash since the program was discontinued on January 1st. In an Augusta Chronicle article,  the CADI Board president Natalie McCleod was quoted as saying: "When you go downtown now that CADI is absent, you can tell in the dirtiness,.....The city doesn’t have the money or manpower to do it.”

But on a recent survey of downtown, it appeared that the city was doing a great job keeping the streets and sidewalks clean. We just didn't find the heaps of trash strewn all over that pro CADI alarmists keep hyping.

We tagged along with a couple of the members of a new downtown volunteer initiative called AVID (Augusta Volunteer Initiative for Downtown) this past weekend to see what the situation was with trash downtown . We walked Broad Street  from 13^th Street to 5^th Street and from Reynolds Street to Greene St. (all of downtown not just the BID area) picking up litter along the way. In that entire area, we only filled ONE trash bag that weighed 28 pounds.

This is after 3 months WITHOUT CADI. So, either  the city is doing its job or there isn't all that much trash. We covered the sidewalks, gutters, and medians. The main streets and the side streets.  It took us 3 hours. Community service workers and volunteers from groups like AVID can do this every Saturday morning and eliminate the need for a $400,000.00 a year extra tax.

And public sentiment seems to be on the side of the volunteer initiative. The AVID Facebook page has already garnered 208 "likes", whereas a pro CADI Facebook page created just a few days later has only managed to get 32 "likes" as of publishing this article.

#3 There Have Been NO Significant Changes to CADI Management Plan

One of the major reasons why the Augusta Commission voted not to renew The BID this past December was because of complaints that it never delivered on its initial promises. The chief selling point for the BID more than 5 years ago was that it would provide enhanced public safety, but that was never a component of CADI. For all intents and purposes, it has been nothing more than a very expensive trash removal service.

The only difference that we can find in this current proposal is that the BID millage rate will be uniform for all property owners in the district. Beyond that, nothing much has changed. There is no mention of enhanced security, business recruitment and retention, or promotion of downtown.

But of course any changes in the management plan, including the now uniform millage rate would mean that the petition from December of last year is moot and cannot be used to renew a modified CADI now.   The petition from last December states “We hereby petition you to initiate proceedings to renew the Downtown Augusta Business  Improvement District known as the Clean Augusta Downtown Initiative in accordance with the State of Georgia, City Business Improvement District Act for the purpose of executing the management district plan included with and made a part of this petition”

So if CADI changes the plan then the petition is no longer valid. Their plan is to ask the Commission to change the management plan for them. In other words, they want the Commission to change the plan CADI says the majority of the property owners voted for. Talk about disregarding the wishes of the voters.  How about CADI changing the plan and then putting it back in front of the PEOPLE to either vote it up or down?

#4: CADI Amounts to Taxation Without Representation

As we already told you, the rigged petition process was designed to allow only 30% of downtown property owners to impose a new tax on the other 70%. To make matters worse, an unelected  CADI Board of Directors oversees the more than $350,000 collected annually in the tax district. The Augusta Commission had concerns about the make up of the CADI Board back in December. This new Board is supposed to include pro and anti CADI people. The current Board is the same pro CADI people that have governed it for the past 5 years.

Natalie McLeod, who serves on the CADI board of directors is also a member of The DDA. Sanford Lloyd also serves on both the DDA and the CADI board of directors. Paul King and Bryan Halterman, who both have long associations with the DDA, also both serve on the CADI board of directors.

The board of directors of the BID should represent all of the business and property owners in the tax district. There have so far been no open elections to assemble such a board. Who chose Natalie Mcleod to be serve as Board chairperson?  For that matter, when was there ever an open election to choose any of these current  board members? Whose interests do they really represent if they most downtown property owners have had no say so in their selection? How can this unelected board rightfully have the authority to decide how nearly $2 million in taxes are spent?

CADI proponents also claim they will change  the way the Board is selected in December. Well, how about we wait to consider authorizing a new BID until the NEW Board is elected in an open and fair election?

#5: No Accountability

Why should Commissioners even consider re instituting a program that cannot account for nearly $2 million in taxes that were collected and spent over the previous 5 years? No one has been able to adequately explain how  8 CADI workers making just barely above minimum wage has managed to cost downtown property owners nearly $2 million over 5 years. There has to date been no audit of the program. There is no oversight from city administrator Fred Russell and no one can explain how the current or the previous CADI board was chosen.

We have also heard reports of the CADI board holding secret meetings leading up to today's Commission meeting and purposefully excluding downtown property owners who have been critical of the program. So much for outreach. And this should concern commissioners greatly: that the bulk of downtown business owners continue to be excluded by this  pro CADI politburo.

#6: The Commission Has Already Settled This Issue

At the last scheduled Commission meeting of  2012, extension of the Business Improvement District and CADI for another 5 years was voted down. That should have settled the issue, but here we are again. According to the city charter, an agenda item must muster SIX votes in order to pass. CADI proponents failed to assemble these six votes, so The BID and CADI expired at the stroke of midnight on January 1st, 2013.

Per the CADI Board minutes on 1-25-2013 Fred Russell advised that the BID ceased to exist as of January 1, 2013. How can you renew something that no longer exists?  Are we now rewriting the rules of how the commission passes an agenda item? Shouldn't "No" mean "No" the first time? The same reasons why The Augusta Commission rejected renewal of CADI back in December still exist today.

Very little has changed to the program and the same people are trying to circumvent the rules to sneak it back in against the will of the majority those paying the tax. Perhaps District 7 Commissioner Donnie Smith put it best when he was quoted by the Augusta Chronicle saying "They’re repacking and rehashing the same stuff.......It’s still the same old small group trying to control the thing.” Indeed.

There is a legal progress to re institute a new BID downtown sometime in the future, but the pro CADI group is doing everything they can to circumvent that process. Before any new BID is entertained, all affected property owners downtown must be included in the process. It must be more than just an expensive sidewalk sweeping service but should also include enhanced security, business recruitment and retention, and promotion of downtown. There first needs to be an open and fair election to for choosing a board of directors rather that installing a politburo of cronies. There must be a new petition process that is not rigged to favor one side over the other. That means no duplicate votes for favored individuals. Also the tax district should encompass what is generally considered to be the entire downtown central business district and not gerrymandered in such a way to yield a predetermined result and exclude property that might be critical of the program. All sectors of the downtown community should have adequate representation on the board of directors. And lastly, the requisite waiting period under Georgia law should pass before this issue should even be brought up again. That should give people plenty of time to get this right and demonstrate if there is truly a need for it in the first place.

But why not try the Volunteer Initiative (AVID) first? If the same services can be achieved with community volunteers organized by downtown block captains for free instead of costing downtown property owners nearly $2 million over a 5 year period, shouldn't that be given a chance? You have to ask yourself why this same small pro CADI clique is so determined to get their hands on this tax tax money. Is it really to benefit downtown or is it to benefit them?

It's frankly an insult to commissioners and the downtown business owners who have tirelessly fought against CADI to have this issue continuously brought back up week after week after week. With these six reasons explaining why CADI should not be resurrected, let's hope there are at least six commissioners who will do the right thing today and vote to finally put this issue to rest..***
OS

Related Articles:

• Will Cadi be Brought Back from the Dead?
• Could AVID replace Cadi?
• Is Downtown Throwing Money Away on Cadi?

Could AVID Replace CADI?

