Austin Rhodes' Challenge: Hire a Lawyer!

Augusta afternoon radio personality Austin Rhodes

Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

Austin Rhodes started his radio program off yesterday by issuing a challenge to the members of the citizens local government watchdog group on Facebook called Augusta Today: Hire a lawyer! It's not because that Augusta Today is in any sort of legal trouble, but rather Rhodes contends that ultimately it will take legal action for the citizens activist group to get real action on their goals of government reform at  the Marble Palace.

Augusta's government is kind of like  a meth addict. Their behavior is often highly inappropriate, but  they don't think they have a problem. They've been doing  things this way for so long that to them it's just the normal way of operating. In addiction psychology, that's known as DENIAL. You can't just politely ask them to change their ways. Sometimes there has to be an INTERVENTION. And that's where the lawyers come in. So far, members of Augusta Today have been presenting the evidence of the bad deal the city got suckered into over the TEE Center and Parking deck hoping that commissioners would "see the light," and change course. But over the course of the 13 weeks since we broke the ParkingGate scandal, there's been very little action from the commission. In fact, some of them have even tried to marginalize members of Augusta Today as just grumpy gadflies.

On December 20th, 2011 six commissioners did finally approve a forensic audit to examine any possible improprieties involved in land transactions involved in the TEE Center  Parking Deck, but since then there has been no further action on the audit and now at least a couple of commissioners are trying to torpedo it. But members of Augusta Today press on, believing that in the end they will be vindicated because the facts are on their side.

Legal counsel could be helpful to the group though, and it is an idea that has been discussed before.. even at the very beginning of its formation..which evolved out of ACAVE.  Citizen activists can make a lot of noise, get information out there before the public by getting the media involved; they can pack commission meetings, call commissioners, write letters and emails, send letters to the editors, request public records and even start their own political  news blog! But in the end the decisions are in the hands of the elected officials, and in the case of Augusta, the politicians have been in denial for so long that they often just ignore the public they are supposed to serve.. no matter how valid their arguments are or how loudly they make them.
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Enter the lawyers. Legal counsel has the power of the courts at their disposal to force the commission's hand, just like a court can order a repeat drug offender into rehab. It's called a Writ of mandamus. It's when a court forces a lower court or government officer to perform a duty. In the case of ParkingGate, it could be forcing the commission to move forward with the forensic audit......they did vote to approve it after all. A writ of mandamus could also possibly be used to force a public referendum on any new ballpark.. that some elected officials are doing their darndest to get around.

But some of you may say: "But Woody Merry and his group filed lawsuits against the city all of the time and that got no where."

True. But Woody Merry would usually file a lawsuit about any and everything and he often didn't have the evidence to back up his claims. That's  counterproductive and in the end just costs the taxpayers more in legal fees.

Augusta Today is different; they do their homework. They've done exhaustive research on the parking deck and TEE Center, as well as the Laney-Walker/Bethlehem redevelopment overlay, submitting open records requests for hundreds of pages of public records. And that doesn't come cheap. Individual members  have dug into their own pockets shelling out hundreds of dollars to get these records. Another appeal of retaining legal counsel would be that it would cover obtaining most of the necessary legal documents and public records to move forward on a particular project. It's like killing two birds with one stone.

But lawyers don't come cheap. And the one that Austin Rhodes is recommending, Robert Mullins, won't likely work for peanuts. Mullins has a successful track record suing the city. In 2009 Mullins sued the city on behalf of the Association for Fair Government to force the city to release public records.  That suit involved the release of public records over construction bids that the city's procurement department kept stonewalling  over. In the end, Mullins prevailed.

Mullins won a settlement from the city on behalf of Thomson Wrecking Company for a sum in excess of $200,000  in July of 2011 over claims that the city's procurement department violated a 2007 order regarding the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.

The upper echelon of Augusta Today tell City Stink that they are taking a serious look at Robert Mullins and his track record. But first the group has to raise the money. Austin Rhodes quickly pledged $100 to the effort on the air yesterday. Then former Augusta Commissioner Andy Cheek called in and pledged $100 of his own. Members of Augusta Today are telling us that work is being done now to file the right paperwork so that they can form a legal fund and begin taking donations and start the process of retaining an attorney.
Once that happens the group will add a donation button to their Facebook page. We will also add it to CityStink.net as well. Stay tuned.***

UPDATE: We just learned that the city's procurement department has begun the process of issuing requests for proposals from forensic auditing firms. See more HERE.

