Mayor Wimps Out On Unpopular New University Name

Wednesday Augusta 15, 2012
Augusta, GA
By The Outsider

Breaking more than a week of silence on the controversial new name for the consolidated university in Augusta, Mayor Deke Copenhaver finally weighed in last night, essentially telling the people of the CSRA to just "get over it" and "accept" the new name. The Mayor said although he favored the popular University of Augusta moniker, he now supports the name Georgia Regents University, also known by its awkward acronym, GRU. If the mayor was such a fan of the public favorite University of Augusta, he sure did not actively push for it publicly. He says that during the naming process he weighed in on several occasions making his preference for University of Augusta known, but that must have been behind closed doors, because we don't recall the mayor being a forceful advocate for the name that the vast majority of the public wanted. It seems to us it's the mayor once again wanting to have it both ways on a controversial issue.. kind of like Presidential candidate John Kerry saying " I was for it before I voted against it."

Popular local radio talk show personality Austin Rhodes took to Facebook updating his status saying "Gotta love Mayor Deke...he fights for three years for a baseball stadium NO ONE wants...but he gives up on ASU/MCG in 9 seconds. What a guy." Rhodes has been a vocal critic of the GRU moniker, calling it "clunky" and downright "GRUesome." And the vast majority of the public seem to share Austin Rhodes' sentiments. Protests are planned this week against the new name and the the Augusta Chronicle Editorial page has urged its readers on an almost daily basis to fight this name. The Columbia County Commission will even take up a resolution at its August 21 meeting to voice their disapproval of the new name and urge the Georgia Board of Regents to rescind it.

But Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver seems more than willing to throw in the towel without a fight at all. Austin Rhodes raises a valid point in his earlier statement. This is a mayor who, for nearly the entire time he has been in office, has lead a crusade for a new downtown ballpark..... that virtually no one else in the city, besides him, feels is necessary. Despite overwhelming public opposition against a taxpayer funded ballpark, including a Democratic straw poll a few years back showing around 80% opposed, the Mayor has continued to press the issue anyway. 

The Mayor has always coveted the site of the former Augusta Golf and Gardens for his dream riverfront ballpark. Just this year, GHSU President Ricardo Azziz, got control of that property from the Board of Regents for university expansion.Azziz has said he envisions a research park, student housing and a performing arts center. But that still did not keep the mayor from fighting for his ballpark at that location. City Administrator Fred Russel even had meetings with Azziz to make appeals on the mayor's behalf for including a ballpark at the site as part of university expansion. Sources also tell us that the mayor even appealed directly to  individual members of the Board of Regents and even the Governor! It seems the mayor was willing to do whatever it took to fight for his ballpark. So why is the mayor giving up so easily over the new name of the university? Why isn't Deke at least putting as much energy into fighting for the university name that the vast majority of his constituents want, including himself? After all, this is a name the community will have to live with for many decades to come. 

Could it be that Deke wimping out over the university name is an effort to curry favor with Azziz, who will head the New U and control the Golf and Gardens property, to hopefully get his dream ballpark on which he has staked his legacy as mayor? Would Mayor Copenhaver be willing to sell-out the citizens of Augusta for a ballpark?

Or perhaps since Mayor Copenhaver is term limited he is not really concerned with local public opinion anyway... and he is looking toward future employment after 2014. And after taking this position on the university name, Deke could probably not be elected dog catcher. BUT we hear being a Georgia Regent is a pretty sweet gig... all that power...$millions of public money at your disposal... and NO  accountability to the public. The bigger the ego, the better! Sounds like a perfect job for someone like Deke.***


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

Video: The Three Wise Counties

Saturday, August 11, 2012
Augusta, GA
From CityStink.net Reports

Three counties in the CSRA region wisely said NO to T-SPLOST on July 31st: Columbia County, Glascock County and Lincoln County. However, since they were outvoted by the rest of the region, they will still be subjected to this hideous new tax and new level of government bureacracy. To make matters worse, since the T-SPLOST was rejected by 75% of the state, including populous metro Atlanta, this will likely result in proceeds from the CSRA's gasoline tax being diverted to Atlanta. At least 3 local counties had the good judgement to see T-splost for what it was: a sham. Watch Al Gray's video commentary below:

Corey Wants Tough Controls

Understated Brilliance from Corey Johnson

Tuesday August 7, 2012

Augusta, GA

By Al Gray

During the rampant hysteria of the Augusta Commission's July 17, 2012 meeting, a quiet, serious voice spoke. It should have been the loudest voice. It wasn't. It was the clear voice of reason. It came from this commissioner: Corey Johnson.

Mr. Johnson spoke of a dire need for a contracts expert to come in and straighten out Augusta's many contracts. He spoke of this needing to be a permanent position in government. You can hear his 1 minute contribution of wisdom here: (press play button in lower left hand corner of the screen)

Corey is showing astuteness and leadership during a meeting when those to either side were flailing like drowning men. Why is he right? These are known issues:

1. A one-sided parking deck contract favoring the management company with a blank check and a $238,000 (based upon original plan) subsidy.
   
