Augusta had a new football stadium for a couple of days last week. It was in the parking lot behind Bell Auditorium. The seating was terrible because there were no stands, which would have encouraged standing-room crowds, which some folks might have taken for a sellout.
Actually, it was just the turf for the Augusta Colts arena football team that they couldn't get into James Brown Arena in a timely fashion to be cleaned, painted and installed for their opening game Thursday because there's a Lynx hockey game there Wednesday night.
Colts General Manager John Sisson went bananas over what he said was a maddening lack of response from civic center management, especially General Manager Robert "Flash" Gordon .
He started calling the media, saying they wouldn't release his tickets because they wouldn't accept his $30,000 line of credit. Turns out he didn't know a line of credit from a letter of credit, which his contract called for, which is why Assistant Manager Linda Roberts wouldn't accept it. He had to eat crow on that one.
Mr. Gordon might not have lost his job Friday had the Colts situation and the turf problem not been the second crisis Coliseum Authority members have had to deal with in the past 10 days, the other being the food and alcohol crisis created when the Centerplate vendor contract ran out.
Still, Mr. Gordon might have been able to hang on if he hadn't blamed the board and concessions committee for dropping the ball on the contract. That, to some, was the last straw. They tried to get him to resign Friday morning before the meeting, but he refused.
THEY DESERVE A MEDAL: I want to say I have gained new respect for the authority members during those two crises. Chairman Harry Moore and members Janice Jenkins , Keith Brown and Freddie Sanders have worked day and night on both situations. And they don't get paid a dime.
HOW THEY VOTED: The final vote to fire Mr. Gordon came during a special called meeting to discuss the Colts situation, which included Mr. Sisson storming out and returning, two closed-door sessions and three members leaving early.
Mr. Sanders made a motion to fire Mr Gordon with 90 days' severance pay, and he kept renewing it after each closed-door session. Mr. Brown's substitute motion "to come up with another form of punishment," which morphed into "two weeks' suspension," tied 4-4, with Mr. Brown and Willie Law , Mildred McDaniel and William Fennoy voting for it and Mr. Sanders, Richard Isdell , John Manuel and Jack Usry voting against. Mr. Moore broke the tie by voting against it.
The board then voted on Mr. Sanders' motion, which also tied 4-4, which Mr. Moore also broke by voting for the firing.
Members Booker T. Roberson , Adrian Arnold and Janice Jenkins left the meeting before the votes.
IT'S GOING NOWHERE: We know because of this message at the end of Rep. Hardie Davis ' latest legislative update:
"Finally, I want to inform each of you that I have worked diligently in the House of Representatives to draft a bill to resolve problems on the Coliseum Authority. After hours of work with Reps. (Wayne) Howard and (Gloria ) Frazier to deliver a draft to the other members of the delegation, our efforts came to a standstill. Today, Rep. Howard decided to move forward with drafting his own bill with the support of Reps. (Quincy) Murphy and Frazier and not consider key concerns that other members of the delegation raised."
IS HE JUST TAUNTING TARVER? Last week, after former Commissioner Marion Williams ' nomination to the planning commission was voted down by the Augusta Commission, he said he'd be back.
Reportedly, it will be to announce Tuesday that he's going to challenge state Sen. Ed Tarver for his District 22 seat. Whether it's true or not, Mr. Tarver believes it.
WHICH STORY DO YOU BUY? Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength was sporting a black eye last week, which he told others was from getting hit by a car door, but when I asked him he said his wife did it.
WHOSE OPINION DO YOU BUY? The city's new Law Department, under the direction of General Counsel Chiquita Johnson , is accused of missing the deadline to answer allegations in a federal lawsuit against the city. Plaintiffs' counsel Robert Mullins filed a motion seeking a default judgment.
Ms. Johnson said that under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, she had 20 days from the date the lawsuit was served, plus three days for mailing. She's wrong, according to Mr. Mullins and at least three other Augusta lawyers.
SOMETIMES A GOOD MAN FINISHES FIRST: Last week, Edmund A. Booth Jr. finally became the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. It is unusual in the respect that the U.S. attorneys are generally political appointees who are tightly connected, politically savvy members of the president's party.
We don't know Mr. Booth's politics, but we do know he is a career prosecutor who has served the residents of Georgia for nearly 38 years. President Bush appointed Mr. Booth in December, and on Thursday, the formal ceremony was held to honor the occasion.
The next president will have the right to appoint new attorneys throughout the country. Maybe he or she will see the value in keeping good, hard-working public servants at the top.
HOW SEN. J.B. POWELL BECAME A GOOD OL' BOY: He was rough and tough and hard to bluff until he got baptized twice by the Rev. Connie Dabney , of Hillcrest Baptist Church.
"My first baptism happened kind of unexpectedly," he said.
It started with a plot by him and a buddy to get some cookies and Kool-Aid from the kitchen at the Hillcrest Baptist Church kindergarten. They went in pretending to use the bathroom and just happened to leave the window unlocked.
When the coast was clear and the school vacant, they went through the open window and ate all the cookies and drank all the Kool-Aid.
A few days later, the two were playing basketball at the church courts when the music director, a huge retired Army colonel, grabbed them and delivered them to Dr. Dabney.
"At this point, Preacher Dabney informed us that we were going to have us an emergency baptism," Mr. Powell said. "He said the Lord came to him and told him that we had been doing some bad things. He said 'The Lord wants you washed good, so you won't do these bad things again.'
"That old preacher washed us good that day! I mean really good!" Mr. Powell said. "But he was right about one thing. The Lord did not have to worry about us doing bad things again because every time we would have a thought of a devious scheme, we'd think, 'The Lord has told Preacher Dabney on us one time.' So we knew he was watching."
Mr. Powell told this story of things he's learned on his life's journey at the Committee for Good Government meeting awhile back.
"It is amazing how one little thing can change your life's journey," he said.
Dr. Dabney baptized him years later under the right circumstances.
"He told the Georgia Senate years later when he was up there being Preacher of the Day the story of how he baptized me and how he preached hard to me and how he performed my wedding. But he said he might want to do that baptism again. I think he just liked almost drowning good people," Mr. Powell said.
City Ink thanks Staff Writer Sandy Hodson for her contribution to this week's column.
Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228
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