***Do you have a story idea, a tip, or would you like to write for City Stink? Then please contact us at: citystink@gmail.com***
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Forensic Audit Must Proceed On TEE Center Parking Deck Debacle

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012
Augusta, GA
City Stink Commentary

Instead of putting the brakes on the questionable TEE Center Parking Deck management agreement, some commissioners want to put a stop to the forensic audit that a majority of them approved on Dec. 20, 2011 to look into irregularities over the land transactions involved in the $12 million taxpayer financed Reynolds Street parking deck that has been mired in controversy since it opened four months ago.

When six commissioners approved the forensic audit almost six weeks ago, that was even before the revelations that not only does the city not own the land under the deck, but that it also has bank liens on it to secure debt for the landowner (933 Broad Investment LLC) for a sum over $7,000,000. One would think that this new information would prompt calls by commissioners for "Full Speed Ahead!" on the forensic audit, but instead, some of them want to drop anchor and sink the investigation before it even gets out of port. That would be a huge mistake and a disservice to the taxpayers.

There are simply too many unanswered questions regarding not only the parking deck but also the TEE Center across the street. On Monday we broke down the timeline of events how land was TO BE DEEDED to the city by Augusta Riverfront LLC and its subsidiary 933 Broad Investment LLC. That language evolved into  WILL BE DONATED.. and eventually into only the city getting AIR RIGHTS.  No one has been able to give a satisfactory explanation for how this happened and why commissioners were not told when the terms changed so drastically. And how could  land be DEEDED or DONATED to the city when it has liens attached to it as security for  over $7,000,000 of debt? But commissioners were explicitly told that it would be DONATED by landowner 933 Broad Investment LLC at the Dec. 9th, 2009 commission meeting when the TEE Center and parking deck were approved; the liens were conveniently never mentioned.

One would think that all of the commissioners would be looking for answers, but some of them appear to want to just sweep it all under the rug. Commissioner Jerry Brigham, who chairs the finance committee, told George Eskola of WJBF news yesterday that:
“The taxpayers voted to build the TEE Center and parking deck. It's being built, it needs to be operational as soon as it can, so we can make money off of that.”

Watch the video of George Eskola's report on WJBF below:


We would like to remind Commissioner Brigham that the voters never approved the parking deck; that was added several years later.  And voters only approved $20,000,000 for the TEE Center that was embedded in a 2005 SPLOST. It ended up costing $38,000,000 not counting the $12,000,000 parking deck that was added later.

We agree with Brigham that the city needs to be able to make money off its investment, but the way the deals and transactions have been engineered, that may never happen. It's in the taxpayers' interest to get to the bottom of what happened, what went wrong, and how the city might be able to construct a better deal where it can actually recoup some of its investment. But to many observers it looks like the city was duped.

And even if the audit can't fix the damage that has already been done it can hopefully prevent it from happening again. The information gained from it will better prepare the city for future deals that could save taxpayers millions of dollars. And the taxpayers deserve some transparency and accountability that has so obviously been lacking in this project.

Commissioner Joe Jackson told George Eskola in the same WJBF report that: 
“There's nothing criminal that I've seen a forensic audit would be admissible in court. To me, this is just a stall tactic to hold up progress.”


Actually, the purpose of a forensic audit is to uncover evidence that would be admissible in court. And it seems a bit presumptuous of Jackson to conclude that all is kosher with the project before there has even been an investigation. And we are also not presuming that there is criminality involved, but there are simply too many irregularities to ignore.

As far as  "a stall tactic to hold up progress," we're not sure of exactly what Commissioner Jackson's definition of "progress" is, but we are pretty confident that for most people, "progress" is not spending a total of $50,000,000 of taxpayers' money to construct buildings on someone else's land, and with bank liens on it to boot.

Instead of halting progress on the audit, commissioners should be halting action on the parking deck management contract. With so many unanswered questions over this deal, why would commissioners want to rush into tying the public to a 15 year contract that is so lopsided that the city would be lucky to even break even and may never see a profit on it's $12,000,000 investment? Just like those multi-year cell phone contracts, the devil is often in the fine print.

Next Tuesday, commissioners will take up the the parking deck management contract again. Some commissioners seem more than willing to ignore the irregularities and just "trust the lawyers." Well, they might want to consult with folks over in Columbia County to see how well "trusting the lawyers," turned out for them on the Magnolia Trace debacle.

 As we told you in a previous story, we discovered that Columbia County attorney Doug Batchelor was working on behalf  of the Missouri-based developers of the low income housing development at the same time he was advising  county leaders about its merits. Now Columbia County politicians are feeling the backlash from an angry public who believe their property values were subordinated to the interests of the out of state Magnolia Trace developers who also just happened to donate to the campaigns of certain county and state officials.