   
2. A Tee Center Contract that provides an unlimited conduit into the general funds of Augusta.
   
   
3. A recorded Kitchen Equipment partnership agreement that remains in effect while Augusta has paid nearly $1.4 million for equipment that is the responsibility of another party, according to those agreements.
   
   
4. An Ambulance contract that bears a $1.3 million subsidy, whereas the same company apparently has a $400,000 subsidy in the neighboring county.
   
   
5. A sewer plant contract that reimburses every conceivable cost, yet provides for a 12% fee and a separate $250,000 director fee.
   
   
6. The problematic Mobility transit contract.
   
   
7. Major cost-plus, guaranteed maximum price, contracts that have not had costs scrutinized to verify that the costs are actual costs.
   
   
8. Myriad issues with medium and small contracts.
   
   
9. Limited or nonexistent rights to audit contracts.
   
   
10. Failure of Augusta Housing to obtain the actual costs before reimbursing Laney Walker contractors for housing unit construction.

Are the contractors writing their own meal tickets? The survey says “YES!”

Bravo, Commissioner Corey Johnson. You did the Augusta citizenry proud that night.

Let's have more of it.***
A.G.

Special Report: Marble Palace in Full Panic Mode

Mayor Deke: "We're Not Crooked, Just Stupid."

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Augusta, GA

By Lori Tabb Davis

We at Augusta Today and CityStink.net have waited for the hullabaloo over last Tuesday's election to subside to respond to the cry of a panicked Augusta Commission and Mayor to -paraphrasing here - “Let the District Attorney investigate the TEE Center Parking Deck and bring in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation if there is fraud.”

What a total joke. That motion carried 7:1 but it was a plaintive cry for someone, anyone, to rescue the city from its many failures – be they criminal or just incompetence.

You could almost see the fear and desperation in the air. Matt Aitken wailed that Augusta “is becoming a laughingstock” while Joe Jackson moaned to the media about opening “Pandora's box.”

Now we are getting somewhere! We agree with the angst and terror. Attempting to throw the hot potato of the TEE debacle into D.A . Ashley Wright's lap was never going to work. Mayor Deke Copenhaver instructed that we should “present” our evidence to Ms. Wright. He obviously missed a very key point – The evidence is in his possession and custody. We have gotten where we are with slow, diligent investigation of limited facts based upon the laborious Georgia Open Records Act request process.

Deke, you have the records. Why not throw all of them open to Augusta Today and CityStink.net? We welcome your new found candor, but you just are not sincere, you are desperate to shake us off the trail.

You almost sound as if you are wailing “We are not criminal, we are just Stupid!” You won't get any argument here.

Augusta Today and CityStink.net contributor Al Gray and I went to Ashley Wright's office on Friday, July 27 to relieve her of the hot potato and toss it back to you and the commission. Your motion was plain stupid. Of course, we don't have evidence of criminality – that takes LAW ENFORCEMENT with a capability and DESIRE to investigate. The D.A. doesn't have the resources. In Augusta these days there is no desire to investigate either, only to engage in endless cover up of very serious issues and FACTS – YOUR FACTS – that we discovered. They include:

• Failure of City Attorneys to advise the commission of Millions of Dollars of liens on property under the $12 million Reynolds Street Parking Deck until after the structure was built. How did this happen when you have engaged special legal counsel?
• 
  
• Failure to execute a partnership agreement governing division of responsibilities with partner Augusta Riverfront LLC with respect to $50 million in buildings constructed on land owned by the LLC. How did this happen when Fred Russell promised in July of 2009 – three years ago - that these agreements were being “finalized?”
• 
  
• Failure to execute management agreements beforehand, with the result that the commission has a figurative gun to its head – execute a bad agreement or else – so that Commissioners Bowles, Guilfoyle, and Lockett are being forced into arduous hours of work to fix what $1500 an hour worth of “experts” have fouled up!
• 
  
• Submitting management agreements for the decks that are UNLIMITED BLANK CHECKS, putting the citizens of Augusta at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. We suspect the same is true of the TEE Center itself. Why are there 15 pages of direct incidences where the commercial terms, as Al Gray calls them, provide monetary benefits to Augusta Riverfront that are vastly more lucrative than the rejected Ampco contract? Why don't YOU demand answers, as a growing number of savvy commissioners are doing?
• 
  
• Buying $1.4 million of kitchen equipment without getting commission approval for changing recorded agreements whereby Augusta Riverfront pays for kitchen equipment while Augusta pays for the building and the kitchen space within the TEE center. Why hasn't the LLC been billed yet?
• 
  
• Where is the $1.4 million of kitchen equipment? Contractor billings show it as work complete, when the facts are that the kitchen was an empty space at the time of the billings back at the end of May! Just this week there was a report about the kitchen equipment being installed. Where are Augusta's assets? Where was it installed as reported through May? Where is contractually-required documentation for stored equipment?
• 
  
• Where are the cost details whereby ANYONE can verify that contract limitations on the supplier/subcontractor overhead and profit of 15 % were not exceeded for the kitchen equipment? We extend this challenge to any public accounting firm wishing to help us and to YOU, since you have boasted of the city's “fine accounting.”
• 
  
• Where is the authority to spend Augusta funds refurbishing Augusta Riverfront LLC's equipment? Whose equipment is it after the work is done?