Thursday, March 21, 2013
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

A group of downtown business owners are putting together an alternative to the controversial CADI program that will aim to keep downtown clean without costing property owners $350,000 in additional taxes. The program is called AVID and it stands for Augusta Volunteer Initiative for Downtown. As the name suggests, AVID relies on volunteers to keep downtown sidewalks clean. According to the AVID press release, downtown property and business owners are being asked to signed a pledge agreeing to keep the sidewalks in front of their business or property clean to the best of their ability, to direct lost visitors to their destinations and report any suspicious behavior. The group has already set up a Facebook page here: AVID Augusta.

AVID organizers say that downtown Augusta can be kept clean without the added expense and bureaucracy of the CADI program as long as downtown businesses agree to do their part. Organizers ask for citizens to email questions or concerns to AvidAugusta@gmail.com. You can read the full press release below:

Welcome to AVID Augusta by CityStink Augusta

Will CADI Be Brought Back From the Dead?

March 19, 2013
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

Like a zombie in a B horror movie, bad ideas never really die in Augusta. Instead, they lurk in the shadows waiting for the next sequel to make their attack on new unsuspecting victims. Such is the case with the latest efforts to resurrect the CADI program (Clean Augusta Downtown Initiative). Just three months after the Augusta Commission rejected renewing the downtown Business Improvement District (BID) and its companion CADI program, proponents are on the schedule at this afternoon's commission meeting  to speak out in favor of giving the program a second life.

It's being packaged as a "new and improved" CADI, but upon closer inspection, it's just more of the same. CADI proponents made a big deal about distancing themselves from the Downtown Development Authority and its executive director Margaret Woodard in hopes that severing ties with the DDA would improve the chances for a 2nd shot at renewing CADI. However, the CADI board of directors is full of the same DDA cronies today as it was before. Byrd Warlick, the attorney for the DDA is on the agenda at today's commission meeting speaking out in favor of renewing the program.  Natalie McLeod, who serves on the CADI board of directors is also a member of The DDA. Sanford Lloyd also  serves on both the DDA and the CADI board of directors.  Paul King and Bryan Halterman, who both have long associations with the DDA, also both serve on the CADI board of directors. In fact the board of directors of CADI is nearly identical to what it was last year. Nothing has changed.

Also, we found that certain property owners are represented on the CADI board of directors even though they have not paid their property taxes, and thus into the Business Improvement District. Travers Paine III, another CADI board member, also signed the renewal petition for Augusta Green Inc at 811 Broad St, a property where he also serves on the board of directors. Public records show that 811 Broad St is delinquent for   $6,762 in property taxes from 2012 and is also delinquent for 2011 property taxes, yet Mr. Paine still serves on the board of directors for CADI, which wants to impose a tax on other downtown property owners to fund its operations. Should representatives of properties delinquent in their property taxes be allowed to serve on the CADI board of directors?

Only minor changes have been made to the CADI proposal that failed to win over commission support this past December. In this latest incarnation, all property owners within the district will pay the same tax rate. Augusta Riverfront LLC, the owners of the Augusta Marriott, were paying a lower rate under the previous tax district. Beyond that though, it is still mainly just a glorified cleaning service that will cost downtown property owners around $350,000 per year. Critics of the program still question the high cost of a program that employees only about 7 to 8 workers making around $9 per hour. And independent audit has yet to be conducted to determine just how the approximately $1,750,000 that was collected over the previous 5 year period of the business improvement district was spent.

In this latest CADI proposal, there is no mention of public safety, and many downtown business owners say that was how the business improvement district was sold to them in the first place. CADI critics also question the need for an additional tax on downtown property owners when the city seems to be doing a good job keeping downtown clean. They cite the recent St. Patrick's Day parade which fell on a Saturday. City cleaning crews were out in force this year picking up trash soon after the parade ended. It was a different sight last year when sidewalks were strewn with trash and empty beer bottles for days following the event. That was when downtown had CADI. Critics of the program say that this illustrates that CADI was merely displacing city services for which downtown business owners were already paying. Under the guidelines for creating a business improvement district, these services should be supplemental rather than a substitute for existing city services.

The refrain from CADI proponents is that a majority of downtown property owners signed a petition wanting   renewal of the program; however, upon closer inspection, that is bending the truth, to say the least. An Augusta Chronicle report revealed that only 78 individuals were responsible for the 116 signatures  in favor of renewing CADI. Bryan Halterman was responsible for a dozen signatures. Paul King provided 8 and Alonzo Boardman provided 6. According to the Chronicle report, all 116 signatories only represents about $103,066 of the taxes collected in the BID. That's less than a third, but proponents still claim that renewal of CADI represents the will of a majority of downtown property owners.

There has been virtually no outreach to downtown property owners who opposed CADI last time and no effort to include their concerns in the process.

Since it would take unanimous consent from commissioners to add consideration of approval of CADI to today's agenda, no action is expected on the program's future today. However, the way in which CADI proponents managed to get on the agenda to speak after the deadline had passed is raising some eyebrows. Only a commissioner or the mayor can add someone to the agenda to speak after the regular deadline has passed. Byrd Warlick was apparently added by District 1 Commissioner Bill Fennoy, who is also asking that commissioners add renewal of CADI to today's commission agenda. CADI critics are calling foul saying that this last minute maneuvering denies them a chance to speak out against the program. Last December, renewal of CADI failed to receive the needed 6 votes for passage, but now there are 4 new faces on the commission.

Beyond the CADI issue, this disturbing trend of agenda items being brought back before commissioners over and over again after already having been rejected begs for reform. Also, if speakers can be added to the commission agenda after the official deadline has passed then opponents should be afforded the same courtesy. If commissioners want to take unanimous action on something at today's meeting perhaps they should consider imposing a minimum waiting period before previously rejected agenda items can be brought back before the commission. Also they should consider reforming the process for citizens to be placed on the agenda to speak before the commission. Either make it easier for all citizens to address the body at the last minute (Columbia County allows citizens to sign up to address commissioners right before the meetings) or end the favoritism that allows commissioners to add certain people to the commission agenda at the last minute, thus circumventing the process and denying opponents the right to speak.

Critics of the CADI program though say it is time to put a stake in the heart of this monster once and for all.***

OS

Facts from the 2012 CADI ANNUAL REPORT
Segway/Bike 3283 yearly hours or 9 hours a day to accomplish the following:

• 59 Yearly Panhandle reports or about I a week
• 5605 Yearly merchant visits or 15 a day or 2 and hour
• Assistance per year 767 or 2 a day
• 1939 handbills removed or 5 a day
• 11 Police assistance calls for the years or less than 1 a month
• 6 Augusta Cares calls or one every two months
• 58 bags of garbage removed per week from the public trash cans 

ALL THIS FOR $350,000.00 A YEAR
IS IT REALLY WORTH IT?

Commissioners Nix BID and Bridge to No Where

Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

The Mayan calendar supposedly predicted that the world would end at the  close of 2012, but perhaps what they really meant was that Augusta's controversial downtown Business Improvement District and the frivolous TEE Center sky walk would  have no future. In a marathon meeting yesterday, the last of 2012, Augusta commissioners decided not to renew the BID and its companion CADI (Clean Augusta Downtown Initiative) and the proposed "Bridge to No Where" spanning Reynolds street connecting the new convention center and its parking deck failed to receive the needed 6 votes for approval.