It would be wise for Augusta commissioners to remember  for whom they work and to not always "trust the lawyers."  As you can see, "the lawyers" can play both sides. The public is watching, and like the citizens in Columbia County, they are demanding accountability and transparency. What kind of message would it send to the citizens of Augusta to try and sweep this all under the rug by halting the forensic audit? Well to most people it makes it appear that there really is something to hide. Is there? As the stewards of the taxpayers' money, commissioners should also be demanding accountability and transparency, not figuring out ways to obfuscate the truth, especially when we are talking about projects that involve tens of millions of dollars in tax money.

Instead of just listening to "the lawyers", commissioners may want to start listening to the citizens for a change. They have a week to start paying attention. If not, they will certainly hear them loud and clear on election day.***

Contact the following commissioners and tell them you support a forensic audit of the TEE Center and Reynolds Street Parking Deck:


Commissioner Jerry Brigham
District 7
Contact:
Ph: (706) 863-1698 (home)
Ph: (706) 650-1700 (work)
Fx: (706) 650-1141
Email: Cbrigham@augustaga.gov

Commissioner Joe Jackson
District 6
Contact
Ph: (706) 533-7839 (home)
Fx: (706) 821-1838
Email: JtJackson@augustaga.gov

Commissioner Matt Aitken
District 1
Contact
Ph: (706) 724-4377 (home)
Ph: (706) 564-6281 (cell)
Fx: (706) 821-1838
Email: MAitken@augustaga.gov

Commissioner Joe Bowles

District 3

Contact
Ph: (706) 733-9074 (home)
Ph: (706) 825-6894 (work)
Fx: (706) 210-1871
Email: Mayorpro-temBowles@augustaga.gov

Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle

District 8

Contact
Ph: (706) 592-2385 (home)
Ph: (706) 796-3444 (work)
Fx: (706) 821-1838
Email: CWayneGuilfoyle@augustaga.gov

Commissioner Grady Smith

Super District 10

Contact
Ph: (706) 825-9473 (cell)
Ph: (706) 733-9473 (work)
Fx: (706) 821-1838

No email available

Corporal Gripweed: The People Deserve the Whole Truth

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012

Augusta, GA

By Corporal Gripweed

“The least deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold”

                                                                                                                      Aristotle

After watching the recent machinations regarding the TEE Center parking deck, and the subsequent revelations about the TEE Center itself, I was reminded of this quote by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. I wondered if this could explain the problems that have been associated with this entire project.

Basically that a few, “half-truths,” set into motion at the beginning have now multiplied beyond the control of those who set them in motion. Granted, this would not be the first time politicians or businessmen  have told  half-truths to get their particular, “pet project', pushed through, nor will it be the last time.  There is an old Yiddish proverb that says, “A half-truth is a whole lie.”

That seems to be where we are in this ongoing saga.

I'm not really surprised at the businessmen involved. Unscrupulous practices in business are legendary, and their allegiances are not always to propriety, but to profit.

The more troublesome part for me is the fact that those we elected, and those they appointed, may have believed and signed off on, the half-truths. It also looks as if legal counsel retained by the city was more interested in looking out for the interests of the businessmen, rather than the interests of the taxpayers.

With the exception of a few commissioners, very little in the way of actual, “fact-finding,” seems to have been done on this whole affair. This is the saddest part of it all. The few commissioners brave enough and smart enough to ask questions have been vilified in the media for doing so.

We, as voters, and taxpayers, have entrusted these men to protect the interests of ALL citizens of Richmond County.  It seems that some of  these same men have let down the very people who elected them. How? By not doing their due diligence when obvious problems with this deal arose, and by trusting those who are prone to telling half-truths in order to achieve their goals.

As usual, our so-called, “Mandate Mayor,” has been absent from the debate. No surprise there.

But as to the whole affair, judging from what I've seen thus far, it's either incompetence, which is scary enough, or it's corruption. If it is the former, everyone involved should be ashamed. If it's the latter, someone should be in jail.

We deserve the truth...

And to paraphrase Aristotle. .. deviation from the truth has not multiplied a thousandfold. It has multiplied to the tune of  $50+ million. How many more millions must we spend to finally get the truth?***

CG

Related Stories:
Forensic Audit Must Proceed on TEE Center/Parking Deck Debacle

    

Censored Comment Blasts Bad Parking Deck Deal

Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012

Augusta, GA

Posted at 9:25pm

We've told you before how The Augusta Chronicle has an inconsistent policy regarding censorship of reader comments: (See-->Banned From The Chronicle). There are certainly circumstances where censorship is warranted on an online paper's comments section such as: Obscenities, advocating violence against others, racial  slurs, misogyny, and libel, among others. But with The Chronicle, often comments are simply removed because certain people disagree (often the publisher) with the opinions being espoused. The terms of service (TOS) for commenting underneath stories says that the service is  intended for "robust debate"... well up to a point.