You celebrated killing a forensic audit that might have answered some of these questions. You threw it over to a D.A. Who you knew could not and would not do anything.

Mr. Mayor, why are you engaged in this massive cover-up?

To the Commissioners inexplicably remaining in denial – How are you going to remain in this community when the truth comes out – IT WILL – showing you failed in your fiduciary duty to the public?

Is claiming utter stupidity – since criminality is off the table – your final defense?

Augusta is rapidly acquiring a reputation as the most CORRUPT city in Georgia. Your actions in refusing to consider the evidence at hand are adding fuel to the fire.***

I agree with Commissioner Aitken that our government is a laughingstock.

You and the Russell Administration are in full panic mode. Some commissioners are now wide awake and the rest have to be getting antsy.

We will not be dissuaded by your cover up.***
Stay tuned. More to come.

Lori Davis

T-SPLOST Beneficiaries Boost Anderson Congressional Campaign

Monday, August 6, 2012
Augusta, GA
From CityStink.net Reports

Analysis of campaign disclosure reports submitted by the Lee Anderson for Congress campaign show an unsurprising result. Anderson, a Republican running for the 12^th Congressional District Seat in the Congress of the United States was an early and heavy beneficiary of political donations from area contractors, more specifically paving and site work contractors who stand to gain from the T-Splost bill.

While Anderson was in the Georgia House of Representatives, he voted for House Bill 277, the Transportation Investment Act of 2010, which was quickly dubbed T-Splost.

While voters in Columbia and Lincoln Counties who were former constituents of Anderson’s voted down T-Splost in their respective counties, most were shocked to learn that they had been sold into subservience to the inner city entitlement crowd by Lee Anderson. Because it was a regional vote, Anderson and the gold dome crowd had eliminated home rule on the county level.

It is said that “the path to hell is paved with good intentions,”  but for the pavers the path to riches is a river of cash to Lee Anderson.***

Anderson Paving Contributions

Farmer Lee Anderson Grows Taxes

The Lee Tax Shift

Friday, August 3, 2012

Columbia County, GA

By Kurt Huttar

Last Tuesday, July 31, 2012, saw the completion of the biggest tax shift in CSRA and Georgia history with the passage of the 1% sales tax for transportation called T-Splost. Less than two months after Columbia County Representatives Lee Anderson and Ben Harbin voted for $tens of millions in new sales tax exemptions for Delta Airlines,  Delta, Georgia's  domineering airline, contributed $225,000 used to convince easily-swayed voters to vote themselves a 33% sales tax increase on food.

Perhaps Delta, once notorious for sending passengers on the last leg back to Augusta on buses, wants safer roads on which to transport shafted customers upon whom it foisted an $8 billion tax increase.

Anderson, now a candidate for the 12^th Congressional District seat now held by Democrat John Barrow, voted to cut Delta's sales taxes but voted for these sales tax increases on us in the middle class. Here we find Lee dining with George Bowen, the lobbyist who greased through the fuel tax exemption for Delta and Georgia Power.

Worse is the behavior of Georgia Power Company, who gave $395,000 to deluge us with pro T-Splost propaganda after the same legislation saved them $hundreds of millions. It is noted that said cost savings supposedly are given back to consumers via fuel adjustments to their rates, but how many citizens trust those calculations? This also came after Lee Anderson voted in 2009 for Georgia Power's advance billing of $1 billion in profits, hidden as "construction costs." We got double digit rate increases from that, too.

Yes, we voters are now going to have to pay Lee's 14% T-Splost sales tax increase on those double-digit, advance-profit charges on our power bills.

Here, the Georgia Gang, including former Augusta Chronicle opinion editor, Phil Kent, questioned the rush by Lee Anderson and others to pass the bill.

Lee could not be dissuaded by pleas of "Read the BILL, Lee!"

Anderson, a hay farmer, also voted for a $500 million a year hospital bed tax. How did he make a “No Tax Increase” Pledge with Grover Norguist's Amercans for Tax Reform and vote for these tax increases? Can we believe his promises?

It was most frustrating for us in Columbia County to only be able to put up a few score “VOTE NO” signs, then go home to find pro-T-Splost mailers in the mailbox.

I had to  drive by scads of “Vote Yes” signs illegally placed in medians and rights of way, like this one: 

I had to listen to broadcast appeals funded by these corporations who just got sales tax cuts. 

Finally, I got a batch of signs from Augusta County Commissioner Joe Bowles, who courageously fought adoption of this terrible tax. 

On August 21, we have chance to just say 'No!” once again. This time it is a vote against legislators stupidly subordinating our Columbia County votes to those of ignorant and corrupt Augustans. This time it is a vote mindful that this dastardly T-Splost tax begins to be collected January 1.

Just say no to Lee Anderson for Congress.

Lobbyists love him. The middle class groans under the burdens their orgies of money and excess we are left with.

Isn't it time the people won one?***
KH

Related Stories:

• Anderson Off His Wagon in the 12th District
• My Lesson From Lee Anderson: Never Give Money to a Politician