Bye Bye BID

Perhaps receiving the most attention at yesterday's meeting was the proposed renewal of the BID. Up until the last minute, it was not even certain if the DDA had secured the needed 110 signatures from select downtown property owners to even bring the item before the commission for a vote. As of late last week, they were 20 short, and they received a major blow when the largest property owner in the district, William S Morris III and his related companies, came out against renewal. But late on Monday, the DDA miraculously pulled the necessary signatures seemingly out of thin air, getting 4 more than the minimum necessary. But that did not sway commissioners. Wayne Guilfoyle, Bill Lockett, Alvin Mason, Joe Jackson and Joe Bowles all voted against renewing the controversial program. Commissioners Matt Aitken, JR Hatney, Jerry Brigham , and Corey Johnson voted to keep it. Outgoing commissioner Matt Aitken made a motion to renew the program with new provisions, but it failed to receive 6 votes for approval.

Critics of the BID maintained that just because the DDA managed to  scrape up the bare minimum of needed signatures to bring it before the commission did not mean that it had the support of a majority of downtown business and property owners. Robin Schweitzer, a downtown business owner, spoke out against the BID at yesterday's meeting and pointed out that it did not cover all of the Central Business District and was purposefully gerrymandered to insure its passage in 2007. But even under the DDA's selectively hand drawn BID, they were barely able to get the  minimum number of signatures for renewal. Former commissioner Andy Cheek, who served on the commission when the BID was first enacted, also spoke out against renewing it in an afternoon public meeting. He said that the DDA had mismanaged the program from the very beginning and never delivered on their promises to provide enhanced security downtown.

Paul King, a prominent downtown property manager, showed up with a posse clad in bright yellow t-shirts emblazoned with "I'm 4 CADI." Observers noted that most of them were employees of the program and tenants and employees of Mr. King. He appealed to commissioners to save the program, admitting that some mistakes were made but gave no specifics how the program would be corrected if continued.  Commissioners questioned the logic of renewing a program with so many flaws and failed promises. Several commissioners questioned how 7 to 9 hourly wage sidewalk sweepers could cost downtown business owners in excess of $350,000 a year and said the entire program begged for an audit. We have attempted to gain access to the books of the BID and CADI for previous stories and have received nothing but stonewalling from the DDA and their attorneys.

Some political observers are questioning why  Paul King was the main spokesperson for renewing the BID at the commission meeting yesterday, instead of DDA director Margaret Woodard, and this lead to people asking who is really pulling the strings at the DDA. We will have more about Mr King  in an upcoming article.

The Bridge to No Where Goes No Where

An agenda item that was expected to gain easy approval yesterday was the proposed sky walk connecting the new convention center to the new parking deck across Reynolds Street; however, it also failed to receive the needed six votes for approval. Championed by Joe Bowles, who had placed it on the agenda, the sky walk was estimated to cost close to $1 million. Bowles said that money that was left over from construction of the deck would pay for it, but others questioned the need to spend that money on something that was not  necessary and instead proposed putting the money in the bank or spending it on something that was actually needed.

With a bit of theatrics, Bowles made an impassioned plea for approval of the skywalk, citing recent pedestrian deaths in Augusta. Bowles said he did not want "to have blood on his hands" if a pedestrian was struck and killed crossing Reynolds Street trying to access the convention center. Critics of the skywalk asked why not spend the money to improve the safety at intersections that actually do have a history of pedestrian fatalities like Washington and Peach Orchard roads. Reynolds Street is relatively safe for pedestrians. Also in a bit of irony, traffic engineers said that a flashing billboard proposed for the skywalk would actually make Reynolds Street less safe for motorists and pedestrians. Under the management agreement for the convention center, Augusta Riverfront LLC would have received all profits from advertising on the electronic billboard on the skywalk.

Striking out yet again on both items was Mayor Deke Copenhaver, who even went on TV endorsing passage of the skywalk and also supported renewing the BID. Lori Davis, however can chalk up two more political victories. She helped mobilize opposition to renewing the BID and also fought approval of the skywalk. Davis took to her government watchdog Facebook group yesterday and asked citizens to email all of the commissioners and urge them to vote "No" on both agenda items. Davis says she has a lot more planned for the coming year.***
OS

Related Stories:

• Is Downtown Throwing Money Away on CADI
• Corporal Gripweed: Commissioners Should Pull the Plug on BID/CADI
• The King of DDA Pork
• Ignored Study Raises Doubts About Need for Parking Deck

Coming Up Tomorrow: We discuss the ballpark and adjacent development proposed for the North Augusta riverfront known as Project Jackson.

The Winners and Losers From The District 1 Runoff

Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

It has been a week since Bill Fennoy trounced incumbent Matt Aitken in the District 1 runoff on December 4.   This was a reversal of fortunes from three years ago when the same two candidates met in an early December runoff for this same seat with Matt Aitken taking it with 54% of the vote. Turnout was even lower this time -- at around 19% of all registered voters-- but Fennoy still managed to win by a margin close to 700 votes. Yes, it was a rout and a clear rebuke of Aitken's performance on the commission for the past three years. Some political pundits were predicting that Aitken might squeak out another win because of the lower than expected turnout, but an analysis of the vote shows that the precincts that had the lowest overall turnout were the ones Aitken needed most to secure reelection. Bottom line is -- there was not nearly as much enthusiasm for Aitken this time around and many of the people who voted for him in 2009 simply stayed home last Tuesday.

Despite the low turnout, this was perhaps the most widely watched of all of the commission races this year. Aitken's victory 3 years ago disrupted the 5-5 racial split on the commission that existed since the beginning of consolidation, giving white commissioners a 6 to 4 majority. Many leaders in Augusta's black community said that this resulted in Augusta's black majority being politically marginalized and allowed for legislation to be rammed through with little discussion or compromise. In essence -- whomever has a 6 member voting bloc has control of the commission, and many black members of the commission felt like they had been rendered irrelevant. Now that 5-5 balance has been restored, and depending on whom you ask, that either means more gridlock on the commission or a necessity to compromise.

So what should people expect from this new commission? Some political pundits say that gridlock just might be a good thing for the Augusta Commission if it halts bad deals like the TEE Center and Parking deck and a publicly financed baseball stadium which voters have indicated they overwhelmingly oppose. So we thought it would be interesting to examine who are the big winners and losers from the results of the District 1 race. We will dispense with the obvious -- the candidates themselves -- and take a look at who else won or lost last  night. Let's start off with the big losers:

The Losers 

Mayor Deke Copenhaver: The mayor staked a lot of his own political capital on the reelection of Matt Aitken. He openly endorsed him, appeared in slick mail outs and he even made robo calls to voters encouraging them to give Matt a second term. The clear rebuke of his candidate shows that the mayor may not be the hot commodity he once was. There was a time when having even a subtle nod from the "mandate mayor" was considered political gold -- and Deke seemed to have the Midas touch. But now it seems like the mayor's golden halo has become a little tarnished. From continuing to push the unpopular ballpark to being on the wrong side of the TEE Center debate to acquiescing on GRU, many people are starting to rethink the mayor's legacy altogether.