So it was no surprise to us when we noticed comments under a story about the recent debacle over the TEE Center Parking Deck being removed: See -->Augusta Parking Management Deal Stalls. Community activist and City Stink columnist Lori Davis first brought it to our attention, notifying us that several of her comments under the aforementioned story were removed with no warning or explanation. But then this should not be much of a surprise.. the company that is trying to get a 15 year contract to operate the parking deck is Augusta Riverfront LLC, which has connections to William S Morris III, publisher of The Augusta Chronicle.

Now to be fair, it is their website. They can make the rules and change them without notice. But it is worth pointing out the inconsistencies in how the terms of service are enforced regarding censorship. Knowing that certain opinions are filtered out intentionally may give readers pause that the purpose of the comments section is not about facilitating "robust debate", but rather suppressing it. 

There was one comment that stands out from all of the others on this particular story. It was written by a regular poster who goes by the handle Dichotomy. It remained on the site for several hours before being removed by site administrators in the evening of January 31. Luckily, someone saved it and sent it to us. We've reprinted it below:

Comment by Dichotomy that appeared on The Augusta Chronicle TEE Center Parking Deck Story that was later removed. (Below)

***************

I think that if you poured all of the idiots and crooks in Augusta into one beaker and shook it well you could not have created a bigger mess than this deal. The City supplied the idiots and the LLC(s) provided the crooks. The lawyer, I'm still not sure which side of the fence he would fall on but I suspect his motives.

Congratulations South Augusta and south RC, you paid for much of this. You don't own squat but you paid for it and you are going to continue pay to operate it. I was going to say you paid for a lot of this.....but you didn't even get the "lot". I'll bet Billy and Paul laugh every time they see their parking deck(s), hotel, and TEE. And by the way, Fred "yes I am complicit in all of this", wants to raise your taxes again so we will have plenty of money to pay Billy and Paul to operate their decks and hire attendants.

And if you think this is crooked, just wait until you see how you are going to get took for the ball park and some of the "deals" and payback "jobs" that will come out of that.

If you can't figure this out....it's all about the influential rich people downtown playing with YOUR money and our commissioners being too stupid, or too crooked, to look out for our interests. Our commissioners keep getting us involved in a battle of wits with the rich guys and between the idiots and crooks on our side we are totally unarmed. Throw in a suspected crooked lawyer or two and we are totally screwed.
*****************

Feel free to leave your comment below. 
Related Stories:

• Deeds and Misdeeds: A "Chronicle" of Promises to Donate Land for Tee Center/Parking Deck 
• Fred Russell is Running Out of Excuses
• Exclusive: TEE Center Parking Deck Air Rights Gone With The Wind!
• Exclusive: The TEE Center LLC Trap

***Do you have a story idea, a tip, or would you like to write for City Stink? Then please contact us at: citystink@gmail.com***
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Deeds and Misdeeds: A "Chronicle" of Promises to Donate Land for Tee Center/Parking Deck

"Donate the land? We were only joking!"

Monday, Jan. 30, 2012
Augusta, GA


As the Augusta Commission wrangles over terms for the management contract  with Augusta Riverfront LLC over the new $12 million Reynolds Street parking deck and the TEE Center still under construction  , we must be reminded that this is not the first time this massive project has hit roadblocks and been mired in controversy. In fact this has been an ongoing saga for more than six years since voters approved $20,000,000 in SPLOST funds for a Trade and Exhibit Center on the Fall General Election ballot in 2005.

Dirty Deeds Not Done Cheap: A Time Line

As we told you in our breaking news story last Thursday: TEE Center Parking Deck Air Rights Gone With The Wind, not only was the land under the parking deck never deeded over to the city by 933 Broad Investment LLC (as commissioners were told it would be), but we also discovered liens on the property held by Wells Fargo Bank (formerly Wachovia) as collateral for a loan to Augusta Riverfront LLC totalling over $7,000,000!  But we also found out that Augusta Riverfront LLC also still retains ownership of a parcel under the TEE Center itself across the street that was supposed to be deeded to the city. 

