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| City Stink columnist & community activist Lori Davis |
Lori Davis Commentary
Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012
Augusta, GA
By Lori Davis
In the past few weeks it has become apparent to me just how
incredible social media has become in getting groups of people together of like
mind in an effort to solve problems. Some social media groups are trying to
find a new puppy a home while others are trying to change the world. Our group, “Augusta Today,” is trying to
change the way in which our city leaders do their dirty business along with a
media that will seldom report it. As I
have forwarded our City Stink articles to friends and acquaintances, I have
been bombarded with phone calls from unhappy and uninformed citizens who can’t
believe how uninformed they really are.
It seems that so many people have recognized that something is terribly
wrong in Augusta but have never been able to put their finger on it or do
anything about it. Citizens are beginning to feel empowered reading our
articles and are beginning to ask many questions that we are striving to answer
in our daily blog. Many people are sharing their individual stories of disgust with
the way they have been personally treated by our dysfunctional Augusta government on a variety of levels. One
devoted reader of City Stink has implored me to share my thoughts and feelings
on an issue in my Mayoral campaign that was conveniently overlooked by the
Augusta Government and the media until it was convenient to do so. This issue
actually was the backbone of my mayoral platform.
Authority and duties of Mayor as chief executive officer:
The Mayor shall be the chief executive officer of Augusta
Richmond County. It shall be his/her
duty to have the ordinances and laws governing Augusta Richmond County put into
full force.
How many of you readers and followers of City Stink knew
that existed? There is no way that you
would have known it because it was purposely left out of anything that had to
do with my campaign, unless the words were spoken from my own lips. The
reasoning behind the neglect of these words had to do with the fact that it
sure would make the Mayor look bad to know that these words existed when he had
said time and time again that he had no real power and the true power brokers
followed along with it. Covering up for designed weak Mayor was better than revealing
the truth that there really was some power in the job. Did our Mayor know of
these words and just chose to ignore them? I can answer that.
Before deciding to run for Mayor, I kept thinking over and
over about the Mayor not having any power to get things done. To me, the power
would rest in the chosen leadership style of the individual person. With this
in mind I decided to find the Mayor’s job description as stated in the charter
of Augusta Richmond County. When I found
Article 2, Sec. 1-2-27, I was more than excited. Yes there was power in the
job! These words staring me in the face
were exactly what I was looking for.
With these words literally in hand, I went to see Mayor Copenhaver to
tell him that he really did have power to do the things that he was not doing.
When I presented the Article to him, I could tell that he had no clue that this
was part of his job description. He tried to discourage me from running which
was totally opposite of what I expected.
I expected him to embrace these new found words and say that he was
ready to enforce them as they were stated.
He proceeded to tell me that there was really no power in those
words. This is when I made the decision
to run against him in the Mayoral election of 2010.
In 2011 these words emerged again as City Administrator Fred
Russell began to discuss the restructuring of the government and it’s
designation of power. Funny how I knew all along where the power rested, but no
one else did because either the need to care about it was not great or they
were not made privy to the information. One thing I knew for sure, the Mayor
did know that it existed because I had made him aware of it. As the power
struggle began between Administrator and Mayor, someone stumbled across the
very words that I had run my entire campaign on.
One would have thought that gold had been
struck in these here parts! The Mayor threatened to seize his new found power
as if he knew nothing of it and was elated to know that he could run the
company. After all, this is what a CEO
does. Today, the Mayor has yet to embrace this part of his job description even
though the whole world has been made aware. The words have conveniently been
swept right back under the rug from which they emerged and it is business as
usual. The one question remains. When will Augusta start to get it instead of
the few of us who make it a point to stay informed? With the help of AugustaToday and City Stink as alternative media, we will continue to make sure they
do.***
LD
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