And what about that ballpark on which the mayor has staked most of his mayoral legacy? Well, after last Tuesday night, it's as good as dead -- at least in the form Deke has been pushing -- a taxpayer financed facility located downtown.  Dr Ricardo Azziz struck a major blow to Deke's ballpark fantasies when he took control of the Golf and Gardens property earlier this year, but many political insiders tell us that Deke had not given up and was eyeing the old Post Office building downtown across from the James Brown arena. But Deke needed Matt Aitken's vote for the ballpark proposal to have any future -- and Matt had proven to be a reliable supporter of  his plans. He even introduced a motion last year on the commission that would have committed the city to a public-private partnership  with Ripken Baseball for construction of a new stadium. Knowing what we know from the TEE Center debacle, the term "public-private partnership" is code for "The public pays all of the costs and the private sector gets all of the benefits." Now with Matt Aitken off the commission, the mayor's hopes in getting a new ballpark approved before he leaves office in two years are crushed-- like peanut shells in the stands after the end of a double-header.


Fred Russell: Augusta's city administrator has been skating on thin ice for years, but like a monster from a cheesy horror film, he always manages to come back from the dead. Efforts to fire Russell have failed in  the past, with votes typically falling along racial lines -- black commissioners voting to get rid of him and white commissioners voting to keep him. But with the new makeup of the commission, Russell's luck may have just ran out. Even commissioners who had voted to keep Russell in the past have said they have been very unhappy with his handling of the TEE Center and would likely support his firing if it were brought up again. The sticking point though has always been Russell's replacement and watch for a real fight over that if he is shown the exit, and it may happen a lot sooner than you think. So could this be a curtain call for Russell-Mania? Our Magic 8-Ball says "Most Definitely."

Queen Madge and the DDA: Another big loser after Matt Aitken's defeat is the Downtown Development Authority and its executive director Margaret Woodard. Aitken had been perhaps the biggest supporter of the DDA on the commission -- in fact,  he is a product of the DDA and even announced his 2009 candidacy in front of the ill-fated Broad Street clock -- the same clock that the DDA moved to the airport against the wishes of many downtown business owners.

 There have also been a lot of rumblings from these small business owners downtown about the performance of the DDA's CADI program, and many say that they were initially mislead by Margaret Woodard and the DDA about what services the BID (business improvement district) would provide when it was approved 5 years ago, saying that it was promoted as providing enhanced public safety downtown but has become little more than a very expensive litter removal program. Now, the BID is coming up for renewal and many business owners are lobbying against it. Ultimately, the commission will decide its fate -- and with Aitken gone, things could tilt in favor of the opponents of the BID and CADI program. But beyond that, many downtown business owners say the real problem is the DDA itself,  describing it as bureaucracy out of control that acts with complete disregard to everyone except themselves and their cronies. Even the BID board of directors is packed with DDA cronies and the company that administers the CADI  program is  headed by none other than cronies of the DDA.

Retail business owners say that since the DDA has usurped more power from downtown merchants associations, that business has sharply declined and Margaret Woodard often plays favorites, steering lucrative state grants and business leads to her cronies. We predict that there will be a push to significantly curtail the power of the DDA and its executive director, and  the new makeup of the commission makes that more likely. Also look for an effort to defund the DDA at the county level which would essentially eliminate the executive director's position. Queen Madge might finally be dethroned.

Mobility Transit: One of the big efforts over the past 3 years has been the privatizing of certain city amenities and services, with the most notable being the public bus system. The city contracted with an outfit named Mobility Transit and it has been a bumpy ride to say the least. There were the reports of unpaid bills and the cancellation of employee health benefits because of lack of payment by Mobility. People wondered how a company like Mobility Transit got the contract in the first place. Their track record in providing transit services in other locales seems to be non existent. Look for Mobility to get the ax in the coming year, and it's a good bet that the public bus service will go back to being an in-house operation. Also look for the new commission to put the brakes on efforts to privatize other city services and amenities like The Patch golf course.

Billy Morris & Paul Simon: Perhaps the biggest losers from last Tuesday's election were the men behind Augusta Riverfront LLC, the owner of the downtown Marriott hotel and soon-to-be managers of Augusta's new convention center (formerly known as the TEE Center). Morris and Simon have managed to get a lot from Augusta taxpayers over the years and Matt Aitken was only more than happy to give them more. When it came to managing the new parking deck and convention center, Matt Aitken was more than happy to sign away the city's rights to any profits and essentially hand over a blank check to Augusta Riverfront LLC that would allow them to loot the city's general fund. Even when other commissioners balked at the hideously bad   contracts, Matt Aitken just "wanted to move forward", which is essentially code for "Just give Billy and Paul whatever they want." Well, with Matt gone from the commission at the end of the year, the taxpayer gravy train that has been chugging down Reynolds street may finally be coming to a halt.

The Winners

Lori Davis: Initially a declared candidate for the District 1 seat, Lori Davis decided not to enter the race the week before qualifying. Some of her critics misconstrued this as her "giving up" out of frustration, but Davis had no intention of calling it quits. And if her critics thought she was going away, they were sadly mistaken. Instead, Davis contended, her efforts would be better used by fighting government waste and corruption on multiple fronts, and being consumed by a political campaign would have distracted from those efforts. However, Lori Davis made it clear that District 1 needed someone other than Matt Aitken, someone whom she supported 3 years ago. But things had changed and promises were broken. Davis has been fighting a six year battle to rid nuisance properties from Harrisburg and to make absentee landlords more accountable for their properties and the negative impact they have on the surrounding community.

When Matt Aitken courted Lori Davis' support in the 2009 run-off, he promised to support a Chronic Nuisance Property Ordinance (CNPO) and even said he would ask the state legislative delegation to introduce a bill in Atlanta to enable communities to draft effective CNPOs. Those promises were never kept, and once Aitken got on the commission, Davis says that phone calls and emails to Aitken were rarely returned. Instead, Aitken was focused on things like a riverfront ballpark, the TEE Center and further enabling the DDA. So this time around, Davis threw her support behind Bill Fennoy, even appearing in television ads for him. We believe that Fennoy's trouncing of Aitken last Tuesday was in no small part due to the endorsement from Davis. One lesson that should come out of this is: Do not underestimate Lori Davis. We suspect that this new commission will be more amenable to the drafting of a sound CNPO and we would not be surprised to see Lori Davis have a seat on one of the local boards that could make this happen.

Commissioner Bill Lockett: With the commission now returning to a 5-5 balance, it's safe to say that there will be a whole new dynamic at play after the new year, and with that, there will be the need for new leadership from both factions in order for anything to advance in the commission. We see two clear leaders emerging under this new paradigm, and one of them is Commissioner Bill Lockett. As one of the more senior members of the commission and one of the most educated, Lockett dives right into the details on most issues. Lockett come prepared to ask tough questions and never takes anything at face value and always wants to see it "in writing." Some political observers say that with Marion Williams coming back to the commission, Lockett will be overshadowed. We do not agree with that assessment. In fact, we predict that Lockett's presence will temper Williams to a great degree. Lockett will prepare him and other commissioners with relevant information before meetings so that they can ask pertinent questions. We suspect the other commissioners will defer to Lockett's experience and his attention to detail on complicated issues.

Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle: Though he endorsed Matt Aitken in the run-off, Guilfoyle now stands to become one of the  most powerful men on the commission. Though most political observers like to say the commission is now split 5-5 along racial lines, others point out that it's actually 5-4-1. You see, Wayne Guilfoyle is actually of mixed race -- half white and half Asian. Though Guilfoyle typically caucuses with the white members of the commission since being elected two years ago, he has routinely shown an independent streak, often being a swing vote. And the fact that his voting pattern tends to be unpredictable will make him perhaps the most powerful member of the commission after January 1st. Being of mixed race, Guilfoyle can refuse to play the white vs black dynamic and in the process he can become the main power broker on the commission. For anything to pass on the commission, it needs six votes, and now, no one faction has that majority. We suspect that Wayne Guilfoyle's phone will be ringing a lot this next year, and with Bowles gone from the commission, expect to see a lot more of Wayne Guilfole on the evening news. Also watch for Guilfoyle to bring more attention to issues of importance to South Augusta in the coming year.

South Augusta: With Commissioners Guilfoyle and Lockett gaining more prominence on the commission, look for South Augusta to be more in the spotlight. Both commissioners represent districts that encompass the southside. The new dynamic has shifted power away from the downtown power brokers and out towards South Augusta. Expect to see movement on reforming Augusta's tax code, how trash pick up is handled and billed to  South Augusta, and revitalization efforts for inner south Augusta neighborhoods like the Gordon Highway corridor and Deans Bridge Rd.

Small Downtown Business Owners: With South Augusta gaining more prominence politically after this election, it might seem counter intuitive to include downtown small business owners in the winners column. Quite the contrary! As mentioned earlier, one of the ramifications of last week's election is that the power of the Downtown Development Authority has been significantly weakened, and that puts small business owners in the downtown core in a stronger position than ever. Just yesterday, the DDA and its executive director Margaret Woodard were put in the hot seat over the renewal of the BID (Business Improvement District). Mike Walraven, a small business owner downtown, spoke out against renewal of the BID and its companion CADI program, calling it "another tax". Commissioners grilled Woodard on how the program was misrepresented to downtown property owners and the undemocratic way the Board of Directors for the BID was installed. Look for downtown business owners to have a greater role now in the future direction of the central business district, instead of it being monopolized by the DDA and their cronies.

Bus Riders: Augusta has long been plagued by a less than adequate public transit system, but it has not always been this bad. There was a time when there were actually bus stops on Broad Street in the heart of downtown. Now, the closest you can get is the awkwardly located bus transfer station west of 15th street. People who depend on the bus -- often the poor, disabled and elderly -- have long complained of  long waits, unpredictable schedules and a lack of routes to places people need to go. Downtown business owners say that since the busses were removed from downtown, retail has suffered and it has become harder for them to attract workers who rely on public transit. Bill Fennoy made improving public transit a central theme of his campaign, and we suspect there may now be the political will to actually make it happen. This may involve building new partnerships with the new merged university and downtown business owners to help pay for expanded bus service in the city's urban core -- where it is most needed. Also, look for efforts to improve service in South Augusta and out to business centers like The Augusta Mall and The Augusta Exchange. We expect one of the first things commissioners might do in January is take one of those "Magical Mystery Tours"  on a city bus to get a sense of how the transit system can be improved... but this time they ought to ride it like the average daily user does.. with delays and all. ***

Stay Tuned: More to Come

Enslaved Forever on the TEE Plantation

Monday, November 12, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

Now all Augustans lie prostrate to Massa Billy and Massa Paul, thanks to the 6-3 vote of the Augusta Commission to pass the TEE Center deal last Thursday, November 8, 2012. White, black, Mexican, Korean, Chinese or Indian, the entire City of Augusta is now enslaved to Billy Morris and Paul Simon or, if you believe Augusta radio talker Austin Rhodes at WGAC, the Morris children.

No one can really tell who the owners of the new TEE Center management company are because it didn’t even exist until last month and it was registered by an intermediary to keep the ownership hidden, something Augusta’s procurement policies seem to prohibit. It will just have to suffice that the person’s listed on various documents for the original Morris/Simon LLC suggest that the Morris family are the principal owners. Even the Augusta Chronicle, who has acted throughout the TEE escapades as a front for these shadowy LLC’s, has been forced to weakly acknowledge that there are ties with Morris Communications.

The place where they put the permanent shackles on the people was originally supposed to be Augusta’s wonderful new TEE Center, but the massas had confiscated the building before the last concrete set up. They weren’t content to just stick spurs in horses over there in their Hippodrome in Aiken County, now the children all across Richmond County find themselves bound to a plantation and they didn’t have to move to Morris’ Creek Plantation, Wade Plantation, Butterfield Plantation or Millhaven Plantation to do it.

When you are in Augusta, you don’t move to the plantation, the plantation comes to you. Worse of all, the legalese says you and your descendants are slaves to the Morris massa’s TEE House FOREVER!!!
Yes. You read that right.

Mayor Deke Copenhaver and Administrator Fred Russell cheered as Commissioner Corey Johnson, Commissioner Matt Aitken and four other commissioners voted for this:

“Term of this Agreement” shall mean the period of time commencing on the date of this Agreement and continuing in perpetuity for so long as the TEE Center is in existence and shall include the period of time following any casualty with respect to the TEE Center for so long as City has the right to rebuild the TEE Center.

Now reader, you are just about to read the last part of that and tell me it is a way out of the Tee Center for Augusta because it ends when the TEE no longer exists.  Well, it is like the old tale of Dem Bones – “Toe bone connected to the foot bone: Foot bone connected to the leg bone: Leg bone connected to the knee bone….." You just have to make the connections to get the whole body of facts.
Reading on:

During the Term of this Agreement (perpetuity), City shall, at its sole cost and expense, maintain the TEE Center to the Standard for so long as the TEE Center shall exist.

Getting a better picture now, reader? The “Standard” is whatever Billy and Paul’s interpretation of what their Marriott Hotel says it is and Augusta has to pay whatever it takes to meet their ‘Standard.’ That sounds expensive already, doesn’t it?

Now you Doubting Thomases who are left thinking that this pay-out to Morris and Simon isn’t FOREVER, get with the program. “The knee bone is connected to the thigh bone, and the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.” And so it goes with the Tee Center. You follow the boneyard and find out it is the TEE Center. Now a Doubting Thomas would say “Well, if Augusta decides to contract with someone else or close down the Tee Center, we can stop paying them or stop paying costs on their behalf, right?”
This isn’t exactly true, according to the contract:

The parties acknowledge that Developer has an important interest in insuring that the TEE Center is maintained in accordance with the Standard, whether or not Developer serves as the Manager or Caterer. Accordingly, this Agreement, and particularly this section of this Agreement, may be enforced by Developer. (Developer is the Morris/Simon)

In other words the Morris/Simon massa still has the power over the taxpayer, even if their contract is lifted.

Are you getting a queasy feeling in your stomach, Hephzibah? So you on Warren Road think that the TEE plantation you are on will meet an emancipation proclamation that sets you and all your descendants free from PERPETUAL bondage? Dear readers might still not be convinced that the TEE Center is their massa FOREVER. It’s time to read some more:

During the Term of this Agreement (PERPETUITY, remember?), City shall, at its sole cost and expense, procure and keep in effect fire and extended coverage for the TEE Center and all personal property located thereon, including rent loss or business interruption …, in amounts at no time less than the total replacement cost therefor. Such policy referred to above shall name City and Developer as loss payee and additional insureds, as their interest may appear.

So, there you have it. Augusta has to pay for the TEE Plantation in PERPETUITY and pay to insure that it is replaced in PERPETUITY. If it is destroyed, the Morris/Simon hotels are almost certain to be destroyed too, so replacement would be driven more by the Morris/Simon decision on what to do with their hotel complex than anything Augusta decides.