Since Augusta Riverfront LLC  is ultimately headed by Augusta Chronicle publisher William (Billy) S. Morris III, it seems only fitting to turn to his paper to help fill in the paper trail on the true story behind the land deeds.

We found this Chronicle story from January 13, 2007 by staff writer Laura Youngs. At that time a TEE Center  task force had just finished negotiating a revised operating agreement  with Augusta Riverfront LLC for the TEE Center and recommended the facility be built on land adjacent to the Augusta Marriot Hotel and Suites owned by Augusta Riverfront LLC. Under the agreement then, Augusta Riverfront LLC "had AGREED TO DEED THEIR LAND over to the city for the TEE Center." 


Deeding the land  was viewed by some commissioners at the time as a quid pro quo for the generous operating agreement that had the city paying Augusta Riverfront LLC $350,000 a year for operating expenses and capital improvement costs for running the center, in addition to it being connected to their hotel. The TEE Center was being built entirely with public money.

But  commissioners continued to balk at the operating agreement as being too lopsided in favor of the interests of Augusta Riverfront LLC, with taxpayers assuming most of the financial risk. So it stalled again.

Fast forward to July of that same year. Now we find  a July 8th, 2007 guest column in The Chronicle penned by Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Barry White and CVB President and CEO Phil Wahl.  They both sing the praises of Augusta Riverfront LLC and their generous offer to donate their riverfront land for the facility, writing: "Not only does Augusta Riverfront LLC bring proven expertise, it has offered to donate to the city downtown real estate valued at an estimated $1 million. The LLC also will pay annual center operating expenses over $250,000 and capital improvements over $100,000 a year." 

Donation of the land was one of the major selling points to commissioners for locating the TEE center next to the  Augusta Riverfront LLC owned Augusta Marriot Hotel & Suites and awarding them the operations contract. 

Now fast forward to 2009. The TEE Center project is still stalled because now it is learned that the facility will cost nearly double the $20,000,000  voters had approved in the 2005 SPLOST. That news had many people rethinking the whole deal altogether and even suggesting alternatives, such as renovating existing facilities to use  with the initial amount from the SPLOST. Former Augusta Mayor Bob Young penned a guest column that appeared in The Chronicle on September 27, 2009 that suggested the James Brown Arena could be expanded and essentially function as a TEE Center at a significantly lower cost than building a new facility. Also, the city already had a management contract with Global Spectrum to operate the arena and this could cover the TEE functions as well, instead of entering into a separate contract with Augusta Riverfront LLC for a new facility on the riverfront.

A rebuttal to the former Mayor's column appeared  a week later in The Chronicle  from former Augusta CVB  treasurer and chairman Abram Serotta, telling us that the "TEE project MUST be ok'd."  Mr Serotta once again brings up the issue of land ownership at the Reynolds Street site, writing : "Land purchases have been negotiated and, in total, the city has invested more than half-a-million dollars in the project to date.”

Bad Investment

But some critics were trying to tell us that spending  money on a TEE Center was just simply a bad investment, period. Commissioner Betty Beard had made a motion in September 2009 to see what it would cost to bring Dr Heywood Sanders, a professor in the College of Public Policy at the University of Texas-San Antonio to Augusta to rebut claims being made by Barry White of The CVB and others that a TEE Center would be an economic boon. Dr. Sanders authored the 2005 Brookings Institution study: Space Available: The Realities of Convention Centers as Economic Development Strategy, which debunks many of the myths about convention centers being significant economic stimulators. 

In a Sept. 16, 2009 Augusta Chronicle article by Johnny Edwards, it is stated that: "Dr. Sanders said cities throughout the country are losing money on trade centers and, desperate to book events, are offering discounts and incentives that make competition even stiffer."

In the end, Dr. Sanders was never consulted by the Commission and the TEE Center and a new parking deck were  approved on Dec. 9, 2009.

In a Dec. 10, 2011 Chronicle article by La Tina Emerson we learned that the CVB is having difficulties with booking conventions for the facility still under contruction.

Commissioners Ask Questions About Land Ownership

Commissioners were told repeatedly by Fred Russell at that Dec. 9th 2009 commission meeting that land parcels for the parking deck and  for the TEE Center itself owned by Augusta Riverfront LLC would be donated to the city. Commissioner JR Hatney brought the issue up and asked for clarification from Fred Russell: Below are excerpts from the minutes of that meeting:

Hatney: "The other question I would ask to our Administrator I remember when we 

talked about the parking deck before. We were not so warm on that issue and the volume was
$500,000 and you’ve come back and you said you were going come back with a lower scale
because it would be more cost effective to go ahead and do that then to I believe pay a $1.1
million or something like that on I guess the lease or rent or whatever you do and still that
eventually buy the property. You said this property’s going to be given? Talk to me."

