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Walker urges end to grand jury
Web posted
Sunday, January 14, 2001
Have a thought? Go to the @ugusta Forums.
By Preston Sparks
``I think that's sad, and they need to be disbanded,'' said the state Senate majority leader, who was promoting a message of unity as the grand marshal of the NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Day Parade.
The grand jury released an interim presentment Friday accusing Augusta's commissioners of divisiveness, incompetence and micromanagement and said that the city is ``on a path to destruction.''
The report also included specific examples of harassment and meddling and charges of racism.
Mr. Walker said the findings, which call for the creation of a city charter, overstepped the grand jury's bounds.
``I'm sorry that the grand jury got involved,'' he said. ``They are not elected officials, and they should not be making recommendations on what type of government we have.''
The charter includes such recommendations as a mayor's veto power over the commission, the forbidding of commissioners from giving instructions to employees who do not work directly for the commission, an ethics ordinance and the establishment of new electoral districts.
But Augusta District Attorney Danny Craig said the special grand jury's report was in accordance with Georgia law.
``The grand jury is not making the rules as they go,'' he said. ``They're simply following the law.''
Mr. Craig said the Georgia Constitution and any order by a Superior Court judge gives the special grand jury - composed of 23 Augusta residents - the right to investigate the county's government as a watchdog and to present their findings.
``They are not only authorized to present these findings, but they are required,'' Mr. Craig said.
Reach Preston Sparks at (706) 868-1222, Ext. 110.
Staff Writer
Sen. Charles Walker on Saturday called for the end of a Richmond County special grand jury looking into the state of county government.
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