How great is the claim on Augusta’s tax system to pay for the TEE Plantation? On the financing side, the project was built using general obligation sales tax bonds, as certifications by the Construction Manager, R.W. Allen attest. General obligation bonds are backed by the fullest ability of Augusta to tax people out of their homes and businesses out into the street. On the operations side of the TEE Plantation, hoteliers get looted for the first $250,000 (another $100,000 goes into capital spending), but then the rest of the TEE Center losses come out of the General Fund, which also is fed by the power to tax folks into poverty. When a contract like the TEE contract gets executed, that obligation comes before paying for essential city services, like fire and police protection.

Now that the whole skeleton of bones has been assembled, the full picture of the TEE Center deal is this – All of the people of Augusta-Richmond County, their children, and descendants are now under double general obligations to the extent of the value of all of their property to the Morris children and descendants in PERPETUITY.

Get used to the shackles and chains that Mayor Deke put you into.  Only death or getting out of Augusta will give relief.

Can you say that you’ve been TEE-totally subjugated?
It sure looks this way to an Outsider.***
OS

Commissioners Should Call Paul Simon's Bluff

Monday, October 29, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

Well here we go again. Just a week has passed since the  contract with Augusta Riverfront LLC to manage  the TEE Center failed to get six commission votes for approval and once again commissioners will revisit the issue today at noon. During the waning hours of Friday, Mayor Deke Copenhaver called for the special meeting of the commission for today to approve the management contract like he did a week ago. This tactic is to keep critics of the contract from being able to get on the agenda to speak out against it. Bottom line is: Mayor Copenhaver is bound and determined to ram this thing through at all costs.

And the costs could be very high for the taxpayers if this contract is approved today. We found out a couple of weeks ago that operating losses for the TEE Center would be around $900,000 a year -- and the city would be on the hook for all of it. Mind you, these are the numbers coming from Paul Simon of Augusta Riverfront LLC, and if history is any guide in regard to their numbers, you can probably double those figures. That means that the new convention center could be a drain on the city's general fund. Compounding these losses are loopholes in the contract that allow Augusta Riverfront LLC to shift their personnel expenses over to the city and even give out generous bonuses to their staff and stick the city of Augusta with the bill.

So what has changed with this contract in the past week? Absolutely nothing. It's the same bad deal for the taxpayers that commissioners rejected last Monday. The mayor is hoping that he can persuade at least one or two commissioners to give in and approve the same contract today. He sent out an email this past Friday imploring commissioners to approve the contract at today's special meeting and warned of losses and stigmatization of the facility if conventions have to be cancelled. The mayor is either terribly naive or being purposefully disingenuous.  Let's hope enough commissioners don't buy the Mayor's lame argument. As we understand it, the Mayor may have even lost two votes since last week. We shall see after the results come in from today's meeting.

Manufactured Crisis
Paul Simon of Augusta Riverfront LLC has been threatening commissioners with the prospect of convention cancellations as a means to force them to approve this hideously lopsided contract. It's all a ruse and it reminds us of another manufactured crisis from the Fall of 2009, when commissioners were being given a similar ultimatum to approve the TEE center or risk losing a new Hyatt Place hotel. Well here we are three years later and there are still no signs of that hotel. You can read more about that in our previous story: The Hotel that Never Was.

Now why did Augusta Riverfront LLC wait until the 11th hour to bring a management contract forth? Why was this not done months or even years ago? Why? Because by waiting until the last minute, Paul Simon can manufacture a crisis and get the contract he wants -- not the contract that is best for the city. In fact, this current contract was drawn up nearly entirely by his attorneys at Hull Barrett.What kind of partnership is that? What were the attorneys hired by the city doing all of this time? You would think the attorneys for both parties would have gotten together in a room and drawn up a contract -- with each side compromising on certain points, overall giving both sides a contract with which they were satisfied. But that did not happen. Here we have a contract drawn up by the attorneys for the other side being dropped in the laps of commissioners at the last minute with them being told they must approve it -- or else.

Or else what? To hear Paul Simon and Mayor Copenhaver tell it, the new convention center would lose out on conventions scheduled in January if this stinking pile of crap they are calling a management contract is not approved today. It's all a bluff. Let's remind everyone that the city is already loosing $900,000 the first year even with these conventions.  Any profit that these conventions may generate will mostly go to Augusta Riverfront LLC. They get the profits from booked rooms in their hotel. They get all of the profits from food and beverage sales prepared in the $1.4 million kitchen that the taxpayers paid for. Does anyone with an ounce of common sense think Augusta Riverfront LLC is going to cancel these events for which they are the sole party making any profit? The city just covers all of the costs, so Paul Simon's company can make all the profit.

But let's ask another question. Since Augusta Riverfront LLC does not yet have the contract to operate the facility, what gave them the authority to book these events in the TEE Center in the first place? How do we not know that these first couple of conventions were not already booked for the existing conference center? Does it not seem rather odd that a  group like the Georgia Chiefs of Police Association would book their meeting in a facility without anyone officially in charge to manage it? These events are typically booked many months if not years in advance. We've heard two stories -- that the Convention and Visitors Bureau was booking these conventions and that The Marriott was booking them directly. But even if the CVB was booking these events, doesn't a reservation require a deposit? And wouldn't that come with the assurance that a professional company would be managing the event? Why is all of this being done backwards? Who books conventions in a facility where there is no one to manage it?

But nothing will be cancelled in January. Does anyone really expect the owners of The Marriott to start cancelling room reservations? Don't bet your life on it. The excuse coming from the folks at Augusta Riverfront LLC is that they need time to train and hire staff to stage these conventions and they must have their contract approved before they can do that. That is utter baloney and they know it! Are we to believe that here in the last couple of days left in October of 2012 that they do not  have the adequate staff trained to handle these events that are scheduled at the convention center just a little more than two months away? Really? Is this who we really want managing this facility? Let's be serious here. The folks at Augusta Riverfront LLC have been managing the city's adjacent conference center for over 20 years now. The TEE Center is just a larger space. This is just an excuse to manufacture a false crisis.

Other Options Out There
But OK, let's assume that Augusta Riverfront LLC is this woefully unprepared at the last minute. Why should  the city succumb to their demands because of their own incompetence? It's not like there are not other options. According to city administrator Fred Russell, Augusta Riverfront LLC will not agree to  a 1 year interim management contract with the option to renew for 14 years. But perhaps another professional management company would. We have one right down the street that has a national reputation for managing large events. In just a few short years they have managed to turn a facility that had a maligned reputation that was struggling to attract events, into one that routinely brings big name acts to The Garden City.

That management company is called Global Spectrum. The way they have turned the James Brown Arena from a desolate embarrassment to an arena buzzing with activity with a renewed optimism is nothing short of miraculous. Officials at Global Spectrum have already indicated that they would have no problem hosting the first few conventions at the new TEE Center-- so why not let them? At least Global Spectrum is not holding a gun to our heads demanding us sign a lopsided contract that gives them carte blanche to loot the taxpayers of Augusta. So, if the folks at the Marriott say they are unprepared at this stage to host these conventions, then lets go with the folks who are prepared over at Global Spectrum. We just might find out that they could do a better job for less money. Their performance managing The James Brown Arena and Bell Auditorium has certainly been impressive

The Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau should now be doing all they can to assure these groups who have conventions scheduled at the TEE Center that their event will go on and will be a smashing success and they look forward to  having them come back to the Garden City very soon.