Russell: " I need the map. There we go.  If you look at the round area up there, there
if you look at that brown area would be the area that we’re looking at for the building the parking
deck. And then if you look at the two areas that are not being donated, one of which belongs to
the radio station which is a, sorry about that. That’s where the hotdog stand is. That’s owned by
a private individual. The other part of the place is owned by WAGT Television. The balance of
that is owned by Riverfront Development and that’s the property that’s going to be donated."

and later on in the minutes....

Hatney: "About donating the site, about donating? Did we check with them yet on
the possibilities?"

Russell:   "They’ve agreed to donate the property. " 

Commissioner Betty Beard had earlier raised questions about land ownership at a July 7th, 2009 commission meeting with Fred Russell.

At this meeting Fred Russell was referencing a map  outlining the various land parcels that the city would need to acquire or would be donated for the parking deck and TEE Center:

Russell: "I haven’t finalized anything waiting for your approval but I’m getting very close to giving you the final documents on all three if not the schematic designs, the land acquisition and the operating agreements. Land acquisition, the green part is the park for the TEE Center. The area in black is owned by the Riverfront Development Corporation or some subsidy there is, there are. They will be donating that property towards the completion of the TEE Center. The other two pieces of property in negotiation are the Lock Shop and the warehouse building on the corner."

The green part that Russell is referring to on the map is a parcel under where the TEE Center would be built that Augusta Riverfront LLC had agreed to deed over to the city, as we told you earlier in the Chronicle paper trail. And as we told you last week, Augusta Riverfront LLC still owns that parcel. It was never deeded to the city as promised.

Betty Beard asks for clarification about this parcel at the July 7, 2009 meeting:

Ms. Beard: --- what are they donating again?

Mr. Russell: The area in the black is the property that they own.

Ms. Beard: In the black?

Mr. Russell: The little black square up there, green I’m sorry.

Mr. Mayor: Outlined in black.

Ms. Beard: Oh across the street.

Mr. Russell: That’s the location of the TEE Center itself.

And later in the minutes Betty Beard had the foresight to bring up the issue of  the significance of Air Rights regarding the parking deck:

Ms. Beard: In one part of the information it said air rights would be donated.

Mr. Russell: I’d like to talk about that a little bit later. That gets into the parking issue and there’s a couple items we’ve got there that we need to talk about if you don’t mind.

Ms. Beard: Well, what about the Trade Center itself?

Mr. Russell: That’s the green property.

Ms. Beard: I mean the air rights.

Mr. Russell: We build a building there. The air rights would not be significant. It would be part of the building itself.


Ms. Beard: I don’t know why people say they are not significant. Okay. 

Betty Beard was right. The issue of air rights are extremely significant, as we now know  that is all the city ended up with for the parking deck as the land was never donated by Augusta Riverfront LLC. And the green parcel across the street under the TEE Center that Beard references was also never deeded to the city. So what about the air rights over there for the TEE Center?

Today the Augusta Commission meets in committee to decide whether to approve a revised management contract with Augusta Riverfront LLC for the parking deck and TEE Center. It would be wise for them to hold off on that until this matter can be investigated further. Rushing into things without having all of the pertinent  information is what initially put them into this mess and rushing now into another bad contract is certainly not the way out of it. We will have an update on this story as it becomes available. Stay tuned.***

Related Stories:

• Fred Russell is Running Out of Excuses
• Exclusive: TEE Center Parking Deck Air Rights Gone With The Wind!
• Exclusive: The TEE Center LLC Trap
• Fraudits With Less Than A Full Deck
• ParkingGate: Leave it to Fred!
• Land Swaps, Bonds and Air Rights; The Parking Deck Saga Continued

***Do you have a story idea, a tip, or would you like to write for City Stink? Then please contact us at: citystink@gmail.com***

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Breaking News!: Committee Fails to Pass Parking Deck Agreement

Mon. Jan. 30, 2012
Augusta, GA
Posted at 2:47pm

!Breaking News!

This just in. The revised management agreement for the new $12 million Reynolds Street parking deck has failed to win approval in committee. In a 2-2 tie vote,  the motion to send the deck agreement to the full commission with committee recommendation failed by default. Committee members Jerry Brigham and Wayne Guilfoyle voted in favor of sending the deck management agreement forward without a recommendation. Commissioners Alvin Mason and William Lockett were opposed. It takes at least 3 votes to pass a motion. Ties cannot be broken in committee and thus the motion fails by default.