The Next Step
So far, the only leverage Augusta Riverfront LLC has is issuing threats of convention cancellations. What that has done is create a diversion by manufacturing a crisis to take attention away from their awful contract that they are trying to strong arm commissioners into signing. So commissioners could neutralize that manufactured crisis today by making a motion to work with the Coliseum Authority and Global Spectrum to see to it that no conventions are cancelled. Then Augusta Riverfront LLC would no longer have something to hold over our heads and attention would be directed where it belongs -- at the details of this contract.

If Augusta Riverfront LLC does not want to come back to the table as a partner, then I am sure the city can find any number of professional management companies, including Global Spectrum, who would be willing to come in and run this facility on terms much more favorable to the city. A lot of attention has been paid to the demands of Augusta Riverfront LLC -- a company that has invested zero of their own dollars in this facility. They have essentially received a $50 million dollar gift from Augusta taxpayers -- and that's not good enough -- they want more! So now its time for the commissioners to start paying attention to the interests of Augusta taxpayers -- after all, we are the ones with all the money invested in this facility, not Augusta Riverfront LLC.

And if Mayor Copenhaver is really serious about getting a management contract approved, and if he really has the best interests of Augusta taxpayers at heart, he will stop pulling these stunts of calling these special meetings in hopes he can scrounge up 6 votes to pass this turkey of a contract. Frankly, it's insulting to the commissioners and the people of Augusta to keep bringing this same contract back over and over. If the Mayor wants to do something constructive he would invite the critics of this current contract to the table and let's go through it line by line and work together to get the best deal for the city.

So far, the mayor has seen fit to deny us an opportunity to be heard. But now is his chance to do the right thing. First of all chunk this lopsided contract. Then, bring all of the parties together, including the citizen activists who have done much of the work discovering the deficiencies in this current contract, and let's go through it line by line and take out all of these loopholes and gotchas that will cost taxpayers $millions. That's how this process should have been handled from the very beginning. It's not too late to do it the right way now. ***

Related Stories:

• TEE Center Contract is Riddled with Land Mines
• Bowles Bows to TEE Bonuses
• Video From Special Commission Meeting Where TEE Contract was Halted
• Augusta Held Hostage Day 24: A Little White Lie?
• Augusta Held Hostage Day 18
• Special Report: Augusta Catered to Death

Hank Johnson Could Get Some Company in Congress with Lee Anderson

Saturday, August 18, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

Hank Johnson was elected to the the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, representing Georgia's 4th congressional district, replacing Cynthia McKinney. Those were certainly big shoes to fill when it came to bringing embarrassment to the state of Georgia. McKinney provided an endless supply of gaffes and outrageous statements during her 12 years in Congress for late night comedy shows. But Hank Johnson has not disappointed.

In an infamous U.S. Armed Services committee hearing in March 2010, Johnson expressed his concern to Admiral Robert F. Willard, Commander of U.S. Pacific Command, regarding a military installation on the Pacific island of Guam, a U.S. territory. Johnson said, "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize," to which Admiral Willard replied, "We don't anticipate that."



The video of Congressman  Johnson voicing his concerns about Guam tipping over received extensive airplay on just about every radio show, and late night comedy show imaginable, from Leno to Jon Stewart to Stephen Colbert. It still pops up today, more than two years later, as a reminder of some of the crazy things that can pop out of the mouths of members of Congress. 

This upcoming January, Hank Johnson might be getting some company in Washington, DC from a fellow Georgian if state representative Lee Anderson makes it past Tuesday's runoff and is successful in defeating current 12th district congressman John Barrow. Who can forget when  Anderson was asked about The Federal Reserve in a debate earlier this year and appeared absolutely clueless. Anderson seemed to think it was something like a rainy day fund, responding with: "We must build our reserves even stronger than what it is now…on the federal level,” and he went on to say that the legislature “building back our reserves up now.” 

Anderson was not asked at that debate about his thoughts on Guam, and since he has refused to participate in any debates with his GOP challenger before Tuesday's runoff and is refusing to go on radio shows and speak to the media in general, we wont be able to ask him . But we have to wonder what his response would be. Would Anderson even know what Guam is? Would he know that it is an island in the Pacific and territory of the United States? What's Anderson's position on Guam tipping over? 

Based on Anderson's performance in prior debates, the writers for the late night comedy shows are probably crossing their fingers that the Grovetown hay farmer wins the runoff this Tuesday. Along with fellow Georgian Hank Johnson, the jokes would write themselves and Stephen Colbert and Saturday Night Live would have an endless supply of material. Someone else who probably has their fingers crossed for Lee Anderson this Tuesday night is Congressman John Barrow.***
OS

Furor Over University Name a Gift for Lee Anderson?

Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

With the local outrage over the new name for the new merged university dominating the front page of the daily paper, the evening news, and the talk radio shows, you'd almost have forgotten that there is a run-off in a week for the Georgia 12th congressional district GOP race.

Lee Anderson, who is now in a runoff with Augusta construction contractor Rick Allen for the 12th district GOP nomination,  ought to send Dr. Ricardo Azziz and the Georgia Board of Regents bouquets of flowers.

The furor over the university name change has successfully diverted local attention away from Anderson's voting record in the state legislature and most importantly his support of T-SPLOST. There was a noticeable backlash against Anderson in his home base of Columbia County in the immediate aftermath of the T-SPLOST vote on July 31st. Despite failing in 75% of the regions throughout Georgia and being soundly rejected by more than 58% of voters in Columbia County, the tax still passed in the CSRA region, largely because of the voters in neighboring Richmond County. That means that Columbia County residents will still be forced into this new tax region despite voting against it.

We heard reports in the days following the T-SPLOST vote that some Lee Anderson signs were being taken down from yards across  Columbia County in protest of his support for the tax and  voting for it in the Georgia General Assembly. But T-SPLOST was not the only tax Anderson supported in the legislature that is disproportionately hitting middle and lower income residents. He also voted in favor of a $500 million hospital bed tax and Georgia Power's advance billing of $1 billion in profits, hidden as "construction costs," which lead to double digit rate increases for the average  customer. Voters in Columbia County were finally starting to pay attention to Anderson's anti middle class voting record, and this presented an opening for Rick Allen in the run-off.

And then came the announcement from the Georgia Board of Regents last week that the name for the new consolidated university in Augusta would be named Georgia Regents University. All Hell broke loose. It's been dominating the headlines for the entire week and there is no sign that the outrage will die down any time soon. William S Morris III even had a self-penned letter on Sunday's front page of his Augusta Chronicle newspaper where he announced his resignation from the  board of GHSU over the name flap. Articles on the name controversy on The  Chronicle website have been getting by far the most comments, and callers to local radio talk shows have also been fixated on the name change.  More protests are planned for this week. We've noticed here that web searches for the congressional race and T-SPLOST have fallen off considerably in the last week. All of the interest seems to be on the name for the new university.

The timing could not be worse for Rick Allen. A recount request by Wright McLeod last week that yielded one vote had  delayed the inevitable show-down between Anderson and Allen. And during the uncertainty of the recount,  the announcement of the new name of the university came out, and got everyone talking.. Any momentum that Allen could have capitalized on over T-SPLOST seemed to be slipping away with the clock counting down to August 21.