This vote comes amid a new controversy that City Stink broke last week revealing that there are liens on the property under the deck held by Wells Fargo Bank (formerly Wachovia) as collateral for a loan to prospective deck operator Augusta Riverfront LLC for more than $7,000,000.

Commissioner Bill Lockett wanted to hold off on the vote altogether to proceed with the management agreement until after a forensic audit of the land transactions and financing of the parking deck is completed. Brigham asked if the forensic audit was germane to the discussion over the management agreement. General counsel Andrew McKenzie said that it was.

Lockett's motion to delay the agreement pending the outcome of the fornsic audit  failed 2-2 with Guilfoyle and Brigham opposed.

The attorney who handled most of the legal transactions for the city over the parking deck, Jim Plunkett, was in the hot seat at today's committee meeting. As we told you last Friday, commissioners were never told about the liens by Plunkett or city administrator Fred Russell, nor were they told that a parcel under the TEE Center itself was never deeded over to the city by Augusta Riverfront LLC as it was promised on multiple occassions. That took most commissioners by complete surprise. Some commissioners were calling for Plunkett to be removed as the attorney overseeing the project on behalf of the city. That sparked Fred Russell to jump to Plunkett's defense. Committee chairman Jerry Brigham shouted over everyone that he had heard enough.

Attorney Jim Plunkett told commissioners that he had an agreement from Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) for release from the liens prior to construction of the deck. Plunkett also told commissioners that easments could not be established until after construction of the deck was  completed. From the expressions on the faces of commissioners and others in the chambers, it was obvious not many people were buying that  line. Bill Lockett asked about the timing and the release of information and why commissioners were consistently left out of the loop.

Commissioner Lockett told Plunkett: "This body has been misled over and over..."


Commissioner Aitken, who is not on the committee but was present in the chambers for other business, urged committee members to forward the parking deck on to the full commission for approval saying that he was proud that Augusta Riverfront LLC gave things up in the new agreement. But the revised agreement only had minor tweaks and did not address deeding the land to the city as commissioners were originally told it would be at the Dec. 9th, 2009 commission meeting where the TEE Center and deck were approved.

Aitken said: "Sometimes when votes are cast we have to deal with it and move forward"

But for now, the management agreement is stalled until commissioners get more information. But the city finds itself in a real pickle. According to Jim Plunkett an agreement between the city and Augusta Riverfront LLC must occur before the air rights will be released.

Now the big question is:  What happens next?


Bowles was absent from the committee meetings today. His position on the matter is crucial. Now the agreement moves on to the full commission next week without any action or recommendation from the committee. All eyes will be watching Bowles. He could be the wild card in all of this.
Stay tuned, we will bring you more updates.***

Please see our story from earlier today:
Deeds and Misdeeds: A "Chronicle" of Promises to Donate Land for Tee Center/Parking Deck

***Do you have a story idea, a tip, or would you like to write for City Stink? Then please contact us at: citystink@gmail.com***

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Fred Russell is Running Out of Excuses

Friday, Jan. 27, 2012
Augusta, GA
Commentary
By The Outsider

Just how many more major screw-ups from Fred Russell will Augusta Commissioners tolerate?  Well it doesn't get much bigger than the total clustermuck over the TEE Center Parking Deck. As we told you with our breaking news story yesterday: TEE Center Parking Deck Air Rights Gone With The Wind!, not only does the city not own the land under the deck, but that land has liens on it held by Wells Fargo Bank (formerly Wachovia) for use as collateral on a loan for over $ 7 million to Augusta Riverfront LLC, the same entity seeking the management contract for the deck and the TEE Center.  That not only puts the city at a huge disadvantage in the negotiations over the management contract, but it also appears to leave taxpayers at risk of losing their $12 million dollar asset if Augusta Riverfront LLC defaults on their loan. That's a position the city should have never been put in.

But that's exactly where we are. And what's Fred's response? Well this is what he told George Eskola of WJBF yesterday:
“We've got lawyers, we got bond attorneys, we've got everybody who's charted around, thinking this is safely where we need to be. at the end of the day and people on the sidelines are having issues,”


Oh really? I suppose the "people on the sidelines" Russell is referring to are the citizen activists like Lori Davis, members of Augusta Today and City Stink who exposed this new bombshell. And we have to wonder if this news would have ever come out if not for the tenacity of  these citizen activists. It appears that commissioners were completely surprised by these revelations. Mayor Pro-tem Joe Bowles said in George Eskola's report:
"We didn't know that, of course, and that's something we just got information on. I'm waiting for clarification from our attorneys. If we built a building on property that, you know, secured debt for somebody, I do have a serious issue with that.”

We are glad that the Mayor Pro-tem is taking this issue seriously, but he and other commissioners and the Mayor should be more than just concerned, they should be downright outraged. It seems that the more layers of the TEE Center/Parking deck onion you peel away the more rotten it gets. And it appears that commissioners have been left in the dark through the entire process. And who's job is it to keep commissioners in the loop? City administrator Fred Russell.

Russell knew about the liens, but neglected to tell commissioners. But Russell also told commissioners the land would be donated for the deck, but neglected to inform them again when that changed to only "air rights." How can commissioners continue to have confidence in a city administrator who consistently leaves them in the dark on some of the most important and expensive issues facing the city?

And it's not like this is the first time. Russell cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands more than it should have cost to terminate incompetent employees because he did not keep accurate records of their true job performance and then he negotiated their very generous golden parachutes. When commissioners gave Russell more authority over personnel matters, he took that as an opportunity to award generous raises to over 40 select employees, when commissioners were looking for more cuts to balance the budget. We could take up an entire column on previous Russell screw-ups, but we will leave that for another time.

Now Russell is saying that the issue of the bank liens on the property where the $12 million parking deck sits is just a matter of some "loose ends" that need to be tied up by "the lawyers." Oh really? Well shouldn't all of these "loose ends" had been taken care of before the city built a $12 million parking deck with taxpayer's money on land it doesn't even own that has liens against it? Who would build a house on someone else's property that had bank liens against it? You don't need a degree in finance to understand the stupidity of these actions. And Russell's excuses just aren't adding up.

And what about those lawyers? Russell is not the only one to blame here. Commissioners should also have some serious questions for attorney Jim Plunkett, who handled most of the legal transactions and bond financing for the city over the TEE Center, the parking deck, and the Laney-Walker/Bethlehem Redevelopment. Surely Plunkett knew about the liens, so  why did he not take care of clearing up those "loose ends"  before the city started up the bulldozers on the construction of  the $12 million parking deck? Why were the bonds issued before the liens and other ownership issues were taken care of? And should we expect any similar surprises over the transactions involving the Laney-Walker/Bethlehem redevelopment with its bond financing inextricably tied to the TEE Center/parking deck?

Plunkett has a long relationship with the city in handling legal matters involving these public-private partnership real-estate ventures. Records show that the city paid the Sherman, Plunkett and Hamilton firm $577,538 for outside legal work last year. According to a Jan. 8, 2012 Augusta Chronicle article by Susan McCord, "Jim Plunkett specializes in economic development legal work, such as the public-private partnerships between Augusta and operators of the Trade, Exhibit and Event Center and the Laney-Walker and Bethlehem redevelopment project."

But in this case it appears it was the private interests being protected and the public's interest was being put at great financial risk. We have to wonder if this is the first time something like this has happened regarding one of these Public-Private Partnership real-estate developments, or is it just the first time it has been exposed? Perhaps that's something for investigative journalists to look into.

But now the ball is in the commissioners' court. How will they proceed  over the management agreement with Augusta Riverfront LLC with these  revelations? And how will they deal with this latest Fred Russell screw-up? And what about that forensic audit that commissioners approved back in December to look into irregularities over the land deals involved in the TEE Center Parking deck? Should that not be expanded to included the entire TEE Center and the Laney-Walker redevelopment? And why would commissioners trust Fred Russell to help choose the auditing firm to essentially investigate him? And can commissioners now truly trust Russell to negotiate a deal over a proposed downtown ballpark with Ripken Baseball in the best interest of the taxpayers? Maybe it's time for commissioners to rescind that vote on tasking Fred Russell to develop a creative financing package for that ballpark. Can they really trust Russell with handling another multi-million dollar development after this?

Ok, commissioners, it's up to you now. It's time to stop dragging your feet on the forensic audit. And it's time for you to honestly reevaluate the confidence you have placed in city administrator Fred Russell. Oh and we're still waiting to see some leadership from Mayor Deke Copenhaver on this issue. Time is running out and the public is watching.***

Stay Tuned. More is to come on this issue.

Related Stories:
Exclusive: TEE Center Parking Deck Air Rights Gone With The Wind!
Exclusive: The TEE Center LLC Trap
Fraudits With Less Than A Full Deck
ParkingGate: Leave it to Fred!
Land Swaps, Bonds and Air Rights; The Parking Deck Saga Continued

***Do you have a story idea, a tip, or would you like to write for City Stink? Then please contact us at: citystink@gmail.com***

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