To win the run-off next week, Allen will have to win Columbia County. The furor over T-SPLOST and tying Lee Anderson to it looked like it would be the winning strategy that could deliver victory to Allen. But now the furor has shifted to something else... the name of the new university. Will there still be enough outrage over T-SPLOST in Columbia County next Tuesday to sway the run-off election in Allen's favor? That remains to be seen.

Allen is already handicapped by a depressed GOP voter turnout in Richmond County because of the Sheriff's race. All of those republican cross-overs who took a democratic ballot in order to vote for Scott Peebles are not allowed to cross back over to vote in the congressional run-off on August 21st. Anderson did rather poorly in Richmond County in the July 31st general primary, in fact it was his worst showing in all of the counties in the 12th district. Allen could have been able to win Richmond County by a big margin and run up the vote tally and offset Anderson's advantage in the rural southern counties next Tuesday, but because of the depressed turnout, Allen's advantage in Richmond County will be negated and thus the largest county in the district will end up having a negligible impact on the race. That means Columbia County will decide this.

If Rick Allen can win Columbia County by the same margin as it rejected T-SPLOST, he will be the candidate facing John Barrow this fall instead of Lee Anderson. But for this to happen, Allen will have to position himself back to his Columbia County roots and distance himself from the political elites in Augusta-Richmond County, who have for the most part forsaken him anyway for the Sheriff's race and have become more of a political liability. If Allen has any chance for a victory against Anderson, it will be found in Columbia County.

Linking Anderson to the unpopular T-SPLOST appears to be the winning strategy to take Columbia County. The key is to make sure the voters are still as outraged over T-SPLOST next Tuesday as they were a week and a half ago. One way this could be accomplished is to link the red hot outrage over the university name change to the outrage over T-SPLOST. They both have one common denominator: an overbearing state political body out of touch with the wishes of locals.

T-SPLOST failed in Columbia County, but  the Georgia General Assembly engineered the bill in such a way, that their wishes could be outvoted by people in other counties.. and that is exactly what happened. The legislature also sought fit to penalize regions that voted against the tax by withholding a large portion of state transportation matching funds. The voters were not really being given a real choice by the politicians under the Gold Dome in Atlanta. T-SPLOST was more like an act of extortion: vote for it --- or else.

Lee Anderson was one of the state legislators who voted in favor of this flawed bill that took local control away from individual counties and gave it to a new regional government. Similarly, the wishes of many local residents and leaders were outvoted by another state body known as the Georgia Board of Regents when it came to naming the new consolidated university in Augusta. The case could be made that an overbearing state government  gave us the hideously flawed T-SPLOST and the extremely unpopular name for the new university abbreviated as GRU. Some can say that  T-SPLOST and the new university name are GRUesome, and Rick Allen would be wise to make that argument and continue to link Lee Anderson to the overbearing and out of touch state government  that gave us both.***
OS

T-SPLOST Passes in CSRA Despite Columbia County Saying No

Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider


Bucking a statewide trend, it appears that the T-SPLOST tax has passed in the 13 county Central Savannah River Area region. The latest vote totals as of 11pm on July 31 showed a margin of 56% voting in favor and  44% voting against with a more than 6,000 vote spread. This is by far the best showing for the T-SPLOST   in all 12 regions of the state, where latest totals showed that the tax was failing in 9 out of 12 regions.

Perhaps the biggest repudiation of T-SPLOST came in the  metro Atlanta region, where voters are rejecting the tax by a wide margin of 63% against and 37% in favor. This, after millions of dollars were poured into the Atlanta region by pro T-SPLOST groups  for an ad blitz pitching the tax. Its failure in the metro Atlanta region will make things very complicated, since the law states that any region which does not pass the tax will have their state transportation matching funds slashed....and with metro Atlanta comprising nearly 50% of the state's population, that's a lot of money. You can now expect a barrage of lawsuits challenging the efficacy of T-SPLOST now that it seems to have failed in 75% of the regions, including the states's most populous metropolitan area.

The T-SPLOST also failed in Coastal Georgia, which after metro Atlanta accounted for the most spending by Pro T-SPLOST groups. In fact, Chatham County rejected the tax by over 57%  despite the Savannah port deepening being a signature project touted by T-SPLOST backers.

So why did it pass in the CSRA? 
By looking at the most recent vote totals, it appears that T-SPLOST mainly passed here because of Augusta-Richmond County (the most populous county in the region) where it was approved by more than 58% of the vote with a nearly 6,000 vote margin. T-SPLOST did particularly well in predominately African-American voting precincts in Richmond County. The tax found its softest support in West Augusta and South Richmond County precincts with a slight majority of those precincts rejecting T-SPLOST.

The story was completely different in Columbia County where over 58% of voters rejected the T-SPLOST.   The latest totals showed 14,358 voting against and 10,340 voting in favor. But even though Columbia County voters resoundly  rejected T-SPLOST, they will  still be taxed anyway. Lincoln County and Glascock County also rejected the T-SPLOST. The nine other rural counties passed it, presumably because of the promise from politicians that they would be getting over $87 million in additional tax revenue from populous Richmond and Columbia Counties

Since this is a regional tax regime, Columbia County is tied to the other 12 counties in the CSRA region, including Augusta-Richmond County. Under the provisions of the tax district, Columbia County will be a donor county, giving up  over $23 million of its sales tax proceeds to other counties in the region. But under the T-SPLOST regime Augusta/Richmond County will be giving away $63 million of its sales tax proceeds to other counties, which makes the overwhelming support there even more baffling. Columbia County will also now be married to what many political observers consider a corrupt and incompetent Augusta-Richmond County for control of transportation dollars.

Impact on the 12th District Congressional Race
Lee Anderson voted for T-SPLOST in the Georgia General Assembly, and now he appears to be in a run-off for the 12 Georgia Congressional GOP nomination with either Rick Allen or Wright McCleod. Anderson defended his T-SPLOST vote by saying he was only voting to give the people a say in the matter. However, critics charged that the regional vote was unfair and would subject individual counties to the tax even if their voters overwhelmingly opposed it at the polls. That scenario now seems to have been born out in Columbia County. All 3 of Anderson's GOP challengers said they were against T-SPLOST. Now there is speculation of whether there will be a voter backlash against Anderson in his home base of Columbia County because of the T-SPLOST outcome.

Also in the hot seat is Columbia County commission chairman Ron Cross, who heavily promoted T-SPLOST. Seeing as how it failed by such a wide margin there, his critics have yet another example to show  how the commission chairman is out of touch with the average voter in Columbia County. If there is any bright spot for Columbia County over the T-SPLOST outcome is that it may lead to the overwhelming passage of a referendum imposing term limits on county commissioners and the chairman.

Now the CSRA region will have one of the highest sales taxes in the state, making it less competitive for business. However, neighboring South Carolina  retailers are likely to see a jump in business from T-SPLOST. ***
Stay Tuned... more to come
OS

Related Stories:

• Don & Ron's $87.6 Million Pot of Gold
• 15 Reasons to Detest T-SPLOST and Punish its Promoters
• Al Gray Warns Rural County Leaders Over 'Shameful' T-Splost
• Al Gray: Vote No to T-SPLOST (Video)
• Why T-SPLOST Must Be Defeated (Video)